Drumming Up Some Difficult Real Life Memories but mostly good fun with the Salisbury Hand Drummers (in CT, my hometown of all places)

Plenty of people know sometimes it makes sense to 'make a little noise' to get your message out. Salisbury Hand Drummers take that 'little noise' to a thunderous level at times, shaking the rafters as it were and making people want to get up and dance..or at least tap their foot or clap their hands. Tempted? Facebook friend them online or if you are up for some real adventure, come over to a class session at the Scoville Memorial Library in Salsa-berry (aka Salisbury), Connecticut on a Tuesday night from 7-8pm. 

A $15 donation per class helps keep the remarkable teacher John Marshall successful in getting to the location and leading one awesome, rhythmical session after another for many years now. There have been a dozen or more concerts at venues from a church to a nursing home to the Bridgewater Fairgrounds in CT in hot summers past (one practically during a lightning storm...)There's simply 'no stopping these dedicated drummers' of all levels and from many walks of life. Listening in is okay too, just to warm up to the notion of actually 'hiiting a drum' maybe for the first time.

Look up some drum circles on line, some basic drumming tips, pound away on your kitchen table ( using the edge for edge tones played with your fingers but not your palms...and then reaching in the center a bit for a deeper center tone. Enjoy going back and forth..there's no Wrong Way to get drumming..just bang away with a steady rhythm or one that has a little variation. Again don't worry about technique (but go easy so as not to hurt yourself or anyone nearby should you get lost in your  newfound talent and someone try to get your attention for another telemarketing call.)

A quick newsflash about Those Calls. History was made today when for the second time I actually took a call from Capital One about an existing credit card that someone I am related to had even though he passed away almost a decade ago. No, it wasn't in my son's name since he was only 16. For more about our courageous late teen, see Remembering Kaelan or CT teen tries to save his friends from dangerous water (and does so for the most part with rescuer Skip Kosciusko completing the skillful rope rescue that was required to bring the third lad at risk to safety.)

I was actually headed to drum class via the back roads from Falls Village to Salisbury by the power plant when I learned of the turn of events that changed our lives and put many recovery folks at risk near the dangerously high Housatonic River. Mainly that river is everyone's friend and the lifeblood of the area for hundreds of area. On June 16th, 2009,(about two years after Tom Drew went missing and I had hoped we could have that kind of sound playing so he could perhaps find his way back to his home after wandering even though he was elderly and frail.) that was not the case for our family regarding the river. It claimed other lives later that summer but thankfully no others but one that mid-June afternoon when a group of youth ventured to see it and opted to go into a 'seemingly safe area.' 

The tragedy that day and ongoing dangerous recovery effort  was a huge wake up call to pay attention to obvious dangers and to get more adults and youth to coordinate sensible ways to use their free time and explore the world. I have many posts reflecting on that such as Crafting Clear Safety PLANS and hope to do a more formal outreach this year to promote safety in homes, schools, work places and outdoors, in relationships and in life in general. Just The Basics.

The big hearted and highly talented John Marshall was going to close out the memorial service for Kaelan but couldn't make it. Still the moment to acknowledge the beating of our own hearts was taken and the energy of the drum circle, as well as some friends who did play during the after ceremony gathering rounded added to the experience. Kaelan Paton's Memorial Service is on youtube in short segments and can be an ongoing message in music, poetry, sharing and gathering to help anyone on their journey through life. I hope to have more of a formal outreach to show support for the many kinds of struggles each decade of life can bring to one or more people. Then have more ways to prevent the 'worst of it' and help people have ways to ask for and receive help in a timely manner as they also develop more self-care and networks. Sound like a good game plan?

I likely will recommend everyone Try Drumming to realize what control one can have over something as basic as hitting  a drum and doing some 'call and response' listening and repeating back what the message is. See some parallels there with communication and working with voluntary agreements to be consistent..and follow the game plan? So back to the credit card, I learned the authorized user is not respsonsible for the debt. If the estate did not have funds to pay the card off, no action would be taken. Because it's been so many years, maybe a death certificate would not be required.

Those can run $20 and are helpful to have. Here's a tip though..when you go to get it, make sure you are handed the proper one maybe before it gets certified, a problem when two people have similar names or possibly are related. Yes, that happened to me and I ended up getting both of them. To me it seemed an 'important mistake' and more of a message. There are matters being addressed for the other relative almost a decade later where that comes in handy to resolve. So for that reason and to have a way to honor the sense of history and 'closure' it made sense to have that piece of paper with the official stamp on it. 

Now back to the drum circles in the world and even folk festivals and other concerts. So much happens when live music is shared, people gather and take time to get to know each other a bit around the edges. It's healing and helps one with feeling present in one's own skin and as part of a group. The iniital efforts can seem monumental even for 'something that looks so simple.' Sometimes one can almost feel the neural pathways being formed, the energy zinging around the room.

The smiles and eye connection can help steady the energy and help one keep the beat (checking the leader's hands or another capable drummer's pattern lined up with one's own drum or at a spot one can catch easily also helps.) 'Fake it til you make it' can take on new meaning..and the classes can be very forgiving.

Are there memory tests being given? It seems so but often the cheat sheet lyrics to capture the rhythms are dreamed up on the spot. The latest is "Pass the popcorn please" 3x, then "Put some butter-on-it" (2x), then "Please don't spill any on the floor' 1x. We could make a profit from a book with such drumming lyrics and playful images. One stand by is 'WALK the Big dog" 3x), Take-him-out-for-icecream!" You'd play that one with your strong hand in the center of the drum for WALK then the edge tone for the, and the center for Big and the edge for dog. Three times, then on the edge, the stong hand, the weaker one (usually Right, Left) for the last phrase. Repeat. If you have three drummers, one can start after the 1st WALK the Big dog. Then the next. The echo of the last phrase will then repeat nicely in a round. Play a four times and see how cool you feel. Keep going, maybe having one person start then the next join in and the next. See what fun there is to be had by doing some loud together then very softly, or the Walking softly and the Icecream part loudly.

Congratulations is in order to John Marshall (who has a book out on basic drumming techniques and a CD so you can't go wrong) and has done much to put drumming on the map in CT and everywhere he travels. Same goes for those who got the group going at St. John's Episcopal Church where it continued for years before transferring the location over to the Scoville Memorial Libraray. Many great programs there year-round. They are also sponsoring the digitizing  many decades of The Lakeville Journal of CT so welcome donations to that as well.

Kindly earmark a donation with that Lakeville Journal project on it or look online for details. Thanks in advance. It could be a way to help celebrate a special occassion, in memory of someone or an event, a town's anniversary (many in the area have passed their 250th and even their 275th in recent years, including Falls Village CT, my hometown after living 4 years in Salisbury as part of the large Mary and Dale Palmer Srs family. More about that too on these posts. 

As its the time of remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the unjust and unnecessary bombings our country did to them (see the book Hiroshima: Fact or Myth?) let's take a more than a few minutes to learn our collective history and find ways to make amends. The list of wrongdoings is long and complex and may take a while. Let's repair our history so we are not faced with repeating it or having to pay more karmic debt for ignoring what was what. Hopefully we can find reliable resources and more facts on youtube talks (the modern way to communicate) and other resources. We have but one planet to drum up some great ideas to save the earth and its lovely habitants, each with their own heartbeat playing steadily to keep them in the game of life. Let's make every beat count... 1-2, 1-2,, me and you, me and you!