RockOm

By Tom Crenshaw, Tom@RockOm.net

Three melodic strings, a drumbeat and a passionate desire to connect with another can create a force that is larger than life. This immense, graceful force can be found in Christine Stevens and UpBeat Drum Circles as they travel the world, often venturing into hostile and war-torn territories to bridge cultural and spiritual barriers through music.

Music holds many keys for conflict healing and is an incredibly valuable weapon for promoting peace and reconciliation. Through music Christine Stevens has selflessly dedicated her life and resources in a mission to change the world one heartbeat and drumbeat at a time. Christine is an internationally acclaimed musician, author, music therapist and speaker as well as the founder of UpBeat Drum Circles. RockOm has made a dear friend in Christine featuring her work many times on our website.

We caught up with Christine recently to talk about bridging cultural barriers through music and instrumentation knowing she would have much to share with us on the subject. In connecting with Christine again we are introduced to the Strumstick: a three-stringed instrument whose small nature belies its capabilities. Through the Strumstick and drumming Christine has propagated goodwill, grace and peacemaking not only in Iraq but around the world as well.

Tom: In your work with Ashti Drum in Iraq, when you first are introduced to perform for a group is there an air of apprehension on either your part as a musician or those you’re meeting for the first time with regards to your being a Western musician? If so how do you make that first, all-important connection?

Christine: Well that’s a good question. "The beginning is half the whole" as they say and the first moments of a connection are crucial. A lot of preparation goes into going to Iraq. I dress according to the cultural norms; I dyed my hair, wore a hijab and prepared to meet people in their way. The first connection - what I noticed - it was all about making music and not talking at all.

More often than not, I introduce myself with drumming  and then wait and see if someone will answer you. [Laughs] What I love about the Strumstick and bringing a melodic instrument with me to Iraq to complement the drum circle program is that the Strumstick is in open tuning, like a drone. When you start to make that drone, people start to come. It’s a magnetic force for group gatherings. When you play a Strumstick it’s a call for singing and chanting. So I would play a simple open drone and often someone would just stand up and chant using Middle Eastern scales.

The idea for music for peacemaking has to do with some very important principles including inclusiveness and we get everyone to participate by handing out our rhythmic instruments. Everyone can join the beat. I love what Mickey Hart (drummer for The Dead) says, “When we drum together we create sacred space.” When we add the Strumstick and that drone - chanting and rhythm - we create a symphony of cultural sharing from the heart.

Tom: So using a Strumstick made the difficult work in bridging cultural barriers easier?

Christine: I would say that it makes it much easier because this time I had this fantastic instrument that was created by Bob McNally (he’s based in New Jersey and his information is at strumstick.com). What I love about it is that it’s three strings and no wrong notes! Anyone can play this! The biggest barrier is words, I think. As long as we’re aware of each other's culture and we’re sensitive, what is the real barrier? It’s words! With music, we can talk. We have to simplify to create that bridge for cultural connection.

The other thing I will say is that in my travels around the world with the Strumstick, everybody knows Bob Marley and you can play Bob Marley tunes on this real easily. According to the Dalai Lama, what we need to do to create peace on the planet is to have more music sharing and music festivals.

Tom: Oh, I agree. More music and more music festivals. That’s the plan and a perfect prescription. Many times we get caught up with words, like you say, when we simply should just let the music speak for us.

Christine: I think we’re becoming energy linguists. In sound and in music we can communicate best… our heart, our feelings. When we communicate on that plane there’s no conflict, there’s no war. We create “sacred space.” What happens in sacred space? We create connections and harmony. Just the word harmony is a metaphor for what we’re creating on the planet right now, one beat at a time.

Tom: Why is it that some people think they could never learn a musical instrument when drumming and the Strumstick, with only a fraction of instruction, turn anyone into a music-maker?

Christine: The key is having a very easy, immediate learning curve. We give up on ourselves too easily. If I had to sit down and try to learn piano scales right away I’d probably quit too, but because you can get a sound immediately on a drum, and a good sound immediately on a Strumstick without any training, all of a sudden children who have never played an instrument before can be in a jam session. I think it’s time to remove that dualistic thinking that some people have talent and some don’t and recognize that music is who we are - that we are biologically wired for music. We all have a singing voice, we all have a drum beat called our heartbeat, and it’s time to let go of all those myths and lies, find the instrument that calls to our heart and be part of the music.

Tom:  In your experience how important are the arts, especially music in connecting us with one another and why aren’t diplomatic efforts on the part of nations engaged in peace making more focused on cultural exchanges involving musicians and artists?

Christine: That’s actually not true. There are many diplomatic efforts right now happening through music. If you look at U.S. history one of the first efforts of diplomacy was sending an African-American gospel choir to Russia during the beginning of the Cold War. Louis Armstrong was paid by the State Department to travel and play music.  I just think we need more of this and the vision that I hold is that before the United Nations talk - we have to have dialogue - first we would have music together. First there would be a performance and then there would be dialogue. I don’t believe it’s only about the music; I think it’s about the whole protocol of combining music-making, musical sharing and appreciation of each other’s culture, and true listening.

Tom: What’s upcoming in the near future for UpBeat Drum Circles?

Christine: We have opportunities to train people in the HealthRHYTHMS program that Remo Drum Company sponsors and we’ll be teaching more in the sacred drumming and peace building traditions in places like the Shambhala Mountain Center. We’re working on some new books and CDs about UpBeat Drum Circle's and Ashti Drum's whole journey in the Middle East hoping to continue to build our drum ashram, our drum ministry, our peace drum corps and continue to collaborate with RockOm. We love learning so much from visiting your site and tuning into what RockOm is doing. Thank you so much for that, Tom.

LINKS:

Visit Strumstick.com to learn more and to see and hear Christine demonstrate its versatility

Be sure to view all our features and interviews with Christine Stevens:

The Rhythm of Life

Social Change and the Power of Music

Global Resonance

Through changing times, powwow drum still the heartbeat of the people
Written by JoKAY DOWELL for Nativetimes.com

Positive or not, change has come to the powwow arena and probably will continue to do so. But, some standards must be kept in order not to lose the culture entirely.

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – To those lacking knowledge of Indian ways, the powwow drum in the center of the dance circle is an inanimate object made from stretched rawhide and wood used by singers who beat it to the rhythm of an unintelligible ‘chant.’ But to those who were reared in that circle, the drum is the heartbeat and spirit of the people, a living thing to be respected, for it holds healing power and carries ancient songs further into the future.

“In the Ottawa language, the words drum and heart are very close,” said respected Ottawa drummer and singer, Dr. Kevin Dawes. “When I first started (backyard) singing, long before I ever went out at a dance, I was told ‘Don’t just sit there and tap on it, being silly; that when I hit the drum I was talking to God.”

Like Dawes, Sac and Fox, Euchee and Pawnee men’s straight dancer Rusty Tiger remembers his first encounters with the instrument central to the powwow culture and the responsibility for its care.

“It involved ceremony,” he explained, “There were drum keepers in charge of this drum to cedar it off and pray…to take it out and let the sun shine on it, just like other living things that take their energy from the sun. When there was no sun they used the warmth of a fire to achieve a certain tone which enhanced the overall effect of the song and the drumbeat, giving life to the intent of the song by the composer. Have you ever heard a flat drum?”

Though powwows are social gatherings not held to the strict decorum of traditional ceremonies, there is a presumption of protocol, based on the beliefs and practices of the community in which the event is held. In one’s approach to the drum, there is an expectation of behavior that sometimes seems to be lost on some of the younger generation.

“We were told to watch the man leading the song, never raise our sticks higher than his; this is so foreign to the kids nowadays,” Dawes said. Tiger also noted that some of the youth who dance seem to be more interested in just their own particular contest than in the overall dance.

“This is also going to the way side due to the non-interest of the young dancers today, too busy visiting and conserving energy for their particular contest, most are just walking around. I was always taught to dance each song as if you were contesting, you are there to dance, sit down and be quiet, until it was time to get up again. If you wanted to visit or half-dance don’t even get dressed,” he was taught.

Dennis Zotigh, Kiowa, San Juan Pueblo and Santee Dakota singer and dancer, now the community events coordinator at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian is in a position to continue to teach the ways of his family and emphasizes the potential for teaching respect around the drum.

“If I am going to the drum to sing, I should have good thoughts and feelings in general and toward the other singers. I need to be respectful when approaching the drum and know the protocols of the tribes I am singing with,” he said.

Along with teaching respect for culture and the differences in communities, the drum has healing powers.

Dee Dee Goodeagle is known all over the United States as a championship women’s buckskin dancer. Her dress is made from deer hides softened to a velvety texture then stitched with colorful patterns of floral and geometric designs. Now in her 70s, she recently relented to knee surgery, having worn out the joints from years of refined, deliberate steps that exemplify the southern or Oklahoma style of women’s dance.

“I blew them out,” Goodeagle said of her knees. “The doctors wanted me to have surgery for some time, but the drum makes me feel so good I didn’t want to have to stop dancing even to get my knees fixed.” Within weeks after surgery, Goodeagle said she went to a dance and could not resist the call of the drum. She is back in the arena going strong.

Zotigh explains that the drum is more than an instrument to provide cadence for the dancers. There is a spirit that each powwow drum, with its singers, diffuses into the dance arena. The interaction between the drum, the singers and the dancers is powerful with spiritual and physical energy.

“This spirit, if used in the right way, can heal those who cannot dance, those who are troubled and those who are weary,” Zotigh said.

Besides interacting with the drum to set the mood for the event, singers have a unique perspective on the powwow culture that comes from their central location within the dance arena.

“The spirit enhances you with a particular song and that is translated outwardly to the dancers first, then there is feedback from the dancers back to the drum, by the blowing of the whistle and the war hoop, or even the ‘loo-loo’ of the women when that connection is made. The energy is astounding when this happens,” Tiger said.

Dawes agreed and said even with a presumption of decorum, there are exceptions when the crowd is obviously enjoying the singing coming from the drum.

“When you sing you miss out on almost all of the dancing, period. You have to be aware of how the dancers are tuned in to the music. An older singer told us that the only reason we’re out there is to make the dancers dance. After 37 years of singing, I still can’t stand failing in that. On the flip side, it’s a huge blast to see someone in street clothes out there dancing because he’s enjoying the music. I’ve noticed that as I sing less and ‘lawn chair it’ more, it feels good to be at home and just get out there in my droopy jeans and dance to be close to the drum,” Dawes said. But powwows have changed and some say it has not been all positive.

“The powwow world has evolved enough to where we hear people say they were raised in the ‘traditional powwow way.’ Go figure. Nowadays, we go to a gathering expecting to get something (usually money), whereas, in the past, people usually brought something to give away. We need to acknowledge that what we see today is (the participation of) tribes who have adopted this drum (or the powwow lifestyle) as opposed to their own traditional ways and made it suit their needs,” Damon Roughface, who comes from a long lineage of traditional Ponca dancers and singers, said.

Positive or not, change has come to the powwow arena and probably will continue to do so. But, some standards must be kept in order not to lose the culture entirely. Kiowa singer and powwow emcee Kelly Anquoe noted without the drum there would be no powwow.

Dawes related the warning of his father, former Ottawa Tribal Chairman Charles Dawes, now deceased, who was also an emcee at some of the oldest powwows in Oklahoma. “Dad used to quote a man named Frank Jones who said, ‘The drum is the heartbeat of the Indian people and when the last drumbeat has sounded, the Indian way will be no more.’”

PHOTO: Ponca singer Ed Littlecook, in white hat, leads singers in a victory song during a summer dance at White Eagle, Okla. Photo by JoKAY Dowell