Playing forward….

I am grateful… making music with others – especially showing other people that they are music makers – is truly a reward in itself. I spend most of my time and resources doing just that. It is worth every breath, every moment, every muscle. This morning I had one of my adapted classes at the Fort Boise Community Center. A young woman asked, “What are you going to teach us?”  ”Nothing.” I said. “You already know how to play music. I am just going to remind you.”

They remembered! One young man took a giant beautiful dununba, and without suggestion, began to play a steady deep pulse. Whoa, baby! That’s all I need! I matched his beat with bass notes on my djembe and the room immediately settled in time for the song to begin.

I want to let you know that this is a room filled with around 20 young adults [19 -25] with “disabilities” – Down’s, Autism… conditions, symptoms, complications, behaviors that distinguish them from “Typical”. Everyone in the room was playing to this pulse. [I did have to encourage the aides who believed they were there to observe. It is never a baby, a child or a person who 'comes-as-they-are' that tells me they cannot play a drum.]

We built the rest of the hour from there. Always the same. Always different. Start with a pulse, add your voice, your joy, your frustration, your day. Make the song we’re playing our own. A couple girls got up to dance. The kid on the tambourine rocked! The young man whose expression does not change, smiled. They laughed and drummed and hooted and cheered. It is worth everything to play this way.

I have been devoted to this sharing caring play time music fest for years. A few days ago, I received a financial gift. In my world, it was a really BIG gift. I am not a non-profit, so the donation of money and instruments really is a stringless Gift. The giver doesn’t get a tax break for it. It is encouragement to continue on and the means to do so. What my friends ‘paid for’ was my ability to donate several hours to a couple of classes of 5th graders, and still be able to pay some bills. They enabled me to purchase some lummi sticks so everyone can participate when we invite others to play. They have validated this priceless work…

The world is changing and asking us all to show up with our deepest love and greatest contribution. That is our own self.  I just play drums. But it is my voice, and shared with the voices of each person willing to speak up and share their deepest love and greatest self, we really can have harmony in this world.

http://failladrums.com/doing-the-best-for-the-most/