(Note: This post is about a formal Workshop that was held in the past. For information about the ongoing weekly Book Study at the New Orleans Healing Center, click here.)
Each week during The Artist's Way workshop (and perhaps for life), we are to take ourselves on an Artist's Date. That is something we do to nurture our inner artist. And it's best done by ourselves so that we're not spending a lot of our energy being codependent and making sure a companion is having a good time. This is for us. It could be an artistic experience, like going to the art museum or a symphony. It could be an adventure, pushing ourselves to do something we'd thought about but hadn't dared to do.
This week, I went to a community drumming circle. I'd stayed away from drumming circles before for several reasons. First of all, the ones I'd seen were on the beach in Santa Barbara and seemed to be populated by Grateful Dead followers and there was the scent of weed in the air. That's not my scene. The next reason is that I have no idea how to drum. I didn't even know you were supposed to tilt the drum to get sound out of it!
The drumming circle I attended solved both of those problems. It was indoors and there were no substances, legal or illegal. Plus, this one provided the drums (which look almost identical to the one pictured above), and an amazing teacher. There were about 8 of us and we learned simple drum moves: the slap, the snap, the base, etc. I think I have those right. I'll learn more next week.
The sheer power of the drumming sound was therapeutic, a vacation from my writerly life. Not once during the 90-minute class did I think of an article that was due or how to plan my next Artist's Way workshop or that my dog really needs a bath. I was fully present. I wish I could have gotten video. Maybe next time.
Here are some examples of facilitated drumming circles. This was NOT the class I attended, but you can see the value of a good teacher and leader.
Here are some basic tones we learned:
More after next week's class!
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