Musings
A collection of articles originally published as Soundings
on the Raleigh Drum Circle Yahoo Group
COOKING UP SOME MUSIC
January 2004
Drum Circles are like cooking because we have a variety of ingredients and add elements of spice. We turn up the heat. We shake it and stir it until it simmers, until the rhythm is a savory aroma that fills the air, making your mouth water. It's the sort of recipe that makes you want to invite friends over to share. A veritable (not vegetable) melting pot!
We call ourselves a drumming community, and honestly we're like a big family gathering. There's the crazy aunt, goofy uncle, mischevious kids, big booming dad, rock-steady mother, wise grandfather, and nurturing grandmother that all make up part of our circle. We each play some of these roles at different times, both in our personalities and in our drumming. At the circle, we are brothers and sisters gathered around the rhythm table, sampling a smorgasbord of tasty treats of beats to eat!
Can you tell I like a lot of corn in my recipes?
SPEAK THE LANGUAGE
February 2004
My undergraduate studies were in Communication, with a concentration in interpersonal and group communication. A whole lot of classroom study, years as a bartender, and several more as a policeman taught me that to communicate well, you need to say what you mean. But in drumming, you should mean what you play.
Say what? What does that mean?
Drumming is conversational. When I say that, it means that your drumming needs to blend with that of others in the circle. Like any good conversation, your drumming needs to flow, to leave room for others to get a word in edge-wise.
Our drumming also needs to be sensitive. In community drumming, you don't want to be so overpowering that others are pounded into silence. Be supportive of others. Support the groove and let the groove support you. To verbally express yourself effectively, you need to speak clearly and use language that conveys your message - whether it be soft & timid or loud & commanding; it's very situational. To communicate well with others (if not with others, then we really aren't communicating, are we?), we need to speak the same language, whether orally or musically.
Babatunde Olatunji often spoke of the evocative and emotive power of the drum. Many of us use the drum to express ourselves. It is a great tool for venting; there's nothing like pounding out some frustration! While it's true that music is a universal language, we should be mindful of what we are saying with that music. In order for others to understand what we are saying, it might be helpful for us to learn to speak the language of others as well. That's key to good communication, after all. Just as you build your English vocabulary as you grow and learn, you also build your drumming vocabulary as you grow and learn. For beginners in particular, expressing yourself with the drum is somewhat intimidating, whether in a group or alone. Remember the first time you got behind the wheel of a car? How scared were you that you would mess up big time and run over someone's picket fence? That was one seriously powerful machine that you were operating. The drum is similar. It takes some folks a while to get used to all that expressive power; that's some serious freedom we're talking about!
But here's a tip, for beginners and for not-so-new drummers, that I heard on a drum list out on the web, I think from "Lyx Ish" in Wisconsin:
"Play like an Elephant, not a Butterfly."
In other words, grab that drum and hang on for dear life, 'slap dat goat' and just let go of yourself! Learn to speak the language of the drum, to use it to convey your meaning. But also learn to listen and to hear what others have to say. When you can speak their language, too, then you're really talking....
DRUMMING IN MIND
April 2004
Many consider drumming to go hand-and-hand with meditation. Like Yoga, drumming can be a moving meditation. Also like Yoga, drummers need to develop a skill set before they can drum and meditate simultaneously.
Consider for a moment the premise that drumming is an art that requires not only talent, but also practice, diligence, and discipline. If you believe this to be true, then it's a bit more involved than merely bringing your energy and enthusiasm down to the local drum circle to bang out some improvisational tunes, though there's certainly nothing wrong with that and I highly encourage it. As a student of rhythm, though, you might take lessons, practice what you learn, review with your teacher, build on what you know, and practice even more.
As you build your skills, you begin to ingrain into muscle memory the techniques you've been working on. Like Yoga poses or martial arts techniques, these can be filed away in your subconscious until you're ready to use them. They get rusty, though, if you don't bring them out and dust them off now and again. The more ingrained your skills become, the more they are relegated to your subconscious, becoming more instinctive and natural. The less you have to think about these things with your conscious mind, the more fluid and dynamic you can become with your music, freeing your mind to focus (or not) on other things.
In Japanese martial arts and other eastern schools of thought, this can be called MUSHIN, or "mind of no mind". Like Bruce Lee with an endless array of Kung Fu defenses available in an instant, the more techniques and rhythms you have in your personal chop shop or bag of tricks, and the more second nature these become, the more options you have to draw upon when you need to adapt to the music of the moment. With this sort of ability at your beck-and-call, you can respond instinctively and appropriately without having to stop and think about what you're going to do next.
A great example of this was an episode of Music Choice featuring Phil Collins. Phil was singing and playing congas at the same time. One hand was playing lightning fast lead and the other a steady beat while he was singing something altogether different. His drumming was second nature, allowing him to think about all the other things happening on the stage - singing the lead, the bass player, the back up singers, another percussionist, the saxophone. WOW! There was a lot happening on that stage! Even so, he was relaxed and totally aware of everyone in the band.
In a drum circle environment, once the technical aspects of drumming become second nature, it's easier to both FOCUS on other things (like learning a hot new rhythm) and to UNFOCUS so that you see more of the bigger picture (like hearing what the person beside you is doing). In other words, the less you are consciously thinking about, the more room in there you have to explore other things: to be open-minded, to relax, to absorb, to give, to enjoy - to be mindful of what's going on around you rather than just what's happening with your hands and your drum.
If your brain isn't tied up worrying about what you're doing, then it will be free to drum up other things to think about, or to float freely in trance, meditation, and the groove.
DRUMMING FOR MIND, BODY, SPIRIT
March 2004
Much study surrounds the integration of mind, body, and spirit in order to make a well-rounded person. This is central to any martial art and to spiritual disciplines, and applies to most things that require a "centering" for balance, health, and wellness. The theory is that these things need to work together in harmony and balance to achieve wholeness. It applies to drumming as well.
MIND: the concepts of music and poly-rhythms. Understanding how the parts fit together, how the cycle of the rhythm is counted, and where the pulse falls. Some of this is intuitive, but much of it has to be learned.
BODY: the technical/physical expertise to make the drum sing. The mechanics of making proper notes on the drum, the timing to link them together in pre-determined configurations. The ability to keep the pulse in some part of your body while your hands and feet do other things. Maintaining proper posture and breathing so that you put your energy into your drum rather than the drum draining the energy from you. The ability to make small, concise, repetitive drum strokes - the stamina to keep it going.
SPIRIT: the emotional power to move people with the music, to feel the music and make it part of yourself. The "feel" to make it swing, rock, and groove. The ability to improvise within the rhythm, add to it, build upon it (though this combines Body and Mind as well). The sensitivity to follow the dancers while leading them, to listen to others and respond to the music of the moment.
Martial artists say train all of these things equally, and I think we drummers should, too. Getting these things to mesh together is like a Three Musketeers Bar - "Indescribably Good!" Suddenly your whole being locks together and the sum of the parts is much greater than any single piece of the puzzle. It's synergy within a single person. That energy surrounds your person, that aura exudes into your drumming. You can practically feel yourself glowing.
When you have each PERSON in the GROUP sizzling with this synergy and then have them working together in the circle and synergizing AGAIN, then you make GREAT music. I see this magic happen every now and again within the drum circle - if you've been there when it happens you know just what I mean. Sometimes it just clicks, locks in tight, and then you just hold on and ride the wave! It's a rush of joy, energy, and music.
So, my theory is that it's just as important to think about drumming within yourself as well as drumming within the circle. Just like building a house, you need firm foundations. In building the circle of drummers, we each need to be a solid place on which the music can rest, build, and grow....
OGRES ARE LIKE ONIONS
May 2004
SHREK: Ogres are like onions.
DONKEY: [Sniffs] They stink?
SHREK: Yes. No! Layers! Onions have layers! Ogres have layers! Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers. [Sighs]
DONKEY: Oh, you both have layers. Oh. [Sniffs] You know, not everybody likes onions. Cake! Everybody loves cakes! Cakes have layers.
from SHREK!, Dreamworks, 2001
One cool thing about having a kid at home is that you get to watch some great cartoons! This is one of my favorites. "Ogres are like onions." Ha! Now that's a philosophy!
Drum circles are like onions, too. No, they don't stink! They have layers. At bigger events, the group sets up in concentric circles, like layers. Often the instruments are arranged by timbre - the different types all sit together, like they do in an orchestra.
Even the music itself has layers. There are bottom-end bass drums like djuns, tantans, surdos, and gathering drums at the core. Layer on some djembes and congas to make the groove. Fill it in with smaller drums like doumbeks, frame drums, tablas, and paddle drums. Add some wood: claves, sticks or krin to keep the count. Cut it with metals like cowbells, agogos, tokes, gankogui, tambourines or shakers. Wrap it up in soft sounds or ambient drones like rainsticks, singing bowls, spring drums, and didgeridoo. Spice it with melodics like a samba whistle, balafon, flute, or voice.
These are the layers of that sometimes lumbering, sometimes running, but always great beast we call a drum circle. They are also the pieces used when building your own personal percussion kit. If you're like me, drumming is addictive. I started out small with a little kids drum, and the next thing you know I've got a music room at home!
So, I guess I'm saying BE AN OGRE. Add some layers. Fill out the sound. Pick up something new instead of playing that djembe all the time. You'll add some variety to your playing, and to the music of the drum circle as well.
Ogres are like onions??? OGRE: One Great Rhythm Experiment!!!
THE DRUM SPEAKS
August 2004
Babatunde Olatunji spoke of the evocative power of the drum. Many of us use the drum to express ourselves, as an emotive tool, but...
What if the DRUM is using US to express itself???
What if we could drum the thoughts of our drums? What if we could play the memories that get caught in the throats of our drums, like the feelings that sometimes stick in our throats? What if we could play the wrinkles of their skins, the knots in their wood, the age rings of their grain, their wounds, sufferings, celebrations, the memories of their ancestors?
When you play, try sometimes to play with a child-like abandon, with a total lack of self-consciousness. Give an eight year old a drum and ask the child to let you hear what the instrument sounds like. Give the same child a drum and ask them to solo. I guarantee the response will be different.
Perhaps as adults we choke on the fear of performing just as that child might, or perhaps it's the fear of being heard, or perhaps its the fear of speaking and no one listening, or just not liking what we have to say. So maybe instead of speaking thru your drum, let your drum speak thru you. Maybe it has something interesting to say as well, a great story to tell, a memory or feeling to share.
What if we could play more than that which is inside ourselves? What if we were able to give voice to what is in the world around us?
Perhaps we can....
DRUMMING IN CHURCH
February 2005
I'm always interested to hear how drumming is used for worship. Organized religion played a large part in quashing drumming from the cultures of slaves brought to the Americas from Africa, so it's fascinating to see that churches (Contemporary Christian in particular) are now embracing drumming.
Here's a neat article on how a particular church is incorporating African drumming into their worship service. From what I understand this is not so uncommon in Unitarian services, but much less prevalent in any mainstream church. The article quotes Greg Scheer, a choral composer and director of music ministries at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa:
"Inherent in much of the music of Africa are the cultural values of community, a cyclic understanding of time, and a connectedness to the earth. When a Western congregation uses African drumming and worship music, I think it helps us take on those values even if only momentarily. The more we do that, the more we're able to love God and others beyond the confines of our own culture. "
"Also, the line between musician/leader and congregation is blurred in African culture. In songs accompanied by hand drums, we all play a significant role in music making and worship, regardless of which side of the drum we're on," Scheer says.
Drum Circle facilitation guru Arthur Hull talks about being a "rhythmic evangelist" and attending "Rhythm Church", the idea being that we use the drum for centering ourselves, joining hearts with our fellow drummers, embracing positive energy, and using drumming (both personal and group) as a spiritual exercise. His mentor, Babatunde Olatunji also talked about unity thru drumming and holding "rhythm church". There is now even a drumming organization with this particular focus: Psalm Drummers.
So, what's my point? I guess just that drumming isn't just for Pagans or Hippies or New Agers, nor just for those wanting to connect with the Motherland or some other ethnic heritage. Christians are now drumming, too. No small surprise, I guess, since drumming is ripe with spirituality and is a vehicle for connecting Mind, Body, & Spirit, regardless of whether that spirit is Christian, Wiccan, Voodoun, Yoruban, or something else. It's about the human spirit, I suppose, and how that spirit connects with something bigger than ourselves.