DAVE CURRY'S
DRUMMING
HISTORY
My initial connection to drumming stems from a childhood permeated by music. With both parents being professional musicians, music couldn't be avoided. I was exposed to a wide variety of musical genres, sang in the church choir, and had a few years of uninspiring guitar lessons. But nothing really hooked my imagination until I started hearing my older brother's rock albums in the mid 70s. As a child, I'd known the awesome power of being surrounded by a thundering symphony orchestra or cathedral organ in full swell, but as a teen I found a new power in the primal, raw energy of progressive rock. This didn't frighten me; it amplified me.
In my basement room, stereo blasting Jethro Tull or King Crimson, I would sit by the edge of my bed and flail mercilessly away on the mattress with a pair of drum sticks. If I hit the mattress just so, it made a bassy WHUMP. If I hit the edge, I got a sharp CRACK. Sometimes I would lay books on the mattress to create my "drum kit". (To this day, my Webster's dictionary bears the divots pounded into its surface by these frantic drumming sessions.)
While these sessions were more about venting adolescent angst, they did teach me how to listen to complex rhythms and match what I heard, how to start and stop in time, how to hold down a groove and how to fill in the gaps with flashy riffs. All the pieces for real drumming were there in their unpolished form.
In college, I had numerous drummer friends, so I was always involved in conversations about snares and triplet fills and double stroke rolls. I was playing bass guitar at this point - a close ally of the drums - but didn't consider myself in the same class as all my drummer friends.
It was with these same friends that I had my first taste of what a drum circle could be like. We would sit around with a random collection of tupperware containers or salad bowls or cardboard boxes, and together we would improvise rhythms on these found objects. The sheer enjoyment of such spontaneous creations stuck with me.
After college, I began casting about for new social, spiritual and musical activities, and by chance ended up at a drum circle at Earth Spirits, a New Age shop in Sturbridge. The experiences that I had at Earth Spirits were very influential in shaping my concept of how a drum circle should operate.
The owner of Earth Spirits eventually discontinued the drum circles in her shop. I was unaware of how many other drum circles I might have found elsewhere if I'd cared to look, so instead I went "circle-less" for a time. But my interest was rekindled after I facilitated my first-ever lay-lead Sunday service at the Milford UU church, a service that centered on drumming as a spiritual practice. The response was very favorable, and several people from the congregation encouraged me to start a regular drum circle in the church.
In the seven years since then, I have lead drum circles every single month, often more than one. I have seen my original circle grow from 3 people to more than 30. I have lead many drumming-related Sunday services in various churches across New England. I have facilitated drumming events in youth centers, community colleges and in the public schools. I've been interviewed by several local papers, including the Boston Globe. I have appeared on the RI public access TV network. I am currently getting set up to produce my own CDs, which will feature recordings from DFOA drum circles and my own solo drumming.
I am filled with gratitude for all those people
who have supported my efforts to create
DRUMS FOR ONE AND ALL.
You have encouraged me on my journey
as a group leader and a spiritual seeker.
May the learning and growth continue...
