I live across the street from Tompkins Square Park in New York City’s East Village. My daily soundtrack includes the rumble of buses on Avenue B, a hound dog bellowing from the famous Tompkins Square dog run, and, if it’s the weekend, a nonstop flow of drumming – a rolling sound punctuated with hollow pops. (I can hear the drumming right now, as I type this.)

Sometimes I see the drummers when I’m walking my dog. Today was one of those days, and I decided to capture the moment on video:

I started wondering about the origins of drum circles. Some quick research brought me to Wikipedia, where I learned there are different kinds of drum circles – some facilitated, some not, and some associated with spiritual traditions. I came across this quote:

“Typically, people gather to drum in drum ‘circles’ with others from the surrounding community. The drum circle offers equality because there is no head or tail. It includes people of all ages. The main objective is to share rhythm and get in tune with each other and themselves. To form a group consciousness.”

- Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart

Talk of “group consciousness” reminds me, of course, of improv; when you’re in a troupe, your goal is to get to the point where you achieve “group mind,” a kind of spidey sense for what the other performers are about to do or say. I love the idea of random members of a geographic community coming together and connecting through art, whether it’s drumming or improv comedy or anything else.

Since the East Village still has a reputation as being a bit of a hippie outpost (albeit a gentrified one, old-timers would surely argue), it’s hardly a surprise to find a drum circle here. But when I started searching the USA Drum Circle Finder, I discovered that there are well-established drum circles in nearly all of the 50 states – from Wichita, Kansas to Houston, Texas; Tampa, Florida to Lincoln, Nebraska. Vicki Morgan, who leads the San Diego Women’s Drum Circle, says:

“When I started this 12 years ago, my friends thought I was kooky…What was I doing? Now I have 80 women who come regularly. There are doctors, psychologists, rabbis. It’s a form of meditation and prayer. It’s about weaving communities together.”
- “Drum circle offers camaraderie, sense of well being,” SignOn SanDiego, 2010

A 2006 NPR story supports the idea that drum circles have become more mainstream:

“The term ‘drum circle’ might evoke images of long-haired men beating drums in a primal sort of way, but drum circles have become more expansive in the past decade.”
- “Why Urban Joes and CEOs Bang the Drum,” NPR, 2006

The same story features Mike DeMenno, manager of the Remo Recreational Music Center in North Hollywood, California, which offers what amounts to drum therapy. DeMenno says drumming helps people with everything from cancer to arthritis, autism and Down syndrome. In fact, it seems that in many cultures, drum circles have a long history of being used for healing, and a quick Google search brings up research (such as this NIH abstract) documenting drum circles’ value in easing depression, especially.  Not surprisingly, some have figured out how to use drum therapy as a corporate training exercise.

To find a drum circle near you, use this drum circle finder.

Image above is by lalunablanca on Flickr

I’ll be posting my own overview of the session once I get more than 10 minutes of down time! (SXSW is a rather manic experience…)

Related Links

• Zach’s TED talk on the improv principle of “Yes, and” (video)
• Article from Fast Company: “Do Improv Comedians Make the Best Design Thinkers?” (thanks to Shawn Westfall for sharing this on Facebook)

In the green room at SXSW

Jordan and I just finished leading a session at SXSW called Improv Lessons for Freelancers. I’m still processing the experience, but wanted to say a huge thank you to anyone who helped us promote it, and to everyone who came — I almost felt like Jordan and I were incidental, because without such a smart, positive group of people in the room, it could have gone very differently.

The feedback so far has been very heartening – most rewarding was hearing that people thought we did a good job of facilitating group discussion, because that was very important to us – not steamrolling. Jordan was especially excited when the head of UrbanDictionary.com said he loved the session :).

We’re revved up and thinking about other ways/places we can replicate the workshop. But for now: there are films to watch, people to meet and sunshine to soak up like the thirsty, thirsty sponge that I am.  To be continued…

Image by Pedro Moura Pinheiro on Flickr

“If only you’d remember before ever you sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won’t even underline that. It’s too important to be underlined. Oh, dare to do it, Buddy! Trust your heart. You’re a deserving craftsman. It would never betray you.”
-The character of Seymour, writing to his younger brother, Buddy, in Seymour, An Introduction by JD Salinger

I found this quote here, and it immediately reminded me of something my improv teacher, Ari Voukydis, said last week: “Be in the scene you want to be in.” In other words, if you find yourself in the middle of a scene that sucks, remember that the scene is what you make it (this is improv, after all – we’re making it up as we go).

Like so many improv lessons, this advice applies to life, as well. Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who still, after many years, feels like he’s stuck in a job that has no relationship to who he wants to be on this earth. He’d leave, but he doesn’t know what else he wants to do. He works it over and over in his head, but never reaches a convincing conclusion. Meanwhile, time ticks by…

As another improv teacher, Topher Bellavia, once told me, “It doesn’t matter what choice you make. It only matters that you make a choice, and commit to it.” This also applies to life offstage. So often we think there’s a “right” choice, and we remain paralyzed, terrified of getting it wrong. But people: these lives? They’re ours. They’re made up of the choices we make, and the things we do. If you don’t want to be someone who works at a law firm – don’t be that person.

I know, it’s not that easy. We have the voices of the naysayers in our heads — parents telling us we’re being naive, “friends” telling us we’re lucky just to have a job. Sure. But to apply another improv principle, the notion of “Yes, and”: one thing can be true, AND another thing can be true. We can be lucky to have a job, and we can give thanks for our good fortune every morning; AND, every day, we can feel deep in our gut that this job is not our true path in life, and we can take steps to find another one. Gratitude and desire are not mutually exclusive.

So: write the book you want to read; be in the scene you want to be in; live the life you desire.

“In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, ‘If we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination,’ and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.”- Brian Andreas

Related Links:

• An Accident of Hope, a blog by Summer Pierre, the author of The Artist in the Office: How to Creatively Survive and Thrive Seven Days a Week (this blog is where I found the Salinger quote above)
• On Seeking Fulfillment, a post from my previous blog, Creative DC (“Finding fulfillment isn’t about finding a magic bullet – a ‘dream job,’ a perfect city to live in, a perfect mate; instead, finding fulfillment is about developing the ability to know what you want, and the will to go get it.”)

For the official session description, including a list of questions we promise we’ll answer, click here.