You can’t beat the enjoyment of hand drumming

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This article was published 03/11/2004 (7943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JORDAN Hanson is on a mission to bring music to the masses. His hand drum classes take the most inexperienced of players and turns them into accomplished musicians.

“You don’t have to be able to read music. Beginner and advanced players can be part of the same group,” he says. “This is often a person’s first chance to play as part of a group. After three to four weeks of classes, the practices already sound like music.”

The St. Vital studio, where Hanson’s Hand Drum Rhythms school is located, is steeped in musical history.

“Members of The Guess Who learned to play piano here,” says Hanson. “The acoustics are really good.”

Hanson’s interest in ethnic music, particularly African hand drumming, was sparked at an early age. His father worked as an environmentalist, and the family travelled often.

When Hanson was in high school, he went on several youth exchanges to destinations like West Africa, Cuba, Brazil, Thailand, and Belize.

“As a child, I often went to all-night concerts of 40-piece percussion ensembles. Percussion is a popular form of music in the tropical parts of the world, everybody does it,” he says. “I got a really diverse exposure at an early age.”

Hanson didn’t plan to be a music teacher; he came to his calling through necessity.

Group activity

“Hand drumming is a group activity. You have to do it with other people. On your own, it’s not a lot of fun,” he says. “Since I couldn’t find anyone else here who knew how to play, I had to teach people in order to have a group to play along with.”

Drumming is an accessible form of music, and within four weeks, most people have the hang of it, says Hanson.

“It can be a form of stress relief,” he adds. “It’s an enjoyable, empowering thing to do. It’s also a form of communication. There’s a dialogue that takes place between the different drums.”

Hand Drum Rhythms holds classes from Tuesday to Saturday. Classes take place once a week in three different time slots, with an average of 12 to 15 students per class.

The school has two performance groups: their performance ensemble, Batuque, and their student ensemble.

“This gives people the chance to perform without a lot of skill,” Hanson says. “The most important thing is that everyone has fun.”

Hanson’s fellow instructors also have rich musical backgrounds. Richard Fontaine is an apprentice to a master drummer in Italy, where he returns every year to train and tour Europe. Another instructor, Jay Stoller, received his degree in music from a university in Ghana, West Africa.

For more information about Hand Drum Rhythms, call 233-7743 or check out their website at www.drumwinnipeg.com.

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