Put 30 beginning drummers in a room and one might expect a an ear-shattering cacophony of noise.
But that’s not what participants in Granville Johnson’s workshop found when they came together Saturday to learn how to play the djembe drum.
On the contrary, when everyone starts to play following Johnson’s lead the sound is quite harmonious, says Chris Hornby, one of the 30 participants, most of whom she says were beginners.
“We all blended,” Hornby says. “If you make a mistake you can’t tell because you have 29 other drummers around you.”
The djembe is a goblet style drum originally from West African made from carved hardwood with a drumhead usually made from untreated rawhide, typically goatskin, and tuned with rope.
It’s name means gather together in peace and defines the drum’s purpose.
Johnson, who is a well-known instructor at the summer Arts on the Fly festival in Horsefly and Arts Wells Festival in Wells, was invited to teach the workshop in Williams Lake by Brenda Norquay. She saw him play in Horsefly and took a workshop with him in Arts Wells.
She sent out about 100 e-mails to friends asking people if they would like to participate in the lakecity workshop. The four-hour afternoon session included a half -hour performance by Johnson at the end of the workshop.
“It was a learning lesson for me,” Brenda says of organizing the workshop. “It was well worth it and so much fun. The next one will be much easier!”
The $25 workshop fee included the loan of a drum and some people also bought their own drums, Hornby says.
She says the drums provided were different sizes so you chose a drum size comfortable for your own body.
It was also good exercise, Hornby says, because you wrap your legs around the bottom of the drum to hold it steady and sit on the edge of your chair to play it, relaxing between sets to listen to the lessons.
“I would say it is a good workout because you have to have good posture for at least an hour at a time, a lot of upper body work,” Hornby says.
She says sitting in a big circle was helpful because you had a good sightline to the instructor and could listen to what your fellow drummers were doing and try to blend with the group.
“We learned a song called The Elephant Walk,” Hornby says.
She says they learned how to cup their hands to create a soft beat.
They learned tempos and started with beats at the centre, or heart, of the drum and moved out to play around the rim.
A multimedia artist, raised in Chicago, Johnson is a dual citizen of Canada and the U.S. who describes his music as a symbiosis of his cultural roots and global exposure.
He makes his home in Sinclair Mills near Prince George with his partner Birgit Luesgen. Together they have a small Fair-Trade business importing drums and Bolga Baskets from Ghana.
With the assistance of fellow musician Jeff Postnikoff, he leads a drum circle workshop session called Drumspeak.
He has played the djembe (African drum) for 35 years, tongue drum and other percussion instruments. He describes his music as djembe jazz, digital collage. He is also a short story author, poet, and drum storyteller.
He describes his music as improvised instrumental jazz based on traditional rhythms and phrasing combined with R & B styling. “Rhythmic funk boogie music to help every breathing body move to the groove.”