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My first Drum Circle
In the
summer 2005 I became acquainted with the concept Community Drum Circle at No
Mind Festival Ängsbacka, Sweden.
I had
decided to participate in the announced Drum Circle workshop with Mikael Khei
from Norway. I did not know what it was about but I was hoping that I would get
a chance to hit a drum. When I came closer to the location, an Indian Tipi, the
sound of Drums and percussion poured towards me. They called me, seduced me
inside. As always when I hear the sound of Drums I felt joy and my wish to play
and dance myself was excited. When I reached the tent opening, halfway dancing,
and entered I was welcomed by Mikael. Find a Drum or a percussion instrument
and find a place to sit down in the circle. Find and give your contribution to
the existing rhythm he said.
It did
cost me some effort to do it. Could I find out? What if I could not and made a
fool out of myself and everybody could hear it? I listened and sensed in my body
the rhythm being played and suddenly I was ready. One hand hit the Drum and the
ice was broken! One simple rhythm with one hand was my start but from within
myself it was developed into a more complicated rhythm with two hands. Of course
my rhythm was messed up now and then and I lost my concentration. But it did not
matter because the rest of the circle continued. So I just stopped, listened,
and sensed the music got into the rhythm again or found a new one that fitted.
What I
experienced during those two hours in the Drum Circle was fantastic. In this
short time Mikael was able to make a drum and percussion orchestra out of approx
30 people with total different backgrounds. Many had never played before. He
acted as a kind of
orchestral conductor
(Drum
Circle Facilitator) who, with his distinct body language and voice, conducted
the orchestra from the centre of the circle. However, most of the time he was
not at the hot spot in the centre but actually left the circle to play and
create the rhythm themselves. When he could hear that the music was about to
fall apart or we got too much out of rhythm he rescued us by jumping into the
centre and get our attention.
E.g. he
divided the circle into two halfs, stopped one half and made them listen to and
applause the playing half. He then kicked off the listeners, stopped the others
and made them listen and applause. Then he kicked them of so the whole circle
was playing and then left the hot spot. The whole circle was now refocused and
could manage without him until the next time we needed him.
When
the Drum Circle finished I had played a lot of different instruments and had
played a lot of different rhythms on many different pieces of music. I
experienced a lot of small triumphs and successes. I was filled with joy and
vitality, I was high. Now I had
found the right way for me to play music. From within and together with others.
All driven by the passion and joy of expressing and sharing with the community
what was in me at that very moment. The desire to create and being part of
something bigger and make it function as a unity.
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