We all possess rhythm in our hearts, literally! Percussionist and educator Steve Ferraris offers drumming and drum-making programs that provide a safe, fun and supportive setting for children to experience group hand drumming, an age-old art form that has many physical, emotional and sociological benefits.

"This is an experience I'll never forget, I'll take it on with me for the rest of my life." Jessica

"The girls truly had fun and you facilitated some awesome pieces of music". Circle Camp Administrator

"I've never had so much fun making things (drums)". Samantha

The simple, yet profound act of making music with drums has the capacity to alter one's mood in a positive way, to increase one's self esteem, to improve one's ability to focus and concentrate, to improve physical dexterity, and to stimulate creative thinking and creative problem solving.

A typical drumming workshop or residency includes:

1. A demonstration of various African instruments including the Djembe drum, the Djun Djun drums, the African xylophone called Balafon and the African gourd shaker called Shekere.

2. Children are guided in playing the instruments individually and in a group setting. Everyone gets to try all the instruments before we create our percussion orchestra.

3. The children are encouraged to experiment and to create their own musical expressions.

Authentic African drums are provided for all participants.

For a description of the drum-making residencies, please go to the drumming and drum-making residencies page.

Interestered?...

Contact Me about Drumming Programs for SPED and At-Risk Children

 

WHY IS DRUMMING SO IMPORTANT?

The best way for me to describe how important and meaningful drumming can be in a young person's life is to tell the story from one of my experiences using drumming with at-risk children. This story demonstrates how cathartic the drumming experience can be for many people. I was leading a group of children aged 12 to 16 in a weekly program that was scheduled to run for 6 weeks. After introducing the various drums and percussion instruments to the children in the first week and having them experiment with playing them in the second week one child said "I have an idea" and proceeded to demonstrate an original rhythm on the drum.

I encouraged him to continue with his rhythm while we added other complementary parts to his new composition. It was clearly a positive experience for this child to instigate a new composition in front of his peers. However, that's just the beginning of the story.

The next week when I walked into the class a different child approached my excitedly stating "I have an idea". I said "great, get a drum and show me". He said "It's right here" and handed me a piece of paper that contained a poem that he just wrote since the last class that told an emotional story of his life; the struggles with authority, dissapointments with his family, run-ins with the law and difficulties in school and that he now felt that he was ready to move on in a positive way. He called it "I Started to Change".

The rest of that session we set his poem to music and the following week we recorded "I Started to Change" with all the children eagarly singing the refrain "I started to change, to change, to change!" The last line of the song - "If I can change, you can change too.