Thursday, October 14, 2010

Drumming Circles For Life

Want a life? Get a life. Participate in community play for life. Drum or drumming circles use hand instruments originated Africa, India and Latin America. World communities that use acoustical instruments played by hand. All were also built by hand. Modern hand drums and instruments may be factory made.
Tribal circles brought communities together. In the United States, they bring modern society together. There is something about sound that has an effect on people. Feel the effect popular music has on you? It is in the beat or rhythm. You get moved by the pulse. The circle gets synchronized just like when everyone ends up clapping a beat at the same time. Dancing naturally happens with drumming. Singing may also result. Everything here results in stress reduction.
Latin America has many hand instruments North Americans are familiar with. Congas, bongos, maracas and castanets are examples of hand instruments. Latin American rhythms and music is heard from the fastest growing community in the states.
Percussion may be associated with a drum set. They are played by an individual. Individual people play single or double hand drums in a drum circle. That can have two people to as many hand drummers playing as space will allow. The public parks and beaches are where many drum circles gather to play.
Beside hand play, it may also have participants using other instruments. They could be tambourines, maracas and cow bells. Maracas, used in Latin and popular music, are a pair of balls filled seed or pellets and attached to handles. A shaking or rattling sound is produced.
This beat produced has a therapeutic effect on the drummers, dancers and attendees. Music therapy may be used in a drum circle setting. The arrangement of one particular drum circle starts with the players just drumming any rhythmic beat on their instruments. Usually resulting with all beats becoming the same. It can also remain individual sounds. The group then lays down on their individual floor mats. A couple of hand drummers drum over each body individually. The pulse is felt and effects the cells of the person individually. They feel calm and relaxed. Resulting in their feeling calmer. The group transitions back gradually to the circle. They sit up and share their experiences. It has been said that twenty minutes laying down and experiencing the drum beating pulse is equivalent to eight hours of rest.
Come over to a drumming circle and have a new found experience of community and calmness for life.

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