Lately, i've been thinking about rhythm and also the benefits of drumming... and so, wanted to share some things i have learned over the years...
"If you could see your DNA, you'd see what your inside rhythm looks like... You are rhythm... You are made of flesh, bones - and rhythm... Rhythm is what keeps you alive -- Mickey Hart
Within our bodies, we have the rhythm of breath, the rhythm of our heart and the rhythm of our blood pulsing through our veins. We are nothing but rhythm within and out...
Sometime when you have a moment... just sit quiet and just listen to the diverse rhythms around and within you... listen to the rhythm of a bird's song... the drumming of a flicker woodpecker... a squirrel's chatter... the ticking of the clock on the wall... the crackling of a hot fire... the constant passing of traffic on the freeway... the swishing of the wind swaying the branches of a tree or in the grasses... the honking of a truck's horn... the gentle drops of a spring rain... the gentle in and out of your own breath... that annoying drip on the kitchen faucet...
I have to giggle sometimes when folk tell me that they can't or don't know how to drum... i aways say, "of course you do! ...because the first thing you ever heard was your own mother's constant heart-beat - that's all you knew and heard while in her womb all that time... it's the first thing you learned... that constant pulse was all you knew! - so, yes... you know how to drum - it's the very first thing you were taught!"
Everyone knows how to drum - everyone who has a mother... a grandmother and our blessed earth mother...
I love this powerful teaching by sister drummer Layne Redmond...
“It is often said that the first sound we hear in the womb is our mother's heartbeat. Actually, the first sound to vibrate our newly developed hearing apparatus is the pulse of our mother's blood through her veins and arteries. We vibrate to that primordial rhythm even before we have ears to hear. Before we were conceived, we existed in part as an egg in our mother's ovary. All the eggs a woman will ever carry form in her ovaries while she is a four-month-old fetus in the womb of her mother.
This means our cellular life as an egg begins in the womb of our grandmother. Each of us spent five months in our grandmother's womb and she in turn formed within the womb of her grandmother. We vibrate to the rhythms of our mother's blood before she herself is born. And this pulse is the thread of blood that runs all the way back through the grandmothers to the first mother. We all share the blood of the first mother - we are truly children of one blood." -- Layne Redmond
Outside of ourselves are endless universal rhythms all around us... every 365 days our blessed earth mother revolves around father sun... while every 28 days, grandmother moon revolves around our mother earth... ever 24 hours our earth mother rotates (spins and dances) on her axis... since the beginning of time, these cycles have intertwined and are the background against which our universe exists...
Another great quote i love...
"Rhythm lives within everyone, and it's not something special. People don't have to have professional musical talents and techniques to express their rhythmical spirit. Everyone has a rhythmical sensibility within and how they express it differs from person to person. Rhythm permeates everyone's life. It is in everything we do, we see, we feel and it is within the rhythms of our bodies, as well. Rhythm is a fact of life." -- Arthur Hull
The voice of the drum is the bridge to the spirit realm... The pulse connecting us to our blessed earth mother's heartbeat... and the circular shape is that of the hoop of life.
The earth is round... the moon is round... the season's turn 'round and the stars and planets are round...
A circle is on of the most natural forms found in our physical universe... it has no beginning and no end..
"Blessed am I... Holy am I... I am the infinite within myself... I can find no beginning... I can find no end... Oh, this I Am!" -- traditional chant
Since the beginning of time, peoples have gathered together in circles in ceremony and ritual fashion to celebrate and to pray in community.
Participating in a drum circle creates community almost instantly... as soon as we begin to drum together and we entrain together... we become one -- we become community... we also have fun, we sing, dance, play music and socialize...
Drumming together mindfully and in a sacred way - by acknowledging our spirit and helper-spirits and our ancestors - those who have come before us also connects us in a very special way... we embrace purpose and again "one-ness" of "like- mind"...
Drumming together is also just plain fun... when we drum together, we can let down our guard, relax and let go thus reduce stress and worry... the sacred drum also clears the way on many levels... drum vibrations and sacred sound massage our bodies, our head, our brain and calms our mind... and also creates physical exercise...
"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life -- Berthold Auerbach
A while back a medical study done by a team of MD's using control groups and blood tests show drumming together boosts the immune system.
It's now been proven that stress is a cause of 98% of most disease. Recent biofeedback studies show that drumming along with our own heart beat rhythm for at least 15 minutes a day alters brainwave patterns (increasing alpha) and dramatically reduces stress...
So, drumming actually "meditates" us!
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Medical Study: Group Drumming Boosts Immune System
A brand new medical research study indicates that group drumming boosts the immune system. Published in the January, 2001, issue of Larry Dossey’s Alternative Therapies the ground-breaking study was performed at Meadville Medical Center’s Mind-Body Wellness Center, by a team of MDs using control groups and blood tests.
Led by well-known researcher, author and cancer expert Barry Bittman, MD, CEO of Meadville Medical Center’s Mind-Body Wellness Center in Meadville, PA, the study shows that group drumming actually increases cancer-killing (NK) cells which help the body combat not only cancer but other viruses, including AIDS.
According to Dr. Bittman, “Group drumming tunes our biology, orchestrates our immunity, and enables healing to begin… When our hands connect with a drum that vibrates with our energy, vitality…and unity, we become whole again.” Dr. Bittman’s weekly radio program, Mind-Body Matters, is syndicated nationwide on NPR.
This new medical research follows recent biofeedback research showing that even brief heartbeat drumming can double alpha (a light meditative brainwave) and reduce stress. We now know that stress depresses the immune system and has been linked to nearly all diseases.
Drumming has also been used successfully with Alzheimer’s patients to focus attention, with war veterans to end trauma, with addicts in recovery from drug and alcohol abuse, and with prison and homeless populations to enhance self-esteem. Progressive corporations like Motorola, AT & T and Levi Strauss have drummed with middle management to promote team spirit-building.
Widely published research also indicates that playing musical instruments increases kids learning abilities. This appears especially true of instruments which can be played intuitively, like the drum. Qualitative studies have shown that drumming enhances right-brain functions such as intuition and creativity.
“Dreams are the way the unconscious speaks to the conscious mind. Ritual is how the conscious mind speaks back. One-sided conversations are unhealthy for the psyche, which craves response. New thought writings on addiction suggest that we are hungry, that our souls are starved because our lives are devoid of ritual.
“We keep trying desperately and unsuccessfully to feed this hunger with food, drugs, sex, alcohol, work, shopping, gambling, etc. Drumming is one of the most accessible forms of ritual because drumming along with our own heartbeat is so natural. It calms, centers, and reconnects us with our deeper selves.”
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"The drum is the Great Spirit's favourite instrument. That is why we were given a heartbeat. -- Mano, Navajo Elder
