Learning can be fun!

With this thought in mind, the purpose of the St. Simon African Drummers is to prepare our participants to succeed in this new age – the Knowledge Age.  It is through the joy of making good, and synchronized music that our group members experience several characteristics required for success in the Knowledge Age.

Intergenerational Collaboration

Just because an individual is elder doesn’t mean that the older individual is more infallible.  All of us have experienced something like my granddaughter teaching me how to use my iPhone.  Our group ranges in age from 8 to 76.  Because our music is written, each of us can hear another’s errors.  In practice sessions, all of us learn by listening intently and collaboratively correcting each other.

Independence

Since our music is polyrhythmic, each of us may be playing a different set of notes.  These notes must synchronize to make good music.  Each player knows his/her role by reading the notes then playing them in the proper sequence and tempo necessary to generate good music.  We learn to hear the difference between harmony and dissonance.

Reading

We learn to read the measures then collaborate to make music. Learning to read and perform music at a high level’s aids the ability to read a book (for instance) and transfer those literal symbols into knowledge. This helps participants become lifelong learners through the symbol translation required to gain different types of knowledge.

Historical

Because we realize that our African drums are of the type played 9,000 years ago to facilitate long-distance communication with other Africans, we gain a different and historical perspective on the African portion of our multicultural heritage.