Playing Variations on Rhythms for Creativity, Proficiency & Soul Expression

Christine will guide you on how to embellish and play variations on any basic rhythm, infusing them with your personal energy to elevate the musicality of the beat.

Work with a trance rhythm from Egypt — Ayub — widely played across the Middle East.

Learning to vary and embellish drum patterns is a powerful way to add spice to your beats and make them uniquely your own.

The practice of shifting between basic rhythms and your variations — sometimes by as little as one beat — nourishes your cognitive function in subtle but meaningful ways.

All drums are welcome — from buffalo drums, djembes, frame drum, and more.

This week, you’ll:

• Learn to play variations within the Ayub rhythm pattern — enhancing your playing with just one beat
• Discover 3 essential tools for rhythm embellishment — substitution, fills, and rolls
• Practice infusing your rhythm patterns with your own creative ideas to align with your intention
• Build proficiency in the sacred language of the drum, developing your personal “penmanship” of creativity

Clearing Negative Energy With Rhythm & Rumble

Many ceremonies begin with smudging or clearing space to create a sacred container for practice. One of the drum’s greatest gifts is its vibrational energy, which amplifies intention and becomes a powerful tool to shift mood and cleanse space.

Explore this through a traditional rhythm — Soliwulen from Guinea — taught with permission from Monette Marino via the Tam Tam Mandigue School of Mamade Keita.

Clear your self-judgment about not being musical, clearing a space, or even your own energy in both a traditional rhythm and the “rumble” fast beat. Explore the breath of drum sound with soft brushing techniques, which help release fear, doubt, worry, and mental clutter.

Whether the negative energy arises from within your body, mind, spirit, or the world around us, these tools can help clear space for your most creative and joyful drumming.

In this class, you’ll:

• Learn a traditional rhythm from Guinea for clearing negative energy
• Explore a drum ceremony to clear your personal energy or a space with sonic smudge
• Harness the vibrational energy of the drum as a powerful amplifier of your spiritual intention
• Build confidence by integrating drum patterns and rolls into your playing

The Art of Taqsim – Combining Drums With Flutes, Rattles, Voice & More to Orchestrate Your Rhythms

The drum and voice are our most primal instruments, and we all carry a heartbeat and the strings of our vocal cords.

When you combine voice, flute, or other instruments with your own drumbeat, you awaken a whole world of orchestrated intention.

Explore how to speak, sing, and orchestrate rhythms of fluency — moving from the heartbeat pulse to the universal three-beat pattern heard in many world rhythms. From the African bell to the Moroccan three, you can create a polyrhythm of three over four that’s simple, infectious, and energizing.

According to Angeles Arian’s Four Fold Way, the medicine wheel of percussion includes four sounds — the drum in the south, rattles in the east, bones in the west, and bell in the north.

Dive into this next-level drumming experience and discover the many ways you can create beautiful rhythms and rhythmize beauty.

During this module, you’ll:

• Learn a universal 3-beat drum pattern — the African bell or Moroccan three — common in many world rhythms
• Explore the sonic universe of found sound rattles, made from natural materials — playing wet and dry sounds
• Bring together the complementary connection of rhythm and melody with orchestrated grooves
• Experience the Taqsim — an improvisational introduction to a rhythm

Secrets of the Groove – Integrating Rhythms in Your Life & Community

How do you bring the practice of rhythm mantra patterns, shadow drumming, grounding in the heartbeat, and the vibrant energy of samba into your everyday life?

What does it mean to use your drum not just as an instrument, but as a meditation tool and a bridge of communication with those you love?

Learn specific rhythmic patterns and understand their purpose in supporting your spiritual growth. Mastering a beat inspires your own creative expression on the drum, helping you to listen deeply to yourself and confidently repeat rhythms.

Practice the fundamental technique of leading a beat, including how to start and stop a groove — enabling you to share your rhythm with friends, family, community, or intimate one-on-one settings.

Christine defines the drum circle as a collective container for self-expression. Awaken to your own inner rhythm and a place to build rhythmic confidence. Bring rhythm into your life in the drum circle way — expressing yourself within a shared groove.

You will:

• Learn how to signal a group to start and stop together
• Experience call and response — the drum’s language of heartfelt communication
• Discover how to ground your group in the heartbeat, creating a unified pulse
• Practice and share your own personalized percussion prescription

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