Bang on the drum! Drum circles forge community and creativity
Participants play together in a drum circle using a variety of drums and percussion instruments to welcome the spring equinox.
John Spadaro leads the drum circle at the Sri Yantra Yoga Studio in Houston in March.
Sandy Clark of Morgantown plays along with Patti Spadaro and Christiana Bouvy of Washington.
Participants of the drum circle all play together with different percussion instruments. People of all levels of experience are encouraged to jump in and play to their comfort level.
HOUSTON – The Schoolhouse Business Center, on the corner of Pike Street and Cherry Avenue in Houston, contains businesses like a salon and a dental lab, all delineated on a directory as you walk through its front door.
They are the kind of businesses you would expect to find in an unassuming structure like this. It’s not the kind of place, at least initially, where you would expect to stumble onto a drum circle.
But if you show up on select Friday nights, you don’t need a directory of any kind to find the room where it’s happening. All you need to do is follow the rumbling sounds of the congas and the bongos, along with the djembes, shakers and ashikos.
Long thought to have been the province of pot-and-patchouli-scented gatherings of hippies and other countercultural types, drum circles are increasingly finding their way to Main Street.
Sure, it’s still not unlikely that you’ll find a drum circle or two in the parking lots outside summertime Phish or Widespread Panic concerts, or at events like marijuana legalization rallies. But drum circles are increasingly being embraced by people who don’t own a closetful of Bob Marley T-shirts, drive Priuses or subsist on raw milk and flax seeds.
“We draw people from all walks of life,” according to John Spadaro, a 49-year-old Amwell Township resident and engineer who leads the drum circle, which usually gathers on the last Friday of month. “Teachers, salespeople, nurses, older folks … It’s the entire spectrum.”
In March, about 25 people turned up at the Sri Yantra Yoga Studio, which is operated by Spadaro’s wife, Patti. As Bhagawan Nityananda, an Indian guru, gazed down from a portrait on the wall, the participants pounded away on an assortment of instruments that they either brought themselves or were provided by the Spadaros. Spadaro started off the session with a round of deep breathing, and other exercises designed to make those taking part feel relaxed and focused. Then, he kicked off the proceedings by pounding out a rhythmic pattern. Everyone else jumped in, some latching on to the pattern that Spadaro laid down, while others spiraled off on their own variations. Some beat the drums with vigor, while others were more subdued.
It went on for about 15 or 20 minutes, varying in tempo and pace and snaking off in different directions. Then, it was time to start the process anew, with some changing drums to provide a little variety, or grabbing maracas or other shakers to give their palms a rest. Many of those who frequently join in cite the relief from stress they experience in a drum circle, and the sense of community they encounter.
“It’s kind of meditative,” said Lynn Maust, a Houston resident who hatched the idea of the Sri Yantra studio hosting a drum circle about five years ago. “You kind of get into that zone, like an athlete. I feel really good afterwards.”
Maust is so enthusiastic about drum circles that “it’s something that I always look for. Even when I’m on vacation, I look for a drum circle I can join.”
The advantage of a drum circle, its boosters say, is that anyone can participate – there is no need for the lessons or training you would need to play even the most simple musical instruments. All you need is an everyday sense of rhythm and a modest degree of inhibition.
“It’s impossible for anyone to make a mistake,” according to Jim Donovan, a former drummer with the Pittsburgh band Rusted Root who now is on the music faculty at St. Francis University in Loretto. “That’s the thing that really puts people at ease.”
It would be hard to find a more committed champion of drum circles than Donovan. The 47-year-old conducts drumming workshops across the region and is the author of the book, “Drum Circle Leadership: Learn to Create and Lead Your Own Transformational Drum Circles.” Donovan has organized drum circles at schools and even in corporate settings. Sometimes, they are staged in traditionally buttoned-down office parks as team-building exercises on days when employees are allowed to let their hair down.
“It brings people together,” Donovan explained. “In the circle, everyone is equal. It increases social cohesion.”
On the other side of the coin, Donovan has also led drum circles in institutional settings, among violent offenders who spend most of their hours behind bars, and with people who are in the grip of schizophrenia.
“The language of the drum and the feeling of the drum is universal,” Donovan said.
The origins of drum circles date back thousands of years. Group drumming would be used in ancient times to mark turning points in life, like marriages or harvests. Drum circles first turned up in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, when the counterculture was in full flower.
There tend to be two kinds of drum circles: a community circle, which is heavy on improvisation; and a circle led by a facilitator that is somewhat more structured. Some drum circles are augmented by flutes, didgeridoos or crystal singing bowls, the latter of which generate a sound not unlike what you would get from playing wine glasses. Dancing, for those so inclined, is also welcome.
Aside from schools and other venues, drum circles are now being enjoyed by people who were a little too old to latch onto flower power in the 1960s, and whose only exposure to the jam band scene is the music their grandchildren crank up.
In 1991, Mickey Hart, at the time a member of the Grateful Dead, extolled the benefits of drum circles before the U.S. Senate’s Special Committee on Aging, and experts who work with the elderly have taken his advice his heart. At Baptist Homes, a senior living facility in Castle Shannon, drum circles are among the activities in which residents can participate. Drawing even those who have passed the century mark, or are struggling with dementia, they have proven effective for the same reason they work so well elsewhere – no special skill is necessary.
“It’s a very natural thing for them,” according to Marilyn DiMatteis, the music specialist at Baptist Homes.
And to Maust, the benefits of taking part in drum circles last long after the sounds of the drums have died down.
“You let go of the issues of life when you go to a drum circle, and the issues don’t seem so bad when you come out.”