A mixed age range 5 - 12 years scouts enjoyed 2 hours of energetic drumming last night. One of the youngest boys volunteered to conduct the 50 strong group to start with loud and soft rumbles and dramatic stop cut with him jumping in the air.
The schools music teacher was also there and had warned me that some of her rowdiest children would be dropping into join in at different points, and so they did which just added to the excitement.
At one point there was a strong smell of burning electrics and the whole thing had to be stopped while the deputy head was called in to assess the situation.  However, a moments panic was covered up by the enthusiasm to carry on drumming.  All was well.
It got so noisy at one point we did some singing with some fun warm up exercises instead.  Obo sumi sa took off in two parts with added harmonies from the music teacher - beautiful thank you- and then we put some rhythms on the sets of instruments. 
As parents started drifting in to pick children up we had a polished performance piece going on, and with some children leaving early there was opportunity for parents to come and join in the last rowdy moments. 
Good fun had by all.  The scouts leader remarked that they dont have so many activities that all ages could do together and it had been fantastic to see how they could all enjoy something like that - even the 'looking cool' older ones enjoyed it - they were the ones who really carried the singing too.