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Learning a new skill alongside other team members can be challenging, particularly for senior managers surrounded by their subordinates. As adults, once we leave school or university, few of us find ourselves in a group learning situation.

The beauty of our drumming workshop experience is that learning happens subconsciously while participants have a hilarious time with each other and our highly-entertaining facilitators. I believe that this ‘learning without learning’ is one of the secrets of our success.

A few weeks ago, a participant came up to chat after the drumming workshop. She was herself a corporate trainer and just wanted to thank us for the revealing experience of having to learn a new skill. This wasn’t because she intended to begin a new career as a musician, but because it gave her a fresh perspective on what it’s like being in the student or learning position.

We have purposely added many interactive and comedic sections to our drumming workshops to take the emphasis away from ‘learning how to drum’ to making the group feel safe, entertained and open to new ideas. This allows us to take them much further along their musical and learning journey.

We understand the insecurities and baggage we all bring to understanding new and challenging subjects that seem way out of our comfort zone, and the tendency for people to gravitate to the things they are comfortable with.

We also understand that people all learn differently. Some prefer aural, visual or kinaesthetic approaches to taking in new information. There are also significant differences between participants in the pace of absorbing new ideas.

There are several aspects to master in a drumming workshop, which ultimately makes the activity so rewarding. Right from the start, participants have to learn to sit and position themselves around the instrument. Next is playing it correctly and getting the different tones from the instrument. Getting hands in the right places at the right times can become a mathematical conundrum for some, and yet can be as natural as walking for others.

One of the most interesting aspects of a drumming workshop, which substantially helps the learning process, is the melting away of existing organisational hierarchies, benefiting senior managers and those less senior.

You may be the CEO of the corporation, with great responsibility for thousands of employees, but you may find yourself sitting next to a brand new intern in one of our drumming workshops. I have seen it hundreds of times where directors and senior managers have to look to their subordinates around them for hints, help and advice to keep up with this new learning group challenge. Their positive reaction to this sudden loss of hierarchy is a mark of their leadership and humility.

Conversely, our natural drummers (but nervous interns) have to find new confidence and strength to turn to and help their needy, but more senior, neighbours.

We believe that we take participants much further along their musical and learning journey by allowing them to input their own ideas rather than just playing what everyone else is around them. When musicians play, whether seasoned professionals or participants in a drumming workshop, they are expressing everything they know, how they feel and their intention in that moment. This is revealing and very personal. An individual’s level of ability is irrelevant. Simply by participating, people are in the hallowed act of creativity. This is the magic of music or any creative art.

So what do participants get from our creative drumming workshops? They get an unmatched feeling of self satisfaction and personal achievement. I see this permeating the group as individual participants realise that they are contributing ideas of their own choosing into an overall performance that sounds coherent and totally unique. This is a very empowering moment. As part of the process, participants learn to stop and listen to (and appreciate) what’s going on around them. They learn to choose what will be of benefit for the group as a whole. They learn how they can support and inspire people around them. Finally, they learn never to underestimate the potential of their group.

These are crucial attributes to effective working teams, in music or business.

For more information, please contact us.

In my first history of drumming blog post, I looked at the role of drumming in early man and beginning civilisations. I now move forward in time to trace the role of drumming and rhythm around the globe, to show how drumming has evolved alongside our own human development, every step of way.

We love to remind participants in our drumming events that the drumming activity that they are about to take part in is not some strange new idea from California, but instead has been used to unite people as long as recorded human history! So, not only will your team members have great fun, they will be taking part in an event with an unrivalled history involving many different cultures.

As nations and traditions grew around the world, the use of drumming fell into two basic camps of use: as entertainment or as part of religious ceremonies.

There is much documented evidence of drumming in China as early as the eleventh century BC. Furthermore, there are countless references to drumming in the Vedic literature of India between 1500 BC and 600BC. The Bible also mentions the playing of cymbals and a small hand percussion instrument called a Tarbet.

I personally find the variety of sizes, sounds and shapes of drums found throughout history absolutely fascinating. This diversity reflects our human creative nature, and has prompted us to use specially selected drums from many countries in our drumming events – to create a truly global musical amalgamation!

The use of a broad range of drums from across the world promotes a powerful metaphor for globalisation, which our clients highly value. Furthermore, this rich diversity adds more textures to the music compared with only using instruments from one part of the world.

We love it when participants, arriving to find beautiful drums waiting for them, recognise instruments from their own country or tradition.

In any drumming session, our instruments often include African Djembes, Malaysian Klung Yaws, African Djun Djuns, Balinese hand drums and European frame drums.

During the middle ages, the military side drum with sticks came to the fore with armies across the world. Drums were used to keep marching soldiers in step and even to send coded messages! We purposely don’t use sticks with our drums. This is good for our clients’ hands, reduces the volume of the event and allows us to provide participants with the wonderful tactile experience of real hand drumming.

From the eighteenth century, another musical revolution was slowly happening on the other side of the world, as one of the only positive by products of the dreadful shame of slavery. This was the mixing of African people and other rhythmically-advanced people from all over the Americas to create the seeds of Jazz, Rock, World and Dance music, which surround every one of us today!

It is this complex integration of rhythms and styles that has propelled drumming to be the powerful form that it takes in our drumming events. All the discreet historical influences are vital to producing the tangible addictiveness of drumming that we observe every day. This addictiveness, honed over thousands of years, is the critical essence that differentiates drumming from almost any other team building activity, ice breaker or energiser.

In my next, and final, blog post on the history of drumming, I will come right up to date! I will show how drumming and the power of rhythm are crucial to many parts of our lives, and will discuss how drumming is now regularly used in corporate training, team building and unforgettable conference experiences.

For more information, please contact us.