The Art of Drum Circle Facilitation Video

Arthur Hull narrates an overview of the 4-step Village Music Circles Drum Circle Facilitation protocol in this video featuring footage from drum circles at the Seattle World Rhythm Festival, Mac World and NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) conventions, and Arthur’s Playshop in Barcelona, Spain.

Time stamps for the protocol steps are listed below the video.

  • 00:00    Introduction:  What are Drum Circles?  Who do they help, and what are they used for?
  • 02:20    How to set up a drum circle
  • 07:42    The 7 elements of Drum Call
  • 12:03    The 3 reasons to make a facilitation intervention
  • 12:50    Stage 1 - Dictator mode:  Teach basic facilitation signals with full-group interventions.
  • 17:08    Stage 2 - Director mode:  Direct the group’s attention to the musical elements that help the music sound good by sculpting and highlighting various sub-groups (e.g. by section, instrument type, gender, etc.)
  • 27:55    Stage 3 - Facilitator mode: Guide group to “Percussion Ensemble Consciousness” (i.e. becoming aware of their own musical potential) by sculpting out songs within the circle.
  • 39:40    Stage 4 - Orchestra Conductor mode:  Earn the group’s trust to take them further with compositional sequences.
  • 42.22    3-Point Radar
  • 43:34    “Work with What They Give You” showcase of master talking drum player Massamba Diop at the NAMM drum circle.
  • 49:40    Closing

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Arthur Hull explains the video in 5 parts with Video Segments for each part. START HERE.