FOUND SOUND

The first time I heard the expression found sound, it was in a story told my one of my drumming teachers, Arthur Hull. He is the most famous hand drum facilitator in America. He has taken the work of Babatunde Olatunji and built upon it to use drum circles as a metaphor for our lives and the rhythm we have in our lives.

Arthur tells the story of how he was to facilitate a drum circle for a major corporation for over 800 people. He is sponsored by Remo Drums, so they ship drums to wherever he is putting on his clinics or workshops. What went wrong that day is that Remo sent them to the wrong location and he had 800 people ready to drum…..but no drums. So he invented Found Sound. He sent them on an abbreviated scavenger hunt in the hotel for anything that could be used as a drum, noise maker, or rhythm shaker. Long story short, it was a huge hit with tons of creativity and lots of awareness coming out of the circle.

Last week, my friend JJ called me to see if I could fill a session at the kids camp she was working at this week. I had 30 minutes and I had to come up with something quick, easy and something 200 kids ranging from 3 to 16 would enjoy. No problem……found sound.

I have recently donated all my drums and rhythm tools as I am not longer facilitating drum circles. This made found sound my best and really only choice for the session.

The found sound circle was a blast and it was only 30 minutes so it went by very quickly. I think all the kids loved it, as I sure did. But there was one take away that came from the session that was unexpected and made my day.

A young girl, probably 5 or 6, came up to me before the circle and wanted to so her music in the circle, or at least that is what I thought. When the circle started and everyone was drumming, I looked down and she was standing right by me. She asked me if she could do her music, and I said sure join in…yet she wanted to something by herself and I couldn’t accommodate her then. She walked away looking upset and when the circle was done I went and found her. I knelt down and asked her her name….“Morgan”….I told her that I was sad that we didn’t have the time to hear her music yet I wanted to honor her for the music in her and told her that her music was very important and to never loose it. She smiled and I knew she was OK, and I knew more importantly that the music in her was in good hands. I asked her for a fist bump…..she smiled and I gave her a hug before I left…….she smiled and that made my day.

Sometimes when I am doing found sound, I find things that I could have never asked for…thanks Morgan.