World Rhythm Festival 2012

This weekend I attended the World Rhythm Festival. It is held annually in Seattle Washington and it is the largest, free rhythm festival in the world. For two days I drummed myself silly. I now find myself walking around the house with a “digga-digga-boom-bam” running around in my head. If you are a music therapist in the Northwest region, you have to make the treck at some point to attend this event. There were over 90 workshops on dance, drumming, and small percussion to attend.  This place is a drumming gold mine. Did I mention it was FREE?!

I am just starting to learn more about drumming and how to use it in my Music Therapy practice. Two epiphanies I had at the festival:

1. Drum circles sound much better when there are instruments besides just drums in them. Shakers, scrapers, bells and sticks, or other woods add a fantastic texture to the music.  I learned they can be equally fun to play too.

2. Some people love thumping away the same rhythm over and over again. I found I got bored doing this. I like a well facilitated drum circle that makes you concentrate and watch the leader for stops, starts, rumbles, accents and dynamics. I LOVE to hear what distinct drumming patterns sound like on top of each other, so I like it when drum facilitators take layers of the group out and then add them back in. 

Here I am with the Drum Circle Master Jedi, Arthur Hull.

I was able to take two of the three classes he taught and they were great!  He's coming back next year. Mark your calendar!

There is a huge room in which vendors sell a large variety of drums and other percussion instruments. It's noisy in there because everyone is testing out the instruments. Can you say "kid in a candy shop?" I was totally enthralled to see so many unusual intruments from all over the world. Warning: it's easy to lose track of time while your down here. It was worth going to the festival just to shop!

 

An inpromtu jam by shoppers who are testing out some percussion intruments at one of the vendor stations. Awesome.

Vendor

I am interested in learning how to build my own Marimba so I found this instrument intriguing. It's called a bellaphone. It has wooden keys that are tuned just like a marimba but check out what the bottom of it looks like....

Instead of tubes they use gourds as resonators. All of these instruments were built in West Africa. Below you can hear what they sound like since I took a Bellafone class at the festival.

A clip of the Sat. Night Drum Circle and of the Bellaphone class. Arthur Hull facilitated the drum circle and kept saying there were 300 people there. It was massive.

How happy is this! I loved watching this Seniors Group get in the groove!



Final Assessment

Rhythm Festival PRO'S:

1. Arthur Hull was there and he rarely does training on main land USA anymore.

2. A large variety of classes and very skilled percussionists teaching them

3. It was free

4. It was family friendly. There were several classes that kids could participate in.

5. Availability of an impressive assortment of high quality, percussion instruments to buy.

Rhythm Festival CON'S:

1. Classes didn't always start or end on time. I met many percussionists that seem to just lived in the moment and didn't use or even own a time keeping device.

2. No one provided any kind of documentation (hand-outs) of the rhythms they taught. Probably because most people have a book or something they hope you will buy at the end. But they could have done a little better in this regard.

3. My hand hurt after day two. Not sure what to do about that. Bring a shaker for a break.

I will definately attend next year and will probably bring some or all of my kids.

I would love to hear from you. Is this Festival something you think would be valuable to you in the future? Did you attend the festival? What did you think of it? Would you go again? What is your favorite drum festival or gathering?

My Big Hello!

     My name is Janea Christensen. In 2000 I graduated with a degree in Music Therapy from Utah State University.  Shortly after my clinical internship I took a break from Music Therapy so I could be a full time mom to my four beautiful children.  It’s been twelve years since I worked as a Board Certified Music Therapist, and I have been feeling a call to come back to the field that I love and feel so much passion for. As I prepare myself to re-enter the world of clinical music therapy, I have many questions. What has changed about the field of Music Therapy since I have been gone? What advances have been made in this field? How accessible is Music Therapy in the Seattle area? In what ways are local Music Therapists serving the public in the Pacific Northwest? What local, professional enrichment opportunities are there in the Seattle area?

Join me as I explore the answers to these questions and more!