Season 4: Ep. 7 World Music Drumming Legacies and Visions
World Music Drumming offers opportunities for teachers to enrich general music curricula through ensemble-centered explorations of diverse musics. This episode with Patty Bourne, director of World Music drumming, explores the legacy of Will Schmid, impacts on teachers, expansions of musical visions, and the future of this curricula. Alongside voices of Lynn Brinckmeyer, Michael Checco, Fabian Galli, Melissa Blum, and Tereasa Evans, we look at the lasting impact of Will Schmid’s vision for music education. With Patty Bourne, we open up conversations about how encounters with Afro-centric music-making expand our understandings of music and music literacy. We also look at how we center these encounters as ethical encounters that are filled with practices of care. The episode is interspersed with recordings of ensembles from the 2023 World Music Drumming workshop at Elizabethtown College.
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keywords: world music drumming, African diasporas, music education, belonging, vulnerability
Editors Note: The Wisconsin residential-style workshop mentioned in this podcast is being moved in 2024 to Cedar Rapids, IA. With Sunday and evening events, the Cedar Rapids workshop will be a “residential site, reimagined,” replacing the Wisconsin site of past years.
Patty Bourne is a veteran music educator, having taught all grades, P-graduate level, in four states. Currently, Bourne is Coordinator of Music Education at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA.
A native of Kentucky, Bourne received degrees from Murray State University (BME) 2, the University of Oklahoma (MME) 02, and Arizona State University (Ed.D.) 2. Patty is the author of two texts: "Inside the Music Classroom: Teaching the Art with Heart" and "Inside the Elementary Chorus: Instructional Techniques for the Non-Select Children's Chorus." She was selected as the Washington Music Educator of the Year and is an inductee of the Washington Music Educators Hall of Fame. Patty received the Excellence in Teaching award from Western Washington University and has been selected as a Master Teacher by the Conn-Selmer Corporation. Patty, and husband Tom, offer international leadership to World Music Drumming professional development workshops.
In this 50th episode of the Music and Peacebuilding podcast, we return to roots that inspired our work in peacebuilding at Elizabethtown College. With Patty Bourne, the late Will Schmid, and colleagues we explore the roots and the impact of World Music Drumming.
This podcast includes musical clips that were recorded on the final performance day of the World Music Drumming workshop, hosted at Elizabethtown College. These performances were taught and led by Michael Checco, Hong Le, and Sowah Mensah.
Discussion Questions
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Patty calls Will Schmid a visionary for his ability to forsee the challenges ahead for children and for music education. What are the challenges that you see ahead in the coming years for students and for music education? How might our pedagogical practices prepare to answer these challenges?
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What makes world music drumming work as a practice of social-emotional learning?
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Will Schmid speaks to his desire to fix the broken link between elementary general music and high school ensembles through guitar instruction and world music drumming. What do we need to do to add richness to general music teaching at the middle school and secondary levels?
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Bourne speaks to belonging with the language that “music is better when we belong together” and we counter isolation and disconnection. How should we pursue music making as a practice of social engagement? What strategies encourage social engagement?
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To invest in world music successfully, we must “unmoor our sense of what music is.” In a time of increasing diversity in our schools, how do we challenge our Euro-centric understandings of music and enlarge our definitions of music?
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How have you experienced vulnerability when encountering a new way of doing music and being musical?
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This episode notes that “When we invest time to understand the limitations of our frames, and express care for diverse peoples and traditions, we model sensitive practices of care to our students.” How do we model sensitive practices of cultural care and self-reflection to our students?
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How has the practice of being together with other teachers changed your approach to musical presence and belonging?
Timecodes:
2:25 Background
5:10 Early WMD Curriculum
7:35 Will Schmid Legacy
9:42 Will Schmid Interview
11:59 Schmid - WMD Origin
14:20 Music Clip
15:12 Lynn Brinckmeyer
16:04 Fabián Galli
17:08 Belonging
18:27 Music Clip 2
18:51 Michael Checco 1
19:55 Unmooring Music
26:14 Vulnerability
28:39 Checco Wisconsin Belonging
30:34 Ethics of Cultural Encounters
32:01 Melissa Blum
33:18 Tereasa Evans - West Music
34:20 Community
39:19 Music 3
40:49 Reclaiming Connection
42:35 Closure
Resources
World Music Drumming: https://www.worldmusicdrumming.com/
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West Music: https://www.westmusic.com/
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Previous episodes on world music drumming:
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World Music Drumming by Remo
World Music Drumming with Will Schmid
World Music Drumming 2
Transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
music, drumming, world, ensembles, workshop, belonging, students, teaching, wisconsin, curriculum, peacebuilding, teachers, people, patty, work, musical, community, years, learn, eurocentric
SPEAKERS
Will Schmid, Lynn Brinckmeyer, Patty Bourne, Kevin Shorner-Johnson, Melissa Blum, Tereasa Evans, Fabián Galli, Michael Checco
Patty Bourne 00:00
I've talked to a lot of teachers I know for me, it made me realize the power of in person community. We're better together. We're just better together. Life is better when we're together in a restorative capacity, but also a caring environment. We don't need to have it all. Just to be together is everything.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 00:25
You are listening to season four of the music and peacebuilding podcast, a podcast season focused on multifaceted textures of belonging. Our podcast explores intersections of peacebuilding, sacredness, community, creativity and imagination through research and story. Patty Bourne is a veteran music educator, having taught all grades P through graduate level in four states. Currently, Bourne is coordinator of music education at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, a native of Kentucky, Bourne received degrees from Murray State University, the University of Oklahoma and Arizona State University. Patty is the author of two texts, inside the music classroom: teaching the Art With Heart and inside the elementary chorus: instructional techniques for the non select children's chorus. She was selected as the Washington Music Educator of the Year and is an inductee of the Washington music educators Hall of Fame. Patty received the Excellence in Teaching Award from Western Washington University and has been selected as a master teacher by the conn summer Corporation. Patty and her husband Tom offer international leadership to World Music drumming professional development workshops. In this 50th episode of the music and peacebuilding podcast, we return to roots that inspired our work and peacebuilding at Elizabethtown College. With Patti Bourne, the late Will Smith and colleagues we explore the roots and the impact of world music drumming. This podcast includes musical clips that were recorded on the final performance day of the World Music drumming workshop, hosted at Elizabethtown college. These performances were taught and led by Michael Checco, Hong Lee, and Sowah Mensa.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 02:25
So here's a fun way to start. So I was looking at a book that you wrote a long time ago in teaching the Art With Heart. And in the beginning there is there's this wonderful foreword from Judith Harrington, I guess, she writes a little comment about your soft Kentucky accent, ready smile and easy laughter that it's all part of Patti's voice. Here's the teacher with heart compassion, intelligence and creativity. And so I thought, maybe could you introduce us? How a person with Kentucky heritage and maybe how that story eventually finds its way into relationship with World Music drumming? You
Patty Bourne 03:02
bet. And I'll try to keep from zigging and zagging too much Owensboro, Kentucky, Go Red Devils. I went to school and at Murray State University, which is a small ish, 15,000 students or so in Murray, Kentucky, and very much a alpha trumpet player and singer and had designs on becoming a high school band director, orchestra director as many undergraduates, ended up interviewing and falling in love with elementary music and started in that. And I always felt like there was a missing piece. So my first job was in Norman, Oklahoma, and back then Oklahoma, really supported the professional development of their teachers. And my school in particular provided a lot of opportunities to not just attend Oklahoma events, but go to national conferences. And that's the first time I saw Will Schmid, the pilot for World Music drumming was in its early stages. And I, it was kind of a glimmer in his eye at that point. And I was drawn to him because he was so charismatic and such a terrific leader. And time passed and I went back to a national conference I was then teaching elsewhere. And lo and behold, this curriculum had blossomed in
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 04:43
In partnership with Orff Kodaly training, World Music drumming enriched Patty's imaginations of ensemble music making. After sessions led by Schmid, Patti moved to a school district where a pilot teacher was testing the world music drumming curriculum. In this context, she saw the power of the World Music drumming approach to social emotional learning, community and voice.
Patty Bourne 05:10
And yet, I saw them collaborating together, communicating together, respecting the environment, allowing voices to be heard, all the things, all those key words that that connected with the curriculum then and connect with the curriculum. Now, we're being played out in her class. So I said, Okay, where do I go? And when do I go? And how quick, how quickly can I go? So it was 1997 or 98, that I went to Lake Geneva and went to camp. It was at a church camp at that time, and there was something like 78 people in level one, you know, really, early stages, and a lot of folks excited. Well, fast forward 10 years, and I'm still going to World Music drumming. Somewhere in Wisconsin, it flipped around from a church, church camp to a resort area to a variety of places. And I think that that I just was, was was enthusiastically eager to learn as much as I could. And eventually Will said, Would you be interested in joining the faculty? And yes, absolutely. Then later, a couple of years later, would you be interested in being Associate Director for the workshops? Yes, absolutely. But I still want to be a faculty member. That's okay. And so then, you know, eventually, as medical issues emerged, with Will, and his wife Ann, my husband and I were asked to establish a company and continue the professional development, excellence of world music drumming. So from Kentucky band director mindset, to strong enthusiast, general music teacher of young learners, to a professional development leader within World Music drumming to Director it's been quite the journey and one that I, I wouldn't change a thing except that Will and Ann would still be with us.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 07:35
I would love to open up some of the story of Will Schmid. I want to talk a little bit later about how World Music drumming has continued to grow and evolve over time. But if we go back to Will Schmid's legacy, what do you sense that Will was trying to build and what was important about what he was building at the time as World Music drumming was coming?
Patty Bourne 07:55
Will was a visionary. I mean, that's, that's the only way you can put it. He, he foresaw what we're engaging with now, which is, you know, a world and a little bit of hurt. And students in a lot of, of needs socially, and in their own self management mechanisms, and in their own ability to empathize and recognize others as having value. And getting outside their own heads. He saw that. I don't know how he knew that in 25-26 years, the curriculum would be more important than ever. I don't know whether he could have foreseen the the millions of learners who have been impacted by their time in a classroom where this this curriculum has been respectfully communicated and taught and engaged with, I think that he started out saying Middle School, general music is in need of something. I think that's where it started. And then when he looked at the particular learners in middle school, he saw that, you know, it's a time when students disengage, it's a time when students disconnect. It's a time when students kind of go through this this myopic vision of the world, but he went beyond the developmental scope of a middle school student to a societal need. His vision of how this could look within a school system has been lived again and again and again and again and again again.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 09:43
In an interview published in the Wisconsin Music Educators Association, journal, and generously shared by Angela Erdman Will Schimd speaks to an emerging need an upper level general music in the following edited excerpt It Will speaks about the development of guitar curricula for schools. He names the need for enriched general music curriculum at secondary levels as a bridge to more inclusive music making.
Will Schmid 10:16
Secondary general music. Is admittedly, everyone admits this, is admittedly the weakest area of music curriculum, we lose students, after they choose not to be in band choir or orchestra around the middle school, we lose them and, and by the time we're at graduation, we're down to 20% or fewer in some schools. So we have to do a much better job on that. And clearly one of the directions for secondary general music that everyone is pointing to now is, is a series of active options, like guitar, like world music drumming, and like active options with keyboards and synthesizers and computers. That kind of work, where students can really, really get their hands on things and not just be the receivers of music. They can be the doers and the makers of music. And the other point I'd make about it is that 90% of the teachers who come to these workshops and instruct the top programs are also involved in teaching band and choir and orchestra. And they find that as a huge benefit of the work that they're teaching in the other areas like band, choir, and orchestra also changes and is much better as a result of some of the strategies that they learn.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 11:58
In the following edited clip, Will describes the genesis of world music drumming, and an early investment by the Remo corporation that allowed the curriculum to flourish.
Will Schmid 12:10
As I was finishing my two years as MENC president from 94 to 96, I realized that I needed a project to really capture my attention when I when I got finished with that experience. So I was able to talk the REMO drum company into funding a two year pilot project, which went from 1996 to 98. REMO drums put $140,000 into that pilot project, not knowing whether it would produce anything that would be useful for them, but believing that it would. We established 20 pilot sites starting here, in Milwaukee with five pilot sites in Milwaukee Public Schools, and adding 15 More in the summer of 1997. That pilot experience at two years gave us the chance to thoroughly put together a curriculum which was then tested in all 20 schools. So that at the end of the experience, when we finally published the world music drumming publications in 1998, we knew that it worked, we knew that they were based on solid, successful experience, and had been seriously modified by the experiences and suggestions of the pilot teachers. So it's been gratifying to me to see that today, three years later. We now have a groundswell of interest in this with 1000s of schools teaching it all over the country. And expanding from our one summer workshop at conference point in Lake Geneva, here in Wisconsin, to now three sites this summer. In addition to the main workshop here in Wisconsin, we're also teaching a workshop in Las Vegas and another workshop in Leesburg Virginia.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 14:38
Lynn Brinckmeyer's World Music drumming workshop. Kids choir and drums focuses on incorporating singing, drumming and movement to teach kid tested strategies and materials for grades four through eight. With 25 plus years of teaching experience, Lynn served as the president of the National Association for Music Education from 2006 to 2008. Here, she speaks to how she was changed by World Music drumming.
Lynn Brinckmeyer 15:13
World Music drumming and Will Smith changed my teaching in choir and general music changed completely. The constant physical engagement of students, and the reminder of listening, watching, team building, et cetera. It took a bit more time at first in the fall, after a while I spent very little time teaching rhythm, because the singers had developed cells of recognition in a strong rhythmic vocabulary. Some of the singers did join choir simply because they wanted to drum. And eventually I helped them learn how to love singing as well. And I'm grateful for that. I'm a much better teacher, thanks to this program. Thank you, Patti Bourne for carrying on Will's legacy, and continuing to help students learn how to learn across the country.
Fabián Galli 16:05
My name is Fabian Galli and I work in the International School of Amsterdam. More than 15 years ago, I found the world music drumming book, in that moment it was coming with a VCR. I wanted it because I wanted to teach percussion to my students. And I was teaching Brazilian percussion. But I didn't know about Caribbean or African. So I thought it was the perfect fit. I still using it. After all these years, the seven ensembles from the book are part of my daily teaching. And I think this is a proof how much I like it, and how much the students enjoy it. A part that I know, it's a good way to learn music, to do things together. And to get to know Music from other cultures,
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 17:06
We return to Patti born. So if we take that topic of belonging and maybe it's it's an idea of belonging in an age of digital distraction, belonging in an age of disconnection and loneliness. I could definitely speak to what I think is magical about world music drumming but I would love to hear you talk about what what is magical about the belonging to each other that happens through polyrhythmic complexity and circle process and all the things that go with World Music drumming.
Patty Bourne 17:37
It doesn't work on your own. The Mojo happens when you're with a group of people. By itself, it could be practicing your, you know your etudes. By itself it could be a technical process. But the It's the social engagement, that sense of when I add my voice to your voice, listen to what happens and listen to how much pleasure we get from the give and take, the call and response. The rhythm complements, you know it rushes of endorphins. The long term result is this music is better when we belong together when we counteract what's going on in a collaborative mode.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 18:51
World Music drumming clinician and Elizabethtown college Master of Music Education faculty member Michael Checco speaks of the power of drumming together and the possibility of resilient and connective communities.
Michael Checco 19:07
Drumming together gives students an opportunity to experience so many positive feelings. They experience the feeling of synchrony when they learn how to truly play together rather than just playing at the same time as others. They learn to become leaders and followers. They learn how to support each other through their struggles. They learn how each player is important, and how to think of others and the collective whole before themselves. playing music together can help them to relate to each other better, not just musically but personally. And when these kinds of connections can exist inside our musical space, there is hope that we can build the same connections outside of the music as well.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 19:55
Which I think leads into the next topic or they want to open up which is this idea of unmooring our sense of what music is, you know, when I, when I did an interview with Sowah, and also some studies of Afro centric music, one of the first things that I had to learn is that you don't learn a rhythm just in relationship to a metronome, that you have to learn a rhythm in relationship to another voice. And your, your memory has to be playing all these parts, because you're, you're learning rhythms in conversation with each other. I mean, that's just one example. And I, I would also note that, I think a lot of times teachers who are coming to world music drumming feel very vulnerable, because our entire lives have been steeped in this Eurocentric way of knowing what music is. And so my question is, how has, how have you experienced World Music drumming kind of unmooring this very narrow sense of what music is? And then what affirmations would you give to teachers who are feeling really vulnerable, about entering a space that challenges that,
Patty Bourne 20:59
Oh boy, World Music drumming started, I think one of the reasons why I went that, that's what I want. That's what I need is because of exactly the unwrapping of what it means to be musical. I think that we have as an as as a Eurocentric, Eurocentricly trained set of educators, we have defined musicianship and have misinterpreted it for musicality, we've drawn those two in synonymous, where to be musical, and to have musicianship to be able to have the skill of musicianship have have tripped over each other. And I wanted and needed a new way of looking at my young learners. Because as a Eurocentricly trained music educators, I was defining their musicality in terms that were aligned with the harmonic resonance you might get with Bach, or the ability to write in a symbolic notation system and apply that single way of communicating musically. And yet, I saw these extraordinarily artistic moments with really young students where I couldn't resolve that couldn't resolve how can I not describe you as, as a musician, how can I not recognize and celebrate your musicianship, if I stay in this pathway of it's got to look and sound like this. And so when I found World Music drumming, I realized that my definition of literacy was narrow was was not just narrow, but it was also biased. It was also prejudicial. It was also limiting the capacity my students had for demonstrating their innate musicality. And so as I became more and more involved in World Music drumming and continued my own development, my own skills, my own abilities, to hear multiple sounds, and like you said, keep the memory of what all of that sounds like, together, not only as an instructor, but also as a participant, I realized that my literacy, my musical understanding, was exploding. It was absolutely exploding because I was reaching beyond the norms that I've always adopted, ie four, four patterns, time signature, bar line, all all of the context that had worked within a Eurocentric ideal, had to be thrown out the window, and had to be looked at through what you said about, you know, the community of the circle, the cyclical nature of a timeline. And so I know for a fact that I would not be as strong a musician. Now, if I've not engaged in World Music drumming on a repeated basis, not just as a one off, but on a repeated deep level. And working with Sowah, and working with Josh and working with Kofi and the variety of teachers that we have. It is vulnerable, you know, the people come to World Music drumming. We invite them, we invite them to just be present, just, you know, be present, just participate, just engage. And let's, let's sort it out. After we've made some music together, let's let's allow you to filter in a way that make sense to you. While we're also beginning to step outside those norms that we've prized our identity with. And it is an identity thing. I, you know, I don't I don't blame anybody for coming in and saying, but I could do it. If I if I'm looking at it, that can you give me that piece of paper? I'll say, oh, golly. You know? Yes. Not now. But yes. And we're here to just wrap ourselves around this and get what we can, get what we can in a safe way. And that is that's that's a, that's a tough request. It's a tough ask. I get it. I understand that.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 26:13
Yeah, and I think I would model that for my myself. And my first level one was with Hong Le, And at some point, very much later in the week, we're diving into ensemble five, just to look at the timeline. And to save my life, I could not get the timeline. Because in that, you know, and I'm giving myself all kinds of shame and guilt that I have this doctorate and how in the world can I not get this timeline. But it just, it takes time to immerse yourself in a new way of doing music and being musical. And at once I was able to kind of let go of the shame and the guilt that comes with not being good enough right away. Yeah. It opens itself up a little bit.
Patty Bourne 26:52
Yeah, I hear you. The same thing happened. I remember the first year I took level three. I went to somebody in level three, Wednesday, at the end of the day, we'd been going Monday, Sunday night, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. And I just said, When do you have fun? When does this become fun? Because I felt like I was getting beat up every day. And it was because of what was going on in my own head. And, and my thinking, you know, I'm a world music drumming faculty member Darnit. Come on, let's go what is wrong with you? There must be something wrong with the instruction. And somebody said, Just take what you can get what you can and what you can't get. You will get or you won't. And it's about a level of participation that I wasn't allowing myself. Remember, I was an alpha trumpet player, I got all the solos. I sat first chair, I was at every audition, I got a great scholarship, I played really, really well. And I was used to things coming like this. In fact, I would play in ensembles. And I would use a C trumpet so that I could transpose on site, because I just wanted that challenge. And so to have things continually kick my butt was the disequilibrium was overwhelming. Until it wasn't until I just I just let go. And then it was fun.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 28:38
Michael Checco speaks about his path of vulnerability to his first Wisconsin workshop. While this workshop was his sixth workshop, he speaks of nervousness and the embrace of belonging and welcome from Will Schmid.
Michael Checco 28:56
The first time I ever went to the Wisconsin Ward music drumming workshop location, I had already been going to World Music drumming workshops for the previous five years. I wasn't really sure what to expect. But I did feel nervous. I had about 800 miles of time to feel nervous, not knowing what to expect as I went to my first Wisconsin workshop. There was a moment when I realized that everything was going to be fine. When I walked into the resort, and looked across the lobby, and I saw Will Schmid standing there, he stood up smiling, and he just couldn't wait to give me a hug. And that was the feeling of being a part of the world music drumming family. When I heard that there were people who were taking level three there for the 20th time. I didn't understand what that was all about. I understand it now. I had been going to these workshops, because I wanted to learn what was being taught there. But the longer I came, the more I realized I was coming back because of the people that were there, not the music that we were playing, I began to realize that it felt so easy to connect with these people that understood why we were there that understood the power of the experiences we were sharing. And you sit down at a Wisconsin workshop, and you're in a room full of people who get it. You didn't need to explain it. You didn't need to justify it. You just sat down and you were immediately part of the family. And you played and you sang, and it was beautiful.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 30:34
Patty and I conversed about the ethical requirements of cultural encounters and acknowledgments of bias, privilege and difference as we encounter the Other through music. Our moves toward encounters that are ethical appear to be rooted in the time we take to understand our context, selves, histories, relationships, and the music itself. When we invest time to understand the limitations of our frames, and express care for diverse peoples and traditions, we model sensitive practices of care to our students. Patty noted that some of the ensembles within World Music drumming were constructed not as authentic West African ensembles, but as etudes that introduce students to the frameworks of African diaspora music making. With the advice of Sowah Mensah World Music drumming instructors embrace the study of etudes that allow Eurocentric music learners to slowly move into culturally relevant, honoring and sustaining approaches to diverse musical traditions.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 32:00
Melissa Blum teaches drumming up the fun, an adaptation of world music drumming for early childhood teachers. In the clip to follow, she speaks of the relevance of world music, drumming, to social emotional learning, community, and the inclusion of belonging.
Melissa Blum 32:19
I truly think the most amazing aspect of world music drumming is the incredible blending of a phenomenal, educationally sound, hand drumming curriculum, and the intentional inclusion and belonging that participants experience while engaged in the program. I've often described the experience of putting together one of the ensembles as a perfect metaphor for community. We are all in this together, everyone has a part to play and no one can accomplish the finished result by themselves. Within the ensembles, there is turn taking and musical conversation, requiring that every participant watch and listen around them to understand their place in the whole. This connection between people is further emphasized through many of the keywords found and explored in the curriculum: Respect, listen, balance, complement, ensemble, teamwork. To be successful, we must connect with one another, respond to one another, and work toward understanding of one another.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 33:18
As I was building this podcast, I reached out to West Music. Because our relationship with West music is a relationship of mutuality and support. Where connections build at workshops become lifelong relationships.
Tereasa Evans 33:34
My name is Tereasa Evans. I'm the national events and program manager for the West music company. West music is a proud partner with World Music drumming, and we help to bring instruments, accessories and printed resources to every summer World Music drumming workshop in the US. We also send a knowledgeable associate to help you outfit your drumming needs for each and every classroom. World music drumming has been a leader in cultivating community. And here at West music, we've been able to build meaningful relationships by providing superior customer service, bridging the gap to work to get materials and helping establish lifelong music makers in correlation with World Music drumming.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 34:21
As we come to a close, I think I have maybe two more questions. One was you are just coming off the Wisconsin workshop. And I know it's a very special gathering. Could you tell us a little bit about... I think we've talked a little bit about what well music drumming does for students in building belonging, enriching cultural perspectives, but what does it do for the community of educators who come together in all these different workshops across the country?
Patty Bourne 34:47
Well, Wisconsin is is kind of a special hub. And we're trying to find the right balance again, you know, Will is is incredibly missed in In Wisconsin, of all places, and people come back year after year after year after year, we have some people who have been at every onsite face to face Wisconsin workshop for 25 years at their own expense. And it's because of the community. It's because it's a place where nonverbally we can engage in this unique, powerful experience. And it's not. I think that some people think, yeah, it's kind of the kumbaya ya drum circle? Well, no, it's it's not, it is an engagement of not only your ability to dive into music that was not part of your own culture and your own rearing. But it's an opportunity to be across the room from someone and have have an intimate sense of what it is that they're doing and carrying all those rhythms year after year after year after year. So I think what it does, for people who choose to come to the workshops, I think it gives them a sense, and not to be cliche or repetitive, but it gives them a sense of belonging that has so many dimensions beyond the dish, just the transactional, "I am coming to a professional development workshop, I will be a member of class, I will do the assignments. And when it is over, I will take apart what I have learned and offer it up to my students," - I get the feeling that at World Music drumming, there's a lot of ahas happening, that allow the educators to sense what happens with their students, when their students feel that sense of belonging. And when they're able to sit beside someone, and not only use them as a leader, but also serve as a leader. And to carry those rhythms with them and carry the songs. I think it stored in a different place in the brain. Those experiences are endorphin driven, they give a feeling of security, of acceptance of value of my voice matters. We're better when we're together. We need this as a society. And when an educator can pick that up at a workshop and align it with instructional delivery. I think it changes the way a person teaches their students, they're more aware of the long lasting societal benefits of it, because they felt it themselves. I do every summer, every summer, I just I come away feeling like I'm going to I'm going to listen better, I'm going to treat people with a stronger degree of empathy. And I'm going to help strategize ways for class participants, be they kids or youth or teenagers or adults, how they can begin to appreciate inner peace, and they can begin to appreciate my participation can rely on other people, I can rely on my team. I can focus because of my team. I can be a better communicator, because I've had this collaborative experience. And so I know personally, I just I'd be a different teacher. Had I not had World Music drumming. I'd be a different teacher. I think I'd be a little less guide on the side and more stage, sage on the stage to coin the term.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 39:50
I asked Patti about what she saw in the future of world music drumming. Our conversation included future expansions of genres and traditions. While remaining rooted to Will Schmid's vision of circular drumming as ever emerging voice, listening, and community. Our communities of aural practice open windows of wonder and curiosity that draw us closer to worldviews beyond our limited experience. In the echoes of COVID, World Music drumming practitioners have become more committed to the interlocking interdependence of our need for each other. When we sound voices in the gaps of ensemble timelines, we may emerge with collective stories forward.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 40:49
And I think I've reflected with people who've been asking about the master's program, our first tagline was, was this idea of "reclaiming space for connection and care," and that that line meant something at the end of No Child Left Behind. But now today in 2023, coming out of the pandemic, reclaiming space for connection care means something totally different, and totally different. And it makes also the power world music drumming, this power in which you sit in a circle and you look each other in the eyes, and you listen to interlocking rhythms. And there's a restorative sense of bringing yourself back to each other. That seems to be really important right now, post pandemic, well, I don't know if it's post pandemic, wherever we are, in the midst of this time.
Patty Bourne 41:34
It reframed the paradigm, didn't it? And I think, you know, I, I've talked to a lot of teachers, I know for me, it made me realize the power of in person community, that, that I didn't realize how much I needed it. And I'm introverted person, I get my strength from being on my own, but not my musical professional strength. We're better together. We're just better together. Life is better when we're together in a restorative, restorative capacity, but also a caring environment where we we will contribute what we contribute, and we're thrilled with that. We don't need to know it all. We don't need to have it all. Just to be together is everything.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 42:34
special thanks to Patti Bourne Michael Checco Lynn Brinckmeyer, Melissa Blum, Fabian Galli and Tereasa Evans of West Music for their contributions to this podcast. And thanks to the teacher participants of the 2023 World Music drumming workshop for the audio of their final performance of Elizabethtown College. Teachers can learn about and register for World Music drumming workshops at WWW dot world music drumming.com Elizabethtown College is proud to partner with World Music drumming in the crafting of our master's program. Born out of early conversations with Will Schmid and others, we seek the realization of world music drumming as a pathway to peacemaking, and community building. The richness of this tradition has brought grand theories of peacebuilding into the grounded drum strokes of interconnection. In our interwoven timelines, we hold space for vulnerability, humility, and curiosity in magical soundings of self, and community.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 43:51
As mentioned in this podcast, West music is a proud partner with World Music drumming, and offers discounts and world music drumming workshops. Information is available at www dot West music.com. We invite you to consider our Master of Music Education Program through links on our website, or if interested in a single graduate class to consider our new course in social emotional learning that lives alongside World Music drumming, links and references can be found on our website.
Kevin Shorner-Johnson 44:28
This is the music and peacebuilding podcast hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson. At Elizabethtown college we host a master of music education with an emphasis in peacebuilding. thinking deeply we reclaim space for connection and care. Join us at music peacebuilding.com