Drumming 101 #33

Learn to Drum the Egoless Way

Class June 5, 2011 with E.J. Gold

Price: $24.95

1 DVD Set | Approx. 1 hour

E.J. began this class with examining the drumming of two students. He advised both to simplify their drumming. Compose the easiest patterns for your hands so you can eventually take your attention off your hands and the drum beat and put it on a conversation. To drum without hesitation, you must know where your drum is without looking, just like when playing guitar, you don't look at the frets. In addition, soften your hands, keep them fluid.

E.J. demonstrated on the "Tri" udu a simple basic drumming pattern he uses in a healing ceremony. Every beat is calculated, not by the brain but by feel. Think of yourself as a drummer in a village ritual which may go on for 9 - 11 hours. Your hands must be totally relaxed, limp. Your breathing must be natural, relaxed, not strained. You can't be holding your breath. Your mind must be at rest, not thinking of anything at all. Your ears must be attuned to what's coming out so you can adjust to what's going in, making the adjustments needed to make the right stuff come out. Resist the urge to speed up or slow down. Above all, there must be nothing inside of you that gets bored or distracted. It's a single-pointed, directed meditation. All of your listening, learning and comparing is now coming out of your drum.

When you're drumming you have the opportunity to link to power points, vortices, through geomancy. If you understand how contact works in sex -- not ordinary sex of those lost in oblivion -- but if you have your wits about you, you tune yourself into your partner. You'll notice a slow melting process.

It's the same with a vortex. There's a delicate entry. You're looking for softness, to merge. If there's anything left of you in the drummer -- ego -- it prevents you from merging. Ego disallows the unready from initiation. You have to be sensitive to the needs of the drumming. At some point the drumming will come alive. You're a servant, not of the drum, but the drumming. It's the manifesting here on Earth and you are helping it. You're maintaining the purity. If you're expressing yourself, you can't host the spirit of the drum. Attuning yourself to the higher is actually what you're doing by learning to drum the egoless way.