DRUM THERAPY SINGAPORE©
Copyright 2011
All rights reserved
DRUM THERAPY SINGAPORE©
Calming beats, rhythmic connections
Module Book 1
written and developed by Yuro T.
(www.singaporedrumtherapy.com)
Welcome to Drum Therapy Singapore©.
Many articles have been written about drum therapy and how it helps the
participants in physical, social and emotional aspects.
And these claims have been backed by scientific studies and researches
mostly done in the west. We at Drum Therapy Singapore believe that these
benefits should now come to our region and be part in making quality of life
better. Asia is a center of economic growth. With progress comes added
stress for the working individual and lesser time for the parent to bond with
the growing children.
We want to help.
Drum Therapy Singapore© is committed to bringing the value of therapeutic
drumming and drum circles initially to Singapore and the rest of Asia.
Plans to set up the first clinical study to prove its effectiveness to Asian are
already in place. And we are confident that in a few years, you will be part of
history as you become one of the first to benefit from drum therapy.
Led by a qualified and experienced music instructor who is passionate about
music and children, Drum Therapy Singapore has regular drum circles with
participants ranging from 3 to 79 years old.
Everyone reaps the benefits of Drum Therapy. The preceding article is a
compilation of what have been said and written regarding drum therapy. It our
hope that you will get to understand and appreciate it better after reading
through. But the best way is to take part in one of our drum circles and feel
the tensions released, the emotions cleared and general well-being enhanced.
History:
From ancient time, group drumming is being used as a tool for wellness and
community building.
Music is effective because it is a nonverbal form of communication, it is a
natural reinforcer, it is immediate in time and provides motivation for
practicing nonmusical skills. Most importantly, it is a successful medium
because almost everyone responds positively to at least some kind of music.
Drum circles are a cultural phenomenon that have been featured in Time
Magazine, Discovery and even Natural Beauty and Health. Drum circles are
probably one of the most ancient forms of community building known to man.
Here, people come together to create an improvised composition that
becomes the score for their own lives. The drum circle is a platform for
musical expression and it is accessible to anyone regardless of age or ability
level. The use of the drum presents for creative expression.
Drum circles are happening in many places. People attend these events not to
become better percussionists, but to reduce stress, build community, and
have fun. It is a recreational activity that engages the mind, body, and spirit.
In drum therapy, it’s not about performance, it’s about feeling good about
one’s self.
In one article, drum therapy was described as fun, relaxing and entrancing,
and made for a great feeling of community. In a series of sessions that were
part of a study to see if drum therapy helps heart patients, the results
observed by Miranda Ritterman from UC Berkeley were encouraging.1
There are many uses and benefits of Drum Therapy, among which are for:
The elderly and the sick
This method have been proven in many part of the world and have benefitted
numerous elderly. It mimics a community and participants instantly feel a
sense of belonging. 2
Drumming is a complex composite intervention with the potential to modulate
specific neuroendocrine and euroimmune parameters in a direction opposite
to that expected with the classic stress response.5
In a study among Oncology Patients by Christine Stevens, James Gordon, MD
of the Mind-Body Center in Washington D.C. was quoted as saying
"Oncologists should be open to group drumming if their patients are
interested in it. Drumming can put people in a state of relaxation. It was used
as a healing technique 1,000 years ago. Why not now?" (MAMM Magazine,
July/August, 2001) 6
Even the Canadian Cancer Society espouses Drumming as good for cancer
patients. And the healing power of drumming for Alzheimer patients was
explored in a book by drum facilitator Robert Lawrence Friedman. 8
Adults
Drumming technique for assertiveness and anger management in the shortterm psychiatric setting for adult and adolescent survivors of trauma. 9
In the April 2010 issue of Science of Mind Magazine entitled "Good
Vibrations" with David DiLullo and Rick Allen (Def Leppard, Raven Drum) by
Barbara Stahura where they expressed that drumming “increases heart rate
and blood flow. It also synchronizes the hemispheres of the brain, causing
brain waves on both sides to entrain, of fall into the same pattern, which can
produce effects similar to deep meditation. Entrainment also occurs among
members of the drumming group, bringing about a sense of oneness and
community.” 10
These same experts also mentioned that drumming helps your brain and your
health. 11
Women also have special interest and emerging expertise in this area. Their
important role and perspective is highlighted in an interview published in
Drum! Magazines March2010 issue. 12
Children with special needs
There are many Scientific Researches that support that Music Helps Children
Mentally. Drumming is a vital part of music and enables the benefits of Music
therapy to be reaped in Drum therapy as well.
Students
There are a lot of article supporting and proving that drumming help the
young deal with their substance abuse issues. 13
Drugs have been a menace to society and interestingly, it is the adolescents
who are easily hooked on drugs that are also particularly interested in
drumming. 14
Drumming has also been used as complementary Therapy for Addiction. 15
Musicians, teachers, and leaders throughout the ages have known and taught
that music is a healing art. There is now a significant body of information and
research among contemporary musicians, educators & researchers verifying
the health and educational benefits of music.
For students, the Benefits have been outlined by Gregory Hochman of
Artdrum.com:
1. Drumming can help students grow academically and improve students'
ability to concentrate and compliment their studies in math, science, language
arts, history, physical fitness and the arts.
2. According to scientific research, playing music, and hence drumming and
playing percussion, increases the development of various regions of the
brain,
3. Playing drums and rhythms can be an optimal experience and encourages
participants of all ages to achieve flow.
4. Drumming is a healing art and therefore it can give participants of any age
a better sense of well being.
5. Hand drumming (and regular participation in any form of percussion
playing) increases the physical stamina of students.
6. Drumming increases body awareness & kinesthetic development;
drumming helps students develop graceful coordination and self-control.
7. Playing rhythms improves listening skills and increases children and teens'
ability to focus for extended periods of time.
8. Generally, the increasing of rhythmic skills - and the learning of any
musical instrument - increases students' confidence.
9. Playing rhythmic music helps students to take notice of the rhythms and
beauty in nature and their surroundings.
10. Drumming in group formats, such as drum circles, bands and orchestras
cultivates an appreciation for teamwork and cooperation.
11. Drum circles are great ethnic and cultural bridges; they
harmoniously bring diverse people, instruments and musical styles together.
12. If parents play or take interest in the musical and learning process of
their children, then drumming can be a means to forge meaningful bonds
between parents and children. 16
Music is right for your children because it provides a healthy, natural and
truly invaluable opportunity for individual expression. It encourages the
development of the whole child by enhancing cognitive, social, physical, and
emotional skills.
OUR OTHER OFFERINGS:
Drum circles for team-building in the workplace. These are effective in
reducing workplace stress and energizing any meeting.
In the west, drum therapy has been embraced and rated effective by top
companies including Toyota, Unilever and Oracle. In an article at NY Times,
the author mentioned that an $11000 program will effectively save the
company in the long run as it lowers employee turnover. In an industry
that spends $30-$60k to find and train a replacement, it’s an investment well
worth it. 17
In Singapore, we are pioneering Drum Circles to become staples in team
building activities in the corporate world.
References:
REFERENCES and ARTICLES:
1
Drum Circles: An Ancient Methodology for a Modern World
- Remo Belli
How group drumming is being used as a tool for wellness and community building
Music is effective because it is a nonverbal form of communication, it is a natural reinforcer, it is
immediate in time and provides motivation for practicing nonmusical skills. Most importantly, it is a
successful medium because almost everyone responds positively to at least some kind of music.
In drum therapy, it’s not about performance, it’s about feeling better. This benefit comes to those who have not
learned how to make their own music.
Drum circles are a cultural phenomenon that have been featured in Time Magazine, Discovery and even Natural
Beauty and Health. Drum circles are probably one of the most ancient forms of community building known to
man.
Here, people come together to create an improvised composition that becomes the score for their own lives. The
drum circle is a platform for musical expression and it is accessible to anyone regardless of age or ability level.
The use of the drum presents for creative expression.
Based upon a recent study, the medical community is beginning to embrace this application of music and
medicine. Dr. Bittman, CEO of the Meadville Medical Center and his research team discovered that a specific
group drumming approach significantly increased the disease fighting activity of circulating white blood cells
(Natural Killer cells) that seek out and destroy cancer cells and virally-infected cells. The study included 111
normal subjects, all of whom were non-musicians. Along with conventional medical strategies, Dr. Bittman
includes group drumming in all of his disease-based programs at the Mind-Body Wellness Center.
Drum circles are happening in many places. This demonstrates the importance of establishing a rhythmaculture
in our Western world. People attend these events not to become better percussionists, but to reduce stress, build
community, and have fun. It is a recreational activity that engages the mind, body, and spirit. Arthur Hull, father
of the modern day drum circle, developed his unique approach to facilitating drum circles in the 1980s through
an observation of the need that extended beyond percussion skill development. According to Arthur, "when we
drum together, it changes our relationships and helps us cope with whatever challenges life hands us."
Drum circles may be seen in corporations for teambuilding, hospitals for music therapy, and music stores for
community building. At the Remo Percussion Center in North Hollywood, we are exploring the application and
value of weekly drum gatherings for social well-being and personal health. A recent survey of sixty participants
showed that the most common reason for attending the weekly drum circles was "stress reduction." The fact that
people are now making their own music for Believing in the need for music making to maintain health
demonstrates a paradigm shift – that musical expression may actually be necessary – more than for
entertainment, but for its health promoting value.
We are focused in integrating drumming and wellness to share information, insights, articles and develop userfriendly instruments that can be used in health care settings globally. Our efforts help people integrate
drumming as a tool for enhancing their lives, reconnecting with their community, and maintaining their health.
http://www.artdrum.com/ESSAY_DRUM_CIRCLES.HTM
2
Drum therapy keeps patients on the (heart)beat
Clara-Rae Genser. Apr. 09, 2004 in COMMUNITY FOLK
Drum your name, we were ordered, and we did, repeating the beat and the name until ordered to stop. Thus
began a four-week study of drum therapy with Miranda Ritterman and her father, Dr. Jeff Ritterman, a
cardiologist at Kaiser in Richmond.
It was fun, relaxing and entrancing, and made for a great feeling of community. And that was the goal,
according to the Rittermans and to Christine Stevens, who flew up from Los Angeles each week to lead the
sessions. From all walks of life, and different backgrounds, by the end of the sessions we knew each other liked
each other a lot. Almost everyone was terribly unhappy when the four-week sessions were over.
The sessions were part of a study to see if drum therapy helps heart patients. As Richmond's pioneers in this
study, we were invited to attend future sessions for cancer patients, to let them know our assessment of drum
therapy.
Miranda Ritterman, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley, had read something about drum therapy and talked with
her father about it. He was interested, and did his own reading on the subject. "He is a much faster reader than I
am," Miranda Ritterman said, "and it was he who found this program of HealthRhythms, a new division within
Remo Inc." Dr. Ritterman's heart patients were invited to take part in the study. Christine Stevens is an
international speaker, music therapist and author. She supplied the drums (many of them bongo drums decorated
with EKGs) and other heart décor.
Through her company, UpBeat Drum Circles, she offers community drum circles for corporate team-building,
diversity training, personal growth, and health and wellness. The major aim is to fight stress, and bring
relaxation and calm. One of the things Christine asked of us was to drum how we felt when we were stressed,
and then, how we felt when we did not feel stressed. The response was dramatic.
The sessions included more than just drumming. There were "shakers" that looked like small apples, with which
we played games in our circle, giggling and laughing. There was a large drum that made sounds likes waves
when moved -- it could be a calm and soothing sound like huge waves breaking on a rocky shore. An important
person during the study was Margie Ginotti, a registered nurse and adult-care manager. She was at every
meeting, and joined in the fun, even leading them when Christine could not. We do not yet know the official
findings of the study, but among ourselves those who participated know that drum therapy is a very positive and
important addition to the world of therapy. Most of us plan to continue on our own in some way.
http://www.djembedirect.com/drumtherapy-article_1.htm
3
Elderly Patients Drum Away the Pain
07.24.08
Paradise View in New York City does not actually have a view, but the long-term care residence in Upper
Manhattan does have a drum circle.
The genesis of the drum circle was about three months ago, when Community Coordinator Paul Padial and
Cantor Daniel Pincus were playing drums in Paradise View's dining room, and they attracted the attention of
residents. "Everybody started coming out to see what all the noise was, and it turned into a dance floor," Padial
says. "We just looked at each other and said, 'This is the coolest thing.'"
Pincus, who is a member of the religious life department at Manhattan Jewish Home Lifecare, the nursing home
of which Paradise View is a unit, and Padial organize a drum circle for residents. Meeting for an hour every
Thursday, it is a success, say staff and residents alike.
The drum circle is part of Jewish Home Lifecare's bid to change what was a conventional nursing home into a
real home for the residents, replete with plenty of activities and choices about when to wake up and what to eat.
The benefits of the drum circle are more than just musical: Pardial says it builds community and provides health
benefits.
"Part of my job is to build community, and drum circles actually mimic a community," he says. "In a drum
circle, every person has a voice. No one person is more important than the other."
The elderly patients who participate can't seem to get enough of making music. One recent drum circle attracted
approximately 30 residents, ranging from ages 65 to 102. They sat waiting for drums or other percussion
instruments to be handed to them. "I love it," the oldest member of the group, Laure Gaeckle, who turns 103 in
February 2009, says. "They started it up, I joined, and I've been drumming ever since."
Gaeckle spends much of her time in bed, and never played the drums before joining the circle. Suffering from
poor eyesight and having difficulty with mobility, drumming provides a welcome diversion. "I wish it would go
on for another hour," she says. "I don't know if I'll be around to play at 103."
At 85, Ernestine Johnston looks like a trendy Manhattanite, with sunglasses, gold earrings, and a pearl bracelet.
While she is not a member of Paradise View, she has been welcomed to the circle. "We just found out about it
and we started coming down. It's new to me so it's fun," Johnston says. "It's very energetic. It really does send
blood through the veins."
Staffers at Paradise View say they are seeing higher energy levels and a boost in morale since drumming
became part of the routine. Music therapists have long used music to connect to people, and especially the
elderly.
"Music is so evocative," says Suzanne Sorel, MT-BC, LCAT, NRMT, director of graduate music therapy at
Long Island, N.Y.-based Molloy College. "Music can kind of supersede all the emotional difficulty and bring
you to an emotional place."
Reaching such a place can be coupled with physical healing, according to some music therapists. "One thing
that drumming can do is access an individual's long- and short-term memory, and decrease agitation," according
to Jane Creagan, MME, MT-BC, the director of professional programs at the American Music Therapy
Association. "Music is sort of a back door that can be used to access parts of the brain that other therapies can't
access."
Unlike speech, music is processed in multiple areas of the brain. The limbic system is activated by the emotional
response to music, while the elements of music, such as rhythm, pitch, and melody, activate other areas of the
brain. Elderly people suffering from the late stages of dementia often show responses to music, including vocal
activity, increased eye contact, changes in facial expression, and physical movement.
The residents at Paradise View are high-functioning and suffer less from dementia than the residents in other
parts of the Jewish Home Lifecare system. The medical director at the nursing home, Richard Neufeld, MD,
says the drum circle could be used with residents who are suffering from dementia. "There is no reason why this
drum circle can't be used in other units with higher dementia," he says. "I'm not sure in a demented unit how
many would participate, but we should try it out."
Neufeld also says that medical research on the health effects of Paradise View's drum circle have not been
tested, but it could "reduce agitation, reduce blood pressure."
Source: Catherine Bilkey/New York Sun
http://www.therapytimes.com/content=0302J84C4896BC8440A040441
5
Education: Music Therapy and Language
Written by Myra J. Staum, Ph.D., RMT-BC
Director and Professor of Music Therapy
Willamette University, Salem, Oregon
Music Therapy is the unique application of music to enhance personal lives by creating positive
changes in human behavior. It is an allied health profession utilizing music as a tool to encourage
development in social/ emotional, cognitive/learning, and perceptual-motor areas. Music Therapy has
a wide variety of functions with the exceptional child, adolescent and adult in medical, institutional and
educational settings. Music is effective because it is a nonverbal form of communication, it is a natural
reinforcer, it is immediate in time and provides motivation for practicing nonmusical skills. Most
importantly, it is a successful medium because almost everyone responds positively to at least some
kind of music.
The training of a music therapist involves a full curriculum of music classes, along with selected
courses in psychology, special education, and anatomy with specific core courses and field
experiences in music therapy. Following coursework, students complete a six-month full time clinical
internship and a written board certification exam. Registered, board certified professionals must then
maintain continuing education credits or retake the exam to remain current in their practice.
Music Therapy is particularly useful with autistic children owing in part to the nonverbal, non
threatening nature of the medium. Parallel music activities are designed to support the objectives of
the child as observed by the therapist or as indicated by a parent, teacher or other professional. A
music therapist might observe, for instance, the child's need to socially interact with others. Musical
games like passing a ball back and forth to music or playing sticks and cymbals with another person
might be used to foster this interaction. Eye contact might be encouraged with imitative clapping
games near the eyes or with activities which focus attention on an instrument played near the face.
Preferred music may be used contingently for a wide variety of cooperative social behaviors like
sitting in a chair or staying with a group of other children in a circle.
Music Therapy is particularly effective in the development and remediation of speech. The severe
deficit in communication observed among autistic children includes expressive speech which may be
nonexistent or impersonal. Speech can range from complete mutism to grunts, cries, explosive
shrieks, guttural sounds, and humming. There may be musically intoned vocalizations with some
consonant-vowel combinations, a sophisticated babbling interspersed with vaguely recognizable
word-like sounds, or a seemingly foreign sounding jargon. Higher level autistic speech may involve
echolalia, delayed echolalia or pronominal reversal, while some children may progress to appropriate
phrases, sentences, and longer sentences with non expressive or monotonic speech. Since autistic
children are often mainstreamed into music classes in the public schools, a music teacher may
experience the rewards of having an autistic child involved in music activities while assisting with
language.
It has been noted time and again that autistic children evidence unusual sensitivities to music. Some
have perfect pitch, while many have been noted to play instruments with exceptional musicality. Music
therapists traditionally work with autistic children because of this unusual responsiveness which is
adaptable to non-music goals Some children have unusual sensitivities only to certain sounds. One
boy, after playing a xylophone bar, would spontaneously sing up the harmonic series from the
fundamental pitch. Through careful structuring, syllable sounds were paired with his singing of the
harmonics and the boy began incorporating consonant-vowel sounds into his vocal play. Soon simple
2-3 note tunes were played on the xylophone by the therapist who modeled more complex
verbalizations, and the child gradually began imitating them.
Since autistic children sometimes sing when they may not speak, music therapists and music
educators can work systematically on speech through vocal music activities. In the music classroom,
songs with simple words, repetitive phrases, and even repetitive nonsense syllables can assist the
autistic child's language. Meaningful word phrases and songs presented with visual and tactile cues
can facilitate this process even further. One six-year old echolalic child was taught speech by having
the therapist/teacher sing simple question/answer phrases set to a familiar melody with full rhythmic
and harmonic accompaniment The child held the objects while singing:
Do you eat an apple? Yes, yes.
Do you eat an apple? Yes, yes.
Do you eat an apple? Yes, yes.
Yes, yes, yes.
and
Do you eat a pencil? No, no.
Do you eat a pencil? No, no.
Do you eat a pencil? No, no.
No, no, no.
Another autistic child learned noun and action verb phrases . A large doll was manipulated by the
therapist/teacher and a song presented:
This is a doll.
This is a doll.
The doll is jumping.
The doll is jumping.
This is a doll.
This is a doll.
Later, words were substituted for walking, sitting, sleeping, etc. In these songs, the bold words were
faded out gradually by the therapist/teacher. Since each phrase was repeated, the child could use his
echolalic imitation to respond accurately. When the music was eliminated completely, the child was
able to verbalize the entire sentence in response to the questions, "What is this?" and "What is the
doll doing?"
Other autistic children have learned entire meaningful responses when both questions and answers
were incorporated into a song. The following phrases were sung with one child to the approximate
tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and words were faded out gradually in backward progression.
While attention to environmental sounds was the primary focus for this child, the song structure
assisted her in responding in a full, grammatically correct sentence:
Listen, listen, what do you hear? (sound played on tape)
I hear an ambulance.
(I hear a baby cry.)
(I hear my mother calling, etc.)
Autistic children have also made enormous strides in eliminating their monotonic speech by singing
songs composed to match the rhythm, stress, flow and inflection of the sentence followed by a
gradual fading of the musical cues. Parents and teachers alike can assist the child in remembering
these prosodic features of speech by prompting the child with the song.
While composing specialized songs is time consuming for the teacher with a classroom full of other
children, it should be remembered that the repertoire of elementary songs are generally repetitive in
nature. Even in higher level elementary vocal method books, repetition of simple phrases is common.
While the words in such books may not seem critical for the autistic child's survival at the moment,
simply increasing the capacity to put words together is a vitally important beginning for these children.
For those teachers whose time is limited to large groups, almost all singing experiences are
invaluable to the autistic child when songs are presented slowly, clearly, and with careful focusing of
the child's attention to the ongoing activity. To hear an autistic child leave a class quietly singing a
song with all the words is a pleasant occurrence. To hear the same child attempt to use these words
in conversation outside of the music class is to have made a very special contribution to the language
potential of this child.
http://www.autism.com/edu_music_therapy.asp
6
Composite effects of group drumming music therapy on
modulation of neuroendocrine-immune parameters in normal
subjects
Bittman BB, Berk LS, Felten DL, Westengard J, Simonton OC, Pappas J, Ninehouser
M, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 7 (1): 38-47 JAN 2001
Abstract:
Context Drum circles have been part of healing rituals in many cultures throughout the world since antiquity.
Although drum circles are gaining increased interest as a complementary therapeutic strategy in the traditional
medical arena, limited scientific data documenting biological benefits associated with percussion activities exist.
Objective To determine the role of group-drumming music therapy as a composite activity with potential for
alteration of stress-related hormones and enhancement of specific immunologic measures associated with
natural killer cell activity and cell-mediated immunity.
Design A single trial experimental intervention with control groups.
Setting The Mind-Body Wellness Center, an outpatient medical facility in Meadville, Pa.
Participants A total of 111 age- and sex-matched volunteer subjects (55 men and 56 women, with a mean age of
30.4 years) were recruited.
Intervention Six preliminary supervised groups were studied using various control and experimental paradigms
designed to separate drumming components for the ultimate determination of a single experimental model,
including 2 control groups (resting and listening) as well as 4 group-drumming experimental models (basic,
impact, shamanic, and composite). The composite drumming group using a music therapy protocol was selected
based on preliminary statistical analysis, which demonstrated immune modulation in a direction opposite to that
expected with the classical stress response. The final experimental design included the original composite
drumming group plus 50 additional age- and sex-matched volunteer subjects who were randomly assigned to
participate in group drumming or control sessions.
Main Outcome Measures Pre- and postintervention measurements of plasma cortisol, plasma
dehydroepiandrosterone, plasma dehydroepiandrosterone-to-cortisol ratio, natural killer cell activity,
lymphokine-activated killer cell activity, plasma interleukin-2, plasma interferon-gamma, the Beck Anxiety
Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory II.
Results Group drumming resulted in increased dehydroepiandrosterone-to-cortisol ratios, increased natural killer
cell activity, and increased lymphokine-activated killer cell activity without alteration in plasma interleukin 2 or
interferon-gamma, or in the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory II.
Conclusions Drumming is a complex composite intervention with the potential to modulate specific
neuroendocrine and neuroimmune parameters in a direction opposite to that expected with the classic stress
response.
http://www.djembedirect.com/drumtherapy-article_4.htm
7
The Beat of Harmony:
Drumming with Oncology Patients
by Christine K. Stevens, MSW, M.A., MT-BC
Edited by Erin Salez
Harmony - a. the unique blending of two separate tones into one pleasing sound.
Beyond the musical definition, harmony also exists in the sense of community created when a group
makes music together. On a Saturday morning in Santa Monica, California, two separate groups
joined together for an experience that was unique, powerful and impactful. A group of twelve
volunteer drummers from the Remo Percussion Center brought the joy and spirit they found in
drumming to a group of cancer patients at The Wellness Community. In the joining of the two groups,
there was a common chord of health and wellness, achieved through the experience of recreational
music making.
It began with a basket of fruit shakers in the center of a circle. Out of the quiet anxiety of a group of
strangers meeting for the first time, first a chuckle and then some laughter began as one by one,
people chose a shaker and started making music. But it went deeper than that. Participants
commented on the meaning of letting go and giving themselves permission to not be perfect, lessons
important for all of us.
Through a series of rhythm activities geared towards putting people at ease with the process of
making music, the group became more comfortable and relaxed. In one hour, they were playing their
hearts out on the drums, creating moments of expression unrivaled by any words.
The session ended with an experience called guided imagery drumming where participants closed
their eyes and drummed to a story. As a meditative activity, the drumming created a distraction from
the chatter of the critical and worrying mind. After the drum circle, one patient commented that it was
the first time she forgot about her cancer. She began to feel good again.
In the words of Nikki Fiske, a mother, teacher, cancer patient, and a first time drummer?
"It felt so relaxing and freeing to concentrate on the rhythms and be completely in the moment.
Without judgment, without pressure? we each drummed to our own internal rhythms, yet we worked
together as a group to create a unique and harmonious sound. There was a lot of laughter, sharing
and mutual applause. When I left, after two hours of drumming, it was with spirit, heart and courage
lifted up!"
Drumming also has important biological effects. According to a study (111 normal subjects) performed
at the Mind-Body Wellness Center in Meadville, PA, one hour of group drumming following a protocol
entitled, Group Empowerment Drumming™ was shown to significantly increase circulating white
blood cells called natural killer (NK) cells that seek out and destroy cancer and virally infected cells.
(Bittman et al. Alternative Therapy, January, 2001).
James Gordon, MD of the Mind-Body Center in Washington D.C. states "Oncologists should be open
to group drumming if their patients are interested in it. Drumming can put people in a state of
relaxation. It was used as a healing technique 1,000 years ago. Why not now?" (MAMM Magazine,
July/August, 2001)
Remo drum volunteers agreed that they received more from the experience than they gave.
Professional drummer Sam Kestenholtz commented, "Seeing and feeling the spirits of the participants
being lifted as the group played together was an experience like no other. It was like a room full of
strangers became a community of one."
http://www.ubdrumcircles.com/article_oncology.html
------------------------------------------------------------8
Workshop, Saturday, April 16
The power of music
Inspirational… powerful… moving. Investigate how the power of music can transform the way you experience
your daily life, including practical and useful ways in which music can reduce stress and pain, and how using
music intentionally can improve the brain’s ability to focus attention and improve memory. You will leave this
session mentally and musically stimulated, in a good mood, able to better communicate with people, inspired
and feeling hopeful about work and life.
Jennifer Buchanan specializes in the benefits of music in health and education. A professional music therapist,
singer and educator, Jennifer is known for her warm, compassionate use and knowledge of music that builds
people up. Jennifer has witnessed the power of music first-hand developing hundreds of music therapy programs
in Alberta through her well-established company JB Music Therapy Inc. and as past president of the Canadian
Association of Music Therapy.
Jennifer’s music-centered workshop is specifically designed to educate the audience on using music to promote
relaxation at work or at home, attain better focus and improve productivity, assist in finding new inspiration by
igniting creative thinking, unlock important memories and develop meaningful relationships through positive
social music experiences.
Jennifer will be featured at other times throughout the weekend as well.
http://convio.cancer.ca/site/PageServer?pagename=LWCC_SK_sessions
9
The Healing Power of the Drum: Book Review
New York psychotherapist and drum facilitator Robert Lawrence Friedman, writes in his 2000 soft-cover book,
"The Healing Power of the Drum: A Psychotherapist Explores the Healing Power of Rhythm," how individuals
through drumming can attain psychological, physiological and spiritual wellbeing. Clocking in at 208 pages, the
book is both a personal account and an introductory guide to the subject in which he quotes many leading
authorities on their experience drumming in different settings.
"The Healing Power of the Drum" is an easy to read and non-technical book that presents readers with ways
they can achieve increased health benefits from the activity of drumming and shows innovative ways to enhance
their own wellness. The author explores drumming and drums, such as the djembe and conga, from a
multidimensional perspective, explaining the drum's ability to release anger, create joy, alter brain rhythms,
induce trance, and create empowerment. The book includes cutting-edge research how Alzheimer patients have
been able to stay focused for short periods with a drum in their hands. The book also discusses research into
brainwave studies concluding how drumming has positively increased attention span.
Robert Friedman is currently president of Stress Solutions Inc., providing stress-management seminars to
corporate clients and is also affiliated with the St. Barnabas Health Care System in New Jersey.
http://www.x8drums.com/v/blog/2007/04/healing-power-of-drum-book-review.asp
10
Slotoroff, C. 1994. Music Therapy Perspectives, Special Issue: Psychiatric
music therapy. Vol 12, Issue 2. p. 111-116.
Abstract
Describes an improvisational technique that uses drumming and cognitive-behavioral methods to
address issues of power in an experiential and symbolic manner. This drumming technique was
developed in an inpatient short-term psychiatric setting with adults and adolescents who had a history
of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. The author describes the use of this technique with a middleaged woman and an 11-yr-old boy who had been victims of abuse. Although the insights gained and
the increased sense of power and/or self-control during a session will result in lasting, significant
behavioral, cognitive, or emotional changes, the authors suggest that seeds of awareness and of
possibility may be planted. Additionally, this work may serve to inform and support verbal and
nonverbal therapy during and after hospitalization.
Notes
improvisational drumming & cognitive behavioral methods in short term psychiatric setting;
assertiveness & anger management; middle aged female & 11 yr old male survivors of abuse &
trauma
http://www.djembedirect.com/drumtherapy-article_8.htm
11
"Good Vibrations" Interview with David DiLullo (Global Drum
Circles) and Rick Allen (Raven Drum and Def Leppard)
*****by Barbara Stahura*****
The following interview was published in Science of Mind Magazine, April 2010 Issue.
Excerpt reprinted courtesy of Science of Mind Magazine.
Perhaps our innate attraction to rhythm comes from our original exposure in our first home: our
mother’s womb. During the nine months we live there, we are bathed in all manner of sounds from our
mother’s body, most prominently the beat of her heart. Steady and soothing, the heartbeat’s rhythm
surrounds and enfolds us, becoming forever embedded in our psyche and physiology. Even before
birth, we are rhythmic beings.
In addition, nature is full of other rhythms--wave beats on the shore, the circle of day into night and
back again, lunar cycles, the seasons, and much more--while we might not pay them much conscious
attention, they are nevertheless an intrinsic part of us.
Whether a rhythm comes to us from within or without, our instinctive connection with it often moves us
to create our own rhythms--and for that, drumming can’t be beat.
Drumming at its most basic doesn’t require much equipment: a hand or a stick and something hollow
to pound on. Give a toddler a wooden spoon and a pot, and you’ll see--hear--this in joyful, abandoned
action. Yet humans have been drumming with purpose and intention for eons: to make music, to heal
one another, to enhance community, to engage with Spirit. When used therapeutically, drumming
involves all facets of our being, including the physical, emotional, cognitive, psychological, and
spiritual.
Today, serious research is demonstrating how drumming, particularly in drum circles, produces
beneficial results such as antiviral and immunologic effects, stress reduction, better movement after a
stroke or neurological disorder, and even reduction in addictive urges. It can enhance motor
coordination and attention span, reduce anxiety, and help build relationship skills.
Sustained drumming can create the “high” of aerobic exercise because it increases heart rate and
blood flow. It also synchronizes the hemispheres of the brain, causing brain waves on both sides to
entrain, of fall into the same pattern, which can produce effects similar to deep meditation.
Entrainment also occurs among members of the drumming group, bringing about a sense of oneness
and community.
Drummers David DiLullo and Rick Allen know these benefits firsthand. Their drum circles have
attracted hundreds of participants. Before turning to drum circles, DiLullo directed dozens of marching
percussion programs involving up to 100 participants, including the UCLA Marching Band. In 2004, he
became a member of the Center for Spiritual Living in San Jose, California, and a year later took over
management of its music programs.
Fascinated with world drums (drums from many cultures), he soon gathered a “massive collection” of
drums and began wondering what to do with all of them. After attending a drum circle led by Jim
Greiner, a pioneer of community drumming, he knew. He started a drum circle at the center, where
participants use his drums. Now, he also heads Global Drum Circles (golbaldrumcircles.com), the
largest drum circle in Silicon Valley, which recently held a drum circle with 230 attendees. All of their
events in the last eighteen months have sold out. Endorsed as an educator by two drum companies,
he has also worked with the Peninsula Stroke Association in Palo Alto, facilitating therapeutic drum
circles for patients recovering from stroke and brain injury.
DiLullo began playing drums at age fourteen and later became a professional. In his teens, drumming
was simply fun. Now, he says, “Drumming is the way I connect to Spirit. I’ve never been good at
traditional meditation techniques.”
Drum circles can range from totally unfacilitated, where there is no leader and spontaneity reigns, all
the way to extremely structured groups directed by an experienced leader. Many circles are also
targeted to people who already know how to drum. But DiLullo’s are open to everyone, even people
who have never picked up a drum before.
At one of his recent circles, he says that about one-third of the participants had never touched a drum
before and another third had never participated in a drum circle. Yet everyone joined in
enthusiastically, and they are coming back with their friends.
Most people who come to his drum circles don’t realize the benefits of community drumming, at least
at first. They might come out of curiosity or because it looks like fun or to add music-making to their
lives. Then, DiLullo explains, “People get hooked. There’s a sense of community that doesn’t happen
in a concert, for instance. A violin circle would take months to teach the first song.” He laughs as he
imagines this. “But with drumming, it’s instant. You’re making music together in minutes, and
everyone realizes they are now drummers.”
Just the physical act of sitting in a circle enhances the sense of unity with one another, which is
further enlarged to connection with something higher and more universal when everyone is playing
the same rhythm. Sustained drumming, especially in a group, touches a primal, spiritual place in the
participants. DiLullo suspects this has something to do with our ancient cellular memories as well as
physiological responses that occur far below conscious awareness. He believes the vehicle that
carries drummers to an altered state is the vibration, since our bodies vibrate along with the drums
and in a way become drums themselves.
Shamans have known of drumming’s transformative powers for millennia, understanding how it can
take people to an altered consciousness where they can heal. In his drum circles, “People have shifts
in consciousness,” DiLullo explains. “Drumming can be a platform for meditation. And it’s very clear
that people are turning to it as an alternative healing method.”
In contemporary society, we live very much in our head and often ignore our bodies’ subtle sensations
and messages. But with drumming, says DiLullo, “You’re very much in your body, and it takes you to
a place where you can reach your inner-self. Historically, drum circles were used for celebration or
rites of passage, and even today it’s as if we’re still gathering around a fire at night,” he explains.
“Native American shamans called drumming the ‘canoe’ that would carry your consciousness across
the passage [to a spiritual state].”
The ancient practice of drumming for spiritual purposes is beginning a real reemergence today, with a
small but enthusiastic base of drum circle leader eager to bring others into the fold. DiLullo has no
doubts it will continue to grow, comparing to the emergence of yoga in the West. “With drumming, you
can bring music, beat and rhythm into your spiritual practice very easily,” he says.
Like DiLullo, Rick Allen began drumming in his childhood and joined the band Def Leppard on his
fifteenth birthday. But when he was twenty-one, an auto accident ripped away his left arm. At first, he
thought he wouldn’t be able to do much of anything, let alone drum. But then his brother brought a
stereo to his hospital room and played Allen’s favorite bands, like Led Zeppelin and David Bowie.
Almost without thinking, he began tapping out the rhythms with his feet. He realized that all his years
of drumming had made it almost instinctive for him. As he said much later in an interview with
Beliefnet, “All the information was in my head. I just needed to channel it somewhere.”
Before too long, a friend had designed a custom electronic drum kit with pedals for Allen, and he set
about learning to play the high hat, kick drum, snare, and tom-tom with his left foot. In 1986, Def
Leppard played their first big engagement since the accident at England’s Donington Park, where
Allen received a huge welcome back from tens of thousands of fans.
Able to drum again, Allen believed he was fully recovered. But for years he struggled unknowingly to
deal with the energetic trauma his psyche had endured from the accident but never released. When
he met Lauren Monroe in 2000, the deeper healing began.
A healer from childhood, Monroe has studied with Benedictine monks, tribal healers of Brazil, North
America, and New Zealand, and is an initiated minister of Deeksha healing from The Oneness
University in Southern India. She also holds degrees in dance choreography, education, and
massage therapy. She had never been a Def Leppard fan but was familiar with Allen’s story.
“I knew how much suffering and how much bravery was a part of his being and life experience,” she
says. “When he came to me, I felt a lot of things that guided me to work with him in a very spiritual
and energetic way. And I treated this whole person, which includes both of this arms. I don’t think
Rick’s ever had a treatment like that before, but it was important to connect with his arm that wasn’t
there and also into his heart. It was a beautiful experience, and when he left I felt like I had just
worked on some type of spiritual king or something. It was really beautiful.”
Allen was also deeply touched with the intensity of the healing.
“I’d never experienced that kind of massage work before, where you incorporate a physical aspect,
but also the energetic work that can sometimes go along with that,” he says. “And that, for me, was
just profound.”
They married in 2003, but in 2001, they created the Raven Drum Foundation “to educate and
empower individuals and communities in crisis through healing arts programs, drumming events, and
collaborative partnerships,” according to the nonprofit foundation’s Web site (ravendrum.org). Monroe
understood that drumming has been used in healing ceremonies and rituals for millennia. And, as an
experienced drummer himself, Allen understood the power of drumming as an integral part only of Def
Leppard’s music, but of music in general.
“It’s so primal. It’s fantastic,” he says. “Any form of drumming, to me, is…this sounds odd, but it really
becomes a mindless activity because it you allow yourself to fall into it wholly, you kind of disappear.
And time just…oh man, we were just doing that for two hours?”
They began by working with at-risk and incarcerated teens and gang members in the Los Angeles
area, conduction drum circles and healing workshops at juvenile detention centers. But in 2005, they
turned that program over to a staff member and shifted their focus after Allen traveled to Walter Reed
Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., to meet wounded military personnel from the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. He visited the amputee ward and the occupational therapy unit. The experience moved
him deeply and inspired him to begin expanding Raven Drum’s work with veterans.
“My own experience with trauma is obviously different from combat trauma, but the way it manifests in
the body is very similar,” he explains. “We’re all different; we process it in a completely different way. I
just find it really, really easy to connect with people. I don’t even have to say anything. I just walk in,
they see my physical form, and immediately they welcome me in a way that is so beautiful. They
make me feel like a warrior. And they allow me to share my experience, and then, ultimately, what
happens is they share their experiences. There’s this wonderful thing that happens where I’m inspired
by them, and they’re inspired by my journey.”
Allen returned to Walter Reed for another visit, and this time Monroe accompanied him.
“After experiencing some of the boys there--and they were boys, very young soldiers--that were
wounded, we just saw the need,” she recalls. “We met their moms or the caretakers or their girlfriends
or their wives, and we saw that this isn’t going to stop soon. We know we can help; we can do
something here. And we came back, and we started working on a plan about how to develop some
programs to share.”
In order to give back to the men and women of the U.S. military, Raven Drum Foundation created an
innovative healing modality, called the Resiliency Program, which included drum circles. It is designed
specifically for current and former military personnel from any war to help them deal not only with
combat-related trauma, but also with the everyday stresses, anxieties, and depression that are
common in military families during wartime. Teens are included with a self-care program designed
specifically for them, and female veterans will soon have their own program.
According to the Raven Drum Web site, new research demonstrates that humans experience
traumatic experience of any kind primarily as a bodily impact. In other words, even if we believe we
have experienced a trauma “only” mentally or emotionally, it still must come through our body to be
experienced at all. And so our body is affected by it, and stores this experience as a memory, just as
it stores all our experiences. After a traumatic event, many people believe that if they do not
consciously think about it, or if they “bury” it, the aftereffects simply will fade away. Unfortunately, this
is not true. The trauma remains “trapped” in the body and can lead to all sorts of dysfunctional coping
mechanisms, such as substance abuse, depression, and worse. It will cause physical, emotional, and
spiritual pain that often deepens over time.
“When you have any kind of traumatic syndrome or crisis in your life,” Monroe explains, “you carry
very intense emotions that, oftentimes, you don’t even know are there”.
Not surprisingly, their drum circles frequently are witness to displays of emotion. Many of the
participants dealing with trauma don’t necessarily know the extent of their hidden negative emotions.
But drumming can help bring them to the surface, where they are released. Participants can trace
their experience of how they felt before the circle again how they felt afterward. “We hear more often
than not that people have less anger or sadness or feelings of depression after experiencing the drum
circle. We also witness a lot of tears from people,” says Monroe.
Allen chimes in to say, “Including me. I’m the crier. I love to rain all over the drum kit, you know? But
it’s so beautiful, it really is. It’s, again so experiential you can’t necessarily explain it. It’s like you just
feel this wave of grace and it does something really profound. You go into the gratitude.”
http://www.globaldrumcircles.com/druminterview.cfm
12
Drumming helps your brain and your health
When I was a kid, watching Ringo Starr play the drums inspired me to be a drummer. He looked like
he was having a blast! At rock concerts, I always watch the drummer, pounding away in multiple
rhythms, holding the beat for everyone else. I’m lucky I can carry even one rhythm—which explains
why I’m not a rock drummer—but I have attended drum circles where no experience or talent is
required. All that’s needed is the desire to make some rhythmic noise in community with
others. If you haven’t tried a drum circle, I hope you have the opportunity one day. It’s magical, as
drummers David DiLullo and Rick Allen can attest. In addition to having fun, people in their
drum circles come for meditation, stress reduction, healing, and transformation.
David runs Global Drum Circles in California’s Bay Area, and some of the participants have been
people with brain injury or stroke, a few of whom were brought by their neurologists.
David says drum circles are helpful for people with various brain injuries because “there’s an
exercising of the brain. It takes a lot of coordination between the right and left hemispheres. When
your right and left hands are doing something in a synchronized manner, you’re promoting balance
between the hemispheres.”
In addition, he explains that you’re doing something physical that “takes you out of your analytic brain
space. And going beyond that is the healing nature of vibration. Drumming is music therapy. You’re
bathing all the cells of your body in this vibration.”
He’s led a circle for the Peninsula Stroke Association, of Palo Alto. He reports that even
participants who had the use of only one arm did a great job keeping up with the rhythms. One
stroke survivor with partial paralysis said drumming in the circle allowed him to forget about his
affliction for the first time.
Especially for people who have had a stroke or brain injury, being part of a drum circle offers
the opportunity to have some fun while building up their confidence again. “Drumming is easy,”
says David. “If they can’t dance or play baseball, drumming is a wonderful way to feel active, and
they’re part of a group joined in the same activity.”
Rick Allen is the drummer for Def Leppard. As the result of an auto accident in the 1980s, he has
only one arm. But with a customized drum kit, he learned to use his left foot to take the place of his
missing left arm. In 2001, he and his wife, Lauren Monroe, created Raven Drum Foundation “to
serve, educate and empower veterans and people in crisis through the power of the
drum.” Their major project now is the Resiliency Program, which is an innovative healing program for
veterans, active duty military, and their families.
The Raven Drum Web site outlines some of the therapeutic benefits of drumming. On the
physical side, these include production of the body’s own pain killers, boosting the immune system,
control of chronic pain, and relief of stress and anxiety. In addition, drumming with a group adds the
benefits of creating a sense of connectedness with others and feeling oneself flowing with the natural
rhythms of life.
Joining in a drum circle can be fun and beneficial for anyone. Yet for people with brain injury, it can
offer a unique kind of healing experience not available anywhere else.
Today’s journaling exercises:
If you’re ready to do some private writing in your journal, choose one or more of these prompts to get
started. Try to write for at least five minutes.
If you’ve had a brain injury:
• My favorite kind of music is _________________ because…
• One thing I do to help me feel more connected to other people is…
If you’re a family caregiver:
• One of my favorite memories connected to music is… (See how much sensory detail you can
include. In addition to the music you heard, what did you see, touch, taste, and smell? How did all of
your senses contribute to this memory?)
http://journalafterbraininjury.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/drumming-helps-your-brainand-your-health/
13
Drums Of Illumination
A Frame Drum Roundtable With
Alessandra Belloni, Judy Piazza, And Miranda Rondeau
By Diane Gershuny Originally published in DRUM! Magazine’s March 2010 Issue
Shrouded in mystery, the frame drum can be traced back to the Paleolithic era, and has been
historically used as an ancient technology to alter consciousness in spiritual ritual. Images of women
playing the frame drum are pervasive in artifacts of goddess traditions from ancient civilizations in the
Near East, India, Greece, Rome, and other parts of the world.
Last November, internationally renowned tambourine virtuoso, singer, dancer, actress, and author
Alessandra Belloni brought together a group of kindred women frame drummers in a weekend
workshop and evening concert at Remo’s Recreational Music Center in North Hollywood to honor the
feminine and the healing power of the frame drum.
The group included devotional singer/frame drum artist and teacher Miranda Rondeau and Judy
Piazza, a multi-instrumentalist, workshop facilitator, recording artist, and educator who teaches the
Egyptian riq and has performed on many frame drums from various cultures.
We gathered together Belloni, Piazza, and Rondeau to talk about the history of the frame drum, and
how they learned from — and broke with — tradition in their own work.
DRUM! What inspired you to bring together these specific women artists?
BELLONI I had been conceiving of this event for a long time and chose a unique ensemble of women
artists who I believed were very different and all had the power to summon feminine power with frame
drums, voice, and ritual dance from ancient healing and musical traditions around the world, including
southern Italy, Brazil, Asia, and the Middle East. They were all my best students and they each took
their own path musically and artistically. I think we created a fiery global percussive journey in honor
of the feminine principle, for women and men alike. The workshop participants were taken by the
different skills and knowledge each woman had to offer, and the audience really loved the concert as
they all danced with us at the end.
DRUM! How did each of you take what you learned from Alessandra and apply that to your playing?
PIAZZA I met Alessandra early on in my drumming. I took her workshop in Vermont at a camp fair. I
was in a transitional point in my life. I had been a musician of many other instruments, and still am,
but the drums really shifted things in me. My first teacher and inspiration was Glen Velez, and then to
see a woman who had taken this path and was so proficient and passionate about living her gift in the
world, really inspired me.
BELLONI And that was great to see, too, because Glen Velez was my first student and he inspired
me to continue this path.
RONDEAU I started playing the frame drum 15 years ago, after I first saw Layne Redmond perform.
She gave a slide presentation of women playing the frame drum throughout history, and when I saw
that my heart cried out. It was like a homecoming. There was something familiar in seeing women
playing the drums. She was my first teacher, and then someone gave me an article that Alessandra
had written. When I read it I was crying because I was resonating with what she was speaking about
and I knew that I had to take her workshop. When she plays I feel the room fill up with the energy of
women drummers from ancient times.
DRUM! What is the connection between women and frame drums?
BELLONI The instrument goes back to prehistoric times. They were used mainly by women to honor
the goddesses and to heal the community, because they are highly spiritual, very feminine, and are
connected to the Moon and the Earth. We believe it was mainly a matriarchal society. The Earth
goddess, Cybele, was a very potent goddess from Anatolia [Turkey] who is also worshipped in
ancient Greece and Rome. The legend is that she was made from a black meteorite that fell from the
stars and is now worshipped as the “Black Madonna.” I was born in Rome where you can see still
frescos of Cybele with a frame drum or women holding a round instrument, not necessarily like a
tambourine, but with the skin and the frame. The tambourines were very popular in ancient Greece
and the women would use them to induce trance in their rites. They are now still used in southern Italy
ceremonies honoring the Black Madonna in the tammurriata. I’m really proud of the fact that I was
born in southern Italy and the tradition has never died there.
DRUM! Each of you plays multiple instruments, but what drew you to the drum specifically?
PIAZZA I had a total insatiable curiosity about women and frame drums and how they were
connected. The frame drum, in a broader sense, was so totally integral to healing, for men and for
women, because of it bringing alive the feminine aspect of our human nature. It’s much more subtle
— there’s a fluidity and motion with the drum unlike some of the larger drums. To use the healing
aspect of rhythm to connect to the mother, to the Earth, to all the elementals, became very important
to me, especially in my work as a music therapist.
RONDEAU I got into drum circle drumming at a [Grateful] Dead show, and I was magnetized. But I
dance — I didn’t think to drum. It wasn’t until I read Mickey Hart’s book, Drumming At The Edge Of
Magic. There’s a section where he talks about the technical side and the spiritual side, and in a way,
that gave me permission to play the drum. Inside my head, there was conditioning that said drumming
is for men. Later I saw Layne Redmond play, and I knew I was supposed to be playing this
instrument. I realized, too, that I had a lot of other conditioned, collective thoughts about women —
that they are inferior — and I carried that around. Healing began as I learned about the connection
between the drum and the divine feminine. The sound echoes the mother’s heartbeat. Its archetypal
shape represents wholeness, unity, and oneness. Like Judy was saying, the drum connects me to the
Mother and the Earth and elements that sustain us. This gave me new thought patterns about
women. Wendy Griffin, a women studies professor at Cal State Long Beach, created a group called
Lipushiau, [who was] the first written, named drummer in history, a high priestess. And our first gig
was a women’s conference at the university. All changed my life.
DRUM! How are you breaking boundaries in technique and approach?
BELLONI I’ve taken the Italian style into other rhythms. Traveling to Brazil was a big part of it. I
realized that the technique that is very loud and strong was perfect for Brazilian rhythms, and could be
heard over other instruments. I designed a Tam Brush for Pro-Mark that I use together with the
tambourine, so it keeps the sound of the drum. In my case, working with Glen [Velez] and other great
drummers, like Rick Allen from Def Leppard, I feel like I’m absorbing everything and using it in my
music. But mainly my playing style is a Latin American art with Brazilian rhythms.
PIAZZA I’ve been a part of the Arab community in Michigan, after moving there 25 years ago before I
came to California. I met a master Lebanese oud player and he asked me to play with him. I thought,
What are you thinking to ask a white woman to play in a traditional Lebanese situation? He got
flustered and said to me, “Music is not of the country, it’s of the heart.” This changed my life and took
me another huge step in becoming at peace as a white woman who is insatiably obsessed with the
drums. He gave me permission in a way, and had a lot to do with my own shifting and confidence in
playing out, and in feeling that I could. I was making beautiful music and people were responding. I
remember saying to Glen that I’d only been playing two years, and I had no business teaching. He
told me to just share what you know. I play in various settings and styles now, including
Andalusian/hip-hop fusion, yoga classes, kirtan or devotional music gatherings, women’s music
festivals, solo concerts, retreats, and festivals in and out of the country.
RONDEAU I think what I add the most is the vocals. There are not many people that are drumming
and singing. My vocal style transcends language, bypasses the intellect, and is devotional and
invoking in nature. I like the melodic part of the drum, and because I sing, I like to experiment with
where the different tones are in the drum. I’ve explored different ways to hit in two different places to
get the tone that I want and from there is where the music is inspired. As far as playing situations, I
open up for many consciousness-raising events as well as play for baby and bridal showers to
birthday rituals to funerals and memorials. I also work a lot with different goddess communities,
playing for their rituals to create a peaceful, meditative space as well as playing for dance and
kundalini yoga classes, and working with kids. I like sharing the frame drum and getting people
related to what it is. When I perform I try to make it participatory to initiate people to the possibility of
playing.
BELLONI Sometimes it can be two things. Unfortunately, because of my style, which is so powerful, it
can be inspiring to some and intimidating to others. I really want to turn that around and make it
accessible.
PIAZZA Like Miranda, I work with children as well. I think all of us have this in common, as far as
using the drum to connect and synergize, and with that synergy, we go deeper down the path of
rhythm at every level in our being. Children often have never seen drums played in this way. It’s
amazing what happens from that: Young people become inspired in their own modes of expression —
a seed is planted. Recently I heard from a student that was into head-banging music when I knew
him. He reached out to tell me how deeply he had been influenced by our time together in high
school.
DRUM! Is there a definitive technique involved with playing the frame drum or is it very much
individualistic?
BELLONI You have to start with the basics, whether it’s southern Italian, Brazilian, Irish, or South
Indian, and then take that technique and make it your own.
PIAZZA And there has absolutely been a lot of fusing of cultural styles.
DRUM! How has the technique evolved through that fusing?
BELLONI Glen Velez was the one to make everyone look at that. He took technique from many other
countries and made it his own. I think he deserves to be recognized because there’s a credible,
feminine energy coming from him that is not macho at all. Even though he was my first student and
we played together in a duo for many years, I learned a lot from him as far as technique. If it weren’t
for Glen, a lot of people wouldn’t be doing this right now.
DRUM! Are there other players carrying on the tradition and breaking new ground?
PIAZZA There are more and more people frame drumming, whether they’re carrying on the tradition
or making it their own.
BELLONI Like Layne Redmond — she was also inspired by Glen and is making it her own.
PIAZZA Rowan Storm.
BELLONI In Brazil, I know lots of them.
PIAZZA And that’s just it, for every one of us who have earned some recognition, there’s hundreds
back in the culture that are fantastic and that we’ve been inspired by, that have not received any
acknowledgment
http://www.drummagazine.com/handdrum/post/drums-of-illumination/
14
Complementary Therapy for Addiction: 'Drumming Out Drugs'
Winkelman, Michael, American Journal of Public Health; Apr2003, Vol. 93 Issue 4,
p647, 5p
Objectives. This article examines drumming activities as complementary addiction treatments and
discusses their reported effects.
Methods. I observed drumming circles for substance abuse (as a participant), interviewed counselors
and Internet mailing list participants, initiated a pilot program, and reviewed literature on the effects of
drumming.
Results. Research reviews indicate that drumming enhances recovery through inducing relaxation
and enhancing theta-wave production and brain-wave synchronization. Drumming produces
pleasurable experiences, enhanced awareness of preconscious dynamics, release of emotional
trauma, and reintegration of self. Drumming alleviates self-centeredness, isolation, and alienation,
creating a sense of connectedness with self and others. Drumming provides a secular approach to
accessing a higher power and applying spiritual perspectives.
Conclusions. Drumming circles have applications as complementary addiction therapy, particularly for
repeated relapse and when other counseling modalities have failed. (Am J Public Health.
2003;93:647-651)
Recent publications(n1-n8) reveal that substance abuse rehabilitation programs have incorporated
drumming and related community and shamanic activities into substance abuse treatment. Often
promoted as "Drumming out Drugs," these programs are incorporated in major rehabilitation
programs, community centers, conference workshops and training programs, and prison systems.
Although systematic evaluations of the effectiveness of drumming activities are lacking, experiences
of counselors and clients indicate that drumming can play a substantial role in addressing addiction.
Evidence suggesting that drumming enhances substance abuse recovery is found in studies on
psychophysiological effects of drumming(n9-n13) and the therapeutic applications to addictions
recovery of altered states of consciousness,(n14) meditation,(n15-n19) shamanism,(n20-n21) and
other shamanic practices.(n22-n24)
METHODS
This report is based on information acquired from observations of drumming activities in substance
abuse programs; interviews with program directors and counselors about the effects and experiences
induced; a pilot program introducing drumming for recovering addicts; and on-line discussions and
published material on drumming effects. Because of confidentiality issues, the programs observed did
not permit interviews with clients. Clients' perspectives were provided by the directors and counselors
involved in the program.
RESULTS
The following summarizes research done during 2001 on programs in Pennsylvania, Virginia,
Wisconsin, and Missouri. Participant observation was carded out in the first 2 locations; interviews
and published material were used for descriptions of activities and assessment of their effects at all
sites.
Mark Seaman and Earth Rhythms of West Reading, Pa
Seaman is recovering from addiction; he began drumming as a way to express himself and become
part of a community. He was searching for natural altered states of consciousness. His engagement
with drums led to a personal transformation and an involvement with the recovery industry through
counselors he knew at the Caron Foundation in Wernersville, Pa.(n3) They wanted to expose
adolescents in substance abuse treatment to drumming. The counselors said that these shut-down,
angry, disenfranchised youth came alive as drumming gave them an avenue of expression. Initially,
his programs were closely tied to the therapeutic process. Now, however, they are offered as
recreational activity, and use drumming to create healing energy.
Activities. Seaman's programs begin with his drumming as people enter the room. They pick up
drums and are free to play them as they choose. He then introduces warm-up exercises to make
people feel comfortable with the drums, teaching people how to hit the drums without emphasizing
anything technical. A vocal element is introduced to engage the group in coordinated chanting/singing
activities to get their energy going. He allows people to play spontaneously to lay the groundwork for
nonverbal communication and asks participants to show how they feel through playing a rhythm on
the drums. Call-and-response activities are used to connect the group. A subsequent activity gives
each participant the opportunity to briefly use the dram to express feelings. The group engages in the
creation of improvisational music that produces a feeling of great accomplishment and engages a
"letting go" process through visualization. Seaman ends his program with an application of the
Alcoholics Anonymous' 11th step (meditation), using meditation music and a variety of percussion
instruments to reinforce a visualization process to connect with a higher power. "I get people relaxed,
give them permission to leave their body and go on a journey. I talk about forgiveness, acceptance
and surrender. I work [on] release of guilt from the wreckage that they have produced through their
addictions. The visual imagery connects with the inner child, to release baggage, to awaken true
potential, to image contact with higher power that covers and embraces them in a space of joy and
healing."
Effects. The participants enthusiastically receive the drumming. Staff emphasized that the youths
particularly need drumming when group dynamics are stressed because of conflict within the group,
and when the group's sense of unity and purpose is disrupted by a client's relapse to drugs. Seaman
finds that drumming pulls a group together, giving a sense of community and connectedness. The
terminal meditation activity induces deep relaxation, eases personal and group tensions, and often
leads to strong emotional release. Seaman suggests that drumming produces an altered state of
consciousness and an experience of a rush of energy from the vibrations, with physical stimulation
producing emotional release. Because addicted people are very self-centered, are disconnected, and
feel isolated even around other people, the drumming produces the sense of connectedness that they
are desperate for, he says. "All of us need this reconnection to ourselves, to our soul, to a higher
power. Drums bring this out. Drums penetrate people at a deeper level. Drumming produces a sense
of connectedness and community, integrating body, mind and spirit." Seaman's program is designed
to induce a spiritual experience that is upbeat and fun. Meditation, "letting-go," and "rebirthing
experiences" allow people to leave behind the things they don't want (e.g. their addictions) and
engage the themes of recovery within the dynamics of group drumming.
Ed Mikenas and the Lynchburg Day Program
Ed Mikenas(n6,n25) has a background as a musician, music educator, and substance abuse
counselor; he has also taken training from the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. He first discovered
the positive effects of drumming for recovery when he worked as a substance abuse counselor at a
group home for girls. Mikenas' interest in drumming preceded this program, beginning with a concert
for the Partnership for Prevention of Substance Abuse. Currently, his programs are provided in
colleges, after-school programs, city programs, and psychology and addiction conferences. The
drumming reinforces other programs for both prevention of and recovery from addiction in a
community context. Drumming emphasizes self-expression, teaches how to rebuild emotional health,
and addresses issues of violence and conflict through expression and integration of emotions, says
Mikenas.
Activities. Mikenas uses group drumming in substance abuse counseling to activate and reinforce the
recovery process. Participation as a group leader or follower induces experiences that can mirror the
recovery process-confidence, uncertainty, insecurity in leading, security in following, desire for
change, or novelty. Drumming activities allow spontaneous expressions of leadership skills. Mikenas
exposes participants to a variety of percussion instruments and helps them learn basic sounds,
rhythms, and complex polyrhythmic dances. Sessions begin with warm-ups on bass tones to give
safe and easy exercises and to coordinate the group. These are followed by edge tones at greater
acceleration and the use of stop and start signals. More complex movements (heel-to-toe, switching
hands, slap tones) are then introduced, emphasizing the use of the non-dominant hand. Mikenas
uses Afrocentric traditions, particularly Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms and the Afro-Caribbean
Yoruba-based religions.(n25) The gods are used as representations of archetypes to help people
access their unconscious dynamics and connect their experiences with spirituality and community.
Mikenas says that these spiritual experiences connect clients with a "higher power" and reestablish
connections with their "natural selves."
Effects. Mikenas finds that the activities of drumming produce entertainment, an altered state of
consciousness, and an energy that draws people in. Drumming also provides opportunities for
coordinating sound and movement to assist in mental, physical, and emotional development
processes. The pulse of drumming in a context that combines self-expression helps coordinate
activities and solve problems, says Mikenas. Drumming gives an opportunity to learn leadership and
discover one's own potentials. The drum's sounds, rhythms, and energy elicit emotional issues and
may work as an "eraser" to remove effects of trauma. Mikenas suggests that "with drumming, a group
of people go from chaos and noise to an orderly sense of feeling all the same. Drumming helps
express and address unhealthy emotional reactions that allow drugs to appear to meet emotional
needs." He says drumming entrains the brain and stimulates pleasurable feelings without drugs.
"Drumming makes you feel good. When they connect, it makes them glow. It helps people fit in.
Drumming teaches nurturing, respect, participation, and personal relationships. Drumming changes
speaking, feeling, and acting, and helps you learn to act from the heart." Because group drumming
gives participants different roles, individuals have to coordinate their parts. Therefore, they must focus
on others. This gives them an experience with working together in a structured way. Mikenas says
that a structured positive learning experience in lives that are often chaotic helps participants
establish contact with themselves and connect with the collective consciousness. Mikenas considers
benefits of drumming to include enhanced sensorimotor coordination and integration, increased bodily
awareness and attention span, anxiety reduction, enhanced nonverbal and verbal communication
skills, greater group participation and leadership skills and relationship building, and self-skills for selfconscious development and social and emotional learning.(n25)
Myron Eshowsky's Shamanic Counseling Approach
Myron Eshowsky was trained as a shamanic counselor by the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. His
experiences, beginning in the mid-1980s, range from inpatient psychiatric acute care settings to
private practice, community mental health centers, and prisons. Eshowsky worked with adults in a
community mental health center in Madison, Wis, employing shamanic counseling approaches to
apply spiritual perspectives to address psychological, emotional, and spiritual problems.(n1) His
success led the drug/alcohol unit of his agency to refer clients with a history of severe addiction and
significant mental health issues. He subsequently worked with at-risk youth and gangs at an
alternative high school and provided programs for mental health centers, community-based
antiviolence groups, hospitals, health maintenance organizations, public schools, and
prisons,(n1,n2,n26,n27)
Activities. The shamanic drumming programs provided by Eshowsky include a mix of activities--story
telling, journeying, healing work, dancing, spiritual divination, and group ceremonies. He engages
adolescents in drumming activities and teaches them to journey on their own; he also often journeys
himself to do healing work. Eshowsky uses shamanic journeying(n28) to find out information about
clients, their power animals, spiritual intrusions, and soul loss.(n29) These shamanic activities may
provide healing (e.g., "soul retrieval") or information subsequently used in ritual therapeutic
interactions that involve other family members to provide community support. He uses ceremony and
ritual to provide a context for clients to connect with their issues while simultaneously placing them in
a global context. He says that this provides healing and a sense of belonging that helps clients define
who they are.
Effects. Participants report that drumming and shamanic journeying calm them down and help them
deal with their high-stress lives. "Drumming helps them to experience a kind of peacefulness and
provides a spiritual learning context that allows them to talk about their deeper concerns. It provides
an opportunity for being heard that they don't often feel [they have]." Eshowsky reports that
participants have a major reduction in crack cocaine and marijuana use as well as a reduction in drugrelated violence and contact with the criminal justice system. This also enhances their school
participation and performance. Eshowsky's work with shamanic healing is often effective for people in
desperate situations, when other counseling modalities have failed; he reports a number of
remarkable recoveries.(n1,n2,n26,n27) A particularly successful application has been with youth in
street gangs, for whom application of the principles of core shamanism has been useful in providing
healing and spiritual justice by addressing issues of despair and powerlessness.
Daniel Smith's Shamanic Approach
Daniel Smith(n7) is the former director of the Center for Addictive Behaviors and program director of
the Herman Area District Hospital Alcohol and Drug Unit in St. Louis, Mo. After years of use of
shamanic drumming techniques and training by the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Smith
introduced drumming into his work as a licensed clinical social worker in a substance abuse
rehabilitation program. He has taught drumming and shamanic techniques as an alternative and
complementary therapy for addiction at wellness events, professional trainings, large conferences,
and weekend retreats.
Activities. Incorporation of core shamanic principles within managed care has created tensions, but
Smith says that he has found an uneasy acceptance among the staff of the psychiatric settings
through bridging activities such as yoga, breath work, music therapy, mask making, and addressing
issues of the inner child and family-of-origin dynamics.(n13), (n15-n19,n30,n31) Smith uses the
shamanic approach for clients who repeatedly relapse. For clients who know what they need to do for
recovery but cannot achieve sobriety, the concepts of soul retrieval, depossession (e.g. exorcism),
extraction, power animal, and spirit retrieval may be applicable.(n20) Smith focuses on "rebirthing," a
kind of "spiritual surgery" akin to what Alcoholics Anonymous calls a spiritual awakening. This
experience causes the addicted person to undergo a profound change in his or her response to life,
says Smith. Music and dance activities are used for both cognitive restructuring and physical
exercise. Smith finds that yoga activities produce mental--physical bridging and the integration clients
need to detoxify their bodies. He says breath work produces mental--physical integration and takes
clients into altered states of consciousness. Mask making and rituals help solidify powers accessed in
the nonordinary reality experiences; mask wearing incorporates helping spirits and the changes in
personality necessary to create a new sense of self as a recovering person, says Smith. Shamanic
techniques are introduced and reinforced through rituals with symbols of flight (birds, feathers) that
help prompt visionary experiences reflecting common themes in recovery--symbolically flying from the
hells of addiction and soaring through the sky. The technique to which Smith attributes the greatest
success in working with chronic recidivists is "shapeshifting," which borrows from techniques of
Perkins.(n32) Rituals orient clients and help provide a sense of calm, a sense of inner balance, and
connection with a greater power. Stone (rock) divination procedures are used: clients look for answers
to their questions through what they see in a rock. This process allows them to connect with the
power of the universe, to externalize their own knowledge, and to internalize their answers; it also
enhances their sense of empowerment and responsibility, says Smith.
Effects. Smith says that drumming and shamanic activities address addiction through reintegrating
aspects of the self in rituals for soul retrieval and power animal retrieval. Through these activities,
people gain access to traumatic assaults that have driven their abusive relations with drugs. Spirit
world journeys provide direct access to these early experiences in a context that reduces barriers to
awareness. Ancestor spirits or other helpful spirit guides and allies encountered in rituals and
journeys facilitate the resolution of trauma. These experiences are healing, bringing the restorative
powers of nature to clinical settings. Shamanic activities bring people efficiently and directly into
immediate encounters with spiritual forces, focusing the client on the whole body and integrating
healing at physical and spiritual levels.
Pilot Program at the Phoenix Shanti Group
Before conducting the research reported in the previous sections, I presented a shamanic drumming
circle based on the principles of core shamanism(n28,n33,n34) to clients of the Phoenix Shanti Group
as part of MPH internship activities. These clients were HIV-positive, and most were addicted to crack
cocaine, methamphetamine, or opiates. These drumming activities were not part of regular program
activities but were offered as a voluntary supplemental activity. The shamanic drumming activities
were explained to the group in terms of their potential for inducing relaxation and natural altered
states of consciousness that substitute for drug-induced highs. Suggestions for successful
participation from the clinical director that were conveyed to the group included explaining the need
for consistent attendance to achieve positive results. Additional recommendations included journaling
of the session experiences to integrate them and chart the client's development. A few clients
attended drumming groups held immediately after mandatory group sessions, but most declined.
None of the clients currently in the intensive treatment program at Shanti attended the regular
weekend evening sessions offered across more than a year, although some of Shant's prior clients
(graduates of the program) did attend. This lack of voluntary participation in supplemental activities
suggests that successful introduction of drumming activities in rehabilitation requires that they be
incorporated into the mainstream of the program. Clients' interest will likely be strongly affected by the
attitudes expressed by regular counselors.
Inquiries posted to an on-line drumming Internet mailing list provided additional important information
about the use of drumming in rehabilitation and on the relationships between community drumming
activities and drug use. One respondent said, "I have found that music, especially drumming, creates
that same kind of bonding and interdependent unity without putting chemicals and smoke in my body.
I really like being high on community drumming and want to share that." Another noted, "There is no
doubt in my mind that the dram circle and other musical initiatives are having a positive effect on the
whole community. Drumming prevents children from getting into the drug culture, creating something
positive and creative that children can identify with at an early age to build up their confidence and
self-esteem. A sense of belonging to a community is the best protection there is. Drum circles give
them tools to create a sense of community purpose and groundedness in their lives."
In contrast, others commented on widespread drug use in drumming circles. Many drum circles
accept (or fail to challenge and exclude) the use of drugs before, during, and after drumming
sessions. This tolerance makes existing community drumming circles an uncertain source of support
for maintaining sobriety. Successful use of drumming to guide and maintain sobriety probably requires
the creation of programs specifically designed for the recovering community.
Physiological Effects of Drumming
Drumming produces a variety of physical and psychological effects. A recent popular book on
drumming reviews research suggesting the positive effects of drumming in the treatment of a wide
range of physical conditions, mental illness, and personality disorders.(n5) Drumming enhances
hypnotic susceptibility, increases relaxation, and induces shamanic experiences.(n35) Drumming and
other rhythmic auditory stimulation impose a driving pattern on the brain, particularly in the theta and
alpha ranges.(n9-n12,n33,n35) The enhanced ?- and a-wave entrainment produced by drumming
typifies general physiological effects of altered states of consciousness(n33,n35,n36) and
mediation.(n19) ASCs involve a mode of consciousness,(n33) a normal brain response reflected in
synchronized brain-wave patterns in the theta (3-6cycles per second [cps]) and alpha (6-8cps)
ranges. This response is produced by activation of the limbic brain's serotonergic circuits to the lower
brain. These slow-wave discharges produce strongly coherent brain-wave patterns that synchronize
the frontal areas of the brain with ascending discharges, integrating nonverbal information from lower
brain structures into the frontal cortex and producing insight.(n33)
Physiological changes associated with ASC facilitate healing and psychological and physiological
well-being through physiological relaxation; facilitating self-regulation of physiological processes;
reducing tension, anxiety, and phobic reactions; manipulating psychosomatic effects; accessing
unconscious information in visual symbolism and analogical representations; inducing
interhemispheric fusion and synchronization; and facilitating cognitive--emotional integration and
social bonding and affiliation.(n33)
CONCLUSIONS
Drumming produces physiological, psychological, and social stimulation that enhances recovery
processes. Drumming induces relaxation and produces natural pleasurable experiences, enhanced
awareness of preconscious dynamics, a release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self.
Drumming addresses self-centeredness, isolation, and alienation, creating a sense of connectedness
with self and others. Drumming provides a secular approach to accessing a higher power and
applying spiritual perspectives to the psychological and emotional dynamics of addiction. Drumming
circles have important roles as complementary addiction therapy, particularly for repeated relapse and
when other counseling modalities have failed.
Drumming circles and other shamanic altered state of consciousness activities can address multiple
needs of addicted populations.
These includes(n8)
•Physiological dynamics, inducing the relaxation response and restoring balance in the opioid and
serotonergic neurotransmitter systems
•Psychodynamic needs for self-awareness and insight, emotional healing, and psychological
integration
•Spiritual needs for contact with a higher power and spiritual experiences
•Social needs for connectedness with others and interpersonal support
Drumming may reduce addiction by providing natural alterations of consciousness.(n8), (n18-n19)
Shamanic drumming directly supports the introduction of spiritual factors found significant in recovery
from substance abuse.(n21,n37-n39) Because recidivism is widespread, treatment success may
mirror the natural recovery rate,(n40) and current methods have little success,(n41) the use of
drumming and other altered states of consciousness as complementary therapies with considerable
promise is justified.
Drumming groups may also aid recovery by enhancing health through their effects on social support
and social networks. The health implications of social support have been increasingly
recognized.(n42-n43) These forms of support are of considerable significance for well-being in an
increasingly atomized society in which traditional family- and community-based systems of support
have become seriously eroded. Thus, deliberate enhancement of social support is a potentially
significant contributor to physical, emotional, and mental health. The social support available from
community drumming circles is one such source. These social effects are not merely palliative but
constitute mechanisms for producing psychobiological effects. Central to these effects is an
amelioration of the stress response, a significant factor in drug use and recidivism.(n19)
The use of drumming as part of substance abuse rehabilitation is far more widespread than the few
cases reviewed here might suggest. Incorporation of drumming within Native American treatment
programs has been repeatedly mentioned to me. A recent book reviewing the scope of research on
the effects of drumming reports on programs in New York and California in which drumming is
incorporated into addictions treatment.(n5) The Foundation for Shamanic Studies has several
decades of experience in applying shamanic altered state of consciousness in both training and
therapy.(n20) They have identified a variety of contexts in which shamanic approaches may be useful
in reducing substance abuse.
The physiological effects of drumming and the positive effects of group drumming experiences on
recovery that are attested to by counselors who have incorporated these activities into substance
abuse rehabilitation programs provide a compelling rationale for the utilization and evaluation of this
resource. Winkelman(n8) suggests a variety of ways in which the shamanic paradigm and altered
states of consciousness can be applied to substance abuse rehabilitation.
Human Participant Protection
Research was approved by the institutional review board of the Arizona State University and by the
Shanti internal review board.
Acknowledgments
The research was supported by a National Institute of Drug Abuse postdoctoral fellowship awarded to
the investigator through the Arizona Center for Ethnographic Research and Training.
I thank the individuals who made this research possible, particularly Scott Reuter and the Phoenix
Shanti Group; Mark Seaman of Earth Rhythms, West Reading, Pa; and Ed Mikenas of Urban Wilde,
Lynchburg, Va.
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http://www.djembedirect.com/drumtherapy-article_2.htm
15
DRUM THERAPY BENEFITS TO STUDENTS
1. Drumming can help students grow academically; it can improve students' ability to concentrate and
compliment their studies in math, science, language arts, history, physical fitness and the arts.
2. According to scientific research, playing music, and hence drumming and playing percussion,
increases the development of various regions of the brain, including the corpus callosum, motor and
auditory cortexes.
3. Playing drums and rhythms can be an optimal experience and encourages participants of all ages
to achieve flow.
4. Drumming is a healing art and therefore it can give participants of any age a better sense of well
being.
5. Hand drumming (and regular participation in any form of percussion playing) increases the physical
stamina of students.
6. Drumming increases body awareness & kinesthetic development; drumming helps students
develop graceful coordination and self-control.
7. Playing rhythms improves listening skills and increases children and teens' ability to focus for
extended periods of time.
8. In general, the increasing of rhythmic skills - and the learning of any musical instrument - increases
students' confidence.
9. Playing rhythmic music helps students to take notice of the rhythms and beauty in nature and their
surroundings.
10. Drumming in group formats, such as drum circles, bands and orchestras cultivates an
appreciation for teamwork and cooperation.
11. Drum circles are great ethnic and cultural bridges; they harmoniously bring diverse people,
instruments and musical styles together.
12. If parents play or take interest in the musical and learning process of their children, then
drumming can be a means to forge meaningful bonds between parents and children.
http://artdrum.com/TWELVE_WAYS_STUDENTS_BENEFIT_FROM_DRUMMING.H
TM
16
FORTUNE 500 TUNES INTO BANG-THE-DRUM THERAPY
Paul Tharp. New York Post. New York, N.Y.: Dec 5, 2003. pg. 039
Corporations are boosting employee productivity and reducing sick days by getting workers to march
to the same drummer - literally.
A novel program underway at several big firms - including Toyota, Unilever, Raytheon and Oracle hauls in drums to the office so that workers can take an hour a week to beat on them alongside their
bosses and co-workers.
Also included in the musical free-for-all are hand bells, maracas and keyboards.
"The musical experience causes the boundaries to disappear between managers and employees,"
said the program's inventor, Dr. Barry Bittman, a neurologist and head of the Mind-Body Wellness
Center, Meadville, Pa.
"It becomes a level playing field, so to speak - and it's a safe experience for building trust at the most
basic levels."
The workplace musical workout has produced startling results, he says. Absenteeism drops sharply
because the musical experience relieves stress and boosts the body's immune system, says Bittman.
Burn-out was virtually eliminated and job turnover was drastically reduced at several of the locations
where the program has been underway.
He says Toyota's drumming has had enough success at keeping workers happy and punching the
clock on time, it has installed its own dedicated "drum room" at California locations.
What makes the program work is that employees are compelled to participate in the once-a-week
hourly events for six weeks.
"Many employees are very negative about doing it and resist. But after they are cajoled into
participating, they show remarkable changes.
"In almost every case, the obstinate, the troublemakers and withdrawn employees were brought into
the fold and solidified the whole group."
Bittman said the rise of consolidations and mergers in corporate America have added stress to
workers, and hampered work skills.
The $11,000 program brings in all the musical instruments and a trainer to conduct the workplace
ensembles, and leaves behind the drums and a trained in-house person to keep running the show.
He cited new studies saying that 85 percent of employees want to change jobs when the economy
improves.
"That's going to be a huge cost of as much as $30,000 to $60,000 to find a replacement employee,"
he said.