when drumming is therapy: drummitation (drum meditation)

This week, plans were upturned when we got the news that my father-in-law had entered into home hospice care. His cancer treatments have been unsuccessful in stemming the growth of the disease and he is preparing for the end of his life, which we're told could come in weeks or even less time.
We leave for California on Monday to spend the remaining time with family.

As you can imagine, this is a stressful time as we rush to make travel arrangements, figure out pet care, and cancel holiday plans.

And when things get intense and our nerves get frazzled, as has happened repeatedly in the last few days, Sweetie advises me to go into the other room and drum.

Yes, really.

Drumming is something I've often done throughout my life to relieve stress. Today has been especially difficult as we juggle various details of our need to rush to be with family. So more than once, I've retreated to the back room in our little house and chopped out.

In the morning it's been as simple as playing slow and steady eighth notes to a metronome, gradually increasing speed and continuing until my hands get tense, then backing off of that a little and hanging out at the fastest comfortable tempo for several minutes. This is usually enough to calm me down and clear my head.

If after that I feel a desire to chop out on random stuff I can do that too, like in the videos below.
This "drummitation," as I like to call it, has helped repeatedly in my quest for calm during tense times. I recommend it highly.

Numerous studies have shown that repeated drumming can calm the fight-or-flight response in the brain, can improve blood flow and lower blood pressure, and can help to relieve stress in much the same way that gentle exercise does. I must have known all that instinctively before I'd ever read about it, when I was a kid; my childhood was filled with a great deal of stress and drumming was something I could always do to calm down. About eighteen months ago I began to turn it into a morning meditative practice, with a metronome and a rubber pad (to avoid disturbing Sweetie, who worked in the dining room and asked me not to meditate on an actual drum while she was home).
It has become a regular part of my meditative practice and a cherished part of how I wake up and come to "full density" in the morning.

Wherever your drumming takes you this season, I hope it's enjoyable and fulfilling.
Happy Holidays.

Things I want in my drumming world

They say if you name things they can become more real over time.

So here's my list of things that I want to materialize in my drumming world.

1. A community band that isn't only about playing at protests. While I love hanging with UBB, lately a vocal minority of the most active members have voiced their reluctance to participate in Honk! festivals and other "less political" events, preferring to play at actual protests (like the Proud Boys actions of last summer, for example). They want the band to be a political activist entity first, and then a musical organization. I respect that but don't share their enthusiasm for hurling myself into the fray. The White supremacists love to tangle with Antifa, the police love to stand on the sidelines and watch, then move in where there are enough potential arrests to keep them busy. Some previous events have been potentially dangerous. One recent event at the end of the summer was apparently successful for the band (they showed up in banana suits and deflected attention away from the violence, though the violence still happened). But overall, I play in a band to make music more than to put my body on the line for a political cause.

So I would love to find a Honk!-style band that wants to do Honk!-type events along with the protests.

2. In my humble little community band, the other drummers are mostly beginners. I showed up and immediately it was clear that I could play for real, and suddenly, the other drummers were respectful but not especially chummy. Like I was playing so far above them that I was a welcome addition to the band but not someone they'd necessarily go have a beer with after an event.

While I appreciate the existence and purpose of UBB, I desperately want to find drummers to play with who are into rudimental drumming and want to chop out together, say, once a month. In a crowd like that I'd very likely be the least experienced player and it would raise my playing a lot. But I feel a little sheepish about putting it out there -- a middle-aged woman drumming alone in Portland, Oregon sounds kind of pathetic in a way.

(Relax. That's just the clinical depression talking. I'm fine, really.)

3. It would be nice to be able to drum on actual drums a little more often. For that, I need to arrange a schedule with my Sweetie that gets her out of the house more often so I have it to myself. This one's actually more doable.

So mostly I enjoy drumming, but have grown tired of doing it mostly alone. I'd like to find some other folks to drum with now and then to challenge myself and change things up.

Portland, Oregon drummers -- anyone out there into old-school rudimental chopping?
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