 This is the second to last stop on this three month 10 country tour.
Other than facilitating some corporate team building rhythm events for American
President Lines in Bangkok, Thailand, Singapore was where I did my one of my
first drum circles in southeast Asia in 1993.
Coming to Singapore brings back great memories for me. Back then, I was just
starting my relationship with REMO as an International facilitator. By then REMO
had supported me and the growth of the recreational drum circle movement in the
United States with great results. Now that REMO was able to design and deliver
specific drums and instruments for our diverse drumming community Remo, the man,
decided to start sending me to Europe and Asia. Europe worked out but Asia had a
major financial set back in those days, so after four tours we let Asia chill
for a while and focused on Europe. look at the result in Europe. Now Asia is
back on the map and you can see the result of the drum circles tours that REMO
has instigated in the last few years with Christine Stevens, Chalo Edwardo, John
Fitzgerld, myself and others.
Upon arriving on this ex-british colonial island last week, the first place I
visited was the Recreational Music Center. Yes there is a RMC in Singapore,
modeled after the REMO RMC in LA. Swee Lee Music, the REMO distributer in
Singapore, has been sending drum facilitators into schools for the past 7
months. As an extension to that, they opened up their RMC in a mall in down town
Singapore. It can easily accommodate 50 players and is packed with all the right
toys. The RMC holds open community drum circles every Wensday night and is
facilitated by two competent facilitators, Ume, pronounced You-Me, ( but her
real Asian name is Ummaira), and Ea Lian. Both of these young women have been
students of Syed, ( a Hawaii graduate as of this August), since they were little
girls if 9 and 16 years of age respectively. They were major players at the
Singapore VMC Facilitators Playshop as well as the community drum circle.
Ummaira, Syed and Ea Lian
Their RMC poster reads:
A DRUMMING RENDEZVOUS
Need a weekly drumming fix? Fret no more
Recreational Music brings you a night of DRUM CIRCLE every week at no charge
ABSOLUTELY NO CHARGE
Enjoy a fun relaxing drumming musical experiencewith us
You don't need to have any prior music experience
Anyone and everyone is welcome
So just bring your enthusiasm, the rest we will provide
Syed has been a major mover in the Singapore area for many years. As a professor
in orchestrational percussion he teaches his students in a full eclectic range
of percussion styles and culturally specific rhythms. The perfect musicality
foundation for a drum circle facilitator. If I had my druthers there would be
hundreds of Syed's teaching the big eclectic picture all around the world
Syed has established himself so well in the community that he and his
performance troupe receives regular funding by the National Arts Council of
Singapore. Also, his performance troupe's rehearsal space and nearly all their
equipment and drums are provided for by the People's Association. His Village
Music Circles Playshop training in Hawaii was supported by the National Arts
Council Singapore. He has been holding community drum circles every two weeks
since he has returned from this last Hawaii Playshop.
Syed and his group, the "Heart Beat Percussion Band", was performing at the Art
House at the Parliament the night after I arrived and he invited me to come and
watch. So I did.
After Singapore achieved independence from England, they turned all the old
Colonial Government buildings into different community accessible functional
buildings for performance arts, museums, community centers etc. They even turned
the down town post office into a luxury hotel.
As I walked into the "Art House at the Parliament" I was wondering what that
title meant. I soon found out as I walked through the doors into the
"performance Space" to discover a large hall with ornate wooden bleachers
configured exactly the way the British Parliament hall is set up in London
England. It was the old Colonial Parliament building and the performance space
was the the center floor where the prim-minister would normally speak and the
audience for the performance was sitting where the other ministers and
government officials use to sit. There were REMO soundshapes and beaters on each
seat.
The event was the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement of inter- agency
collaboration between two government organizations concerning community building
through the arts. They were the Peoples Association and the National Arts
Council. Can you say Family Friendly Community Drum Circles ? What an excellent
fit.
Syed's performance was just after the signing ceremony. His troupe came in, each
playing instruments that represent the many different cultures that live in
Singapore. It was a great world beat percussion performance, but I did not see
Syed.
Then at a particular percussion break Syed burst through a side door with Vicky,
(Also a new Hawaii graduate). Syed played a REMO Valencia Facilitators bell, and
Vicky played a Korean Cahng-Ko, (The largest talking drum look-a-like in the
world), they encouraged the audience to pick up and play their sound shapes.
Along with a Hipeek player and a Surdo player, Syed facilitated the instant drum
circle. He repeatedly used a simple half sculpt showcase while having the rest
of the group mark accent notes in a simple series "1 + 2 + 3 + 4 and play".
It was simple and beautiful or simply beautiful. The performance was all over in
just 10 minutes, but the point was well made by Syed and the Heart Beat
Percussion Band. 5 of the 7 members of the troupe were participants in the VMC
Facilitators training.
The Singapore Drum Facilitation Program
 Swee
Lee Music is the REMO distributer and organizer for this paticulay Facilitator
program. They have modeled REMO in all the important ways and has the "Big
Picture" and community outreach figured out. Instead of allowing only some of
the participants to purchase the new
"Drum Circle Facilitation book, Swee Lee Music made sure every program
participant got a book at no cost to them. They also catered lunch and dinner at
the event.
The venue they picked was a pavilion just out of the city, in sight
of the beach and south sea ocean. Although we started the first drum
call on 2 PM Friday, the program did not fully start until after a small group
of Muslims arrived from their afternoon prayers around 2:20. By the time we
stopped at 9PM, we made it through the first four learning platform exercises,
as well as their accompanying
Triplicities. A great start.
Here are the demographics for this program;
24 people in the program, 11 men & 13 women.
2 hawaii graduates
 1 weekend graduate
Drum Circle Facilitators 5
Drum Teachers 4
Music Teachers 3, One from Shanghai
School Teachers 5
Kids at Risk councilors 2
Special Needs Servers 2
Corporate Trainers 2
Personal Growth 1
Prison councilor 1
Doctor 1
In the group was the president of the Singapore chapter of Percussion Arts
Society.
The closest that I will ge t to PASIC this year. I am sorry that I will miss it.
This group seemed to be focused on professional development in diffrient areas.
When I asked how many people drummed for fun and recreation, only 10 out of the
24 participants raised their hands. I fixed that discrepancy by the end of the
Week-End !
By High Tea time on Saturday we completed all the learning platform exercises,
and Triplicities. All that was left was Jump Time. It was great to have one
forth of the population be experienced facilitators to use as models for the
beginners.
The learning platform exercises
 The Singapore Community
Drum Circle
We held our community drum circle at a popular beach with in the Singapore city
limits. This was a mini Boardwalk area with kids rides
were were situated in a covered band shell area that gave us shade from the
Summertime sun. It was a transit circle populated weekend beach goers.
This festive, family friendly drum circle was something few of the people
walking along the beach knew existed. It was wonderful to see the people realize
that it was not just a performance but something that their whole family could
participate in together. We had a
designated group of greeters walking up to the "Peanut gallery" of observers
with a big smile and extra instruments to invite then to join the community
celebration. And they did.
The average size of the circle was around 100 people as people came and went.
But by the end of the two hour event we had "Captured " about 50 stay-and-play
Die-hard players that made for a good representation of the "Anatomy of a Drum
Circle". 50 people + 24 graduates made for a core group of 75 players that held
the rhythms together quite well.
Like with most Asian training closing drum circles, I did the drum call and then
turned it over to a 24 measure, or more, facilitation jump time for the
graduates. By doing Drum Call on my own, besides set up the body language, I am
able to demonstrate how to enter a Transition Point in the rhythm in such a way
that I use it as an experiential training for the playing population, (Teaching
with out Teaching). By entering the Transition Point very late when the rhythm
is in REAL trouble, I am able to teach the players what a Transition Point is,
and that my role as their facilitator is to help them through a rough rhythmical
patch.
As the program progressed the jump time became more relaxed, the grooves became
more solid and we actually let the group groove flow so they could offer us
transition points for jumping in to the orchestration point.
It was very good to have the experienced Facilitators working the event; Syed,
You-me, Vicky and Ea Lian. Not only did they up level the over all program with
their graceful interventions but they also helped me facilitate the
facilitators. At the end of the event I took the time to acknowledge the working
facilitators in the program and have them advertise their up coming events and
get some sign ups. I expect the RMC drum circle population to double because of
this event.
So the program started out as a Transient circle and ended up as a complete
event that ended up in full orchestra mode.
A couple of things that happened that I would like to take note.
After I completed drum call and did the usual welcome and thank yous, I opened
the drum circle for "Controlled" jump time by the graduates. I basically
facilitated the facilitators for the rest of the circle, making sure the
facilitators gave players plenty of play time and stepping in occasionally to
facilitate energy adjustments in the event. About a half hour into jump time
this little 8 or 9 year old kid came up to me and while pointing at the
facilitator doing a call to groove from the center of the circle asked me very
politely, "Please sir,
may I have a try". I said yes and after a proper length of groove time, I took
him into the circle. I gave an attention call to the players and pointed to the
kid standing on the Orchestration point while backing out of the circle.
His name was Jeramia and with bright eyes and great determination he modeled
some of the facilitation moves that he had seen some of the graduates use in the
circle. His body language was surpassingly clear. He did some clear rumbles of
sections as well as a surprise
stop and start. To the cheers of the circle he made a theatrical GOOW. After he
sat down and started to play, I caught his eye from across the circle and gave
him a thumbs up.
An hour later into the event , my back was turned to the circle as I was engaged
in enticing a traditionally dressed Indian family into the circle. I heard the
drum circle groove volume suddenly go down.I turn around to see Jeramia on the
Orchestration point again. He was
facilitating full circle volume waves and then he switched to teeter-totter
volume between two sides of the circle. His body language was very clear as he
stepped away from his volume down side and stepped toward the volume up side. I
said to myself, "Wow, who taught him that" About the time I was feeling that his
time was up, he stepped back to his seat, sat down and started playing.
Close to the end of the event, I found Jeramia in the circle again, but this
time be had the facilitators bell in one hand and my facilitators stick in the
other. He did a very clear attention call for call and response! I did a double
take and was flabbergasted. This guy was a fast learner. Jeramia had been
watching the facilitators closely. It was obvious that his self esteem and
confidence had increased. Each time he did a simple and precise call he would
hold the stick up in the air as the group responded. I got directly in front of
him from behind the players behind the players and got his attention. I then put
my pointing fingers on each side of my mouth and stretched my face into a smile
as a signal to him to smile. He did so while doing a few more calls and
responses with the players. Immediately after I made the smile signal I realized
"Oh my god, I working the kid as if he was one of the facilitator graduates".
When Jeramia had finished his turn and was heading back to his seat I picked him
up and holding him up high, I carried him around the center of the circle to the
cheers of the players.
Jeramia singed up on the contact sheet and the girls from the RMC has
volunteered to be his mentor.
I can't wait to see this kid facilitate next year.
Jeramia's third time in the circle
 Teasing,
Inciting, Seducing, Conjoling, Any thing to get them to participate.
With the circle placed in a public recreational beach area inside the city of
Singapore, there was plenty of people traffic resulting in a big "Peanut
Gallery" surrounding the event. Among the gawkers was a mom and a 14 year old
daughter. They were sitting on their bikes watching the circle. The girl
obviously wanted to join. I walked up to them and offered them small hand drums.
The girl eagerly excepted the drum and started playing. Mom said no thank you.
With the Moms permission I offered the daughter a chair in the circle. She
jumped off her bike and ran to the circle. Looking at the mom with my sad
"Please come and play with us" look, the mom laughed but said " No thank you, I
have to watch the bikes". I left her alone to go shmooze and entice some more
Peanut Gallery gawkers into the circle.
But about 5 minutes later I walked up to the Mom, stood next to her and we
watched her daughter fully engrossed in the music. I asked mom, "Is your
daughter having fun yet?". The mother answered, "Big time fun, She is normally
very shy".
I indicated to the empty seat next the the daughter with a wave of my hand,
saying " This could be a Mother-Daughter bonding moment for you". Her body and
face agreed with me, but she said "I have to watch the bikes. I pointed to a
light pole situated just behind the girls
seat and said that pole would be a good place to put the bikes and that I would
keep an eye on them for her. She agreed and I helped her snuggle the bikes to
the pole and got her seated next to her daughter for "rhythm bonding". After a
while I noticed that the mom was no longer drumming for her daughter but also
for herself. They stayed and played for the rest of the event.
Score one for enticement.
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