On Monday, January 4th, Matthew Marsolek and Tracy Topp of Drum Brothers will be offering a 5-week online hand drumming series to students of all ages around the region. This special online hand drumming course is for new drummers and will start from the ground up and cover all the basics of West African drumming.
The first class of this new series will be at 7:00pm MST on Monday, January 4th and will continue on successive Mondays. We haven’t been able to offer a new beginning series since April. But after getting requests from friends and folks in isolation, we wanted to give new drummers an opportunity to jump in and give online drumming a try.
For many of us, music and art-making has been a calming and healing balm during this pandemic. And coming together with our students and friends in a relaxed setting each week has been a much needed taste of community connection and fun.
Look below for all the details about this new series (Including help with financial hardship).
Happy rhythms!
Matthew Marsolek & Drum Brothers
www.drumbrothers.com
Points of Interest: When the first pandemic shutdown occurred in March, Matthew retooled his recording studio in Arlee, Montana, to accommodate 3 different camera angles and quality streamed audio. Since mid-April, he and Tracy have been offering weekly Zoom classes to students in Montana and around the Northwest and Canada. Considering the issues around latency and audio/video streaming, how do these classes work? Matthew mutes the audio of the students and they follow along to the sound of his drum and Tracy’s accompanying low drums (Dunduns). It really works.
“Thanks for the drumming! It’s so fun to have you teaching in my house here in Red Lodge, hearing you two laugh and feeding off your energy. I do like seeing your hands, and like someone said, I feel like your hands are my hands… Thank you so much for doing this.”
– Laurie B in Red Lodge, Montana
A 5-Week Online Hand Drumming Class Series
With Matthew Marsolek and Tracy Topp
January 4th – February 1st.
“If you have a heart beat, you have rhythm.”
Classes will run on 5 consecutive Monday nights from 7 – 8:15 pm MST and will cover all the basics of West African hand drumming: rhythm awareness, tones and technique, and traditional rhythms. We’ll also email links to recordings of the classes, charts of the rhythms in a box notation format, and mp3 recordings. Everyone is welcome! (If you don’t have a drum, you can fashion a temporary drum out of a bucket or use the bottom of a cooler or other object.) In addition, these Zoom classes will feature live djembe and dundun accompaniment and 3 camera angles which include a front view and overhead cameras above the djembe and dundun drums.
Gift Certificates are available. Just let us know that your purchase is a gift and we’ll email you a certificate that you can print out.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop Matthew a line. matthew@drumbrothers.com or call 406-531-8109.
The suggested payment is a sliding scale of $12 – $20 per class. Please contact us if you’re experiencing financial hardship because of the Covid 19 pandemic. We’re happy to help. It’s important for us to share the healing grooves with anyone who needs them.
Here is the link to the registration page (at www.drumbrothers.com): https://drumbrothers.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=42&products_id=179. You can also mail a payment to Drum Brothers: PO Box 268, Arlee MT 59821 and we can take payments over the phone. If you can’t attend the entire series, please contact us to set up a payment for fewer classes.
