Is joining a drum ensemble a viable alternative to joining a gang?

Being a teen-ager is dangerous.  I think it has the potential to be the worst thing that can happen in your life. “Adolescents are often on an emotional roller coaster. Their bodies are being flooded with hormones, and they get angry and upset easily. They are trying to separate from their parents and become more autonomous, but they still desperately need their parents.” They are still kids, but are now experiencing more adult responsibilities without being granted corresponding adult authority. Their place is in between. They risk displacement and are often simply overlooked by adults. They are invisible. There are nefarious forces that are paying attention, though.

Gang-banger or drum-banger?  Can joining a drum ensemble provide what kids are needing at this time in their lives?  Can we at least offer an alternative?

Why do kids join gangs?

The feeling of being an outsider, dismissed and looked down on, is what gang members say drew them to their crews.

“You got to be part of a crew that has respect. That’s like family, boy.”

“Gangs give these kids status, a self-identity, and they call that their family,” kids replicate a sense of belonging through gangs and, just as important, get a feeling of protection.

“Yeah, they see those colors, they know it’s you and your boys,” says a 16-year-old Crip from the Groometown Road area. “It ain’t you alone. You ain’t never alone. That’s the truth.”

With broken families common, Jackson-Stroud says, young kids look for mentors and role models — and too often find them in gangs.

MS13 also appeals to young men proud of their culture but without an outlet for that pride in a city dominated by black and white. “So you got your set. You got your signs. You got your colors,” one member says. “You belong. That’s like saying, ‘This is where I belong.’

“There is a serious issue of racial discrimination when it comes to Latino kids,” he says. Although many MS13 members come from Latin and Central American countries, the gang was founded in America by immigrants who faced racism and violence. One MS13 member says being Latino means you don’t belong anywhere.

Why Drums and Drum Circles?

by Karl T. Bruhn

Humans have the need to belong, to be part of a group of individuals who share interests, and who come together for a common purpose. Such needs are as important to children and teens as they are to people in mid-life and to senior adults. In fact, it is increasingly being understood that this need for connection with others may be the most important component contributing to quality of life.

• Response to rhythm is basic to human functioning making percussion activities and techniques highly motivating to people of all ages and backgrounds.

• Pure percussion activities are interesting and enjoyable to all people regardless of ethnic and cultural background, musical preferences, or age range making these activities useful in creating groups that are fun and positive for a wide variety of people.

• Participation in active group percussion experiences has physical benefits including sustained physical activity, relaxation, and use of fine motor skills.

• A strong sense of group identity and a feeling of belonging is created because participants are actively making music together and because the sustained repetition of the steady beat acts to bring people together physically, emotionally, and mentally (rhythmic entrainment).

• Percussion activities can be done with little or no previous musical background or training making these experiences accessible to virtually all people.

How Is Drumming Prevention?

In addition to providing a creativity outlet for students and entertainment for the community, research suggests that students involved in arts programming do better in school and are less likely to engage in risky behaviors. According to the Department of Education, “cultural projects which involve young people in an exploration of their neighborhood and its history allow them to gain a better understanding of their family, ancestors and community. They develop bonds to their community and a sense of civic pride. Through performing, exhibiting and teaching others their newfound skills, youth come to see themselves as having valuable contributions to make to their communities. A study of several prevention programs found that young people were attracted to programs that emphasized cultural heritage, sports or the arts – programs that embedded prevention messages in the context of other activities rather than addressing it directly. Other research has shown that minority youth with a strong sense of cultural identity, especially those who function competently in two cultures, are less likely than other minority youth to use alcohol and other drugs. In addition, young people who participate in theater groups, choirs, bands and other arts and humanities programs are more likely to stay in school and to avoid harmful behaviors.”

Music Therapy as a Treatment for Substance Abuse with At-Risk Children and Adolescents:

by Deborah Bradway, MT-BC

Music is not only a universal language, it is the result of a natural bodily response for humans to adjust within an environment. Since the birth of man, music has been used for many things, but primarily to purge.

Why do the countries with extreme poverty and suppression produce music that the rest of the world adopts as the leading forms of healing music? Those who created these forms did so for survival and cultural preservation, to rise above and heal from devastation. “Happy” music can lift depression or promote health, such as in the beautiful chants from Salvador Bahia or the dancing rhythms from Africa. “Mourning” music can move depression through the body, providing a physical exit through tears, such as the Blues music from Mississippi or Hasidic songs from Europe during Hitler’s reign.

As Jerrold Levinson stated in Music, Art, and Metaphysics (Cornell University Press, 1990), “The grief-response to music is that it allows one to bleed off in a controlled manner a certain amount of harmful emotion with which one is afflicted.”

Music provides us with a safe container within which one can slowly and safely come to terms with built up emotion that natural body defenses have hidden in the unconscious mind for the preservation of the organism.

The Psychology of At-Risk Children, Substance Use & Medical Effects of Music:

Youth who are at-risk have spent much of their time surviving, not living. They rarely have experiences that enable them to feel, let alone feel alive. Vulnerable young children who pack weapons and use drugs on a regular basis encounter the “fight or flight” adrenalin response frequently. The body of a child such as this develops thick defenses against the outside world, which includes the neighborhood they come home to each day.

Many experts talk about how anger is used to reach these often hostile young people. If we are to back up a step in psychology, we find in actuality, that anger comes from fear. It is fear that they are responding to in the initial stages of substance use. Having to carry a knife to walk the ‘terf’ of a neighborhood and fulfill the expectations of gang members as a sibling is a terrifying experience for a child who is forced to participate as soon as he/she becomes conversational with those in the community. A young person with virtually no support system, uses substances as a defense mechanism to shut down the pain that seems unbearable. The amygdala, and area of the brain recognized as a major emotional command center that allows us to experience pleasure, can be accessed through cigarettes and other substances.

There are both social and physiological reasons why music therapy successfully addresses a young person’s desire for cigarettes and other harmful, but pleasure inducing substances. To understand this, it is helpful to look at the positive opportunities that music therapy can provide in relation to the needs of children who continue to live in poverty, experience neglect, and often endure psychological and/or physical abuse. It is not a mystery that children of this population need to develop self-esteem. However, a music therapy group not only allows for the development of self-esteem through successful educational and social interactions, it also enables the child to use the group as a support system, a replacement for what has lacked in family structure and rituals. Music is structure within itself, and has been used to mark rituals throughout time for as long as man has known music. Also, it is important to remember that toning (the release of tension and anxiety through the voice), is the body’s natural regulation mechanism for healing, both emotionally and physically.

Many pilot projects studying neurological development have recently released word of increased educational abilities in children who participate in music. Reputable and high visibility music and education organizations such as the National Association for Music Education, National School Boards Association, National Association of Music Merchants, American Music Therapy Association, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Foundation, State Commissions of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, and many universities with world renown neurologists have shown on a consistent basis how music increases brain function.

The cultures commonly assisted in this at-risk population are Hispanic, Asain/Pacific Islander, and African-American. All of these cultures, which represent a large portion of our population in the United States, revere music as a highly respected part of the culture. As a matter of fact, it is such a central focus in some, that musicians are regarded as heroic in their society. Some cultures are identified primarily by their music. Most adolescents consider musical taste as an important element in socializing with each other. As we can see, there is a strong connection between identity and music.

When one engages in music, the inner life world of the individual and their social ability to interact comes “out on the table” in the musical group interaction.

As researchers know, statistics show smokers quitting, alcoholics becoming dry, and crack users becoming clean is a hard battle to fight. Instead of a band-aid approach, with relapses that occur in using, let’s take this one step deeper. Address the fear that transformed the lives of children by providing an alternative that they can relate to and feel heard. In addition, give them a replacement that is also perceived by the body as pleasure.

If we can teach alternatives at a young age, for those who have not yet started to use substances or are in experimental stages (including adolescent females who are pregnant or who are at high risk for pregnancy), we have an opportunity to shape the future. It is imperative that in this attempt we provide pleasure for pleasure as an exchange. Aspiring to be ‘that artist up on the stage’ only works for those who possess the self-esteem to follow through on dreams. These youth will continue to seek pleasure to reduce pain. Let’s give them a support system, successful experiences, a sense of self-worth, a new place to call home.

Let’s give them the pleasure they were looking for in the first place.

http://www.drums.org/dng/community.htm

Group Empowerment Drumming With At-Risk Youth