Drumming Circle at Elizabethtown College Both Interesting and Fun

As anyone who has ever witness a band play live or has simply played a CD that they have enjoyed can attest to, music is a very powerful force. A simple song has the power to bring people together or tear communities apart. As we experience music on an almost every day basis, it is easy to take it for granted. However, one need only imagine a world in complete silence to be reminded of the immense and powerful effects that music can have on a person or society as a whole. Recently, at Elizabethtown College, students were given the opportunity to experience the power of music in perhaps a whole new light. As part of the first year colloquium offered to students, all were invited to take part in a "Drumming Circle", where each person was given an instrument and took part in a communal music and song generating experience. Indeed, for those who "felt" the power and strength of what was happening as students did something as simply as bang on a drum or hit a stick against a bell, the experience was a unique and powerful experience, and one that was very difficult to forget.

When trying to express the power and movement that one felt while being part of the circle, perhaps the best word to use would be "attunement". Although attunement is a very difficult word to define, perhaps the ideal and simplest explanation was offered by Professor David Donovan, when he defined it as, "the moment when you know it's ok to kiss". Although no kissing was involved with the drum circle itself, the feeling of attunement was very much present among those who took part in the experience. The presenter of the program introduced the program as saying the function of a drummer was to "unite heaven and earth". He went on to explain how drums and music have been essential in shaping the world we live in today. As the event commenced, and each student became familiar with whatever instrument they had been given, it was easy to see how powerful a force music really can be.

Although instruction was given to students in the course of playing and creating music, it was largely a self-motivated effort. After a few minutes of noise and endless banging on whatever instruments were at hand, students soon fell into perfect harmony with each other, creating beats and even simply songs. For a room filled with over three hundred people, all thinking different things and having diverse feelings and backgrounds, the idea that a simple drumbeat could unite the entire room is a powerful idea indeed. After a short time, it seemed like the entire room, and all the attendees were indeed sharing a common goal and vision. The experience was truly unique, and offered a sense of community that is rarely felt in today's impersonal world. While it is true that not every person who took part in the circle got the sense of community and unity, it was doubtlessly a feeling shared by many.

Regardless of how chaotic the circle may have seemed in the opening moments, it truly spoke to the power and strength of music that so many diverse people could be brought together in creating a single, thoughtless and seemingly unbreakable chorus of drums, bells, hand claps and any other instrument which could be found. Henry David Thoreau remarked famously that most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. The Drum Circle was a moving experience which should have served to remind us all that we need to express the songs that we feel in our hearts, those beats and tunes which empower and motivate our everyday lives. Each and every person has a song somewhere in them, whatever form that song may take, it is doubtless that we should follow the example set before us in the community drum circle, we should never hide the music that we feel. We should never ignore the song that gets us through each day and empowers us through the many moments of our life. Music really is a soundtrack, and it is one that should never, never be hidden.