Hello! My name is Stephen Gornick and I’m a drum circle facilitator. Collaborative music making is a great way to bring people together, build community and get our bodies moving. Drum circles are exceptional in that drumming and percussion is rather accessible compared to other instruments. It only takes a few minutes to learn how to get sounds out of your drum or percussion instrument. Drum circles allow plenty of opportunities for improvisation and free play so they’re fun for all ages and experience levels. And you can dance if you want to!
The Drum Circle Facilitator’s Guild defines a drum circle as this:
A drum circle is a rhythm-based event that utilizes a variety of hand drums and percussion instruments to empower a community of participants with the ability to create beautiful, spontaneous music. Drumming and cooperatively creating rhythmic based music as part of a group is a kinesthetic activity that involves everyone regardless of musical experience or ability.
No experience necessary! All instruments are provided!
I can work with as many as 45 people or as little as 5. Drumming circles are a great way to build connections between people in a fun and playful way. They’re a great community-building, team-building activity for all ages.
Populations I serve:
Community Groups
Elder Care
Special Needs
Support Groups
Kids
Youth at Risk
College Students
oso.rhythms@gmail.com
919-410-0500
This is a description of my process when working with eldercare groups:
I’ll make a circle of chairs, typically my eldercare groups are between 10 and 20 people
Once everyone is seated comfortably I’ll briefly explain what a community drum circle is
We’ll do some basic stretching in our seats
Often times I’ll have everyone do The Hokey Pokey just to get warmed up
Then we’ll do a song and some simple body percussion exercises
Then I’ll hand out my boomwackers and we’ll do some simple call and response exercises, pass the beat around the circle, etc. We’ll then just have an open jam for a few minutes
After the boomwacker exercise I would then hand out my assortment of hand drums. I use primarily djembes and tubanos for my drum circles.
I demonstrate proper playing technique and do a little bit of call and response
We’ll play a few rhythms, sing some call and response songs. I like to stick to the ratio %20 facilitation, %80 open play. The intent is to create in the moment free expression through shared rhythm making.
For elder care groups I also add music. I strap a tambourine to my foot to keep the pulse and play my guitar as I sing songs that are easy to follow and sing along to. For the last ten minutes or so I typically play songs from the 50s and 60s on my speaker to free my hands to offer up the various types of small hand percussion I have and to facilitate dance. Oftentimes this is when the habilitation specialists join in and interact with the residents.
