Moss Side Middle School students don't want to work, they just want to bang on the drum all day.

Students in Alexis Spina's music class got a chance to do just that, as percussion artist Jeff Berman, of Pittsburgh-based Gateway to the Arts, brought his own form of percussive music to students, who got a chance to learn new ways of playing music, along with new musical rhythms and vocabulary.

The new way of teaching music by having an artist in residence is a departure from what the school traditionally does " bring in someone from the organization to talk to students at an assembly, Spina says.

"These kids are eating it up. It's amazing," Spina says. "This way, the kids have more hands-on experience."

Indeed, for about 40 minutes, students get to pound out different rhythms and sounds using Tubano drums, an instrument with its origins in the west coast of Africa.

Separating students into three groups, Berman assigns each their own particular rhythm. He demonstrates with open-handed strikes to the top of the drum, which stands about 3-feet high and includes brightly painted leafy colors along its wooden side.

Then he gets each section of about 10 students to play their own rhythm with their classmates. The resulting polyrhythm shakes the room, as well as the adjourning one.

"This is a little more intense and personal," says Berman, 55, who has been drumming since he was in fourth grade.

Students not only get an ear for music but learn math and science in the drumming, Berman says.

"It's all connected across curriculum to language, math and physics of sound," he says. "It all encourages students to be good listeners, to appreciate different types of music.

"The more you know, the more you can like."

Evidence of how much students like the class can be seen in all the journal entries posted on the wall outside class, as well as what students are saying inside:

• "I think it's great that we get to have a professional come and teach us," says Jessica Krut, 11, of Monroeville, who wants to join chorus.

• "It's new to me. I haven't played drums like this," says Cara Pokusa, 11, of Monroeville. "I like sharing the rhythms with other people."

• "You could speak out in a different way " it's the passion," says Koleson Smith, 11 of Monroeville.

Funding for the artist in residence came from a matching grant from the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts.

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