Drumming in Mind by Greg Whitt : Drum Circle Facilitator

Many consider drumming to go hand-and-hand with meditation.   Like Yoga, drumming can be a moving meditation.   Also like Yoga, drummers need to develop a skill set before they can drum and meditate simultaneously.  

Consider for a moment the premise that drumming is an art that requires not only talent, but practice, diligence, and discipline.   If you believe this to be true, then it's a bit more involved than merely bringing your energy and enthusiasm down to the local drum circle to bang out some improvisational tunes, though there's certainly nothing wrong with that and I highly encourage it.   As a student of rhythm, though, you might take lessons, practice what you learn, review with your teacher, build on what you know, and practice even more.  

As you build your skills, you begin to ingrain into muscle memory the techniques you've been working on.   Like Yoga poses or martial arts techniques, these can be filed away in your subconscious until you're ready to use them.   They get rusty, though, if you don't bring them out and dust them off now and again.   The more ingrained your skills become, the more they are relegated to your subconscious, becoming more instinctive and natural. The less you have to think about these things with your conscious mind, the more fluid and dynamic you can become with your music, freeing your mind to focus (or not) on other things.   

In Japanese martial arts and other eastern schools of thought, this can be called MUSHIN, or "mind of no mind".    Like Bruce Lee with an endless array of Kung Fu defenses available in an instant, the more techniques and rhythms you have in your personal chop shop or bag of tricks, and the more second nature these become, the more options you have to draw upon when you need to adapt to the music of the moment.   With this sort of ability at your beck-and-call, you can respond instinctively and appropriately without having to stop and think about what you're going to do next.

A great example of this was an episode of Music Choice featuring Phil Collins.   Phil was singing and playing congas at the same time. One hand was playing lightning fast lead and the other a steady beat while he was singing something altogether different. His drumming was second-nature, allowing him to think about all the other things happening on the stage - singing the lead, the bass player, the back up singers, another percussionist, the saxophone. WOW!   There was a lot happening on that stage!   Even so, he was relaxed and totally aware of everyone on the stage.

In a drum circle environment, once the technical aspects of drumming become second nature, it's easier to both FOCUS on other things (like learning a hot new rhythm) and to UNFOCUS so that you see more of the bigger picture (like hearing what the person beside you is doing).    In other words, the less you are consciously thinking about, the more room in there you have to explore other things: to be open-minded, to relax, to absorb, to give, to enjoy - to be mindful of what's going on around you rather than just what's happening with your hands and your drum.   If your brain isn't tied up worrying about what you're doing, then it will be free to drum up other things to think about, or to float freely in trance, meditation, and the groove.

Djembe G / Greg Whitt

Drum Circle Facilitator