Drum the Body Electric - Finding our inner child

Let's rediscover or discover for the first time, the carefree attitude most children have. We'll play with our voices, play with drums,  percussion instruments and just play! 

Suggested donation is $10.00 with 100% of your donatition (minus a small fee if you donate online) going to the Adaptive Outdoor Education Center. To register online but pay at the door, enter $0 at time of checkout. Registration helps us know how many drums and other percussion instruments to bring. 

Drum Circle Ettiquete 

1. Don’t wear rings, watches or bracelets while playing hand drums. Metal jewelry can damage the head of the drum, as well as the drum itself. Shedding the jewelry will also protect your hands.

2. Ask permission before playing someone else’s drum. For some drummers their instrument is a very personal possession.

3. If someone gets up and leaves the circle to get a drink or go to the bathroom, don’t immediately jump in and take their seat. In some drumming communities the drummers will put something on their seat, cover their drum with something or lay their drum on its side to signify that they will be back.

4. Listen as much as you play. By listening to what’s going on around you, you will have a better sense of how to fit into the groove that is being created

5. Support the fundamental groove that you hear being created in the drum song. You don’t have to be a rhythm robot and hold down the same part all night long. There is plenty of freedom to experiment and express your rhythmical spirit within the fundamental groove.

6. Leave enough rhythmic space in the circle for other players to express themselves. Don’t fill up the creative space with your own notes. Remember that it’s a conversation

7. Play at the volume of the group. If you can only hear yourself, you’re probably not having a constructive musical relationship with the rest of the players in the circle. Good volume dynamics create good relationship dynamics. Play soft enough to hear everyone around you. Follow and support the dynamic changes in volume and tempo that the group will go through during a drum circle event.

8. Share the solo space. If you are at the advanced level of drumming expertise where soloing is available to you, then you know the excitement and pleasure of being able to play over, around and through the drum circle groove. Soloing through a drum circle groove is very much like a bird flying through the forest. The “solo air” can’t accommodate more than a few people soloing at the same time. If there is more than one soloist available in a circle be sure to share the solo space with them. The best way for two or three drum soloists to play through the groove together is to have a drum dialogue with each other. In a facilitated drum circle event, a good facilitator will find all of the advanced drummers in the circle and showcase them individually, encouraging them to trade solos with each other

Shared by Arthur Hull.