by Ryan Trinidad (written on July 29)
Authentic Ghanaian drums
Today we have a campus day. The big activity today is a drum lesson. One of the drummers from the first night is actually our instructor. We make our way to the sports pavilion and there are drums set out in a big circle. At this point I can tell everyone is pretty excited. Every student can appreciate when a lecture is hands on, and not just your typical sit down take notes thing. Our instructor goes right to work and teaches us one of the songs that he performed on night one. The song has a few different parts. He tells us to follow his lead, once he does a beat pattern the next person follows, then the next, so on and so forth. It takes a while for a few of us to get the beat. But, as we advised we are in this together and help each other. As time passes we get the beat. Finally, we put all of the parts together and what happened next surprised me. All you hear is claps, then one drum line comes. Then, the second one drops. Next thing you know we are all in unison and it sounds so good. I actually felt like a legit band, it was crazy. The rest of the day is up to us, so we relax and enjoy it all…
(left to right) Greg Jackson, Erica Lane, Jo-Nathan Thomas, Ashley Lipford, Lakeisha Davis, and Amy Brown.
(left to right) Cathea Carey, KB Burns, Kayla Huddleston, Zynovia Hetherington, Giavonna White, and Sierra Stewart.
