Drum Circle

I was asked to facilitate a drum circle on Saturday. I was excited about it, being my first one on my own, as Revolution Guitars.

I had the help of Aurora Percussion who provided me with a great deal of the percussion instruments that I tried my best to provide, but ran out of money and time to get everything.

Fortunately one of the music shops I went to gave me a significant discount on some drums and hand percussion once I spoke to him about what I needed.... lots of drums, cheap as possible.

I got talking to the guy and found out he wanted more cajones, which is the plywood box drums I mainly play that originate from Peru.

He said he's been looking for an Australian supplier. So I told him I'm the guy, here's my card. I'll call him next week for a catch up now that I've spoken to my cajon supplier who is bumping up their system to have more in stock.

I went to see them yesterday and we worked out some issues of stock control, handling, shipping, etc. Also more on drum circles too because I had a muslim woman ask me about facilitating a drum circle, to which I said yes to. However, since being a man might be an issue surrounded by scarfed women, I suggested my cajon supplier might like to do that one. Don't you love how after so much progress, there is still segregation amongst human beings? Regardless of background, belief and culture.

Anyway, back to my drum circle I did on Saturday. It was great.

I started off introducing myself, then I asked everyone if they had ever been in a drum circle before. No one had. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing, a bad thing, or just not a thing at all. I decided to take the latter. It didn't worry me.

So I started to play a rhythm on my cowbell and asked everyone to join me when they were ready. They did, but there was no rhythm. I completely expected this, so I continued, un-phased.

5 minutes into it, 55 minutes to go.... Someone picked up on the rhythm I was playing, and then it spread like wild fire. Everyone got into the groove and off we went.

We played around with various drum circle games and before I knew it, my 60 minutes were up.

I thanked everyone for participating and hoped they all enjoyed themselves. Everyone appeared to love it. I called it a success, packed up my stuff and let the rest of the day continue.

My first official drum circle, on my own and 22 people in a circle around me. This is on the larger side for a single person to facilitate.

Looking back at it, I remembered a bit half way through when the beat started to fizzle out, but I stuck to my rhythm, strong and steady and let it all come back. It recovered well and carried on until my time was up.

A fantastic event, a good turnout, the feedback was positive and I enjoyed myself. Made a few dollars on the side which pretty much covers my time and setting up of the whole thing. There will me more, much much more.