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This is an exploration of the origins and evolution of American Freeform group music-making, a cultural phenomenon that began in the 1960s , and decades later referred to as “drum circle,” and which continues as a popular recreation today. In recent years, the term “drum circle” is also been used to describe other kinds of community drumming, so for this writing I will refer to the freeform format as American Drum Circle—since this is a uniquely American cultural tradition, like free jazz or bebop, which didn’t exist elsewhere.
In fact, there's a common misconception where people may say “this kind of (freeform) drumming has been done in Africa for hundreds of years”. The truth is that African drumming is composed and performed rather than improvised.
Freeform play is done for amusement rather than entertainment. It’s a form of social music. To clarify the sort of gathering we mean here by “American Drum Circle”, here it is contrasted with traditional ensemble drumming:
One way to know if you’re in an American Drum Circle format is: if someone stands up offering to teach or lead, they are quietly ignored or shushed.
This description is not perfect, and of course in practice, there's a lot of variation where community drumming circles veer away from the traditional format. That's fine, but it raises an academic question: what do we call the original practice ,when we want to clarify what we mean?
I'm sure there will be those who disagree with this characterization. It's based on my experience since about 1983, having hosted between 500 and 600 such gatherings and participated in many more. That said, constructive comments and discussion are most welcome.
Hopefully, explaining the history of this iconic American musical recreation will shed light on how and why it came to be. It's really an inspiring and amusing story.
For further explanation, please see the excellent videos Kalani Das has made over the years, and a YouTube playlist I created with a bunch of examples, referenced below.
Kalani Das — example video 1
Kalani Das — example video 2
Kalani Das — drum circle video
Kalani Das — drum circle videos (playlist)
Kalani Das — drum circle videos (playlist)
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1w_3XzJ7PsJnTpHbUNVKyHevhHF77C9Q983t0JD0ILxw/edit?gid=1901193422#gid=1901193422](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1w_3XzJ7PsJnTpHbUNVKyHevhHF77C9Q983t0JD0ILxw/preview?gid=1901193422#gid=1901193422)