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 ** Course Name ** ** Music 7: World Drumming **

 It has been said that music is a universal language “spanning all cultures and even predating the arrival of humans on the earth (Kneier, 2007). Music exists in the sounds emanating from nature – the rustle of the wind blowing gently through the trees, to the wild gale driving breakers to crash on the rocks; from the incessant chatter of monkeys, to the eerie, haunting melodies of humpback whales. As humans, we have been inexplicitly drawn to sound as a way of expressing feelings, and ideas. One of the oldest instruments is the drum, which can be traced back to before 6000 BC. Found in many of the world’s cultures, the drum has been used as a form of communication, as a central feature in celebrations, and even believed to possess supernatural powers. Still today, the drum is central to personal and cultural expression. Have you ever watched a group of students approach a set of drums? Students are drawn to drums as if pulled by a magnetic force. This fascination with rhythm and sound begins at a much younger age. Young toddlers sway in time to the music or create accompaniments with pots and wooden spoons. Music therapist and drum circle facilitator Christine Stevens explains this phenomenon asserting that we are all “biologically wired for rhythm”. Our awareness of beat hearkens back to the nine months when we were encased in our mothers’ wombs. Daily, we walk, run, breathe and sleep to different beats at different tempi. As such, we are “walking, talking polyrhythms; drum circles just help bring out what is innate in all of us” (Stevens, 2005).  The World Drumming, experienced within the practice of the Drum Circle, allows students to “**explore”** and “**play”** with sound as a means of personal expression, to connect experientially with the musical traditions of other cultures, to understand vicariously what it means to be part of a musical ensemble.