Knowledge Base

Welcome to the Percussion Play online knowledge base, which hosts a collection of articles and features surrounding the benefits of music and outdoor musical instruments to help you find the information you need right now.

With interest in outdoor musical instruments growing internationally, Percussion Play aims to help its customers stay up to speed through its guides, best practice advice, resources, blog, and social media sites. Be sure to keep checking in as the library grows.

Welcome to Bite-Size Beats - a series of articles that explore the application of outdoor musical play within early years education settings.

These articles are designed to share ways to easily incorporate music into your provision with simple, fun activities, plus more in-depth information exploring the benefits of outdoor musical play.

With eight articles in the series, we aim to bring fresh ideas that can be used to support your curriculum, introduce the concept of using outdoor musical instruments and enthuse our readers with the possibilities of music in the open air.

If you feel that outdoor music would be of benefit to your school or early years setting, we hope you find the following useful:

Outdoor Musical Instruments Help in The Race to Prevent Nature-Deficit Disorder

Including Music in Continuous Provision

Making Play Limitless – Music in Open-Ended Play

Using Musical Instruments to Improve Core Stability

Teaching Children About the World Through Music

The Expression of Emotion Through Music

Storytime / Drama / Performance / Active Listening & Rhythm

Let’s Explore The Magical Pentatonic Scale For Early Years

Outdoor Musical Instruments Help in The Race to Prevent Nature-Deficit Disorder

The concern about children spending too much time indoors has become so great that it has been given its own term - ‘Nature deficit disorder’ or NDD. Although it's not a recognized medical condition, concerns about its effects on young people’s well-being are attracting widespread attention.

There is too much at stake to accept the situation as an inevitable consequence of modernity, and it's the joint responsibility of parents, educators, and urban planners to help this ‘indoor generation’ to easily and safely spend more time outside and reconnect with the natural world - wherever they are located. Watching a class of children playing outdoor instruments proves that, when presented with the opportunity, life outdoors is still something children benefit significantly from and, more importantly, enjoy.

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Including Music in Continuous Provision

Written by Kate Mannerings

Kate joined the Percussion Play team, having come from a background in Early Years education. She has written articles intended to support practitioners in early years settings. Here she has shared her ideas and thoughts on how musical instruments can be made available as continuous provision without the need to issue ear defenders!

With the benefits of music within continuous provision being so numerous, it would be a shame not to include the resources in our everyday environment. With the proper demonstration, clever positioning of instruments, and the opportunity for children to revisit the skills they have learned, musical discovery play can be fun and harmonious.

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Making Play Limitless – Music in Open Ended Play

Written by Kate Mannerings

Kate joined the Percussion Play team having come from a background in Early Years education. She has written a series of articles intended to support practitioners within early years settings. Here she has shared her ideas and thoughts on how musical play has endless scope for improvisation and learning through play.

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Using Musical Instruments to Improve Core Stability

Written by Kate Mannerings

Kate joined the Percussion Play team, having come from a background in Early Years education. Intended to support practitioners within early years settings, she has shared her ideas and thoughts on how outdoor musical instruments can be used to aid the development of physical skills, as well as to support communication, encourage expression and build self-esteem.

It’s that time of year again. You’re faced with a new cohort filled with unknown personalities, abilities, and skills. Where do you start? And more importantly, are they ready?

Outdoor music can be a valuable tool to aid the development of physical skills, as well as being proven to support communication, encourage expression, and build self-esteem.

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Teaching Children About the World Through Music

It is essential to begin teaching children diversity throughout their early childhood to promote socialization, tolerance, respect, care, and openness. Music, as a crucial element of culture, is an excellent place to begin early discussions about diversity and inclusion.

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The Expression of Emotion Through Music

Occasionally it can be hard to express our emotions verbally; we find ourselves unable to find the ‘right’ words to say how we feel. This can be particularly difficult for children and young people. Music can allow children to express themselves, unleash their creativity, be inspired and uplifted, relax, and relieve stress and tension.

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Storytime / Drama / Performance / Active Listening & Rhythm


During elementary school, facilitating fun, memorable, and joyful learning is key to bringing out the best in every child’s school experience.

We explore how it can open up new worlds of imagination, listening, and joyful learning and opportunities to grow phonological skills more easily for students by incorporating music into literacy classes.

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Let’s Explore The Magical Pentatonic Scale For Early Years

Music contributes uniquely to the playful learning with fun interactive music activities encouraging infants to develop new language, motor abilities, and cognitive skills. Approached in the right way, music time should encourage them to take risks and make mistakes, quietly promoting self-confidence, spontaneity, creativity, and originality.

The pentatonic scale is excellent for improvised ensembles; you can play around and never hit anything inordinately dissonant. The word pentatonic comes from the Greek word ‘Pente,’ meaning five (think pentagon or pentathlon), and tonic, meaning tone; put them together, and you get five tones or notes. Simply put, the pentatonic scale consists of five notes within one octave; that's why it is sometimes referred to as a five-tone or five-note scale. The notes in the pentatonic scale naturally sound good in any order because there are no dissonant intervals between them.

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Providing musical experiences for family audiences is a valuable way to advance a thriving museum’s mission, expand its audience, and strengthen its place within the community

Making music brings people together like nothing else, and offering quality musical opportunities - on real instruments – for spontaneous music-making provides a gateway to the performing arts and an engaging family learning experience.

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Positive Effects of Family Bonding Through Playing Music Together

Great family connections and having fun together can have an incredibly positive impact on the development of our children - socially, emotionally, and cognitively. More than that, it can also be profoundly helpful for our relationships with each other - children and adults alike. What better way, then, to spend some good old-fashioned fun and creative quality time with the whole family than by playing music altogether?

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'Pocket Music Parks' are Keeping the Arts Alive Some Cities

Many people do not have regular access to musical instruments, so it’s an exciting possibility to bring music-making on real instruments to people in the public spaces where they live, work, and commute. Everyday locations can become inclusive, inspiring, and musically creative environments accessible to all community members.

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Music Solutions & Tips For Your Outdoor Music Area

The good news is that it doesn't have to be complicated or too expensive to add music to your outdoor space. This article gives seven ways to add music or provide musical solutions for your inclusive outdoor area.

For Darker Areas or Where Space is Limited

Our Mirror Chimes will reflect light, the surrounding environment, and the players for an added fun element, visual stimulation, and promote self-awareness. What a ‘bright’ idea! Great for a courtyard garden or sensory area. Arranged in the pentatonic c-major scale (C3-C5), their universal mounting brackets allow them to be fixed to virtually any surface. Read More...

With the Future of Music Education Under Threat - Could Libraries Be the New Champions of Music?

Over the past few years, we have worked with several forward-facing, transformative libraries of all scales and in all climates, who have utilized their outdoor spaces to create inspirational music gardens and courtyards that provide equity of access to participative music-making within their communities.

With the future of music education and the arts under threat, libraries may hold the key to securing their long-term availability and becoming the new music champions for the young and the young at heart.

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Music, Movement and Memory

Being outside is necessary for well-being and enjoyment of life itself, and several Care and Nursing Homes are seeing the benefits of creating dementia-friendly sensory gardens for residents and visitors to enjoy, creating little sanctuaries that appeal to all the senses through the creative use of colors, smells, textures, and sounds.

As many care home residents have visual or hearing impairments, a sensory garden can and should be designed to stimulate the whole range of human senses.

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The Healing Power of Music: Musical Memorial Gardens and Tributes for Loved Ones

Finding a lasting and meaningful way to remember a loved one can bring comfort during loss. We have worked with wonderful families and organizations; each determined that the memory of their loved ones should be remembered in a unique and joyful way. Music is a celebration of life, full of positivity and sunshine, and a music memorial in the great outdoors can bring harmony and light into the lives of others.

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Healing Through Rhythm and Sound

Music therapists and therapy programs increasingly use drums and rhythm to promote healing and self-expression. Drumming can be very therapeutic, helping us connect with our inner selves and being a fun way to relax and rejuvenate our minds, body, and soul. Recent research indicates that drumming accelerates physical healing, boosts the immune system, and produces feelings of well-being.

Study results demonstrate that drumming is a valuable treatment for stress, fatigue, anxiety, hypertension, asthma, chronic pain, arthritis, dementia, mental illness, migraines, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, stroke, paralysis, emotional disorders, ADHD sufferer's, people with learning difficulties, a wide range of physical disabilities as well as for recovering addicts, older people, troubled adolescents, and prisoners.

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The Awesome Effect of Music and Song for Children With Disabilities

Outdoor Musical Instruments in the playground provide a non-threatening and fun outlet for creative and emotional expression. Through the medium of music, many essential life skills can be learned. Music can profoundly affect anyone, but the benefits of exposing a child with disabilities to music can be huge. Outdoor musical instruments help create genuinely inclusive play spaces and play opportunities for children who may not usually have access to all equipment.

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A Brief Guide On How To Create The Perfect Music Park or Trail

Outdoor music projects often start with a vision of a person or a small group of people who passionately believe that music is something absolutely everyone in their local community should have the opportunity to access and enjoy. Thinking of taking the plunge? This guide has been written to assist anyone tasked with delivering an inclusive music project for their community and help you bring your project ideas to life.

A music park or musical trail will provide a place for individuals, families, or groups of friends to stroll, unwind and create music together in a fun and carefree way. They’re a great way to encourage more people to get involved in music-making and provide an interactive sculpture for visitors to enjoy a family-friendly experience. By following our guide, design an inclusive playground that will promote enriching play experiences for all.

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How the Playground Standards impact Musical Play Equipment & Inclusive Playgrounds

The play equipment industry is constantly changing - with new products, materials, and components being introduced to the market every year. New designs are helping to change our approach to how children play, with play professionals and manufacturers continuing to push the envelope in play equipment design. Conjointly, playground safety has significantly improved over the past 25 years through considerable improvements in the creation of playground equipment and the introduction of industry standards.

The changes in playground standards seem to go some way in recognizing the diverse and current trends in play equipment design, thinking beyond the typical climber, slide, and swing. With a welcome advance in helping communities succeed in creating inclusive play environments, the standards now recognize new equipment that children of all abilities can easily play on and love - such as musical instruments.

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