Jim Arnold

Dancing Drums

I believe that everyone has a heartbeat. You walk. You put one foot in front of the other. Everyone has rhythm. Every culture has rhythm. Every culture has drumming. Even the European cultures, before Christianity, had drumming.
--Jimi Two Feather, Master Drummer

Searching for Peace of Mind
In my former life, I was the Chief Radiologist in a Midwest City, Oklahoma Hospital. I "seemed" to have all that one could want of the good in life. But I realize that I didn't have peace of mind. To me, that seemed the most important gift of all.

It was a Tuesday morning, and I was lying on lush green grass, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. After a profound meditation, the first sound I heard was a group playing African hand drums. I knew at that moment that playing the drum would be the way I would share my joy.

Playing with Drums
I use the African hand drum to share my joy of life to any who are open to it. I have found greater and greater joy in working with school children who are still able to express freely their own inner beauty and worth before they grow into the natural repressiveness of modern society.

I have been singularly impressed with the age group that includes 4th Graders who do not yet know that they have any limits. When presented with an African drum, they naturally "do it." I tell them to "Be where I am," as I was taught by my own teacher Babatunde Olatunji. Children can soar to drumming heights that amaze me.

With this age group, even when I stumble through my own drumming routine, they applaud loudly in appreciation of something so beautifully simple as expressing one's self with hands dancing on the drum.

I recently experienced this drum dancing while with 4th Graders in a small country school in Southwestern Oklahoma. I asked "What is the first sound we hear just before being born?" One young woman gave the correct answer, "My mother's heart beat." while another young gentleman gave his honest answer. "Screaming!" Ah, the honesty of youth.

For my last session with the Hobart, Oklahoma 4th Graders, I was paid in "coin" for which there is no equal--precious hand-written letters of appreciation from each of the children expressing their thanks for the drum workshop. One of the more than forty letters said:

"Dear Mr. Arnold;
Thank you for bringing the drums for us to play and teaching us how to play a song. I hope you come back to Hobart. I would like to go through that experience again. You are a nice man for teaching us that experience of what it feels like to let your hands do all the dancing"

And, you must know that all these brought a welcome tear to the eyes of this old one.

The children let me become one of them as we shared the natural love within each of us and expressed it appropriately through the African drum. For a few moments, I was 10 years old again. As the classes progressed, it became obvious the children were beginning to repress that naturalness of all children so as the older ages were reached, the sessions began to take on a more competitive and judgmental tone.

I have no doubt that if a child is allowed to express who they are in an appropriate way, such as the hand drum, that they can "hang on" to their feelings of self-worth much longer. I also have no doubt that older adults can reclaim that inner worth and beauty when they allow themselves to unlock the cage in which they have placed their inner child.

There are so many benefits of drumming for children. Humans express well who they are by using music as the tool. Drumming is basic and most likely the first musical instrument outside of the human voice. So, it would be a natural way to express who we are and what we are feeling in a given moment, which is always a good thing to do in an appropriate way. Most of us, when hearing music or even a steady beat of a windshield wiper will "drum along" on whatever is available, a steering wheel, a counter top, etc.

That is why art in general is so critical in the early years of life to let a child express themselves, without judgment, but in frankness. It is a way to hold on to self-esteem, self-love, which is so easily given up when it is challenged by our environment and other stressors.

Children learn drumming easily. As with most learning, it is best done as a child. As Dr. Michio Kaku, a renown theoretical physicist, co-founder of String Theory, and the author of international best-selling books says, "Basically, we ARE music." The primordial sound of the drum and drone of the Australian didgeridoo touch that part of our soul. Where there is joy in expression, there is no stress.

Parents use drumming to help children. When I approach an adult about drumming, they often say "My child would like that." I sense that what they actually are saying is "I would have loved to drum as a child" but feel that it is inappropriate as an adult." I see that this is a learned response of repression of self.

Helping one's child to learn to drum must be an awesome way of sharing one's love for that child. In turn, it gives the child a way to express his or her self. Of course, it must be done as "sharing" a joy of life to be of greater benefit rather than a way to control or judge.

Drumming assist in handling stress. I made and gave a drum to my Chief Radiology Technologist, with whom I worked for many years in a local hospital. She kept the drum in her office. Frequently, a doctor or colleague tech would come into her office when she was not there, close the door and drum to relieve their stress.

--You cannot drum and think of negative things. That has been my experience.

--It has also been found that hand drumming lowers high blood pressure and slows the heart rate.

--It is good for maintaining or gaining upper body strength.

I have worked with a support group of women who have had mastectomies for breast cancer. A recent medical study has shown that group hand drumming has anticancer effects, strengthening the bodies' immune system. It is as "infectious" as laughing.

I have witnessed positive changes in personality in some with just two hours of drumming. When done "to a sweat" daily, it can help one lose weight, especially around the abdomen and upper torso.

Recently, while giving a first drum lesson to a 36-year old man with bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome, he stopped after about 30 minutes and exclaimed, "My hands don't hurt anymore and they are not numb." That remained unchanged for at least 3 months. No longer follow up has been done. I have a drummer friend who had his own "healing" of carpal tunnel syndrome while drumming.

All of this represents my observations of what drumming can do, as well as just being plain old fun. I have drummed with people of ages 6 through 85 years. The oldest were two women, one a retired ballet teacher in a wheelchair who kept the beat as well as a professional drummer.

Copyright © 2003 James Arnold. All rights reserved.


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About The Author ...
Jim Arnold studied with the Master African Drummers, Babatunde Olatunji and Gordy Ryan. Jim calls himself Medicine Drummer and a Didgeridoo Vibrotherapist. He shares his joy of life through the drum and didgeridoo and is an Inspirational speaker and offers interactive drumming workshops and private lessons. His favorite quote is "You can't do it wrong." Reach Jim by visiting his web site at www.justdrum.com or emailing him at justdrum@aol.com.