Interview with Arthur Hull, The Father of Drum Circle Facilitation
((Q)), People call you the
"father of drum circle facilitation." What are your feelings about
this title?
Drum circle is a legacy given us by the many rhythmacultures from around the world. People coming together and expressing their rhythmical spirit through group drumming has been around long before written history. The tag line "father of drum circle facilitation" was given to me by Mickey Hart and has stuck. Although I am definitely one of the early pioneers of the facilitated drum circle movement, I am not all that comfortable with the word "Father". Although I have been called the father of the modern facilitated drum circle movement, my role has been more that of a midwife, facilitating the birth of recreational drumming communities in many parts of the world and helping to berth this phenomenon into our cultural experience. I have been a pioneer for most of my life. A pioneer is one who goes before and prepares the way for others, and a midwife assists in the delivery of new life into the world. I believe that, as a rhythmical evangelist, I have been doing both. Today there are many more recreational drumming midwives facilitating around the world. These people are birthing rhythmacultures in many different parts of their communities by facilitating all types of rhythm-based events. These are the real heroes and heroines who are tirelessly working locally to build a grassroots recreational drumming community around them. Many of them are also using rhythm-based events as a tool to serve special populations in their community. They are doing this by sharing their rhythmical spirit and empowering others to do the same. As a "Rhythmical Evangelist" my original personal mission was to help create a rhythmically enabled society in the United States. By it's own inertia that mission has expanded itself internationally. My belief was that my grandchild's grandchildren might begin to see the social benefits of my mission. I am very pleased, but no longer surprised, to see real results happening in my lifetime. Here is a metaphorical visual that explains what is actually happening in this fast growing recreational drum circle movement. If you throw a Ping-Pong ball into a room of other ping-pong balls sitting on top of pre-set mousetraps, the first ball your ball hits will fly into the air. Those two balls will hit and launch two other balls into the air. Those four bouncing balls will hit and launch four other bouncing balls. Those 8 balls will launch 8 more. Those 16 balls will become 36 on the next bounce, 72 on the next bounce, 144 on the next bounce, 288 on the next bounce, 576 next, then 1,152, then, 2,304, then 4,608 Then 9,261 and in less that 14 bounces the number of ball effected are 18,432 and they just keep on bouncing. The bouncing ball metaphor reflects what is happening when some one shares their rhythmical bliss with some one who has that bliss buried within themselves but feels that, because of social or cultural conditioning, they are rhythmically challenged.
When a "rhythmically Repressed" person is allowed to uncover, discover and recover their own rhythmical spirit in a safe supportive environment, (such as in a facilitated drum circle), they become converts, and as a result, become the next bouncing ball. I have been facilitating drum circles for more than 30 years. I started publicly training drum circle facilitators in the US 16 years ago. I began training internationally in 1998. The annual European DCFacilitator trainings started in 2001. Those European trainings turned into the VMC World DCFacilitator Training Tour 5 years ago when we added Japan and other countries in Asia onto the tour.
A good example of what kind of bouncing ball that I am is that in one particular 10 country, 4 month drum circle facilitator training tour, I taught 9 weekend facilitator trainings. On that tour I also facilitated drumming events at 3 Music Industry gatherings, 4 corporate training programs, 2 orphanages and 17 community drum circles. As near as we can figure, the total number of people who participated in my Village Music Circle Facilitator Playshops is a little over 4,000. To me, those facilitator graduates are the bouncing balls that are creating this fast growing recreational drum circle movement that we have today.
((Q)) How did you become interested in drumming? Has music and drumming always been a big part of your life?
I don't remember making a conscious decision to become a drummer. When does a Dancer, Artist or Musician decide that he / she will be what they already are in some formative stage? For me it was not about a decision to be made. It has always been an unconscious continuum of the uncovering, discovering, and recovering the blissful interaction with the magic of rhythm in sound, movement and people throughout my life, and sharing it with others. I never "Became" interested in drumming, I was on the rhythm path before I was born. My mother said that I was drumming inside her during her 3rd trimester of pregnancy. I have always been intrigued, mesmerized and entertained by the rhythms of physical, visual and audible patterns from nature and from every day interactions with life. I have rhythm memories dating back to when I was an infant in my crib, singing with my friend the drippy water faucet in our bathroom sink. Of course I didn't know that it was drippy water faucet. I just thought it was my friend who lived in the "wet" room. At the age of four I remember my first drum being the sheet mettle furnace in the basement of our house. It had so many sounds because I could kick it as well as hit it with the sides of my closed fists or slap it with my open hand. My first real drum was a tunable bongo when I was 13. I made my first Ashiko style cone drum in wood shop when I was 14. Back then it was called a Dezy Arnes "Ba Ba Lu" drum. We didn't study African rhythms back then, it was all Afro-Cuban. Also at 14 years of age I was sneaking out of my bedroom window to go play my bongos and cone drum on Friday nights, backing up folk singers and beat poets at a Hells Angles hangout club in San Bernardino, California. That was my first paying gig. By the age of 16yrs. old I was playing Trap set drums professionally in an eclectic band that played full sets of Jazz, Country & Western, Rockabilly or Rock-N-Roll, depending on the audience and location. The band members were all military brats with our parents stationed at Hill Air force base in Utah. We developed a full night of music for each of the clubs on the base. Jazz for the officers club, Country & Western for the NCO club, (Noncommissioned officers Sergeants club), Rockabilly music for the GI club and Rock-N-Roll for the Teen club, (Early Beetles and Rolling Stone). It was a great musical education for me. I was 18 when I had my first facilitating experience in drum a circle. That story is on page 35 of my second book titled Drum Circle Facilitation, Building Community Through Rhythm. Put my life on "Pause" for 4 years of military service, but I still played traps in "GI" bands. By the time I was 30 I was fully engaged in facilitating community drum circles, rhythm based events in schools, Personal growth conferences, and pioneering drumming in corporations as a form of team building. I also began playing in World Beat Bands in the San Francisco area and eventually recorded and performed for three years with the Nigerian Highlife Band KOTOJA. At around the same time I also met studied with, recorded with and performed with Babatunde Olatunji from Nigeria. It was also at that time that I began teaching Village Music at the University of California Santa Cruz, UCSC. After 16 years, I taught over 7,000 students the universal principles of hand drumming. By the time I was 35
• I owned a nationally recognized hand drum company that was producing 100+ Ashiko drums a month.
• I began designing signature series drums as an endorsee for REMO Drum Co. (I have since developed 9 drums types for REMO)
• I was facilitating Drum Circles internationally in Europe and Asia, with the sponsorship of REMO.
By the time I was 40 yrs. old I was producing the Village Music Circles Drum Circle Facilitator Playshops Trainings in the US. By the time I was 50 I was teaching drum circle facilitation in world training tours.
Now at the age of 62, I have taught over 4,000 people, world wide, how to facilitate rhythm based events.
This last year, 2008, the total number of people who have completed a 3-day Village Music Circles Facilitators Playshop training in 10 countries, is 533. That does not include the people from 11 countries, who completed the annual 6-day Hawaii training or the 10 day Mentor training. As I always say "Life is a dance". http://www.drumcircle.com/products/
((Q)) Can you give me a brief description of what a drum circle facilitator does?
You will find throughout my latest drum circle facilitation book, contributions of many facilitators from our growing international drum circle facilitator community. In addition to their stories and contributions, I asked each of them to answer these two questions: What is a drum circle facilitator? & What is a facilitated drum circle? They gave me many descriptions but spoke with one voice. You will meet each of these people individually when you read the book, but with their permission I have melded their answers into that one voice.
What is a drum circle facilitator? A drum circle facilitator guides a group of people as they play instruments together in a circle. A good facilitator is a skillful host and a creative and sensitive leader who makes the drum circle experience as easy and fun as possible for all who participate. The facilitator need not be an expert drummer, but needs to have a reliable sense of rhythm and some playing skills. Throughout an event, they help transform the group’s consciousness, taking people from an individual perspective to group awareness, using fun and engaging sequences. The facilitator’s role is to serve the circle, while leading the group to its highest musical level. A skilled facilitator creates an inclusive atmosphere for players of all musical levels, ages and ethnicities, where everyone feels safe and comfortable. They lead the group by facilitating musical successes that entrain and teach the circle to listen to itself. A great facilitator will also highlight the unique gifts that each individual shares with the circle. They also understand and encourage participants’ feelings of, “Yes, I can do this,” “I like this,” and “Wow! I’m making a real contribution to this rhythm.” Become one and know it in your heart.
What is a facilitated drum circle? A drum circle is a fun drum and percussion jam, typically with players of varying musical levels, ages and ethnicities. Most commonly, a drum circle is an entry-level event into the world of recreational music making, as you need no previous musical experience. Music in general and percussive music in particular brings people together in a common, celebratory mood. At once, participants are released from constraints of language, differing social or economic status, age or skill level, and any other trait that would tend to separate them. These constraints are replaced with endless possibilities for successful musical expression. The definition of facilitate is “to make easy.” Participants at a facilitated drum circle play rhythms in a group setting, with a facilitator who guides their musical direction when it is needed. The players have a spoken or unspoken agreement that the facilitator will guide them to their highest musical level. This cooperation enables both the advanced and the beginning drummers to play happily together. Participants experience tremendous freedom to play what they feel, rather than following a complex set of rules. The same values we need for a strong community are nurtured and rewarded in a facilitated drum circle; good listening skills, respect, patience and cooperation. Each individual is equally valuable to the whole. Everybody has a part to play, and no part is any more or any less important than any other part. The modern facilitated drum circle is one prescription for fragmented parts of today’s society. Its unifying power can be an elixir to assist us with our common goals of both personal and community-wide health and well being. While playing together in a drum circle, a group often moves through several musical transitions. These changes are challenging, and often create chaos in an unfacilitated drum circle. With help from a facilitator, a group is more likely to move smoothly through transitions. When they do this, they create both a new rhythm and a much deeper musical relationship. Their confidence in their ability increases and they play together much better than they each would typically have been able to play alone. Attend one and feel it in your body.
((Q)) You teach others how to facilitate drum circles. How can a person become a facilitator?
Drum circle facilitation can be learned by anyone who sees a need to help people create community and connection through the use of interactive rhythm based events. and has the passion to share their bliss with other people. You can learn a lot about facilitation as a participant in a "facilitated" drum circle. Of the people that I have taught to facilitate rhythm based events, about 2/3s of them are functioning here in the United States as School Teachers, Music Teachers, Drum Teachers, Music Therapists, Kids At Risk Professionals, Corporate Facilitators or just family friendly Community Drum Facilitators. This means that there are literally thousands of great facilitation models to choose from, and I am sure there is some one facilitating drum circles near you. that you can go watch. The danger in modeling only what you see, is thinking that what you see the facilitator doing in the middle of the circle is all that you need to know in order to be a good DCFacilitator. As you will see by my answers to the next Question asked below, the signals that you see the facilitator giving to the participants in a drum circle is just "The tip of the Iceberg", as they help guide the players music making toward percussion ensemble consciousness. You don't necessarily need to read my books or attend the Village Music Circles Facilitator trainings to become a rhythm event facilitator. If you have the passion to help your drum circle friends create successful rhythm grooves, then jump in, By trial and error, you will be able to discover the universal principals of music making that, when applied to a drum circle, can help make a group rhythm event more successful than any of the players imagined possible. As one of those 'Self-taught" drum circle facilitator pioneers I did not have models, mentors or the books available to me to help me learn. Now those models, mentors, and "How To" facilitation books are out there and available to you. Just look for them. BUT! If you want to cut your "Self taught" Facilitators training from 5 to 10 years, down to a few days, then come and see me. Why reinvent the wheel. My Facilitators Playshops will teach you how to adapt your newfound facilitation skills to meet the needs of the special people you intend to serve. And, at the same playshop, you will "Learn how to Learn" from your own life experiences in the middle of your own circles.
((Q))
You discuss 3 aspects of drum circle facilitation. What are they? I am most
curious about the meaning of musicality.
The three foundational aspects of drum circle facilitation are represented in a triplicity entitled "Facilitation Mastery” The Facilitation Mastery aspects are the foundation of everything I teach. They are (A) Circle Facilitation Skills, (B) Musicality And (C) Presence.
"Circle Facilitation Skills" involves the "Technical aspects of facilitating" an interactive drum circle event.
"Musicality" is the understanding the "Basic principles of group rhythm and music making".
"Presence" is about "How" you show up as a facilitator, and most importantly "Why".
Each one of these Facilitation Mastery aspects encompasses many other supportive triplicity elements. When these triplicity elements are combined, understood and utilized, they can set you on the path of becoming a Master Facilitator. I will give you some examples of each of the three aspects below.
(A), CIRCLE FACILITATION SKILLS: Circle Facilitation Skills concerns the basic aspects of facilitating any type of group or meeting.
#1, Presentation skills - Includes Vocal, Group leadership & Body Language skills.
#2, Body Language skills - Includes elements of Readability, Telegraph ability & Physical Congruency.
#3, Facilitator Radar - Includes advanced Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic sensibilities.
#4, Drum Circle Format - Which takes into consideration the Size, Population and Purpose when planning any rhythm based event, from corporate to school events.
(B), MUSICALITY: Musicality addresses all the universal principles of hand drumming and group music making. The universal principles represented in Musicality are foundational in any "Rhythmacultures" found throughout the world. To help you generate an understanding of Musicality, I would recommend that any person who wants to be a Drum Circle Facilitator take hand drumming or music making classes from three different representations of the many rhythmacultures from around the world. Some examples would be West African djembe and dunun, Taiko drumming from Japan, Haitian, Congolese, Afro-Cuban, salsa, samba drumming etc. The list is almost endless. Balinese Gamelan orchestras and Zimbabwean-style marimba ensembles provide culturally specific experiences as well, and are beginning to appear in many metropolitan areas and at universities. Taking hand-drumming classes will help you develop an understanding of the relationships between players and their instruments. In the process, you will also gain rhythmical expertise that will help you successfully facilitate rhythm-based events. Some elements that Musicality address are; #1, Percussion Timbre, The application and effect of Bell, Shaker and Wood timbres played in a drum ensemble. #2, Drum Pitch, The basic division, effects and uses of the different pitches in a drum ensemble. #3, Drum Circle Potential, Sound orchestration, Rhythmical & Playing Expertise and Group Consciousness are some of the most important elements to be monitored and facilitated by a DCFacilitator to help guide a group of players to their highest musical potential. #4, Drum Circle Song, Universal Pattern, Interactive Rhythm and Melody Line are what makes a well-balanced rhythm groove in an ongoing drum circle event strong, linear and musically enjoyable.
(C), PRESENCE: Presence has a lot to do with personal character, integrity and intention. The opposite of Presence is Absence. The simple dictionary definition of Presence, "The fact or condition of being present" does not give you much to go on. But when you dig a little deeper into the definition, you discover that it is about the bearing, carriage, or air of a person, especially concerning a stately or distinguished bearing, or a noteworthy quality of poise and effectiveness.
#1, Intention - As I have previously stated, Intention is about "How" you show up as a facilitator, and most importantly "Why”. In varying degrees of importance, Rhythmical Empowerment, Community Building, and Health & Wellness are the three basic elements that show up in a facilitators personal mission statement. Some times my students come with the intention of creating Rhythmical Empowerment, Community Building, and Health & Wellness in their community. I call that "External Intention". And sometimes they come to my trainings with the intention of creating Rhythmical Empowerment, Community Building, and Health & Wellness for themselves. I call that "Internal Intention". I do not care what their motivation is, Internal or External, because by creating one, you usually manifest the other.
#2, Trust - Trust is the most important element that you can develop in your relationship with the group you are facilitating. And it has to run both ways. Meaning that you have to trust them as much as you want them to trust you. To develop trust, you need to manifest Honesty, Rapport and Congruency in you relationship with the drum circle participants.
#3, Intuitive skills - Intuitive skills are essential in successful group facilitation. Keeping your Intuitive radar turned on keep you out of your head and helps you work with the groups intentions and potential rather that your own plans. Awareness, Adaptation and Rapport are the basic elements that make up your Intuitive skills.
#4, Career Development - The question is, Why would Career Development be listed under Presence? If in the process of facilitating drum circle events, you are also sharing your rhythmical bliss, and then most likely you will be heading down the path of developing a career out of DC Facilitation. Understanding exactly what it means to Share Your Bliss, Serve Your Community and Develop Business Skills will help turn what you love to do into a successful career while still keeping it fun. Doing this in a consciousness manner will make this life transition easier and for filling for you and the people around you. Bottom line; Share you spirit with any thing you do and you can't go wrong... Arthur Hull []]';-)
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(Q) How do people progress each week in the drum circle? Don't they get bored after awhile?
A drum circle can get boring If the facilitator makes the event about them selves entertaining a group instead of helping the participants make the best music and connection they can make. For one full week, if you take the same people with the same instruments, sitting in the same seats and have them play every day at the same time for an hour, and if the facilitator is helping the participants share their rhythmical and musical spirit, no two events will ever be the same. No one will ever get bored. 150 people show up regularly to the weekly REMO Recreational Drum Circles in the city of LA, California to share their rhythmical spirit. It is their "Rhythm Church" and it is never the same music.
(Q) What are the benefits of a drum circle?
I don't have all day, but that is how long it would take for me to answer that Question. I will address two points.
The Massage.
A kinesthetic vibration is created when a group of people plays drums together. That harmonic vibration creates a massage that permeates the bodies, hearts and minds of every one in or near the drum circle. That vibration will always seek out and massage any stressful emotional, mental, or physical part of some one that needs it.
So a drum circle is a deep stress relief agent that affects every one in the drum circle differently, but positively.
That is why in the Singapore drum circle facilitator training, there were participants who were School Teachers,
Music Teachers, Music Therapists, Elderly related Professionals, Kids At Risk Professionals, Special Needs Professionals, Corporate facilitators, Spiritual Guides, Psychotherapists etc. All of these people came to the Facilitators Playshop training because they see the value of facilitating a rhythm based event for specific beneficial reasons for the population they serve.
Community Building.
A drum circle event is a "Be Here Now" event. The intimate interaction, cooperation, and collaboration of creating "In-The-Moment-Music" with a group of people, creates an instant camaraderie and connection between all the participants involved. All the elements in making music together reflect on how people a works well together to successfully create a community that is healthy, wealthy, and wise. Playing a drum with a group of people helps us make essential connections that by pass the things that separate us, such a race, religion, politics, gender and age. Yes a drum circle is a natural team builder and community builder.
(Q) Can you share the five important drum circle etiquette?
To save time I will refer you to the drum circle etiquette piece in my web site. Drum Circle Etiquette
Drum circle events of any kind, are about dynamic interactive musical and personal relationships. These relationships, when involved in any group rhythmical alchemy event, are based on a simple set of unwritten guidelines. When adhered to, these relationship guidelines can help direct the group of players to their highest musical potential. In culturally specific circles, these unwritten guidelines have been developed through centuries of ancestral evolution. They can also apply to any contemporary western version of a drum circle, from a "free-form" drum jam to a facilitated community rhythm event. These unwritten musical and personal relationship guidelines are contained within what I call Drum Circle Etiquette. To most drum circle regulars, Drum Circle Etiquette is just a set of nonverbal agreements that everyone adheres to in order to create a fun and exciting musical experience together. Below are my standard Drum Circle Etiquette suggestions for playing in most community drumming environments. Using these “Arthurian” suggestions will help you comfortably merge into an ongoing drumming circle without being obtrusive. By adhering to these Drum Circle Etiquette guidelines you will make the drum circle experience more enjoyable for yourself and the people around you. You will then be a fully participating and contributing member of an “ in-the-moment” rhythmical alchemy orchestra, some times called a drum circle.
Along with the standard Arthurian drum circle etiquette suggestions, I have some advice for beginning beginners who are joining a drum circle event for the first time.
Enjoy the Journey. In all the excitement don’t forget to have fun. Although it will help you to follow the simple Drum Circle Etiquette guidelines, you don’t really have to be an experienced drummer to fully participate and have a good time.
Don’t worry even if you might think that you are rhythmically challenged. Just get started and you will find rhythms inside of you that you didn’t know you had. All you have to do is actively participate in the drum circle event, and the excitement and rhythms that will surround you will pull out of you exactly what you need to fully contribute to the group song. You don’t even need to play a drum. You can bring a simple percussion instrument, like a shaker, a bell or a wood block. They are a lot easier to play than a hand drum.
Support the drum community experience. If you are participating in a drum circle event for the first time, the best way to play is with an attitude of humility and support. Be very observant of the actions and reactions of the more advanced drummers who are playing in the circle and you will learn a lot quickly.
Keep it simple. Listen for, then play along with, and around the pulse that will always be somewhere in the music. It is like keeping the side of the pool within reach as you are learning how to swim. The simple pulse will always be there for you to “grab on to” if you ever get rhythmically lost while playing. Once you are comfortable with what you are playing, you can explore deeper rhythmical waters. Just keep the pulse in site.
Just Ask. Every rhythm event is different, and has it’s own particular variations of Drum Circle Etiquette. If you’re not sure what’s appropriate, just ask somebody. They usually will respond with supportive suggestions.
There is a basic agreement in these kind of events that each person in the circle is there to share their rhythmical spirit and personal energy with the community that is present. With this kind of group consciousness, a drum circle can be a very powerful, yet intimate experience for everybody as they create unity in their community by drumming together. Your drumming skill level is less important than how much of yourself you contribute to the experience. If every player is there to share their spirit and have fun, the musical part of any drum circle it will take care of itself.
(Q) Through your work, what do you hope to achieve? Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
My goal is to help create a "Rhythmically Enabled" world society where rhythmical spirit can be sheared as a part of celebrating life and community.
Where do you see yourself in the next five years? Doing the exact same thing that I am doing now. Flying around the world, (Literally), helping to pioneer and create the drum circle facilitation community, and as a result expand the growing grass roots recreational music making movement.
(Q) If you weren't into drums, what would be your alternative instrument?
I would play melody line percussion such as marimbas or xylophones. I would still have to hit something to make music.
(Q)
Can you share a memorable moment in a drum circle?
There are way to many memorable moments to recall so I will generalize. The most amazing moment in any drum circle that I am facilitating is when the group gets to the level of self-facilitation. They are making their own music with out my help. That is when I have an orchestra to facilitate and my job description changes from drum facilitator to orchestrational conductor. That is when the magic happens in the music.
(Q) Where do you get your energy and your sense of humor?
I get my energy from the circle it's self, (and from coffee of course). My sense of humor comes from the frivolity of life.
(Q) How many books on drum circles have you written?
I have written two of them on drum circle facilitation.
1. Drum Circle Spirit, Facilitating Human Potential
Through Rhythm
2. Drum Circle Facilitation, Building Community Through
Rhythm
(Q) Is your family into drum circles as you are? Why is this so important to you?
Although my family is not as crazy about drum circles as me, they are all musicians. The Hull family, wife Diana and two kids, Aryn & Maraya, has been to most of the 13 annual Hawaii one week facilitation Playshop trainings and as a result we have put in a lot of family drum circle time together.
Why is this so important to you? For me, the expression of rhythmical spirit is like breathing.
I cannot stop hearing, feeling, seeing and expressing the rhythms that surround me in my every day life, just like I cannot stop breathing. Sharing this form of releasing, healing, life-affirming bliss is important to me. Every one has with in them this ability to express their natural rhythmical spirit. There is no such thing as a rhythmically challenged person. My experience is that when you give people a safe opportunity to discover, uncover, recover and express their natural rhythmical spirit, the world becomes a better place for them to live in. This is why I have become a "Rhythmical Evangelist"
(Q) What is your schedule like? You must travel a lot!
In 3 days I will start my annual around the world facilitators training tour, 7 countries, 19 programs in three months. UK, Norway, Iceland, Germany, Dubai, Japan and a month in the US before I get back home. My Singapore visit was a part of my Asia tour this spring, Australia, Korea, Japan and Singapore. Life, for me, is a world dance, and I love doing it.
(Q) How young are you?
I am 61 or 62, I have forgotten. Remember that I am a drummer, so I can only count to four and then I have to start over again. Most of the time I feel 30 or 40 years old. But after a world tour I do feel my age.
(Q), When did you realize this was a viable livelihood?
At about the age of 25 I realized that I was trying to make my father proud of me. I was doing every thing I could to "fit in" and become a contributor to society at the sacrifice of what it was my true self-wanted to do. That is when I decided to quit my good job as a outreach director and teacher in business communications at a Health Maintenance Organization management and research consultant firm in Los Angeles, California, Move up to Santa Cruz to see if what I loved to do could make me a living. That included playing drums for dance classes, dancing, being a percussionist in a band, making drums and facilitating regular community rhythm events. It could and did make a living for me. In the processes, I helped pioneer a new profession into our culture called a Drum Circle Facilitator.
(Q) Where has it led you that you might not have expected?
It has lead me out of the US of A and into the many rhythmacultures in the world. It has shown me that all types of cultures from all parts of the globe can adapt facilitated drum circles to their needs and create their
own modern recreational hand drumming rhythm culture. It showed me that rhythm based events can be adapted to meet the needs of many different parts of our community, including School kids, kids at risk,
Corporate training, Well Elderly and not so Well Elderly etc. When I started the VMC Facilitation playshop training programs, my intention was to teach drummers and percussionist how to facilitate family
friendly community drum circles. But an increasing number of non-drummers started attending my facilitator training programs, including; School Teachers, Music Therapists, Elderly Related Professionals, Kids At Risk
Professionals, Special Needs Professionals, Corporate Facilitators etc. These people invited me into their cultures to facilitate specifically focused drum circle events in their schools, Music therapist conferences,
corporate trainings etc.
(Q) How do you see it making a difference in the world?
There are too many people out in the world that believes the" Big Lie". The "Big Lie" is that you have to be a professional drummer or musician to be able to express your rhythmical spirit on a drum. That is not the truth.
Another part of the " Big Lie" is the belief that " I am a rhythmically challenged person, I am a rhythm Dork".
The truth is that we all have rhythmical spirit that can be easily shared in a facilitated drum circle event. The difference that facilitated drum circles are making all over the world, is they are providing a safe place for some one who thinks that they are rhythmically challenged to uncover, discover, and recover the rhythmical spirit that they once naturally had as a child. In other words Drum Circle are creating rhythmically enabled people and
communities. My dream come true. By its basic organic nature, a family friendly facilitated community drum
circle event is a community building exercise that positively effect every on who is a participant. So just being a participant in a drum circle event can make your life just a little bit better. Facilitators are bringing rhythm-based events into specifically targeted populations of troubled youth, mentally challenged adults, elderly people
with dementia, just to name a few. These rhythm-based facilitators are offering a new therapy that has direct measurable results. And, one patient at a time, they are helping to create a better life style and wellness for
these people.
Q)
How do you see drumming and/or drum circles as a component of the
healing process?
How deep do you want to go on this one? That can be a complete topic-interview-article in itself.
Expressing your rhythmical spirit on a drum individually, or in a group drumming, has the power to create wellness, physical and emotional harmony. Everything that exists vibrates with its own rhythm. This concept is so simple that most of the time we're not aware of it, but life is rhythm and rhythm is life. Everything that lives, moves and has being vibrates. When all cells of our bodies vibrate in harmony, we are in good health. When our cells are not vibrating in harmony, we are in disease = disease. When we gather together in church to worship as a community, we use the group music to vibrate the members of that congregation beyond intellect and individual concepts of God to that unnamable place that every religion attempts to name. Spiritual healing happens in that place because Spirit is a vibration that has its own rhythm. Participating in a drum circle or even being near one is a healing experience for the hearts, minds, and bodies of many people. A drum circle creates a subsonic vibration that gives a rhythmical massage to everyone near it, affecting each person differently. This massage influences the harmonious alignment of our physical cells, emotional states, and our spirits. In a drum circle we come together to share ourselves in music and rhythm and to give and get an intimate rhythmical massage, a massage that goes deeper than the vibration of the drums, going through our skin and muscles
to our bones. The vibration of the rhythms goes to those stuck places in our lives, in our bodies, in our hearts, in our souls, and massages them back into movement and health. Lack of the movement of energy creates disease. Movement of energy facilitates healing. When a group of people come together in a circle with
focused intent, they facilitate the flow of the power that makes things happen. When you add drums as a vehicle for that focus, the drums enhance the power to improve our physical and mental health, our lives, and the very
essence of our beings.
(Q)
How does drumming complement other forms of therapy, and how does
drumming differ from other forms of therapy?
I want to be careful and say that, except in specific instances, Drums don't "heal". They are definitely a part of, and a contributor to, a healing processes, be it physical, emotional or mental. A release of stress is a fundamental factor in helping a patient move forward in their healing processes. In many ways facilitated group drumming does just that, regardless of the accompanying therapy.
(Q)
Discuss the term 'entrainment', and how drumming is integral to dance
and movement. How are spiritual practices informed by rhythm and drumming?
Discuss the term 'entrainment'. I remember standing in a Cuckoo Clock shop in the middle of the black
forest in Bavaria Germany, listening to all the Tick Tocking cacophony of the Cuckoo Clocks as they slowly entrained their ticking rhythms into one group Tick Tock. Hearing all the clocks in the whole room Tick Tock as one voice was mesmerizing to me. I found my self in rhythmical entrainment bliss. The only problem was that all the clocks struck 12 noon at the same time. The little doors in the face of the clocks opened as many little wooden birds popped out and singing Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Then they were not entrained. It was a sound cacophony that so surprised me out of my entrainment trance that I nearly peed in my pants. The above story does not stray to far from the essence of the term 'entrainment'. The Dutch scientist, Christian Huygens, while working on the design of the pendulum clock, found that when he placed two pendulum clocks near each
other on a wall, their pendulums swinging at different rates, would eventually end up swinging at the same rate.
The phenomenon of resonance in physics has proven to have an effect on all of us. Entrainment is defined as "the tendency for two oscillating bodies to lock into phase so that they vibrate in harmony". This turns out to be a universal principle that appears everywhere, in chemistry to psychology to drumming. Apply this principle to a group of people drumming together, in close approximation to each other, and you have an entrained drum circle rhythm groove. All a facilitator has to do is to help facilitate that rhythm to its next highest potential, and the next and the next. Until the group is playing way beyond their capacity to play together with out a supportive facilitator. The definition of facilitator is "To Make easy".
How drumming is integral to dance and movement. Does the drummer make the dancers dance? or does the dancer make the drummers drum? The answer is YES. In the Ga culture, situated in the heart of Ghana West Africa, they have a statement "Qwabashee Ko Knee Wala" which means "lets go do it". The "IT" that they are referring to is Drumming, Dancing and Song. They don't see the three elements in the celebration of life as separate. You don't do one with out doing the two others. You don't drum, unless you dance, unless you sing. In America we tend to separate these three elements and focus on who is the best at any one of these. While in rhythmacultures, (My word), all around the world, drum, dance, and song are all integrated into every day life.
How are spiritual practices informed by rhythm and drumming? Drum circle consciousness is a group vision manifest in sound, an attitude of giving of yourself and integrating yourself into a group to create a
rhythmical song. You become a part of a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. the music is the result of that relationship. Drumming alone, or in a group, takes you to the here and now. In one way or another most spiritual practices are geared to getting you to that "Be-Here-Now" Consciousness. Drumming under the full moon around a fire on top of a hill is an emotional, spiritual experience that is available to anyone, with or without formal spiritual training, technical drum training or new age personal growth consciousness training.
In fact you don't need the Moon or the Fire or the Hill, just the drum.
(Q) Why are drum circles so effective for team building?
Every activity and interaction involved in-group drumming can be easily reflected in how a team works together to successfully complete a task. After facilitating thousands of corporate events, I have come to the
realization that the metaphors generated by a rhythm based event is applicable to almost any situation and challenge that can be met at a corporate meeting. To create a successfully collaborative musical experience in a drum circle, every one is no more or no less as important as any one else in completing the task and challenge at hand. In the corporate team building events that I facilitate, I use over five types and styles of drums, and many different types of bells, shakers and wood sounding instruments. This creates the best possible combination of drum pitches and percussion sounds to showcase the best possible musical potential in the group. The team building metaphor that goes with this type of set up is that. "Every one has a job description according to the instrument they are playing in the drum circle orchestra. And no person's job description is any more or less as important as any other job description in making the best group drumming music possible".
(Q) Can you speak to the universal appeal of drumming across social, cultural, age, and life-style divisions?
When we drum together, we cut through all racial, cultural, and gender boundaries, to the core of who we are as human animals on the planet. That's why the drum is a tool for unity. It grounds us to our primal relationship
with each other, mother earth and the natural laws that govern the universe. Drumming together in a group is a natural community builder. It compels us to be in each changing rhythmical moment that the totality of the
participants are creating. Being in that ever evolving group rhythm invites us to be in a very intimate to be-here-now consciousness that dissolves the things that separate us, (age, sex, religion, life style and job description), and high lights the elements that unit us. When we come together and drum, the power of the rhythm moves us to a place where we all share the same space, time, and music together. We are focusing our attention to create a song. In that moment, we are not necessarily hitting the same note at the same time, but we are intimately sharing that rhythmical moment. Anyone can do this, even if you've never drummed before in your life! You don't have to be a shaman or a professional musician to experience the magic of the drum circle. When you play with a group that wants to go to " that place" and create the magic of being in the same place at the same time, together you create that natural phenomenon called "entrainment." You are in rhythmical alignment with each other. When we are at " that place", thoughts stop. When thoughts stop, time stops and healing starts. We connect beyond our intellects; in a primal kinesthetic musical dance that is expressed using sound, and by doing so we facilitate the bonding of our spirit connections in the circle.
(Q)
What is the link between left-right brain integration and drumming and
can you elaborate on this phenomenon?
Left-right brain integration helps correct the areas of the brain that are experiencing stress or improper functioning. Playing on a drum in an "In the moment" group rhythm event is a very effective way initiating this left-right brain integration processes. While drumming, you’re involved in alternatively using left and right hand
patterns while participating in an activity that requires you to pay attention to the rhythm that your playing, while at the same time, paying attention, and reacting to the constantly changing, "In-The-Moment", rhythm
that surrounds you in a drum circle event. We mostly live our lives from the left sides of our brain, because that is where our analytical thinking processes come from. Because your doing left-right brain integration while hand drumming, your reaction to the rhythms happening around you would be less intellectual and
more right brain centered "In-The-Moment" responses. Thus you drum from a more centered and balanced place. This type of Brain balanced "Centered" response can then be easily translated from the drumming experience into how you live your normal every day life.
(Q) Can you share some quotes, experiences, or discoveries that you are aware of about rhythm and the Mind-Body connection?
Where does the body stop and the mind start? Or Visa Versa? As far as I am concerned, it doesn't. It not about the Mind-Body connection. They are one in many ways. We all store a lot of our emotions and memories in our bodies, and that affects the quality of how we live our lives. Here is a story of how drumming can help us access those emotions and memories in our bodies and release any part of them that is limiting how we perceive life and live it. Story: Drum Called from Arthur's latest book "Drum Circle Facilitation - Building community through rhythm." We were well past drum call and the 300 + person percussion groove was solid and "smoken".
I has just finished a facilitation sequence and turned around to see standing in the middle of one of the drum circle isles, a little, (as in short), old, (as in around 80 years), gray haired lady. She was hugging a REMO doumbek with both arms, and had an excited yet confused look on her face. I walked up to her and with a smile and offered her a seat near the center of the circle. The drum groove around us was to loud for me to speak, so I took the Dumbek from her and showed her of a couple of different ways she could play it. She nodded her head yes, took the Dumbek back and with a smile, began to play with the rest of the circle. She picked up my body language quickly and was soon doing responses to my calls with the rest of the group. Seeing that she was settled in, I put my attention elsewhere as the event progressed. Towards the end of the program I noticed that although other people around her had come and gone, she was still there, bright eyes, excited spirit, participating 100%. But on second look, I saw that her face was wet with tears. I took a step towards her. She saw the concern in my face, and she smiled at me while making a go away motion with her hands and
then continued to play. After the close of the Drum circle, I stood out side the entrance, like a
minister saying farewell to his congregation after his service. I noticed her standing off to the side of the thank you line. I correctly deduced that she was waiting until I was alone so she could talk to me privately. The
only thing that didn't quite fit was she was clutching a young man's hands. It all became quite apparent as I finished talking to the last person in line. With the little old lady still clutching his hand, the young man came
up to me, and explained that she had commandeered him as a translator for her. Her eyes burned into mine as she stared speaking to me in German. She spoke with the same intensity that she played in the circle. The tears were coming out of her eyes as the words were poring out of her mouth. She realized that she had to stop talking so the young man could translate and catch up. When he began to speak, I looked at him and realized that he was crying as well. Here is what he translated. Her name was Maria. She was 84 years old. She lived in her apartment ½ mile from the park where the community drum circle was being held. She heard
us playing and followed the sound of the drums through the city, to the circus tent in the park by the river. When she got to the entrance, she was handed a drum and was led inside. She felt overwhelmed by the "sound
pressure", and didn't know what to do until I greeted her, sat her down' and showed her how to play. She had never played a drum before, never wanted to and never expected to. All though she enjoyed the experience, something very profound and important happened while she was playing that she had to share with me.
Her husband died 45 years ago in the war. It felt to her like the drums were massaging the place in herself that couldn't let go of him. As she drummed she got in touch with that place and so she was able to let go of
him and say goodbye. She had been a grieving widow most of her life and I could see in her eyes that she was about to start a new life. She couldn't thank me enough the young man said as the little old lady let go of his hand and bear hugged me. She wouldn't let go of me, saying over and over" Vielen-dank, Vielen-dank".
I hugged her back. Now all three of us were crying. "Vielen-dank, Vielen-dank" she continued to say while hugging me. I looked over at the young man for a translation. He said "It means thank you, as very much as
possible".
(Q) Where in our daily world does drum circle facilitation currently exist?
Almost everywhere. The general public only sees the tip of the iceberg of the group drumming phenomena. That is the family friendly community drum circles, some men’s and women's empowerment groups and in personal growth conferences. BUT! Facilitated rhythm based events are being used in very many specific
populations in professional settings by; School Teachers, Music Therapists, Elderly Related Professionals, Adults At Risk Professionals, Kids At Risk Professionals, Special Needs Professionals, Corporate Facilitators, Music and Drum Teachers, Psychotherapists, Infant-Toddler Facilitators, Medical related, doctors, nurses and health care professionals and School Rhythm Event Facilitators. Of the 4000+ people that I have taught facilitation to, all over the world in the last 16 years, (Half of them in the US.), only one forth of them have intentions of facilitating public rhythm based events. The rest of them were professionals in their field, (see the list above), who saw how drumming could be integrated as a tool in helping the specific population that they served.
(Q) Where else would you like to see drumming applied as a unifying activity and why?
I am no longer surprised by the new areas in our culture where group drumming has been applied.
The activity of group drumming dissolves those things that separate us and connects us all to our basic humanity. Many times people come up to me and jokingly say that I ought to do a drum circle in this or that war torn part of the world. I agree with them. I have done a drum circle in the "Neutral" zone in the city Belfast North Ireland, well known for it's ongoing struggle between the Protestants and the Catholics, and witnessed it's positive effect on the people participating. Christine Stevens has just done drum circles with mixed ethnic and
religious groups in Northern Iraq, and has left people there that can continue facilitating inter-culture drumming circles. I would like to see more of that happening.
(Q) Can you name some specific, (even surprising cases), where rhythm therapy has been particularly effective?
Pick any one you want to use.
Story 1, The Dancer - While facilitating a drum circle at a hospice conference in Marin California, the rhythm of the circle was getting shaky and unsteady. That is normally an invitation for me to enter the center of the circle and facilitate the group back to a steady groove. But I had been in the center of the circle more than I would have liked, and so looked around the circle for an alternative solution. I saw this woman drumming in the center row of players who was so physically energized by the group rhythm that she was more out of her seat
than in it. As a retired contact improvisation instructor I knew a drumming dancer when I saw one. So I walked across the center of the circle and reaching down with my hand I was about to invite her to dance in the center of the circle. She obviously knew what I intended because before I could open my mouth she reached and grabbed my wrist, and as I pulled her up out of her seat, she literally flew into the center of the circle and hit the ground dancing. I took her seat and drummed while she acted as the drum circle conductor, uniting our group rhythm as we followed her full joyous expression of life through her passionate dance. Does the drummer make the dancer dance, or does the dancer make the drummer drum? The answer is yes. After the drum circle she came up to me and told me her story. Her passion was dancing, of course, and she had been a professional dancer all of her life. Three years before the drumming event we were at took place, while hiking
in the woods, she had fallen off a log while crossing a ravine and broke her back. Paralyzed from the waist down, she was told by her doctors that she might be able to walk again, but never to expect to return professional dancing. While lying in her bed she would sing songs and drum on her belly and started wiggling her toes. She got a hold of some Bongos and played them on her lap as she began to be able to move her foot and ankles. Once she was able to start wiggling her legs to the rhythms she was playing, she sat up in a wheel chair and began moving her legs up and down and side ways. Her next step was to get a hold of a conga and while sitting in a chair and playing her feet and legs could dance on the floor. With more of that, and of course, physical therapy, she literally drummed herself back on her feet again. When I met her she was, once again, a professional dancer, who when drumming in a chair, put her whole body into the act of drumming, to the
point that her butt was more off the chair than on it.
Story 2, Drumming with Schizophrenia - While I was on a recent Drum-About in Japan, visiting some of my
facilitation students, I watch Tomoko Yokota facilitate one of her regular rhythm event therapy programs at the Nagobe Psychiatric Hospital in Matsuyama, where she does special needs DC for the patients with schizophrenia. Tomoko masterfully demonstrated how she has adapted her Village Music Circles facilitation training to meet the requirements of this specifically focused special needs population. I was very impressed.
At the beginning of this 45 minuet session the patients had to be attended to by the caretakers a lot. The patients were nervous, uncommunicative, with little attention span and had little social interaction with the other
patients. Tomoko initiated the set by step rhythm event processes, with each progressive activity being designed to activate and achieve some sort of Audio, Visual, or Physical attention acuity in the patients. At the end of the program the patients were more attentive of each and more responsive to out side stimulus. They were all a lot more relaxed than they were when they entered the circle, and more communicative and happy.
(Q) What was your experience in the process of becoming a drum circle facilitator?
The processes of becoming a drum circle facilitator was totally organic. When I started facilitating drum circles in the late 60s and early 70s I was the only one that I knew was doing it. I had to learn by trial and error. In
the beginning I was creating more learning moments for my self than musical successes for the participants in the events I was facilitating. I wish I had a teacher like me back then, and the learning process would have been a lot smoother and a lot faster. Once I started facilitating drum circles on a national biases, I began finding other like minded people whom I mentored and inspired as they mentored and inspired me. It wasn't until the late 70s and early 80s when I had established myself at the University of California in Santa Cruz that I began developing the training format that would birth two books on drum circle facilitation, hundreds of facilitation trainings in 13 countries, graduating over 3,000 drum circle facilitators into our growing international recreational rhythm empowerment movement.
(Q) Do you feel it is a profession accessible to anyone with a sincere interest?
Definitely Yes! Only a small fraction of the people who have participated in my Village
Music Circles Facilitator Playshop Training were professional musicians or drum teachers.
Although some rhythmical expertise and understanding of how a rhythm event works is important, most people, even nonplayers, have left my 6 day Hawaii intensive facilitator Playshops with the knowledge and experience they needed to successfully facilitate a family friendly community drum circle. Drum Circles are creating rhythmically enabled people and communities. That is my dream come true.