One drum. One student. One instructor. This is a powerful combination. From teaching toddlers how to gain emotional intelligence to helping individuals address their traumas, drumming has the power to change lives.
Many organizations based in L.A. lead drum circles and drumming classes to do just this. Here are a few of these impactful drumming programs.
Drum to LEARN
The journey of Drum to LEARN (@drumtolearn) started with a parent seeking programs for her own children. Krickett Jones Halpern, CEO and founder of Drum to LEARN, wanted to find a way to teach self-regulation to her sons. That is when she became a REMO drum circle endorsed facilitator and discovered the Beat the Odds program.
She began using the Beat the Odds curriculum to teach in classrooms before she was encouraged to turn this into a business. Launched in 2012, Drum to LEARN focuses on teaching kids how to build self-awareness. As a child development specialist specializing in early childhood, Halpern usually works with kids ages 6 and under, 15-20 kids at a time, in nonprofits, libraries, preschool settings and worldwide Zoom sessions.
In each session, she brings a drum for every child and plays building games focused on rhythm, repetition and affirmations. Halpern describes that her “core truth and passion is to help children understand and gain emotional intelligence and self-awareness, but I also love to help guide them to think for themselves.”
Halpern explains that Drum to LEARN is not a music or rhythm program, but uses drums as a tool for social-emotional learning. “Through drumming out their feelings, children actively explore, understand and identify their emotions in a safe and engaging way, turning physical expression into a way of connecting to and understanding their emotions.”
Drum to LEARN “focuses on the whole child,” according to Halpern. She often starts with ensuring that kids are safe, comfortable, ready to learn and helps them self regulate. This often involves developing skills like paying attention and a willingness to participate, with a goal of helping children “build strengths they can carry with them as they grow,” she explains.
Beat the Odds
Beat the Odds, the program that started Halpern’s work, includes training and curriculum through the Arts & Healing Initiative. Founded in 2007 by a licensed clinical social worker and professional drum circle facilitator and Ping Ho, a public health educator, its mission is “social and emotional skill building delivered in a framework of drumming.”
Ho is the founder and director of Arts & Healing Initiative. The curriculum was designed to be 8 sessions for upper-elementary youth, but Ho emphasizes that the curriculum is flexible. “We encourage people to take the modules or the activities and make them their own and use them as they see fit,” she shares. “It integrates activities from group drumming with activities from group counseling to achieve a number of goals like leadership, teamwork, self esteem, kindness, managing anger and stress, empathy and gratitude.”
Drumming is successful in reducing stress, which then supports problem-solving, decision-making, and connecting with others. “The visual movement and auditory pathways are still available to us even if we’re stressed or traumatized, for example, or we don’t speak the same language or whatnot,” Ho explains.
The program’s training and curriculum manual are self-guided and open to the public through their website. In the past, Beat the Odds has paired with school districts like Long Beach Unified and Santa Monica-Malibu Unified to train counselors, and also to train students to work with other peers through the youth-led model.
Drumming for Your Life Institute
Some programs utilize not only drumming, but also rhythm to improve lives. This is true for Steven Angel, the president, founder and creator of Drumming For Your Life Institute. The institute provides two programs: Reading & Rhythm and Life Skills Drumming Programs. Reading & Rhythm is a pre-K through 12th grade literacy program that adults can also engage with, especially second-language learners. They use rhythm and tempo to improve students’ reading fluency.
The key component to his programs is addressing the Doubtful Internal Voice. Angel says a clue to this Doubtful Internal Voice is when kids are asked a question and immediately respond, “I don’t know.” Angel counters by taking “I don’t know” out of the equation. He explains, “We tell them, ‘I don’t know’ doesn’t exist in this program. What else can you share?”
The Life Skills Drumming program is a therapeutic program for individuals with anxiety, anger, addiction, depression or dual diagnosis in improving honesty, trust, responsibility and self-discipline. Angel explains that drumming is used by students “to release trauma and get out anxiety and it is also used for self-empowerment,” he says. He explains that drumming is a “mind-body experience.” “They do visualization techniques while they’re drumming or experiencing or going over experiences from their childhood or things that happened recently and the drum becomes their voice,” he shares.
They work with people of all abilities in many environments, including juvenile halls, preschools up to continuation schools, family or wellness centers, homeless shelters, PRC resource centers, after school programs, charter schools and charter homes.
SoCal Drum Party
Other drumming programs don’t stay in one place. Mike Enriquez is the founder of SoCal Drum Party (@so_cal_drum_party), a traveling team of drummers and music therapists that travel all over Southern California. They lead drumming experiences for kids, seniors, special needs groups and corporate events, and every drum party is tailored to the age and ability.
For example, the preschool and kindergarten programs connect the activities to concepts and subjects that the kids know about, such as colors, numbers, movements, animals and songs. They use warm-ups, games, jams and rhythms to practice social and emotional skills and focus on controlling their impulses.
While these are just basic games, they are important and applicable to a child’s future. Enriquez explains, “those skills go on to make a really big difference as the kids grow and become members of different communities, so we’re kind of unique because we meet the kids on their level and together we help the group rise to a new height. And so we know that kids are capable of a lot. And I don’t underestimate them.”
SoCal Drum Party typically visits preschools and elementary schools for individually organized events, but they also host community events in partnership with cities. They work with kids with autism, adults with intellectual disabilities in residence programs, individuals with different limb challenges, blind and visually impaired communities, senior centers, residence senior homes and corporate team building events.
They also have weekly group or individual classes in Irvine that are open to the public for two- to four-year-old kids and five- to seven-year-old kids on Wednesdays through Beats With Mike.
Enriquez wishes that more people knew that drumming is for everybody. He shares, “I wish people would know that drum circles are a safe space for everybody to feel their feelings, to express themselves and to give and receive support as a member.”
Benkadi
Culture, community and art intersect with Benkadi (@benkadidrumanddance), founded by Darryl Franklin, which puts West African drum, dance and culture classes into schools in resource challenged communities with a need for music programs. Benkadi is a West African word which means “togetherness is sweet.”
Their programs are led by first generation West African professional musicians, dancers and teachers. In 5 years, Benkadi has reached 14 schools, meeting with students through twelfth grade, hosting summer programs and working with people of all ages outside of schools.
Drums in African culture have three purposes: entertainment, communication and healing. Compared to traditional Western classical music, drumming allows individuals to instantly produce music and immediately contribute to the group.
Franklin explains how drumming impacts dynamics at school. “When you play music and you dance with people, you have a lot of fun and it truly does build different group dynamics,” Franklin says. “You see the people you’re with in a different light, you experience them and everything else in a different way.”
Their programs are open to the public, and Franklin encourages individuals to reach out through their website. Drumming is important because “it develops skills that resonate far outside the classroom or the drumming,” Franklin explains, “Music does change people’s lives.”
