Fall into the Rhythm!

Written by Greg Whitt Tuesday, 17 August 2010 00:00

The back-to-school season has started with a bang!  In the very first week of August I drummed with over 300 people.  So many cool things are on my calendar that I can't wait to get to them all!

Drum for Change wound out July with the Raleigh Wide Open parade and street festival.   The following week we continued the beginner's drum series and then a Drum Circle Facilitators Guild board meeting.  I managed to squeeze in a private lesson with a new student AND drummed with first 65 and then 105 students in two more sessions with Fuquay-Varina High School's Freshman Camp. 

In the middle of all that I was invited to drum with 30 students at the NC Rehabilitation Center for the Blind.  This was a fantastic experience, first because the group was wonderfully musical and highly motivated.  Secondly, this group really challenged my teaching skills by pushing me to develop new ways to explain HOW to play the drum when you can't actually see what I'm doing.  Huge thanks to Janet Perez for bringing this innovative session to her program.

Each first Friday I've been attending the Tell It! storytelling event hosted by pal and former Raleigh Drum Circle board member Kevin Silva at Unity Church of the Triangle at the Longview Center on Moore Square in downtown Raleigh.  Anyone can volunteer to share a story, but it has to meet the following criteria:  12-minutes or less, must be true, had to have happened to you, and it's got to be family friendly.  Of course my stories involve drumming and this month I got to use my new Cooperman Slapback 99 Ocean Drum to talk about drum healing for cancer patients.  They loved it so much that they've invited me to play it for a special mediation that the church is hosting next month!

Annelies just graduated from yoga teacher training with Open Door Yoga, so on Saturday we went to Lulu Lemon's "get your asana outside" Salutation Nation yoga-on-the-lawn event at Duke Gardens.  Rather than practice yoga, though, I brought my big frame drum and walked around and among the yogi's, playing grounding rhythms for 200+ people doing their thing in the grass. 

Photo by Annelies Gentile

Last week I finished the summer beginner's lesson series.  The students in the class clamored for more!  Consequently, I've come up with something new - an on-going poly-rhythms class!  This class is designed for people who can already play bass-tone-slap and who are ready to work on inter-locking patterns with a group of other students.  Each week we'll work on learning a new rhythm - playing all the parts and practicing playing them in conjunction with all the others to make complex, intricate, and interlocking poly-rhythmic music.  Class will meet at Fletcher Park (weather permitting) on Monday evenings from 6:30-8pm.  No RSVP is required - the more the merrier.  The fee is $15 each week. 
NOTE:  No loaner drums will be provided unless you've arranged it in advance.  Bring bug spray if you need it, a cushion if you want it (the stone wall get's a little tough on yer bum), or a chair if you prefer.

This past Saturday I spent the morning and afternoon at the United Arts Council's showcase and booking fair talking to teachers and PTA members about how cool it will be when every kid in the classroom gets to play real djembe drums while they learn about world music and culture.  For my seven-minute demo, I brought ten drums up on stage and took ten kids out of the audience to show how successful everyone can be using a village metaphor for recreational music-making.  After the demo, half those kids didn't want to leave!  Yeah, that makes a fella feel really, really good about his work!

That evening pals Blake Larson and Nicholas Chidester came out to help drum up community at the East End neighborhood picnic in Wake Forest.  This revitalization area hosted a cookout, band, and drum jam in a wonderful neighborhood park thanks to the efforts of the local arts association, the town government, and community organizers.  This sort of cooperation and collaboration is what community drum circles are all about.

Photo by Agnes Wanman

This week holds more private lessons and started with a great Lake Johnson Jam.  Tomorrow my friend and colleague Susan Petrie will be helping me drum with 150 kids at American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro.  This will be my third event there this summer!  I'm really excited to try out my new PA system and wireless mic set-up with this large group. 

Next week I'm heading west to sit in on pal Robin Lefwich's drum class before continuing on out to Boone where I'll be filling in for Scott Swimmer as the drumSTRONG rep at Music on the Mountaintop.  There I'll be manning the tent with Shorty Palmer of Djembe Drums and Skins and leading drum circles with friends David Drum and Rob McCallum from Charlotte. 

When I get back I'll be starting up the Drumming Empowerment sessions at Dancing Moon on first Saturdays beginning in September.  September also shows friends Walnes Cangas and Bill Nathan of Resurrection Dance Theater performing at NCSU, Ten Thousand Villages' 15th Anniversary, the Miracle Mile Run, and SAS Institute on the books, not to mention Raleigh Drum Circle's 8th Annual Birthday Bash.  And October is shaping up with CropWalk, Raleigh's International Festival, Saint Anne's Chapel in Tarboro, Johnston Medical Center in Clayton, plus an annual conference with the NC Dept of Health & Human Services.

Really and truly I have the best job in the world!