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| The spirit drum is our blessed earth mother's sacred voice... |
We ALL KNOW how to drum...?
Over the years that i've been facilitating and offering space for sacred drum circles, i've had many, many people tell me (or believe) that they don't know how to drum... or wished they knew how...
Whenever i hear this question, i smile quietly to myself and simply reply by asking...
"Do you have a heart?...."
"Yes..."
"So, of course you know how to drum - because you have come from your mother... and she came from her mother and she from her mother and so on and so on... "
"You sooo know how to drum because the first sound you ever heard and felt was your mother's heartbeat pulse as soon as you were in her womb - the heart-song of the mother has always and continues to drum through your blood!"
-- weaver
-- weaver
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| Pachamama our blessed earth mother... art by weaver © 2005 tee @ redbubble ... |
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
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| the flicker... the drummer... the grandmothers... |
Whenever i hear the cry of a flicker (woodpecker - the drummer)... i am always reminded that the 'grandmothers' are calling us.... beckoning us to return to what we know...
...the 'knower and the known' is inside all of us...
Folk ask me how i learned to drum and i'm never sure what to say - as i have always drummed... from since i can remember... i have never taken any formal training... it seems to come naturally... at least that is what i've been told over and over..............so...
What does 'naturally' mean? Here is one meaning...
"...unthinking; prompted by (or as if by) instinct; ........offering to help was as instinctive as breathing"
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| We are not machines... |
I have to admit that i have a hard time playing with a metronome because i feel it is so 'un-natural' - it just doesn't 'feel' right... i once got fired from being the drummer in a band because i didn't like playing with a metronome - the members of the band told me i wasn't a very good 'time-keeper' - one member told me she couldn't believe how i could get along playing music without one - this surprised me...
I feel the metronome makes me try too hard and forces me to play 'in my head' and then i lose connection to the life-pulse of the music of my soul... i tend to stop breathing and get pretty uptight.... it is linear - and, not from the heart... it's too hard in this place - i stop playing - it becomes 'work'... when i play music i want to feel it...so others can feel it too...
I am not a machine and neither are you... yes, metronomes can be useful and they do have their place where appropriate...
I have always approached 'playing' music and the drum through how and where i feel - the drum brings me to presence - to the present moment of 'now'... i connect with my drum as relationship... where, in knowing, sensing along with the drum i'm about to play also has a spirit just as i do - as one...
...say hello - get to know each other... listen...
...what do you hear? ...what song does the drum want to share with you?
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| the standing people lovingly ground us... - photo by weaver © 2012 |
...the standing people - the great, tall trees ground us to our blessed earth mother.... and so does the sacred drum...
...the skin... the hide connects us to the spirit of the animal that willingly gave it's life to become a sacred drum for you to caretake and connect to... the mallet or our hands connect us to these great spirits.......
Place your loving hands upon your dear drum gently... feel her... love her... and she will love you... and feel you...
When i sit down or stand to play a drum i first connect with great spirit, all-that-is and also the drum's spirit and then i know the drum is connecting with my spirit too - it's all about 'right relationship'...
...i can't 'think' when i play the sacred drum... because the sacred drum comes from the 'heart'...The blessed spirit drum also connects us to our blessed earth mother - as she is the voice of our mother... the best way to connect to our earth mother is through the sacred drum - her pulse-voice can heal us...... we can heal her - heart-to-heart... envision the 'healed-state' for her and for us.... what we focus upon will come back to us... what will we choose to dream into being....?
...I invite you to get quiet... take some time out of your busy lives and simply listen... our great mother is calling us back to 'right relationship'.... of ayni... of connection and co-creation as one....
The sacred drum connects us and frees us - the drum helps to 'clear the way'... of whatever is in 'the way"... the sacred drum is a blessed gift of healing...When i drum from my heart, that is when i feel i can drum my best because it aligns me... drumming from my heart allows me to just let go and ride the wave of playing - to get the 'me' out of the way... A number of times when i have drummed from this place of heart i have not known how i have drummed at all.... as i feel spirit has guided my arms and hands - it is not me playing.... it is the spirit of the sacred drum....
...the sacred drum is 'playing' me...!Many years ago i stumbled upon a wonderful book called "The Way of the Pulse" beautifully written by Dr. John Diamond... reading this book over and over reaffirms much that i have learned from the sacred drum and continues to teach me more each time about how to get out of my head when i drum or play music...
I wanted to share this cool book, one of my favourites with you so that it may touch you as well and help you to re-member too... below are just a few excerpts that you may enjoy...
Thank you sooo much Dr. Diamond for eloquently teaching us how to ride the pulse of spirit to connect and play our drums from our heart... to not judge and be so hard on ourselves...
Always enjoy your drum and have fun playing ALL WAYS!
with much light and love.... weaver x (((o)))
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| The Way of the Pulse by Dr. John Diamond available @ Amazon... |
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Every musician emphasizes a different aspect of the totality of the song. Yours is the most important – for
rhythm is the most basic as it commences at the beginning of life, in the womb.
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Choose the drum whose soul you can most easily find. This will be the one that most expands your chest, opens
your heart.
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Feel your chest resonate with the drum.
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The more the palms are up, the more you can give – as your arms come down, think up – always up. Let the music lift. Let it rise up.
• Loose wrists, body free. Let your whole body do the playing.
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Love your left hand. (or your less dominant hand) It wants to play easier – and
it will.
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Concentrate on the interface of stick (or hand) and head. Exactly where they meet, every time
they do. All creation is at the
interface.
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Don’t judge your playing – for then it is not play, but hard work. Just aim to refine your intention.
• Think of the drum as your mother. Are you treating her right?
• Remember it’s an instrument of of love
– not war.
• It’s not the volume, but the intensity
of the feeling, at even the quietest level.
• Feel the Music flowing through all your body.
• Feel the Music flowing through all your body.
• Come forward into the music, in the
audience, into yourself.
• Don’t play the drums – allow them to
play you. This is called the
transcendental experience.
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Always keep in mind that all of you, your Totality – body, mind and spirit – is
transmitted in each and every note.
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Give all of yourself. This is
me. Here I am. All of me, now.
• Play with your heart: wholehearted. And with Passion:
all your fire, filled with Enthusiasm.
• Music can be the easiest way to Heaven
on earth – if we want it to be.
• Look at your hands dancing like Fred
Astaires’s feet.
• Be free – take risks. You are safe.
• Always play the melody – and sing it.
• Hear the lullaby in the bass. Feel it. Let it roll around and around.
• Imagine the drum is your heart, open in
song. The music its pulse.
• Be always aware of your breath. Never jam it. It must always be free, for only then are you free. You can’t breathe freely to a metronome
or click track. For they are the
beat. The free breath ebbs and
flows to its own deep pulsations.
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When you are playing on the Pulse, it feels like the drum is playing you.
• Get
on the wave of the Pulse, and ride it effortlessly all the way to the beach!
• I
am real, I’m alive, I breathe. I
pulsate. I am not a machine. If they want the beat, they can buy a metronome.
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Don’t count – feel. When the math
comes in, the joy goes out.
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Play with joy, with a smile. If
you aren’t enjoying it – stop.
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Never just practice – that’s just the brain.
Always play, even if the audience is afar. That’s the heart as well.
Excerpted
from The Way of the Pulse by Dr. John Diamond - one of my most favourite books of all time - i highly recommend it!
Video... weaver just foolin' around on her clay dumbeck drum...
