On a stage usually occupied by music majors and professional musicians, a group of first-time drummers filled the recital hall with sounds and rhythms of djembe and conga drums.
These drummers were about 50 Trinity students, faculty and staff, all of whom had little experience with drumming, who came to the Ruth Taylor Recital Hall on Thursday to attend the mini-course, Drumming with your hands: An Introduction to Drumming.
Claire Steinman, a sophomore majoring in Communication, was very excited to be here. “It’ll be fun. I just wanna bang on things.”
This mini-course, one of over 20 courses of the Great Trinity Experiment, were taught by Luisa-Ruge Jones, a senior human communication major, and Duncan Frasch, a senior engineering science major.
The pair taught the class different sounds they could make with drums, such as strong bass notes, resonating open notes , and non-resonant claps. They then encouraged the class to drum to songs such as “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” from the Lion King, and “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5.
The new drummers, from various departments and majors, such as Art and Art History, Physics and Astronomy, Communication, IT, and Computer Science, drummed along with excitement and nervousness.
Among them was Dr. Danny Anderson, Trinity’s new president who is behind the whole idea of the Great Trinity Experiment.
“When everyone was playing and we were in rhythm with each other, it's a surprising realization to think: together we have all accomplished this,” said Anderson.
“And when the teachers encouraged individuals to add unique improvisations along the way, rather than worrying about what was right or wrong, it was fun to experiment and see what might fit better or compliment the pattern in an unusual way,” he added.
In the end, people got out more than just banging on things from the mini-course and learned quite a bit about the history of drumming, while enjoying the sounds and rhythms.
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