Topic: Drumming (Michael)

[Jennifer-]

Down Beat / Up Beat

There are two beats you should grasp, the down-beat and the up-beat.
 
To get to know the symbolic astral source of these two beats, do the following:
 
Down-beat. Sit cross legged on the floor/ground with a fairly solid pillow in front of you.  Summon up all the determination, even the frustration, built up all your life towards what you really want, what your soul wants, your true purpose and intent.  Build inside yourself the full passion of deepest drive, allow it to speak of how it has not yet been achieved, how you will not allow it to be thwarted, how you will surmount every obstacle, how you will show the gods that your passion is a pillar of flame into the cosmos, undeniable, unquenchable, ultimately victorious.  Let this passion grow inside, then at the peak lift your fists and bring them down on the pillow with all the force you have invoked - make the strike a statement of intent and power!  Cry out as you strike.
 
Don't hurt yourself.  Keep that in mind, so arrange pillows in a way to get maximum impact with minimum risk to body.  This is the power you can call on with a down-beat.  Drums love this passion, though some drums are more capable of relishing it than others.
 
Up-beat. Stand up. stand loose. Get ready for the most fantastic, most beautiful, most startling and unexpected surprise of your entire life - a moment of unsurpassed joy and delight and happiness is coming... unbeknown to you of course.  In one moment, you will fly up into the air with the sheer joy and wide-eyed, open-mouthed complete disarmed exalted surprise.  Wait for it, then JUMP!!! 
 
Can you allow yourself the freedom to let go all your anxieties, fears, tiredness, concerns - everything gone in one moment of pure startled joy. That's the up-beat, high off your feet into the sky.  Arms flung up, eyes and mouth startled open wide. 
 
Practice both until you feel these two states like animals let loose in your body.
 
Then comes the male and the female rhythms...
 
m
       

[Jennifer-]

Male and Female Rhythm

Just before I do male and female rhythms, there is one feature to acquire, and i can see you haven't quite got yet, but you soon will - it is the strike.  To be able to transfer from impulse to action instantaneously. No delay, no thought, no pause - send out the arm at the moment of impulse.  To do this we have to overcome the worry of embarrassment - what others may think.  This is a karate strike, on the drum or in the air, no matter, as the principle is to be able to turn on a dime.  In a split second, psychic intuition transforms into body action.
 
male rhythm
 
4/4 beat - almost all music is in male rhythm. 1 2 3 4 - emphasis on the 1st and 3rd beat with the 4th almost silent.  All heavy rock (emphasis on 3rd includes a high-hat note) and even classical, almost all blues, country, square dance etc.  The spacing between these beats is mostly even.  The beauty of this rhythm is that it is the most compatible with syncopation, which is unstructured variations to the even spacing of the beats. 
 
Male rhythm includes 2/2 (1 2 1 2 1 2 usually left right), 8 cycle and 16 cycle. It emphasises the down-beat.  Its support of rhythmic improvisations is so useful that the Africans adopted it, though they feminised the basic 4 structure then included a 4 beat segment in female rhythm into the longer pattern - usually a 16 beat pattern.  But that is another story - African's are the masters of rhythm.  Indian Classical also adopted it but stretched it out in a way that allowed for almost anything you like to fit into the longer cycle (also mostly 16 beat cycle - tintal).
 
female rhythm
 
3/4, 6/8 rhythms. Waltz, Irish gig (diddly diddly music), reggae, swing.  3 beat cycle.  There is a special left/right hand movement that all drummers need to learn to get this rhythm right - 2 hits left hand, 2 hits right hand - 1 2 (left) 1 2 (right).  Practice with even strokes in 4 time until the hands get it, then start to move into a skip by shifting the second hit of each hand closer to the first hit of the next hand.  This gives a 3 cycle (1 2 3) with only two beats played of the three (1 _ 3).  It emphasises the up-beat.  The main problem for drummers with the female rhythm is that it gets boring, as it is quite difficult to improvise with syncopated variations (tho not impossible).
 
Strangely men prefer the male rhythm and women the female rhythm. 

m
 

[tommy2]

My very favorite is the 1 - 2 - 3 with each individual beat about one/second, then all three repeated in one second.  Whenever I drum this I flash back on an elaborate Boy Scout ceremony I witnessed where a line of "priests" and "warriors" came up over a ridge and into view with this drumming I like.  It was at twilight with a giant fire and many scouts, leaders, parents participating/experiencing with their silence.  It was very moving and I still picture it some 20 years later. 

My personal drumming is usually not done very loudly.  I am in my small lodge alone.

2

[Nick]

"Down-beat. Sit cross legged on the floor/ground with a fairly solid pillow in front of you.  Summon up all the determination, even the frustration, built up all your life towards what you really want, what your soul wants, your true purpose and intent.  Build inside yourself the full passion of deepest drive, allow it to speak of how it has not yet been achieved, how you will not allow it to be thwarted, how you will surmount every obstacle, how you will show the gods that your passion is a pillar of flame into the cosmos, undeniable, unquenchable, ultimately victorious.  Let this passion grow inside, then at the peak lift your fists and bring them down on the pillow with all the force you have invoked - make the strike a statement of intent and power!  Cry out as you strike."


This is similiar to what I did to teach myself to shoot basketball. I like to focus in, and lock my concentration and intent with the male beat, and then switch to female, to shoot relax, trusting it will reach the hoop, let go and shoot.

It is wierd sometimes it felt like things where watching me when I would play...some unseen audiance.

Remember presence when you through your stone into the pond....

[Michael]

Ian - yes that is another good place for such a practice, i like it!

Tommy - soft is good - in winter i always play soft, almost silent, but I concentrate on the effect upon my body - allow it to flow unhindered through all my being.

the 3 time is a sweet rhythm, and can really get hopping when fast. in slow it is sensual.

Tom, how is that floating presence? have you tried drumming to it?

[tommy2]

Maybe it's me, m.  My sister, the LadyHawk, says we create a bubble-like shield around us which can manifest as a grid of interconnecting energies.  She has always said that she "throws one up" around where she is at for protection.  I'm not attuned enough, I guess, to even picture doing something like that but I have witnessed her doing some pretty awesome stuff over the years, so I dunno.    However it got there, it's there, man.  But I will surely drum to it during the Manitou.  Heck, maybe I'll make it my theme next year!

t

[Jennifer-]

Maybe it's me, m.  My sister, the LadyHawk, says we create a bubble-like shield around us which can manifest as a grid of interconnecting energies.  She has always said that she "throws one up" around where she is at for protection.  I'm not attuned enough, I guess, to even picture doing something like that but I have witnessed her doing some pretty awesome stuff over the years, so I dunno.    However it got there, it's there, man.  But I will surely drum to it during the Manitou.  Heck, maybe I'll make it my theme next year!

t

By pure exploring and paying attention to the signs Ive been given, there is a certain time of day and drum beat that will call the "Vulture Man" into my site.  Im not saying its his only showing.. but it is my way of being able to connect to him during waking hours and seeminly at my own call. Though Im careful not to assume responsiblity in that, because it's beyond my grasp with which way it moves. He speaks things to me directly into the pit of my stomach not by using words.

Thats also with only one of my drums.. I have different things show up at other times with other drums.

Not sure how it works.. do they come to the drum beat.. does the drum beat shift me to their place... Is it the spirit of the drum itself ect ect.. forever exploring and moving with that.

[tommy2]

Through mine own sensings it is us who change, who maybe shift our forms or something, making us available to our greater awares.  Everything, inclusively, is right before us, always, Dear.  We must avail ourselves to be present in order to perceive more and more which is rightfully ours for the experiencing when we are ready, don't you think?  If it is so, that we are whole, then the true Work then becomes ours to initiate, surely. 

"Build it.  They will come."   ......  Open our senses and behold.


tom

[Jennifer-]

We must avail ourselves to be present in order to perceive more and more which is rightfully ours for the experiencing when we are ready, don't you think? 

Yes!

"Build it.  They will come."   ......  Open our senses and behold.