I am so lucky to have a wonderful teacher right now, Afia Walking Tree, who is giving lessons in African drumming on various Thursday nights at Louden Nelson Center in Santa Cruz. Afia is a world-renowned percussionist and teacher, and she is both fun and really challenging. On Thursday, I played both the djembe drum and the junjun, and even managed to get a sound out of each!
I've discovered that I am terrified to hit the drum hard enough to make noise. I thought this was going to be simple--after all, I've played the doumbek (Arabic drum) for about a year now, though I haven't been practicing much lately, and have no problem getting a sound out of that. The African drums are much more challenging. I had Afia standing over me, saying, "You have to really hit the drum! You have to bring its voice out!" while I tried SO hard to get a sound, any sound, out of my djembe. It challenged me on every level of my fears about being visible, being seen, about my lifelong desire to hide in the corner.
Well, it took me about a year to not feel like a complete dork in any dance class I've ever taken; it's taken me about five years to look at myself directly in the mirror in the dance studio, and I suppose it will take me some time to give my drum its voice...but I have no doubt that one day, I'll be just as addicted to African drumming as I am with the dance.
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