Here's a nice newspaper article on drum circles and their benefits.

http://suncoastpinellas.tbo.com/content/2007/apr/14/upbeat/?news

Thanks,

Shannon

www.drumcircles.net

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By Cheryl Bentley

Published: April 14, 2007

"You're a what?"

That's how most people react when Shannon Ratigan tells them what he
does for a living.

Ratigan is a drum circle facilitator.

That's a way of saying he sets a drum rhythm and invites people to
take part in the drumming.

The participants bring their own drums or use some of the 50
professional-quality drums Ratigan hauls to each event.

For a couple of hours, everyone drums. When the beat seems to have
run its course, Ratigan supplies another one. Drummers can follow the
basic pattern or use their own variation.

Ratigan has two weekly drum circles in Dunedin at the Dunedin Brewery
and Walk About Coffee Shop and Emporium.

Additionally, he brings his drum circles to special needs/at-risk
groups and churches and appears at area events.

Response evident

At whatever level they are, drummers seem to respond, says Ratigan.

"Drumming brings us back to a fundamental level of nature," he notes.

Ratigan points out the body has its own basic rhythm, as expressed in
the heartbeat, pulse and movement of spinal fluid.

"Drumming gets in touch with the body. We lead such fast lives with
cell phones and iPods. Drumming slows things down."

The oldest drum discovered dates from 3,000 B.C., he says. "There's a
good reason cultures have been playing drums thousands of years," he
notes.

It is no accident drums have a restorative effect, explains
Ratigan. "When you apply energy into the drum head, some of it comes
up into the hands. That's part of healing energy that's there."

He has noted his drummers begin opening up both physically and
psychologically.

"A lot of people come to these very introverted. This is a
nonthreatening, fun activity."

Neurologist agrees

Dr. William M. Hammesfahr, a Clearwater neurologist who specializes
in brain and spinal injuries, agrees. He has been observing drumming
circle participants for about six months.

Hammesfahr says he has seen "dramatic improvement" in social
interactions of participants.

"Using drumming is a form of communication," he says. "Eventually it
extends into day-to-day life."

Hammesfahr has also seen patients with neurological diseases such as
paralysis and weakness get better.

Because drumming is done with both sides of the body, Hammesfahr
notes, "it's a simple way for people to activate the nervous system
and teach the two sides of the nervous system to work together."

Hammesfahr has also observed improved motor skills in the arm and
shoulder areas of drummers. Drumming employs muscle groups from all
these regions.

Usually Ratigan does not tell his drummers about the benefits they
will receive from drumming because he wants them to discover them for
themselves.

He deliberately makes the sessions low key.

"It's up to me to create a program not too difficult for beginners
and not too easy for the advanced."

Basic rhythm

He starts with a basic rhythm. Drummers can stick with that or branch
off into variations as long as they follow the beat.

The rhythm seems to take on a life of its own, Ratigan reports. "It
evolves. It morphs. The group decides as we are going what we do."

Potential players often tell him they have no rhythm.

Ratigan doesn't buy that. If their hearts and pulses have rhythm,
they must have rhythm because it is inherent in the human body. They
just haven't discovered it, Ratigan tells them.

During a recent Tuesday night session at the Dunedin Brewery,
drummers seemed to echo Ratigan's assessment. Attendees reflected a
variety of ages and ethnic backgrounds.

He makes the round trip from Tampa every week, says Steve Sperry
because the sessions give him "a little bit of spiritual time. I find
it has meditation qualities."

Andrea Hansen of Clearwater says she arrived at the circle as a
novice but was hooked from the first night. "It touched me deeply
inside. It was a spiritual thing."

Hansen was formerly paralyzed from her neck down due to a botched
surgery, she says. She has regained some control of her body and is
now able to walk and move. She had stopped all therapy a

year before she started drumming.

Regained feeling

Since drumming, she notes, she has regained some feeling in her hands
and has increased her range of motion in shoulders and arms. She
attributes the improvement to the drums. "I can feel the drum's
vibrations," she says.

Additionally, she credits playing drums to bringing her in touch with
a body from which she once retreated. "Hey, I can make beautiful
music with these hands even though I don't feel the fingertips."

Brenda Flick, Holiday, finds the sessions "relaxing. If you have a
lot of problems, they go away."

For some, the reason for attending the sessions are less
complicated. "It's just fun," says Eileen Raab of Dunedin.

Drumming awakens a nonverbal communication, Ratigan says, that he
finds hard to explain.

He knows people musically, he notes, but often knows nothing else
about them.

"It almost becomes more personal," he says. "It's all completely
honest. I don't know anything about them, but I feel like I've know
them my entire life."

Ratigan discovered drumming during the 15 years he spent as an actor
in Los Angeles. He was a regular on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno"
for eight of those years.

On Leno show

He was game for anything Leno's writers dreamed up, Ratigan said. He
even sat in the audience in a diaper as part of a skit.

"There aren't many people willing to go on stage in a diaper," he
said with a laugh.

The acting business was fiercely competitive. To land one gig in a
commercial, an actor faced an average of 88 rejections, he notes.

His average was lower than that, but the life was nevertheless
stressful.

He began to go to a Venice Beach drum circle to chill out and was
hooked.

Ratigan sees a similarity between being a comic actor and drumming.

Both reach people on deeper levels. "Comedy makes people laugh," he
explains. "Drumming is much more dramatic because it affects them
spiritually and emotionally."

Depends on energy

Like comedy, drum circles depend upon the energy of the moment.

Ratigan appreciates the immediacy of his new path.

"You never know what's going to happen," he says.

For more information on Ratigan, visit www.drumcircles.net.

Free drum circles are held on Fridays at Walk About Coffee Shop and
Emporium, 447 Main St., Dunedin, 8 - 10 p.m., and on Tuesdays at
Dunedin Brewery, 937 Douglas Ave., Dunedin,

8 - 11 p.m.

On Saturday, April 21, there was a drum circle on Honeymoon
Island, at the western end of the Dunedin Causeway in Dunedin.
The event was in honor of Earth Day, April 22.
(Pictures from it at my website - www.drumcircles.net - Thanks)
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Also, I have some pretty cool drum circle mp3's out on my space -

www.myspace.com/drumcircles.net