GREG PARTICIPATES IN A NEW DVD!

Written by Greg Whitt Sunday, 10 January 2010 00:00

Arthur Hull in action on the set rocking a smoking hot Haitian rhythm on bass drum for filler on his new DVD project to help you help others make music together.

Drum Circle Road Trip - 1100 miles!

I’m just back from an 1100 mile road trip to the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center up near Pittsburgh. I was lucky enough to be invited to work with one of my mentors, Arthur Hull, on shooting his new facilitator training DVD there.

The center has a performing arts charter school and even has a drum circle class that meets on Fridays. The kids in the class made up the drum circle for the DVD which will feature aspects of Arthur’s Rhythmical Alchemy Playshop (RAP). It was like walking onto the set for “Fame” if you’re old enough to remember that show!

During the three days we were on site, we conducted training on how to facilitate drum circles. Arthur wrote the book (literally, two of them in fact) on the methodology to help others make music together in recreational music-making settings. We covered the Anatomy of a Rhythm-Based Event, rhythm games, drum circle radar and lots of other juicy tidbits. He took three days of material and squeezed it into an eight hour training worked around tape changes, lighting and sound issues, camera crews and all sorts of other production challenges. It was a tremendous effort by everyone involved. The kids came out of it chocked full of skills and motivated to get out there and do this work! I had the great pleasure to work with other facilitators as well. These included Alyssa Janney from Remo’s HealthRHYTHMS division, Janet Planet from Los Angeles, Deke Kincaid from right there near Pittsburgh, “Eddie from Ohio”, Laurie “LaLa” Precht from the Baltimore area, and Lori Fithian from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Plus old pal Jim Donovan from Rusted Root dropped in to jam with us on Thursday night. Even the flat tire in a blizzard in the West Virginia mountains on the way home let me make small world connections to a gaggle of guys in an auto parts store that actually GAVE me a used tire so I could continue the trip home. The guy who installed it actually went to my high school back in Hillsborough!

Although it was a long journey, I’m home feeling blessed at the immersion in my family of facilitators. Being surrounded by people who not only “get it” but who also get you is simply wonderful....

Want to get yours, too, surrounded by people who also get it? Come on out to a drum circle! I’m hosting a brand new one today at Crocker’s Mark Gallery on Morgan Street.

See the calendar for more details....

I hope to hear you out there soon!

-Gregory