Dinky Drum music school provides the rhythm more children need
The stage at Discovery Green was filled with African-inspired drums ready for wide-eyed children eager to test their musical coordination.
Sam Dinkins III, the owner of Dinky Drum Company, beckoned children and their families who curiously wandered by to join him on the stage and take a spot in front of a drum.
He counted the rhythm with each strike of his instrument, and the children followed on theirs. They went back and forth in a call-response exercise that gained intensity as the children found their rhythm on the drums.
To their delight, they were making music.
It was spring break, and Dinkins offered a free weeklong drum workshop — an intro to beats, rhythm and counting — for any child interested in attending. The stage reflected the diversity of Houston that we so boast about — children from different cultures, ethnic backgrounds and ages — who revel in the joy of creating sound.
“It was special to see their eyes and how they sparkled with joy of learning something new and that they can actually make music, not just noise,” said Dinkins, who called out the children’s names and had them tap on the drums the syllables of the names.
Music is a great equalizer. It not only brings children together but also inspires them to count, read and learn. With so many challenges in elementary education from educators leaving the field to safety concerns, music often gets lost in the chaos. It shouldn’t.
According to the National Association of Music Education, music training in childhood “fundamentally alters the nervous system such that neural changes persist in adulthood after auditory training has ceased” and studies indicate a positive relationship between music and math achievement and improved reading skills.
“When you talk about music, you are learning to read a new character that’s different than math or the alphabet. You learn to understand a music note is tied to math and that counting in music is actually fractions,” he said.
Dinkins, who opened his music school in Third Ward in 1989 and named it after his childhood nickname “Dinky,” is a testament to the power of music to change lives. It saved his, he said, by keeping him engaged when many children fell victim to the demons of street life.
A native of Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, Dinkins grew up immersed in the New York culture: Southern Black residents and Puerto Ricans in Brooklyn, Caribbeans in East Flatbush and Hasidic Jews in Crown Heights.
“Each neighborhood you walked through, you smelled their food and heard their music,” he said.
His great-grandmother played piano, his mother was a singer and the family would congregate in their music room, where they played records by Motown and Philadelphia artists. An aunt gave Dinkins his first jazz records by pianist Horace Silver, trumpeter Donald Byrd and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine.
By age 12, he had his first professional percussion job playing with a reggae calypso band. He joined a drumming bugle corps led by Houstonian Inez Gilmore in the BedfordStuyvesant neighborhood in which the boys played drums and the girls played bugles. He later graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he played in the marching band.
Dinkins, who plays some 50 percussion instruments, moved to Houston with his former wife and found a community in the local music scene in the late 1980s. He worked with the Community Music Center of Houston, under the direction with Dr. Anne Lundy, the first Black woman to conduct the Houston Symphony at Miller Outdoor Theatre, and was also a music teacher in Houston public schools.
The Dinky Drum Company continues to teach children music literacy, education and appreciation.
“Music is a universal language and impacts in all disciplines. The only way to keep American music going is to teach it to children,” Dinkins said.
Erica Lee Carter’s son Roy is one of 2,500 children and adults Dinkins teaches through group and private lessons, after-school programs and summer arts programs. The 7-year-old took his first music class as a toddler and now plays drums and percussion five to seven days a week and composes his own songs.
“Music is the foundation of life and is connected to all types of academics. It’s very grounding,” said Carter, a former firstgrade teacher who also studied piano for nine years as a child.
Music, she said, gives children an appreciation for perseverance and discipline. Practice makes perfect.
In Houston public schools, I learned to read music and play the violin and flute. I wouldn’t begin to know how to play either particularly well today, but I have such a tremendous appreciate for music and the ability to read it.
Some school districts nationwide are cutting elective programs, such as music courses, to spend more time on core subjects such as English and math. But there’s no evidence such a move will fix the issue.
“I think it’s disheartening and shameful what’s happening to music education,” Carter said. “It creates well-rounded global education and something to inspire them to keep going. Any educator will tell that music and literacy are tied together.”
Dinkins’ music school, located at 2213 Wichita, is back to in-person lessons, after the pandemic forced him to temporarily close. He said music education is crucial.
“The schools have lost their way. They solely focused on tests, which doesn’t allow our children to have access to the education that will make them great people,” he said.