Unshackled by the Red Sea — Free-Form Djembe Jam: The Lysergic Recordings [video]

 

I did something extremely liberating here on the beach on the last Full Moon of 2020, which I’m sharing with you. So, instead of drifting into a certain repetitive and meditative pattern of beats as I normally drum — often with eyes closed — whenever I would find myself getting too comfortable I instantly put an end to said pattern. Whatever move would be coming next is an absolute mystery. The only thing I know for certain is that it won’t be as my hands are subconsciously guiding me. You see, I’m prompting myself to make mistakes, then making it part of the dance, by improvising in the moment: Order [or some of it] out of chaos. There is certain beauty in the uncertainty. I’m like hacking into my own brain, forcing it to go against where it naturally wants to “head”, the easy way out. The result is a free-form, almost tempo-less freestyle kind of jam. Instead of The Zone, this time I took myself and my drum on a ride outside the safety of the known comfort zone. However, Flow State was still there; only significantly different than all I have experienced before. 



 

As you can see, in the first four minutes I was till toying with what I know. You have probably heard these beats before in many of my previous videos. Then as I got more bold I slowly began the deconstruction process.

Philosophising aside, I had a jolly delightful time. The resulting novelty is refreshing to the soul. At one point mid playing I remember telling myself this is the most original YOU it has ever been. As in, no one could have possibly done the exact same routine because it’s ridiculously random and incredibly simple and stupid yet somehow also complex and multi-layered. Notice how many different sounds are produced in this mere half-hour video. It was so uniquely and idiosyncratically authentic, I thought anyone hearing it would clearly think I’m mental; possibly also that it’s not even music.



At times, you see, the playful, experimental mood felt like I was a three year old with his first drum. Other times it felt like a jammed Energiser bunny. Then there were times when I felt like I was giving a concert — a free-styling no-form kind of performance to thousands of people in an auditorium or stadium. 



 

Thing is, I didn’t care at all how anyone would perceive this freestyling. Again, not blindly following your hands and the constructs we have built ourselves from memories of previous experiences is a truly liberating endeavour. In fact, a rebellious part of me was secretly hoping that no one likes it. Just to be sure that it’s marvellously random and outright wacky. But I was also enjoying the fact that I’m almost all alone in the entire Red Sea beach compound — except a few neighbours who happened to pass right by and still gave compliments despite what I thought. 

Notice I ask Raghda and Nayla if I was too loud; to which they responded “No”, “To keep it up”, and “I love it”. Maybe they were just being nice. I think it was the solitude that encouraged me to play as I did here rather than how I play in Drum Circles when surrounded by others. 

 

Apparently the cat and kittens enjoyed it just as well.

 

Funnily enough, I noticed that right after getting complimented by the ladies my head and hands were almost tempted to go back to “normalcy” — whatever that means in terms of melodic drumming. Back to the comfort zone where I feel seemingly in control. Then once again I would snap out of it and stop. It was an ongoing Yin-Yang struggle, or dance more likely. Almost as though it is some form of communication between the two sides of my brain: The analytical left hemisphere — responsible for the right hand — wanting order and consistency while its counterpart the intuitive right hemisphere — responsible for the left hand — wanting creativity and even a certain degree of chaos. I tried bridging the gap between these two poles by baltering along The Path of the Razor’s Edge with my tunes.

Other than the first three-four minutes, throughout this one hour of playing I found myself going back to the consistency maybe every five minutes or so. Probably visiting this known realm just to see that I still can keep a beat and have not lost it completely. Not for too long though. Then I remember the fun in breaking away from the norms and the known. So I would stop the patterns and proceed to carry on the improvisation — trying different speeds, combinations, pauses, even fingers and hands positionings — leaving me absolutely clueless about how things will turn out. Unshackled! New patterns then emerge, which are broken and so on and so forth. 

Previous writings about the topic can be found in How Drumming Changed The Way My Brain Processes Music where, beside Neuroplasticity (Brain Plasticity), I discuss a relatively new field of study called Cognitive Neuroscience of Music. This is the scientific study of brain-based mechanisms involved in the cognitive processes underlying music, including music listening, performing, composing, reading, writing, and ancillary activities. It is also increasingly concerned with the brain basis for musical aesthetics and musical emotion. In that regard, music can help science advance its understanding of the human brain and its mental functions.

Drum Circle Etiquette — The Do’s and Don’ts is another list article. Then there is the more general exposé: The Intertwining of Music and Sexuality ― A Djembefola’s Tale.

Unshackled again



O’ man. I felt empowered after putting myself out there, naked and vulnerable while dealing with the unknown and the uncertainty from one second to the next. This spontaneity seemed to have somehow sharpened my senses. All I had in mind was nothing but the very present Here and Now. No past. No future. Not that I usually do while normally drumming; but this time I went even further inside my mind to try to stop all forms of conditioning and restrictions. In the process, I destructed all known-forms — to me. Notice the liberating sighs and “Ahhhhhhhs” at the end of each section.

It truly felt like all the nonsense I carry around in my head has gone out of it like a steam engine. Things the three languages I speak and write cannot convey or explain. Being an abstract art form less complex than language, music equally helps us expunge such nonsense… until the next jam. How therapeutic that is.

 

Another difference is how this time instead of the dreamy, meditative state I usually indulge in, I kept my eyes fully open almost throughout the entire session. Almost daringly so.

For some reason this Rumi quote was conveniently the highlight of these recordings, which kept flashing into my mind like a Las Vegas Strip neon light. What trip.

“Run from what’s comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on I’ll be mad.” 


― Rumi

 

All that said, I sincerely invite you all to get out of your comfort zones. For comfort is the enemy of creativity and achievement. Make mistakes. Make beautiful, glorious mistakes. Make better ones, right now and tomorrow and the day after that. Experience, after all, is how we learn and evolve. Free thy mind. Be You! Madly. Fully. Wholly. Unapologetically. 


 

 

Salute to your Souls. 

Still unshackled

ALSO VIEW:

How Drumming Changed The Way My Brain Processes Music

 

The Intertwining of Music and Sexuality ― A Djembefola’s Tale

Drum Circle Etiquette — The Do’s and Don’ts

A Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos & Videos (2014-’15)

Another Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos & Videos (2016-’17)

One More Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos & Videos (2017-’18)

How Do We Know We Are Good at Something?

Different Shades of Passion

Who Are We?

My Journey Towards Self-Transcendence

Why I Share Stuff

Dealing with High Awareness and Empathic Accuracy

How Drumming Changed The Way My Brain Processes Music

Three weeks ago, I found through my Finnish bungalow-mate, Jarkko, that there is an Underworld concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I thought it would be a cool event and we agreed to go together. We had our raving days back in our early 20s and it has been while for the both of us. So we were excited to listen to some oldskool electronic music after all those years.

On Sunday afternoon I left the Venice Beach Drum Circle earlier than usual to go home and get ready. We then took an Uber from Venice and headed over there. As we entered the venue the band was just starting playing. This was around 8 pm, and we each had a single beer.

Underworld began smoothly, slowly increasing the BPM (Beats Per Minute) with every song. The audience consisted of several thousand people, most in their late 20s and 30s. 

At some point, maybe two or three songs through, I noticed something peculiar: I realised that my brain is processing the music differently than how it used to. I sort of knew that a certain beat will fade and another one will come in. It was like I’m seeing a blueprint of the melody and rhythm of the music played — there was some visual pattern involved. The light show with the different colours also had a lot to do with the energy of the experience.

What is worth noting is that I only know two Underworld songs from my heydays: Pearl’s Girl and Born Slippy — the famous track from Trainspotting. So everything else was completely new to me.

I was also not on some pills or tripping on anything. In fact, I was quite conscious, only naturally excited. Yet, I could somehow ‘see’ and anticipate the music on a deeper level which I had never experienced before, especially when ‘sober’. This kept happening up until the end of the concert.

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

As I shared my experience with Jarkko, I remembered the fact that music is one of the few activities that practically uses and stimulates the entire brain. Music literally “lights up” the brain as it activates areas responsible for motor actions, emotions, and creativity.

“There are fireworks going off all over the brain,” as worded in the simplified Ted Talk video by Anita Collins added at the end of the article.  

I also remembered researching the topic when I first heard about it; and I learned that playing a musical instrument is an intense multisensory and motor experience, which eventually leads to acquiring specialised sensorimotor skills.

The new thing in my life is that I have been religiously drumming every Saturday and Sunday for the last year. This is roughly about 10 hours a week, amounting to 520 hours of drumming. Therefore the rational explanation as to why I’m processing music differently is that I have been playing an instrument for all these hours.

Further, I usually drum with my eyes closed as a sort of meditation, so naturally this practice must have affected me one way or another.

I equally hold that because this instrument is specifically a drum, there is a lot of correlation with the electronic music in terms of beats, rhythm, and repetition. I have been listening to my usual music from Rock, Blues, and Soul, yet haven’t really sensed any major difference. This, however, is the first electronic music event I attend after starting to play the djembe. And this is the first time I experience music in such a multilayered way. 

You can check the following photo-video articles for lots of cool visuals: A Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos & Videos (2014-’15), Another Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos & Videos (2016-’17), One More Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos & Videos (2017-’18).

There is also this electric Footage from the VBDC also taken by Jarkko.

“Indulge”

Now, in Cognitive Neuroscience, the term used to explain the ability of the brain to change in response to learning and experience is Neuroplasticity — also known as Brain Plasticity.

Research in the field has shown that, contrary to the previously-predominant idea that changes in the brain were only possible during infancy and childhood, the brain never stops changing through learning. The reason being is that it has a remarkable capacity to alter existing pathways as well as create new ones.

This confirms that training the mind, having a hobby such as music playing, or inducing specific modes of consciousness can have valuable and lasting healthy effects. Meditation, yoga, and other mindfulness practice could equally cause behavioural and mental changes due to changes in the very brain structures.


Neuroplasticity, however, remains a fairly new field of scientific study. So only recently — perhaps the last two decades or so — has research been able to show that learning to play a musical instrument has a direct impact on other functions, such as the ability to multitask and to understand emotions in the voice, as well as speech perception.

Generally, brain plasticity results from experiences which require our full attention, engage the brain through emotion, and are repetitive. This is the exact case with music. This is why it has proven to modify the structural and functional organisation of the brain in response to changes in environmental input.


Even though listening to music has soothing and beneficial effects, for it engages and activates multiple areas of the brain. But a study from Northwestern University has revealed that to enjoy the full cognitive benefits of music, one has to be actively engaged in it, and not just listen as it was previously thought. The so-called “Mozart effect,” which is the belief that certain types of music improves intelligence, especially in the case of children, has already been disproved.

The analogy used by Nina Kraus, one of the co-authors of the study, is that one is not going to become physically fit just by watching sports. For biological changes to occur in the brain and in the central nervous system, one has to be engaged with the sound of music. This engagement requires adept motor skills, which, over time, can allow musicians to solve problems more effectively and creatively; it also enhances the creation, storage, and retrieval of their memories.

You can find more about the subject on this 2010 study: Music Making as a Tool for Promoting Brain Plasticity across the Life Span; as well as a more recent one published in 2015: Musicians and music making as a model for the study of brain plasticity.


Interestingly, there is a whole new field now called the Cognitive Neuroscience of Music, which is the scientific study of brain-based mechanisms involved in the cognitive processes underlying music. These behaviours include music listening, performing, composing, reading, writing, and ancillary activities. It is also increasingly concerned with the brain basis for musical aesthetics and musical emotion.

Being an abstract art form less complex than language, music can indeed help science advance its understanding of the human brain and its mental functions. Knowing that it’s a relatively new field of research, I hold that more will be revealed to us within the next decade.

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician.
I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music.
I see my life in terms of music.”
― Albert Einstein

More than ten years before I switch to drum circles, I used to go out clubbing and dancing like many young people. Whether it was clubs in London, illegal raves in L.A, or the 50,000-people/25-DJs Inner City in Amsterdam, I sure loved to party. And in that regard, music was and still is everything.

That said, all this electronic music I listened to throughout the years is one way or another still engraved in my mind and soul. Interestingly, now that I regularly drum, I noticed that the tunes unconsciously come unto me, especially when playing solo.
Even Jarkko pointed to the stage at some point during the concert and said: “It reminds me of your drumming.”

Moreover, as I came to witness during this electronic event, my brain seems to process music in a novel, and perhaps more sophisticated, way ― like a series of vibrational echos which somehow “make sense” rather than just a mere sound or noise. It really felt like I'm listening to a harmonious spoken language, despite being devoid of words.
 
Perhaps this is what neuroplasticity has done. And it is caused by the altering of the neural pathways in my brain and the creation of new ones due to drumming.



In summation, playing a music instrument is one great way to develop the brain and enhance creativity. It also has calming effects, reduces tension and anxiety, and releases emotions. Like sports, I believe every child should be given the opportunity to try. Who knows what could happen.

As for adults, it’s never too late to pick up whatever instrument you may fancy. It sure is one heck of a fun and therapeutic activity. For it truly heals the body, mind, and soul.


To see how things have evolved, read the more recent The Intertwining of Music and Sexuality ― A Djembefola’s Tale and Drum Circle Etiquette — The Do’s and Don’ts , both written several years after this piece. And also the Ted Talk below. 

*All four photos were captured by Jarkko in Los Angeles in July 2015



ALSO VIEW:

The Intertwining of Music and Sexuality ― A Djembefola’s Tale

Drum Circle Etiquette — The Do’s and Don’ts

A Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos & Videos (2014-’15)

Another Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos & Videos (2016-’17)

One More Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos & Videos (2017-’18)

How Do We Know We Are Good at Something?

Different Shades of Passion

Who Are We?

My Journey Towards Self-Transcendence

Why I Share Stuff

Dealing with High Awareness and Empathic Accuracy

Why I Choose to Remain a Non-Dad for Now — Reflections on Being Childless

The Evolution of Dance Music Through 20 Years [Videos]