Village Heartbeat Buzz

The other day I was marveling at this path called “drumming”. I reflected on how many people I have met from different persuasions, cultures, and life-styles, because of our mutual love of drumming and rhythm. It’s a deep world, folks. Here are some things that make drumming and rhythm so compelling.

1. Cooperative Community
Although drumming is happy being a solitary event that can occur at the beach, in the woods, or in your living room, drumming is exciting (and of course amplified!) when playing with others.

Drumming could be improvisational. This is what happens in a community drum circle.

Drumming also could take the form of orchestrated-playing: a planned set of orchestrated rhythms of a particular ethnic style or self–created music.

Whenever we play together we have the opportunity of something synergistic happening, something magical, unpredictable. Drum music creates the most amazing groove everyone is so locked in that we are like one giant animal, lumbering though the undergrowth, or… a positive train wreck!

Because we are so new at non-verbal, cooperative play (well, maybe since kindergarten,) it is an experiment in truth. My friend, Arthur Hull, a master drum circle facilitator, reminds us to A) LISTEN, B) know when to add something, and C) know when to GET OUT OF THE WAY!

But if at first you don’t succeed, try. Then try again. Nobody here but us chickens.

For the hope of a predictable groove another approach! We can take turns playing different accompaniments and learning to listen to how these parts sound with one another… if we are really lucky there are a few strong drummers who can really hang out with a primary groove and juice up the rhythm machine for others to have the room to experiment.

The main thing is to learn to support each other and more importantly, support the music!
Play a simple bottom groove often to refresh your palate. Enjoy the people you play with and what they add to the circle. As it is said in ancient texts* “you don’t have to like the person you are drumming with in order to create music together.”

I am hoping that someday our drum culture comes home with a report card that says A+ – Plays nicely with others.

(To be continued)

* I made that up.