Bhangra Rhythm and Drumming with Indian Professionals

On Saturday, I facilitated a drum circle for the San Diego Network of Indian Professionals in supporting Child Rights and You, an organization dedicated to restoring the rights of underprivileged children.

Here’s the play-by-play:

I arrive with the drums. We set up chairs in a tight circle.

I teach a couple of simple techniques in basic drumming.

Three of us start playing, passing the beat, calling and responding.

15 More participants join in. I teach the group a couple of simple world beats.

We sing a couple of songs to tighten up the rhythm. Passers-by pause, and some children join in shaking shakers and playing drums.

One of the NetIP participants starts playing the Bhangra and Garba rhythms from India.

We all start playing Bhangra with him and improvising over it. Keep in mind that only a few participants knew each other before we started playing, and no one was a formally trained musician. But everyone was from India, so these rhythms unified the group. Eventually, I exit the circle to take pictures while everyone sings Bollywood song hits of the 1990s in Hindi. They sing about 30 song hits! No facilitator necessary – Laughing, dancing, smiling… Beautiful community! I think they could have gone on singing all day. It was amazing to see how music connected and transformed the group in such a short amount of time.