Drumming

 

 

It's a balmy summers night and I am standing outside a bar on Oxford Street making strange sounds and clapping my hands like a lunatic, along with twenty other people.

 

In ten minutes we will be sitting in a corner of the crowded pub, drums clenched between our thighs, hands flying, playing the rhythms we have been practising outside with our vocal cords - a multi-part African boogie we have been learning for the past six weeks as part of a community drumming workshop, held by Bondi-based rhythm maestros, In Rhythm.

 

Some of us have never laid hand to a drum. Many haven't picked up an instrument since we retired our school recorders decades ago. Most never dreamed we would ever get on a stage and perform for a crowd of strangers. But when we start to play that night, a strange thing happens. Somnewhere in the midst of those first nervous boom diddy kakas, we hit our

stride.

 

Then the big rockin' groove of 20 taut African djembes fills the room. People turn their heads. Pretty soon they're dancing.

 

'Rhythm is innate,' says Beau of In Rhythm. 'We all have a heartbeat and our breath. Once we relax our conscious mind, it's like opening a doorway. It's a beautiful place to go,' he says.

 

After more than 10 years hitting the skins, Beau has been running drumming workshops for the past six years.

 

The workshops, held at Al's Gym Bondi Junction one evening a week over six weeks, focus on

learning one African rhythm in all its parts, followed by a group performance.

 

In Rhythm also facilitates corporate workshops and performs at events, as well as making, selling and repairing drums.

 

Beau says the energy created by a group of drummers can have a profound effect on people. 'Not only do people get really energised but banging on a drum can also be a great release of tension. And a great way to meet like-minded people.'

 

As we schlep the drums out through the crowd amid beers (courtesy of the chuffed publican) and shouts for more from the crowd, the rhythm swells like a heartbeat in my blood and the smiles on the faces of my fellow drummers say the same.

 

Article supplied by ;

Beau of In Rhythm   For information on upcoming workshops check out the In Rhythm website   call Beau on 0401 030 237.

 

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