drugs at drum circles
Thomas Westgard (t-westgard@onu.edu)
Fri, 12 Jan 1996 14:05:05 -0500
Drugs have little to do with it. Actually, it has been my experience that
stoned drummers are far less likely to try to grandstand than others.
I had my most trying lesson in this aspect of drumming at a very large drum
circle I went to this summer. I was there for a week, and there was one
idiot (completely sober) who had the loudest djembe I have ever heard, and I
have heard some very loud ones. This guy came to the circle night after
night, drowning out all others. Bear in mind, at times others of us tried
to gang up on him to try to outcompete, but his superior firepower kept us
all at bay. I enjoyed the solos for a while, but it is nice to have a big
group thing going too, or at least to hear some other solos. As soon as
someone else tried to come up above the crowd, he would start another one
until the "competitor" faded away.
Then, the third or fourth night, I went to the circle and I had a horrible
feeling of unease. At first I thought I was just having a bad night, but it
seemed to affect everyone else. Even the macho drummer appeared to be
affected. He couldn't seem to get into the groove, and went home early. As
I drifted in and out of the circle all night, there always seemed to be a
couple of people who just couldn't quite get into a groove. The unease I
felt was the total lack of rhythm in the drum circle. A groove would start
and then just shatter into chaos. Then something else would appear to
start, but fail too.
What I was missing was that this chaos was totally intentional. A group of
Discordian drummers had taken over the circle. The point was to avoid
patterns. Any time you get into one by accident, you have to break it
apart. It's actually more fun (and harder) than I thought. And it did get
rid of the loud guy.
Thomas Westgard
t-westgard@onu.edu
twestgard@aol.com
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