Drum Circle in Boston
I have known that a fire surrounded by dancers surrounded
by drummers is a wonderful thing, I guess since my first
Pennsic. I have wanted to
participate since then, and wanted to get a drum, but didn't really
know where to start, and never got around to it. Reading up on the
subject of Beltane, I regained interest in the subject. A lot of it.
I want to spend more of my life drumming and dancing around a fire.
Then I discovered that a few regular drum circles
happen in the Boston area. On 1/4/03 I attended one -
Earth Drum Council's
Drum and Dance night
(indoors) in Cambridge.
I showed up maybe a half an hour after it started. There were maybe
20 people there, all drumming, none dancing yet. There were a couple
very large drums, and several small percussion instruments, but most
people had something like a reasonable sized djembe.
Not long after I arrived, the drumming slowly stopped, to rest.
A man walked over to me and said something ending in "drum?". I eagerly
accepted the drum he was handing me, and thanked him. It was a Remo
children's djembe.
The drumming slowly started again. It was kind of difficult for me to
pick up, and I noticed the whole group was having more difficulty coming
together than I would have expected. I took it real slow, hitting the
drum once per.. measure(?), until I got it, and the group eventually
came together. I slowly got more creative.
The next time the drumming stopped, the guy at the biggest drum,
who had started things up the last time said something like "Thank you,
that was 6/6. We don't usually do that." ..pleased that it had gone
as well as it had. Bastard... making my initial experience as difficult
as possible.
The when the drumming started back up again, it was much easier for
me and the rest of the group to pick it up, and I thoroughly enjoyed
myself (2 days later I'm still a little sore, just from several hours
of drumming).
This is the first time I attempted to play a drum, and I am very
pleased with how it went.
I'd say about 40 people attended, the majority drumming, some
alternating between drumming and dancing. I was pleasantly surprised
at the large number of dancers. It really is a wonderful event.
So now I'm looking into buying a drum. I'm currently leaning toward
a 12" Remo Djembe.
Comment on this page.
Return to Adventures index
Return to Darxus' home page.