New York Times: October, 1996 DRUMMING FOR THE 90'S More Than a Beat By Claudia Ricci, New York Times By day, Riva Rothman is a data processing manager at the Consolidated Edison Company in New York. Dressed in silk blouses and conservative suits, she supervises the installation of computer networks for the utility. After hours, though, she drums. "Drumming provides balance in my life," said Ms. Rothman, who in four years has acquired more than 40 percussion instruments, which fill her one bedroom apartment in an East Side high-rise. "It helps me to concentrate, it clears my head and it connects me to rhythms of all kinds around me. The energies generated from drumming are very primal." Ms. Rothman isn't alone in her passion for percussion. Drum fever is sweeping the country as people discover the physical, psychological and spiritual rewards in rhythm, even for those who can't read a note or music. In cities suburbs and small towns, people are forming community drum circles and are buying drums, drum recordings and instructional videos. And they are forming what gleeful drum manufacturers call a "personal percussion market." "People want to buy drums that are small enough that they can throw them in a bag and carry them," said Dick Markus, national sales manager for Remo Inc., a drum manufacturer in North Hollywood, Calif. "You'll see bankers drumming and you'll see freaks left over from the 60's, too. It's like going to a Grateful Dead concert. You find everybody from the Volkswagen to the Lexus crowd." Indeed, drums are resonating in some of the most unlikely segments of society. Nuns use drums to liven up religious retreats. Corporations like Apple Computer, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard hold drum circles to build team spirit among top managers. In hospitals, nursing homes and centers for the elderly, music therapists use drums to ward off depression and loneliness among patients and as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinsons's disease. "Drumming is a form of nonverbal communication," said Al Bumanis, a spokesman for the National Association for Music Therapy, whose members supervise drumming circles in nursing homes and adult day-care centers in Washington. "For people who've lost the ability to communicate, percussion creates a sense of community that fosters communication when everything else is gone." For professionals like Ms. Rothman, drumming offers not only a social experience, but also benefits similar to those that come from running, aerobics, yoga or meditation. Focusing on rhythm seems to promote relaxation and help reduce anxiety and frustration. "With a drum, I can release tension very quickly," said Keith Kirk, a geohydrologist in Golden, Colo., who works for the United States Interior Department making sure coal mines comply with environmental regulations. "I have a lot of confrontation in my work, and I do a lot of computer modeling. I'm in my left brain most of the day. When I come home in the evening, I pick up the drum. I can get into a very, very relaxed state very quickly." Mr. Kirk became interested in drumming a few years ago when he attended ceremonies on Hopi and Navajo reservations. Now, he and his wife, Sarah, both drum, and they lead drumming circles in their community and in their church. Mr. Kirk teaches drumming, sells drums and owns 30 of them. Even his 9-year -old son is a drumming. "I guess you could classify me as a drum addict," Mr. Kirk said. Drumming got a boost a few years ago from Robert Bly's book "Iron John" and the men's movement that followed. But the drumming craze is also being fueled by new-age enthusiasts, by the fascination with American Indian, African and Caribbean cultures and by the popularity of world music. Drums also appeal to women interested in the ancient myths and civilizations that celebrated powerful goddesses and their rituals. "I keep thinking drumming is a fad, that it'll be over soon," said Layne Redmond, a drummer in New York who has a large following among people interested in the earth mother and goddess traditions. "But I can't even express what's going on. The interest in drumming right now is overwhelming." Some of the biggest drum aficionados can be found in churches. Sister Annette Covatta, a Roman Catholic nun in Carmel, N.Y., took a workshop with Ms. Redmond a year ago. She now uses drums in the retreats she leads among religious and lay groups. "I find when you bring drums in the energy goes sky high," said Sister. Covatta, who belongs to the sister of the Holy Name order. "Drumming is a powerful spiritual tool." She acknowledged that percussion has a powerful physical effect, too. "Drumming is a very gutsy experience," she said. "It gets you in touch with your body. It gets people physically aroused. It's a direct channel into the rhythms of your body." Repetitive cycles manifest themselves in everything from heartbeats to hormones. Sound, heat and light travel in waves. Day follows night; Birds, fish and animals migrate; Stars and planets move in cycles. "Drummers might not always be able to articulate the appeal, and they may be unconscious of it, but what drumming does to the power of rhythm inherent in all creation," said Gerry James whose business, Interworld Music of Brattleboro, VT, produces instructional drumming videos. Throughout history, percussion has been used in Africa,, Asia and the Middle East to mark births and deaths, and at ordinary events like planting and harvesting crops. "My father was a great fisherman and whenever we had a big catch we celebrated with drums," said Babatunde Olatunji, who grew up in Nigeria and helped renew interest in African drumming in the United States. Indeed, drumming has always been a link to the spirit world and a path to altered states of consciousness. Drums, in fact, may be for the 1990's what drugs were for the 60's and 70's. "There are a lot of ways to put yourself into a trance in our society," said Patricia Marrin, a computer analyst at Chemical Bank in New York who has been drumming for four years. "You can smoke, you can drink, you can watch TV. but playing drums is a nontoxic way of putting yourself into a trance." Julia Laurie a drummer in Troy N.Y., said: "I think people went through drugs but found they have certain side effects. Then we looked around and saw what drumming was doing for other cultures for eons. We found out there were great possibilities in drumming." In Santa Cruz, California, Arthur Hull has drummed up a career conducting village music circles for corporations. Typically, Mr. Hull brings percussion instruments to sales conventions, management training programs or organizational development seminars. In a matter of minutes the pixieish Mr. Hull gets staid corporate executives to march together in circles while chanting, dancing, hitting sticks together, ringing bells and beating on drums. Mr. Hull starts from the position that the executives probably don't know much about rhythm, and he's right, said Julie Forbes, who uses Mr. Hull in the leadership training seminars she manages at Motorola's semiconductor-products sector. Our managers are engineers, very technical people, she said. Still, Mr. Hull, who wears baggy clothes and a flat-topped cap, has a way with the rhythm-impaired. He starts the stunned managers off chanting, Goon, pah, pah, goon, pah, pah, goon pah! Then, using drum sticks and other instruments, he moves the executives through increasingly complicated rhythms. By the end, Ms. Forbes said, everybody is holding a different instrument and we're like a jazz band jamming with bells, drums and sticks. It's wonderful. It's really a phenomenal experience." Drumming circles have a similar effect on elderly people in nursing homes, where music therapists say percussion lifts spirits and self-esteem and erase feelings of isolation. "With drumming, you're down to the common denominator of rhythm," said Barbara Crowe, executive director of Rhythm for Life, in Mesa, Arizona. The organization was formed two years ago after Dr. Oliver Sacks, a neurologist and author of "Awakenings," and other drumming advocates testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Dr. Sacks suggested that neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's "can be transformed by the healing power of music." While there are no studies yet to prove it, Ms. Crowe, a music therapist, said anecdotal evidence suggests that after drumming, Alzheimer's patients experience periods in which they are more coherent. "Right after drumming," she said, "these patients can give straight answers, whereas at other times of the day, they're delusional and agitated." In partnership with San Diego State University, Rhythm for Life recently won a $99,000 Federal grant to provide healthy elderly people in six communities across the United States with percussion training. In another Rhythm for Life project, music therapists at the Colmery O'Neil Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Topeka, Kansas are evaluating the use of drumming among 28 patients with dementia. One of the music therapists there, Barry Bernstein, helped design a hexagonal drum table, four feet across, that can be used by up to a dozen people in wheel chairs. "You put your legs underneath the table," he said, "and you get buzzed. You feel it in your whole body." The table, he said, is one of the most effective of the hospital's music-therapy tools. It is popular with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, with patients in drug and alcohol recovery programs and with people with chronic psychological disorders. "The repetition of the steady pulse brings the focus of the group to a central point," Mr. Bernstein said. "That's when raptural experiences happen. We don't talk about it in spiritual terms. We don't give a rap about ancient this or ancient that. We just let it happen. We let the drums do the work." Reprinted with permission © 1993 The New York Times Company
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