1. Have participants remove their rings before playing hand drums. This protects their rings AND the drums.
2. If you use chairs – make sure they don’t have arm rests to best facilitate drumming.
3. Identify “Welcomers” and “Greeters” who help people choose drums and get seated.
4. Have Remo drums and percussion instruments beautifully displayed to allow people to discover the instrument that best fits their unique personality
5. Be clear about the purpose and intention of the drum circle…what it is and what it isn’t. Drum Circles are not a cure, but rather a tool that gets defined by the individual experience.
6. Start with a strong beat that isn’t too fast to follow. Often a low bass drum goes a long way to hold down the rhythm.
7. Try having people add into a groove one at a time. The rhythm will naturally build and it allows people the opportunity to really listen to each other.
8. Acknowledge the Ancestors and Cultures that have been practicing group drumming for centuries.
9. End the circle with a “one-word symphony.” Have each person stand up and say one word about their experience in the drum circle. Let the group find their own rhythm of speaking their word. Conclude with everyone standing.
10. Ask them if they want to come back and do it again!

Top Ten Tips for Facilitating your own Drum Circle:

There are some great things you can do to prepare to facilitate a drum circle.

1. Discover your own rhythm first. – From playing along with a recording to building up your confidence in expressing yourself musically, you can do a lot to demonstrate your love of music and inspire the circle. Don’t be self-conscious and don’t expect to “teach” anyone anything. Remember, its about helping people discover the rhythm that’s already within them!
2. Get the gear you need. – Outfit your group in good equipment. World percussion instruments by Remo are the perfect drum circle tools because they are light-weight, hold their pitch, and sound GREAT. It’s important to have many different timbres:
   • Bass (djembes, buffalo drums)
   • Middle (bongos, smaller djembes)
   • High (shakers)
   • Nature sounds (thunder tube, and ocean drum)
3. Invite people to bring their own drums and percussion, emphasizing what type of instruments you want there. Don’t be afraid of found sounds or melodic pitched instruments like flutes or xylophones. Everything is really a percussion instrument.
4. Create the space. – The drum circle actually begins long before anyone arrives. It is your job to set up the circle in your own personal way. Make it welcoming. Pay attention to your surroundings and make sure there’s water available and ample space for a spontaneous dancer in the center. (To really encourage dancing – have a few shawls available!)
5. Be prepared to stop the group. – In any new sport, we always learn how to stop before we go. If you were new at roller-blading, you would want to know how to stop before the harrowing task of skating down a mountain.Using your voice to cue a stop over a group of drummers can be futile. Even the loudest, “1-2-3-4- STOP” can’t be heard over a group of drummers. So, try cueing the group without using words. Your body becomes the conducting instrument. Experiment with this exercise.

   ***Stand in a quiet, comfortable posture. At the count of three, move quickly into a pose that demonstrates “stop.” Come back to neutral and try it again, making each one bigger and clearer as your experiment and find your own personal way to signal a group to stop.

6. Use dynamics. – In music, there is an ebb and flow of volume changes called “dynamics.” By raising and lowering your hands, you can successfully cue the group to play louder or softer.
7. Make people LAUGH! – Sometimes people are nervous about making music. They actually believed all those bad messages that, “they weren’t musical,” or that “they didn’t have rhythm.” To help people overcome these lies, find ways to help them laugh at themselves.
8. Encourage “Heads-Up” drumming. – It’s easy to get more into your own beat than noticing the group around you. Encourage people to steal rhythmic ideas from one-another, to learn from the exchange of rhythms within the circle. This creates more synchronicity and more connection.
9. Try not leading at all. – A lot of time, there is no need for a facilitator. A group can often successfully jam together without a conductor. This is the ultimate. Don’t try to do more than what the group needs you to do.
10. Be yourself – Incorporate your unique gifts in the drum circle. From tap-dancing, playing a saxophone, singing, and dancing, bring all of your personality into your experience.

© Remo, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Used by permission from HealthRHYTHMS, Remo, Inc.

1. Have participants remove their rings before playing hand drums. This protects their rings AND the drums.
2. If you use chairs – make sure they don’t have arm rests to best facilitate drumming.
3. Identify “Welcomers” and “Greeters” who help people choose drums and get seated.
4. Have Remo drums and percussion instruments beautifully displayed to allow people to discover the instrument that best fits their unique personality
5. Be clear about the purpose and intention of the drum circle…what it is and what it isn’t. Drum Circles are not a cure, but rather a tool that gets defined by the individual experience.

   

6. Start with a strong beat that isn’t too fast to follow. Often a low bass drum goes a long way to hold down the rhythm.
7. Try having people add into a groove one at a time. The rhythm will naturally build and it allows people the opportunity to really listen to each other.
8. Acknowledge the Ancestors and Cultures that have been practicing group drumming for centuries.
9. End the circle with a “one-word symphony.” Have each person stand up and say one word about their experience in the drum circle. Let the group find their own rhythm of speaking their word. Conclude with everyone standing.
10. Ask them if they want to come back and do it again!

Top Ten Tips for Facilitating your own Drum Circle:

There are some great things you can do to prepare to facilitate a drum circle.

1. Discover your own rhythm first. – From playing along with a recording to building up your confidence in expressing yourself musically, you can do a lot to demonstrate your love of music and inspire the circle. Don’t be self-conscious and don’t expect to “teach” anyone anything. Remember, its about helping people discover the rhythm that’s already within them!
2. Get the gear you need. – Outfit your group in good equipment. World percussion instruments by Remo are the perfect drum circle tools because they are light-weight, hold their pitch, and sound GREAT. It’s important to have many different timbres:
   • Bass (djembes, buffalo drums)
   • Middle (bongos, smaller djembes)
   • High (shakers)
   • Nature sounds (thunder tube, and ocean drum)
3. Invite people to bring their own drums and percussion, emphasizing what type of instruments you want there. Don’t be afraid of found sounds or melodic pitched instruments like flutes or xylophones. Everything is really a percussion instrument.
4. Create the space. – The drum circle actually begins long before anyone arrives. It is your job to set up the circle in your own personal way. Make it welcoming. Pay attention to your surroundings and make sure there’s water available and ample space for a spontaneous dancer in the center. (To really encourage dancing – have a few shawls available!)
5. Be prepared to stop the group. – In any new sport, we always learn how to stop before we go. If you were new at roller-blading, you would want to know how to stop before the harrowing task of skating down a mountain.

   Using your voice to cue a stop over a group of drummers can be futile. Even the loudest, “1-2-3-4- STOP” can’t be heard over a group of drummers. So, try cueing the group without using words. Your body becomes the conducting instrument. Experiment with this exercise.

   ***Stand in a quiet, comfortable posture. At the count of three, move quickly into a pose that demonstrates “stop.” Come back to neutral and try it again, making each one bigger and clearer as your experiment and find your own personal way to signal a group to stop.

6. Use dynamics. – In music, there is an ebb and flow of volume changes called “dynamics.” By raising and lowering your hands, you can successfully cue the group to play louder or softer.
7. Make people LAUGH! – Sometimes people are nervous about making music. They actually believed all those bad messages that, “they weren’t musical,” or that “they didn’t have rhythm.” To help people overcome these lies, find ways to help them laugh at themselves.
8. Encourage “Heads-Up” drumming. – It’s easy to get more into your own beat than noticing the group around you. Encourage people to steal rhythmic ideas from one-another, to learn from the exchange of rhythms within the circle. This creates more synchronicity and more connection.
9. Try not leading at all. – A lot of time, there is no need for a facilitator. A group can often successfully jam together without a conductor. This is the ultimate. Don’t try to do more than what the group needs you to do.
10. Be yourself – Incorporate your unique gifts in the drum circle. From tap-dancing, playing a saxophone, singing, and dancing, bring all of your personality into your experience.

© Remo, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Used by permission from HealthRHYTHMS, Remo, Inc.

• Job burnout experienced by 25% to 40% of U.S. workers is blamed on stress.
  
• Depression, only one type of stress reaction, is predicted to be the leading occupational disease of the 21st century, responsible for more days lost than any other single factor.
  
• $300 billion, or $7,500 per employee, is spent annually in the U.S. on stress-related compensation claims, reduced productivity, absenteeism, health insurance costs, direct medical expenses (nearly 50% higher for workers who report stress), and employee turnover.
  

In an amazing, revolutionary step towards the practical application of music making for wellness, Toyota Motor Sales USA’s corporate headquarters in Torrance, California has created a unique and effective method of “beating” stress and building up their high-performance teams. It’s called the Toyota Drum Room.

The Toyota Drum Room is an extraordinary, first-of-its-kind experiment in the use of on-going music making for corporate teambuilding, stress-reduction, and change management. And the drummers you may hear aren’t musicians and performers; they are associates of Toyota, drumming to build the level of teamwork in their respective departments.

The Toyota Drum Circle challenges traditional training paradigms. Participants are immersed in an entirely new environment where traditional roles and skills are replaced by a whole new world of sights, sounds and a driving rhythm. The experience is effective because it helps us talk about traditional challenges – barriers to teamwork, managing stress, and roles on the team and inclusion – in non-traditional ways.

According to Midge Waters, associate Dean of the University of Toyota, the primary benefits of the drum circles for Toyota include; experiencing a “high-performance team,” morale building, interpersonal connecting, stress reduction and experiencing teamwork. “It’s an opportunity for our associates to listen to each other and put their personal creativity into the process.”

And the transfer is obvious. As corporations continue to explore best practices in caring for their employees and maintaining a loyal workforce, the Toyota experience of using music making may be the beginning of a national trend.

Known to the music products industry as “recreational music making,” Toyota exemplifies the paradigm change towards making music for non-musical outcomes. In the case of Toyota, these outcomes are workplace driven; however, hospitals, wellness centers, and community groups are incorporating recreational drumming and drum circles into programs aimed at giving people tools to enhance their quality of life on the job or at home.

Facilitated by Ron “RJ” Johnson, Associate Development Manager for the Center for the Toyota Way at Toyota Motor Sales’ Corporate University, drum circles are taking place on an average of twice a week. Sessions are available on request to any teams or departments within Toyota.

Through an on-going mentorship with Paulo Mattioli, a professional drum circle facilitator, performer, drum designer and Remo signature artist, RJ has transformed himself from the twenty-two year, corporate veteran to the inspirational facilitator, known to his fellow-associates as the “drum guy.” Since opening The Drum Room in March 2001, over 3,000 associates have taken the rhythmic journey toward wellness.

Copyright Christine Stevens, MSW, MT-BC, 2002 All Rights reserved
This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright/contact/creation information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Christine Stevens is required. (cstevens@remo.com)

• Job burnout experienced by 25% to 40% of U.S. workers is blamed on stress.
  
• Depression, only one type of stress reaction, is predicted to be the leading occupational disease of the 21st century, responsible for more days lost than any other single factor.
  
• $300 billion, or $7,500 per employee, is spent annually in the U.S. on stress-related compensation claims, reduced productivity, absenteeism, health insurance costs, direct medical expenses (nearly 50% higher for workers who report stress), and employee turnover.
  

In an amazing, revolutionary step towards the practical application of music making for wellness, Toyota Motor Sales USA’s corporate headquarters in Torrance, California has created a unique and effective method of “beating” stress and building up their high-performance teams. It’s called the Toyota Drum Room.

The Toyota Drum Room is an extraordinary, first-of-its-kind experiment in the use of on-going music making for corporate teambuilding, stress-reduction, and change management. And the drummers you may hear aren’t musicians and performers; they are associates of Toyota, drumming to build the level of teamwork in their respective departments.

The Toyota Drum Circle challenges traditional training paradigms. Participants are immersed in an entirely new environment where traditional roles and skills are replaced by a whole new world of sights, sounds and a driving rhythm. The experience is effective because it helps us talk about traditional challenges – barriers to teamwork, managing stress, and roles on the team and inclusion – in non-traditional ways.

According to Midge Waters, associate Dean of the University of Toyota, the primary benefits of the drum circles for Toyota include; experiencing a “high-performance team,” morale building, interpersonal connecting, stress reduction and experiencing teamwork. “It’s an opportunity for our associates to listen to each other and put their personal creativity into the process.”

And the transfer is obvious. As corporations continue to explore best practices in caring for their employees and maintaining a loyal workforce, the Toyota experience of using music making may be the beginning of a national trend.

Known to the music products industry as “recreational music making,” Toyota exemplifies the paradigm change towards making music for non-musical outcomes. In the case of Toyota, these outcomes are workplace driven; however, hospitals, wellness centers, and community groups are incorporating recreational drumming and drum circles into programs aimed at giving people tools to enhance their quality of life on the job or at home.

Facilitated by Ron “RJ” Johnson, Associate Development Manager for the Center for the Toyota Way at Toyota Motor Sales’ Corporate University, drum circles are taking place on an average of twice a week. Sessions are available on request to any teams or departments within Toyota.

Through an on-going mentorship with Paulo Mattioli, a professional drum circle facilitator, performer, drum designer and Remo signature artist, RJ has transformed himself from the twenty-two year, corporate veteran to the inspirational facilitator, known to his fellow-associates as the “drum guy.” Since opening The Drum Room in March 2001, over 3,000 associates have taken the rhythmic journey toward wellness.

Copyright Christine Stevens, MSW, MT-BC, 2002 All Rights reserved
This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright/contact/creation information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Christine Stevens is required. (cstevens@remo.com)

This drum circle empowers their spirits and heals their hearts. They are transforming themselves in the deepest way: without speaking, through music and rhythm. They leave refreshed, re-inspired, and re-connected.

Sound Health
“Sound” is within the very definition of health. According to Webster’s Dictionary, health is “being sound in mind and body.” Other terms, such as being at a “higher vibration” and being “in tune” point towards the role of music in wellness. The drum is a vibrational tuning fork, offering a mirror of what is truly inside our hearts, a rhythm that has been within us since our birth.

And the process of group drumming is quite possibly the next big method of creative fitness for stress reduction. There is healing value in playing music, expressing oneself rhythmically, and connecting with others. In fact, in a controlled study of 111 normal subjects, just one hour of group drumming showed a significant increase in circulating white blood cells and two specific cytokines, markers of cellular immune function (Bittman et al., Alternative Therapy, January 2001). Drumming successfully boosted the immune system.

For centuries, drumming has been valued as a tool of personal and community well-being.
Shaman, healers in many cultures, rode the rhythms of their drums to the invisible worlds to bring back antidotes and totems for healing. Doctor and drummer were one and the same.
Modern day shaman called music therapists continue to lead their patients on vision quests of musical expression to their own inner healing resources. Used in this way, drumming is not so much a cure as it is a preventative measure, a vehicle of life-enhancement, spirituality, and empowerment.

Making music is becoming an integral part of the wellness movement, not as entertainment, but as a tool for healing, self-expression, and connection. Today, drum circles can be found in community centers, music stores, churches, festivals, and local parks. Some may be specifically for women or cancer survivors, while others reflect the truest diversity of humanity – young, old, disabled, able-bodied, all within a multi-cultural mix.
Why not begin today by rhythmatizing your life? Even on your own, you can include rhythm and drumming in your everyday health practice. Consider it the recommended daily allowance for achieving your highest functioning.

Getting Your RDA – Rhythmical Daily Allowance

#1: Get the Beat
The beat in music is the driving force, the contagious element, the energy. Choose a song with a beat you love to begin your day. Drive to work moving to the beat. Tap your fingers and feet to the beat of the song. When you’re at home, play a drum to the tune. When the tune has finished – and this is the essential part – don’t stop. Keep going; take that beat and make it your own. Improvise, play around with it, challenge it, allow yourself some freedom. Use the beat as a spring-board for your own improvisation.

#2: Modulate Your Rhythms
All day long, we adjust our tempos. We wait in traffic on the way to work, speed up to meet a deadline, or slow down if we’re tired and need to recuperate. Today, listen, look, and feel the rhythms around you. Listen to the rhythm in your speech and that of others. Look at the tempo of people’s walking. Feel your breath. Then take time to control and change the tempo and rhythm of these biological beats.

Whatever rhythm seems to feel most comfortable, put it onto your drum. Just take a few moments to be with the music and PLAY out your day. Put all the tempo and rhythm changes onto the drum, and then end with the steady place you found for yourself.

#3: Daily Decrescendo
Begin by sitting in front of your drum. Imagine any worries, concerns, issues that are causing stress in your life. Using your fingertips, nervously tap on the drum. Allow the sound to represent the issues boiling up inside you, pestering you, tapping at you. As you inhale your next breath, allow your tapping to become full hands-on drum rolling. Now, at the next exhale, change your playing to represent that exhale by rubbing your drum with your full hand in a swirling motion. Listen to the sound this creates on the drum. This sound, like wind rushing by, is a representation of the exhale of the breath, of the releasing of stress. Now, in a calm state, gradually begin to play your own rhythm. Notice what comes out of your hands when you maintain a calm state.

#4: Heartbeat Harmonics

Lub-dub, Lub-dub, Lub-dub. What happens when we take the rhythm of the heartbeat and play it on the drum? The external sound links to our internal state. We play a pattern that is so familiar to us, it pre-dates our consciousness and our birth. Today, take time to listen to your human pulse. Then play the heart-beat rhythm on your drum. Use this heart-beat rhythm as a meditation, as a return to the heart-centered place of healing and well-being. Allow it to connect your mind, body and spirit.

#5: Knocking on the Door

Whenever we knock on the door, we usually have our own rhythmic phrase, our unique rhythmical introduction. Today, begin your day with a tap on your drum. Introduce yourself with five minutes of playing, as if it were your unique way of saying “good morning,” knocking on the door of your life.

Christine Stevens holds two masters degrees in music therapy and social work. She is an international drum circle facilitator, speaker, and author. For more information about Christine, visit her web site at www.ubdrumcircles.com or email Christine directly at cstevens@remo.com.

The spirit and magic of rhythm expressed on drums and percussion instruments cuts through all ages, sexes, religions, races and cultures. “Rhythm,” as Gabriel Roth says, “is the mother tongue.” Rhythm is a universal language known to every one, even the youngest child, if we can just “remember.” So in a very objective, yet beautiful way, an interactive rhythm event puts us all on an equal footing with each other and brings us closer together.

Co-operation and collaboration is the basic glue to a community. A community drum circle is a collaboratively self organized musical event created, “in the moment,” by all the people who participate. When we, as a community, drum together, sharing our spirit in the form of rhythm, it changes our relationships for the positive. As we play together, we give ourselves a rhythmical massage, an a emotional release and a healing. The release and healing is different for every person that is in the rhythm circle, and it happens whether we are entraining ourselves into the circle by drumming, or standing outside the circle and listening while tapping our feet and clapping along with the music. To make beautiful music together, with rhythm instruments, all we have to do is bring to the circle whatever rhythmical expertise we have to offer, along with the excitement of sharing it with other people.

People of all levels of musical expertise come together in a community drum circle and share their rhythmical spirit with whatever drums and percussion they bring to the event. They don’t have to be a drummer to participate. They don’t even have to have a drum. They can play a plastic water bottle turned upside down with the neck cut off. They can shake a soda can with rocks in it or hit two sticks together. It is enough that they are in the circle and participating.

The quality of the music produced in an event like this is not based on the rhythmical expertise of the players, but on the quality of their relationship with the other people in the circle. The result is those magical musical moments where one powerful voice is created out of the many. In those moments, the players stop worrying about keeping time because time, as they know it, has stopped. In its place is a living breathing entity, expressing timeless joy, passion and release through the power of rhythm.

That is the beauty of a community drum circle.

© Arthur Hull

Four thunderous roars crack the silence.

Cacophony ensues. The noise begins to settle and so does the dust…as the tragic symphony progressively unfolds.

The first movement is easily discernableæ New York, Washington D.C. and rural Pennsylvania. The second is far more complex and extends across nations and continents. The key changes from day to day as the orchestration ranges from bold, aggressive and eruptive to somber, peaceful and reflective.

Long and complex, the international composition encompasses vast ideologies, cultures, religions and personal perspectives. From a distance it is agonizing and painful, disappointing and disdainful.

Close up it is revealing. Some players are infuriated – screaming threats of Armageddon. Others are fearfully silenced as they flee for their lives. Soliloquies abound as the song of war vs. peace echoes with sharp contrast.

While retaliatory threats are unnerving, a nation silenced is far more unsettling. I recall a United Nations diplomat discussing an eerie feeling pervasive in his early career. He described it beyond a mere sense of discomfort or unease. At first it actually seemed more ominous and unsettling than the very real prospect of personal danger.

What the diplomat described was a haunting and painful sense of emptiness he always sensed in war-torn countries. After struggling to understand the basis for his feelings, he finally realized the essence of his personal unrest – all music in those countries had disappeared.

That void is the hallmark of a nation beaten down and hopeless. It is a devastating emptiness that reveals overwhelming despair.

Yet amidst the calamitous uncertainty we face these days, the song of America has never been silenced. From our legislators in Washington to the entertainers who have dedicated themselves to raise money for those in need, America continues to sing with gusto.

Our song of freedom is heard and felt by every peace-loving person on the planet. Music resounds from schools and communities to fund-raising events and prayer vigils. Our music is powerful beyond words.

Shortly after the terrorist attacks, a prayer service was held at Yankee Stadium. Religious leaders inspired support and hope for a city and a nation in shock. As television cameras panned across the audience, individual expressions combined to reveal a uniform landscape of loss, fear, remorse and apprehension.

Yet within minutes the canvas changed considerably.

A woman marched to the podium. She didn’t deliver a sermonæ not in the traditional sense anyway. Instead she bellowed the song, Wind Beneath My Wings, written by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley.

With incredible resolve, conviction and heart-felt appreciation for our nation’s heroes, Bette Midler pierced the hearts and souls of everyone in the stadium. People didn’t just cry – they wept incessantly and held onto each other for dear life. Millions of viewers throughout the world did the same.

I couldn’t hold back the tears streaming from my face as I sat in the kitchen and experienced the first real release since our world had changed. These weren’t just words of heart-felt appreciation – they were far more:

It might have appeared to go unnoticed,
but I’ve got it all here in my heart.
I want you to know I know the truth, of course I know it.
I would be nothing without you.

Did you ever know that you’re my hero?
You’re everything I wish I could be.
I could fly higher than an eagle,

for you are the wind beneath my wings.

These poignant lyrics upon which the music emanated evoked a chord in every person proud of who we are, and what we stand for as a nation. This song was a gift, and she was the vessel through which the message we needed emerged. This incredible woman brilliantly extolled the hero in each of us. She guided us to a sacred place within ourselves where words alone cannot enter – where mind, body and spirit harmonize to create inner peace and healing.

Despite this experience I had difficulty placing my thoughts on paper. For weeks I was engaged in a personal battle. How could I write about music amidst other seemingly more important issues such as war, loss of life, ongoing terrorist threats, biological and chemical weapons and economic disaster?

A composer by the name of Julie Gold shifted the balance within me. While you may not know her name, you will recognize her song. Her universal perspective served as the inspiration for this column.

From a distance you look like my friend
Even though we are at war
From a distance I can’t comprehend
What all this war is for

Last year at an awards ceremony in New York, I listened intently as Julie explained how this song transformed her life. From a Distance beckons each of us to step back in an attempt to comprehend the larger picture. A desperately needed healing message is revealed in the following words.

From a distance we are instruments
Marching in a common band
Playing songs of home, playing songs of peace
They’re the songs of every man
God is watching us, God is watching us
God is watching us from a distance

I’m convinced music is now more important than ever. Our songs must be sung, played and fully experienced in order for individual and collective healing to begin.

Ethereal music and lyrics empower us to carry on in these uncertain times. For music enables us to reach deep within ourselves to a place where mourning, grieving, praying, supporting each other, standing tall and persevering begin.

The following words are especially meaningful in our time of need:

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.

While you may not recognize the verse, this introduction by Irving Berlin precedes perhaps the best-known prayer of our nation. God Bless America has united generations in a never-ending quest for enduring peace and freedom.

Let us not allow terrorism to silence our songs that bring strength, unity and unrelenting support to every man, woman and child in an uncertain world. Music is now more important than ever – Mind Over Matter!