Issue: "Boomwacker" workshop

Convenor: Rob (england)

Participants: By the time we stopped to talk about it, we were... Mia, Joel, Thomas, Terry and Rob but there were several bumblebees and butterflies who joined us along the way. i even saw someone dancing down below us in the barn.


Summary of the meeting:

The idea was to have a little fun but also to work with the dynamic here and now of a drumming workshop. A "boomwhaker" (check out http://www.boomwhackers.com) is a plastic tube and precisely 16 of them (two octaves or so) fit in my rucksack along with a few other maracas and what not. I've never used them before and thought it might be nice to let off a little steam and see what a small group of us can do with them.

what happened is that people self organised and some lead and some followed but this was always fluid and dynamic and as one would tail off another would take the lead and the character of the sound we were making would change. eyes lit up and smiles appeared no one had to conduct and the range of feelings and dynamics expressed were endless. It was really usefull to be able to talk about this afterwards and to be able to try to understand what had happened but when we had talked enough a few people started to tap and shake and before we knew what was happening the ryhtm had started again.

That's community in action in all it's glory and i think the very first time human beings ever tried to express themselves as a community they did something like this.


Follow up:

So what did we discover?

well...

I don't have to conduct

they sound great on the knee and better on the head but the side of a large Danish barn really wakes things up.

If you leave toys around people can't help playing.

You can understand all kinds of things about your self, about community, about leadership, organisation and process but when you're in it you're in it and the best thing you can do is go with the flow.

And the same things i have learned over and over again... If you have a little faith all the right people will be there and out of chaos buitifull music will emerge.

Oh yeah, and it was GREAT FUN.


Online Comments: - I couldn't understand anything! What is a "boomwhaker"? What is "rucksack"? What is a "drumming workshop"? Can you please explain that in a way that non-natives of the English language can understand, please? - ArturSilva Thanks for the link (that works now ...). So "boomwhackers" are "tuned percussion tubes". Nice to know...Artur

hello artur, boomwhakers are 1.5" very light plastic tubes. you smack them on legs, hands, walls, each other and they make big noises. different lengths make different tones. drumming workshops and drumming circles are non-orchestrated drum sessions where music emerges organically. rucksacks are backpacks. sounds like a great session! better that the participants bring such toys (this too can be invited) than if the facilitator brings them, i think. --MichaelHerman

I think I'll invite Michael over today to do some boomwhacking here on Bowen Island. We could whack the sides of the old Douglas-fir trees behind my place and spook the woodpeckers. Keep the deer out of my garden anyway. -- ChrisCorrigan