It has been almost a week since I went to VA for a sound empowerment course with Jim Donovan.
When I signed up for the course my hopes were to understand a little more on how to use the drum to help myself and others improve their quality of life. I had also hoped that I could improve my own ability to drum with others. What I got and what I thought I was going to get were two different things. The one thing I was very excited about was that Jim himself is an amazing drummer and one of the founders of a group known as Rusted Root. Their music is a fantastic arrangement of percussion instruments blended with an array of other instruments that will get you up on your feet and dancing like you have never danced before.
As we began, Jim was able to make everyone very comfortable and relaxed. All I could think of was, “How am I going to play my drum sitting in the presence of what I considered one of the world’s great drummers?” I could not imagine how this was all going to come together. But Jim was very calm and encouraging at getting us all introduced and learning more about why we were here to participate in his sound empowerment course.
As we all began to share with one another why we were there, we all became more and more comfortable with, not just one another, but our whole environment. We became comfortable with the sound, the silence,
the laughter, and the feel of our drums. Even though most of us had the drums we have played over and over again Jim had us in touch with them, or at least me, in touch with a drum I have played for years in a completely different way than I have ever felt it before. Before any of us had even struck the drum head and as I sat there with my hands on the head of the drum there was a whole new sensation emitting from it. Jim carried us on a journey that opened up another side of the power of the drum for me.
I have always been able to have outstanding experiences with a drum. When you listen to a song and tap your foot and that song takes you away from your reality and into that place you want to be is something almost everyone has experienced in one way or another and not realized it. It is the vibration of the drum that alters your conscious being and opens up anothe world for you to enter. Most people write this off as just a break from reality because they just like the song, when in reality the drums vibration has taken shamans and those that will allow the drum to alter their subconscious self into another world. Jim not only shared with us how powerful and wonderful the use of sound is, he opened up our inner self to allow us to step to another level of kindness and caring love for all living things in our universe.
The bonus was he took 20 people who had not known each other until that day and gave us a moment in time that we rocked, maybe not as well as Rusted Root does, but when we ended our jam you could not have told me otherwise.
Send me on my way, and that he did. Thanks Jim and everyone in VA for that outstanding journey. I hope everyone’s experience was wonderful as mine.
When I signed up for the course my hopes were to understand a little more on how to use the drum to help myself and others improve their quality of life. I had also hoped that I could improve my own ability to drum with others. What I got and what I thought I was going to get were two different things. The one thing I was very excited about was that Jim himself is an amazing drummer and one of the founders of a group known as Rusted Root. Their music is a fantastic arrangement of percussion instruments blended with an array of other instruments that will get you up on your feet and dancing like you have never danced before.
As we began, Jim was able to make everyone very comfortable and relaxed. All I could think of was, “How am I going to play my drum sitting in the presence of what I considered one of the world’s great drummers?” I could not imagine how this was all going to come together. But Jim was very calm and encouraging at getting us all introduced and learning more about why we were here to participate in his sound empowerment course.
As we all began to share with one another why we were there, we all became more and more comfortable with, not just one another, but our whole environment. We became comfortable with the sound, the silence,
the laughter, and the feel of our drums. Even though most of us had the drums we have played over and over again Jim had us in touch with them, or at least me, in touch with a drum I have played for years in a completely different way than I have ever felt it before. Before any of us had even struck the drum head and as I sat there with my hands on the head of the drum there was a whole new sensation emitting from it. Jim carried us on a journey that opened up another side of the power of the drum for me.
I have always been able to have outstanding experiences with a drum. When you listen to a song and tap your foot and that song takes you away from your reality and into that place you want to be is something almost everyone has experienced in one way or another and not realized it. It is the vibration of the drum that alters your conscious being and opens up anothe world for you to enter. Most people write this off as just a break from reality because they just like the song, when in reality the drums vibration has taken shamans and those that will allow the drum to alter their subconscious self into another world. Jim not only shared with us how powerful and wonderful the use of sound is, he opened up our inner self to allow us to step to another level of kindness and caring love for all living things in our universe.
The bonus was he took 20 people who had not known each other until that day and gave us a moment in time that we rocked, maybe not as well as Rusted Root does, but when we ended our jam you could not have told me otherwise.
Send me on my way, and that he did. Thanks Jim and everyone in VA for that outstanding journey. I hope everyone’s experience was wonderful as mine.
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