This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Gregg Hansen is the mastermind behind the popular Djembe Drumming classes offered by Longmont Recreation Services. Currently, there are ten different classes held each week, throughout the year, catering to various abilities and levels of experience. Hansen estimates between 80 and 90 people now attend classes each week.
The djembe drum is from West Africa. It is a rope-tuned goblet drum played with bare hands. There are three notes obtained by using the hands in different ways on different parts of the drum skin. The skin is usually made from goat hide.
Classes started here in Longmont in 2008 with just one class for seniors held at the Senior Center. As interest and enthusiasm grew Hansen approached the City of Longmont Recreation Services Program Coordinator and suggested they might be interested in offering drumming classes to the rest of the community. Debbie McDonald, the Program Coordinator at that time, was enthusiastic.
McDonald and Hansen scouted around for a suitable venue for the classes. Hansen said, “the Isaak Walton Clubhouse (at 18 South Sunset Street) was perfect for classes and drumming – good acoustics, plenty of space inside, large windows overlooking the pond, 100 chairs, adequate parking and, most important, indoor plumbing!” A Beginning Beginners class was offered, then more advanced classes added.
Hansen became interested in the djembe drum many years before he started teaching in Longmont. Always a lover of music, he started playing guitar and being in bands at the age of 15 years. He formed the bands himself, as he preferred playing with groups to playing solo. He still demonstrates the ability to bring people together through music with drum circles he organizes and facilitates here on the Front Range.
In the mid-1990s, Hansen was playing reggae music in two bands in Memphis, TN when a group of younger guys wanted to join in with their drums. Hansen was unsure about their ability, but agreed, “just don’t play too loud,” he told them. They were using mainly djembe drums, together with a few shakers and other noisemakers. One of the guys showed Hansen how to play the djembe drum. “It was love at first sound!” Hansen said. “I already had a drum, and he showed me how to play different notes, and I learned some basic rhythms from him.”
Hansen spent time in Nashville playing and writing music but became tired of the music business in general. He had connections in Colorado and moved to Boulder. “A better music scene - and much better weather,” he said.
When his drum skin broke he learned, through DVDs, how to change skins. He acquired drum shells and put skins on them to sell to others interested in learning to play the djembe. He and a friend found a way to get drums directly from Senegal. He still uses one of these today, it is part of his collection of about 20 drums. Hansen says that drumming communities grew up around him mostly due to his ability to provide drums for people to play.
Soon after arriving in Boulder Hansen packed his car full of drums and shakers and parked by the creek near the shell amphitheater. He unloaded his instruments onto the sidewalk, and then pulled passersby in off the street, “come and play!” he said. And they did. Interest grew, and they started coming to classes he was offering out of the basement in his Gunbarrel home.
Hansen taught classes for a while at the Rainbow Ranch in Gunbarrel, and also at different senior centers. A class he started at the Lafayette Senior center ran for about 17 years before it was disbanded recently. Kari Grottingly at the Longmont Senior Center became aware of the class in Lafayette and invited Hansen to teach at the Longmont Senior Center. The drum class was held in the gymnasium in the summer, but the space was taken over for Tai Chi in the cooler months. Hansen realized he needed a more permanent and better place to teach. Hence – the Isaak Walton Clubhouse.
There are drum circle performances at Art Walk in the spring and fall here in Longmont. And during the summer a show in Loveland, where there is a thriving drumming community started by one of Hansen’s students. The goal for the Loveland show is a circle of 100 drummers. So far, there are about 80. “But who’s counting?” says Hansen.
And the future? Hansen wants to introduce more classes that focus on the health benefits of drumming. Some students are interested in performing arrangements, but there are those who just want to drum for enjoyment and meditation. “Performances can be fun, but also stressful for some people,” Hansen said. And, of course, the health benefits affect everyone regardless of their focus.
The health benefits of drumming are many: it helps reduce tension, anxiety, stress, and chronic pain; boosts the immune system; helps with synchronizing brain activity; helps calm troubled dementia patients, and helps them focus. It helps reduce negative feelings and improves focus as you have to be in the present moment when drumming – if you’re not then your lack of focus is noisy.
Hansen says, “If you can talk – you can drum.” The classes are fun, easy and accessible, whatever your age of physical condition.
More information can be found by contacting the Longmont Recreation Center at (303) 774-4800.
