Drum Circle by Rob Dufour

I have never been to a drum circle before, nor have I ever really had a desire to be a part of one. This is mostly due to me being a pretty reserved individual and I held the notion that a drum circle was just people getting together to show off their sweet drumming skills. I was pretty skeptical at first – I won’t lie, I was laughing a bit when we had to walk in all those circles before we could enter, and I wasn’t too happy about having to deal with numb feet. However once the circle started up I figured I would give it my best shot and tried to jump right in. They guy next to me was pretty ridiculous on his personal conga-like drum which was fine with me because it seemed to drown out the miserable sounds I was producing. As the circle progressed I definitely felt my reservations being released and I started to really enjoy myself as the rhythms I was making along with the people around me really started to connect. As I got into my “groove” I started observing the others in the group to see what kind of reactions they were having to the experience. I saw some people that were truly feeling the music and in contrast I saw some people that were just frowning at their instrument and looked miserable. Mostly though I began to take notice that many were transforming into active members of the group, just as I did myself –we eventually allowed ourselves to become united with the group through these individual, yet dependent, sounds. Something I noticed was that the circled seemed to be too large for everyone to hear one another to keep beat with the entire circle. I found myself playing along with the two people next to me because those were the few individual rhythms I could hear. But maybe that was the point – we aren’t supposed to hear any one individual, rather we were to focus on the united whole. During the later part of the experience I found myself mesmerized by the vibrant sunset that was taking place over the river. I stopped playing for awhile and just stared off into the horizon and listened to the music. I was actually quite calmed by the entire experience. As the music stopped I thought about how I had changed from before the music, and I felt closer to people in the group – even though I barely knew anyone, and I also felt closer to the surroundings. Between appreciating that sunset and getting a real good feel for the cold ground I definitely felt I had developed a bond with my new environment as a result of this drum circle.