How to Host a Drum Circle

A drum circle is an excellent way to share rhythm and make simple music with friends who may not speak the same language. It can add dimension to a special event such as a birthing, wedding or wake. Here are some things to consider before hosting such an ambitious event.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• drums
• shakers
• bells
• willing participants
• appropriate space

How to host a drum circle

1. Consider location. This can be a public park or village square, providing it is within local ordinances. If you are going to host a drum circle in your home, you need to decide if your neighbors should be invited or warned--or both. An angry neighbor can spoil everything, so make sure everyone within earshot is going to be OK with it before you start inviting drummers.
2. Choose a leader. It is great to have a really strong drummer or two to lead the drum circle. This is a delicate position. This needs to be a person who thinks of the rhythm of the collective and not a manifestation of himself. Someone who likes soft rhythms as well as loud ones. Someone who can inspire and move others.
3. Provide space for dancers. Drum circles are not complete without dancing bodies. Dancers provide further interaction and ideas for rhythmic connection. They can be drummers too, but a great solo drummer will hook into a really passionate dancer and they can riff off each other in a very exciting way.
4. Potluck food and drink. If you're not hungry and thirsty at the beginning of the drum circle, you will be by the middle or at the end of it. Make sure that everyone brings some kind of refreshment and that you have a table or blanket set aside for that purpose. Then folks can graze whenever they like.
5. Make all ages welcome. Did you even see a kid dance at a drum circle? That kind of unselfconscious expression can be a lesson to us all, encouraging us all to be as free as we might have been as a child. The addition of children ensures a certain degree of sobriety on the one hand and lightness on the other.

Tips & Warnings

• Mix it up. Some people just like to get together and play their drums really loud! Djembes can be over-powering if not played sensitively. Make sure you have enough smaller drums such as dumbek and tablah and bells and chimes to keep the rhythm musical and add different layers.
• Most communities have very strict sound/time ordinances. Pay attention to yours so that you can continue to host these gatherings... and so that the community can embrace them.