Fredericton's Wilmot Park is enjoying widespread success with community drum circle.

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Matt Carter

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It is Sunday afternoon in Wilmot Park. Families have filled the playground, couples are waiting for their turn to play tennis, and hopeful sunbathers line the wading pool, watching their children splash and play.

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But in the gazebo where all the park's walking paths converge, a growing number of people are appearing with drums of all shapes and sizes, each of them smiling and almost giddy with anticipation. It is early in the afternoon and for many of the people gathering here, it's time to make some noise.

"A friend of mine told me about the drum circle, and she'd been coming here for a while," said Mary Walsh, who has just arrived for her fourth week with the group. "For me, coming here is part of my spiritual journey. I have a little bit of a musical background but not at all with drums. This is all new to me."

After first sitting in with the group, playing a drum that she borrowed from a friend, Walsh immediately went out and purchased an instrument of her own. The drum has quickly become an important part of her life.

The concept of a drum circle is pretty simple "" the name says it all. But people aren't gravitating to the centre of the park simply to bang away on cowhide and fibreglass. There is an energy and a true sense of community that comes when friends and strangers alike gather together to speak in a collective voice.

"It's just fantastic. The energy here is amazing. It's just amazing," said Walsh. "You can't realize it until you experience it. My first time here, I went home, went on Facebook right away and wrote about the experience. I was just so excited. I told a friend of mine at work and she plans to bring her grandchildren sometime. It's a real benefit to the community for sure."

Doug Rigaux has been helping facilitate community drum circles in Fredericton for the past couple of years. Each Sunday afternoon he brings a variety of drums and percussion instruments to the park to share the music he loves with anyone interested. Together with a few friends, Rigaux gets the initial rhythms going and the rest is magic.

As he speaks about his passion for rhythm, he is constantly greeting old friends, making new ones, and sharing a smile with everyone who has shown up to play.

"We've got some young kids who come here that can really wail and we've got some old guys that come here who can do the same," he said. "Most of the time, what we do is simply lay down some rhythms and people just join in at whatever level they are."

Anyone here will tell you that group drumming is incredibly infectious. Like a holiday dinner, once you've had a taste of it, it's hard not to go back for seconds.

"I had a roommate that was having some friends over for supper one night," said Rigaux. "That night I came home around ten o'clock and they were all banging away at stuff so I joined in. After that I was pretty much hooked and I've been playing ever since. That was around nine years ago now."

Almost a decade later, Rigaux has amassed an enormous collection of hand drums, shakers, and other noise makers. He has studied with a number of respected drummers, attending workshops and clinics to expand his repertoire of rhythms and further his understanding of West African drumming traditions.

The djembe is one of the most recognized drums from West Africa, known for its deep bass and high-pitched slap tone. On this particular Sunday afternoon, one could also say it is one of the most common drums in West Fredericton as well.

"The genius of West African percussion is that there is a place for everybody," said Rigaux, referring to the tradition's layered rhythmic structure. "You can have little kids and grandparents playing together. It's great."

In addition to spending his Sunday afternoons in the park, Rigaux also helps organize a meditative drumming group focusing on specific group patterns as a means of focus and relaxation, and he's also involved with a group at St. Thomas University that will resume again this coming fall.

"We're working on self development, professional development, and community development," he said. "We have people that come here from all walks of life and different people come for different reasons but really, we just like to hang out and play."

As he sits on the gazebo bench unpacking and preparing his gear, people continue to gather. Curious onlookers, families, and even a few pets are now focused on the gazebo anticipating the coming rhythm.

"I believe drumming really enriches one's life," he said. "I've been so taken over by it physically and emotionally. It's a very positive force and I think it probably protected my sanity a few times. Sometimes you just need to sit down and play to work thing out."

Few city musicians know more about the meditative and healing benefits of group drumming than Ruth Morrison. We meet up to chat as she arrives carrying a drum and accompanying a few invited friends to today's circle. She smiles like a kid on Christmas morning when I ask her how she came to be involved with hand drumming.

"I'm 56 years old," said Morrison, "and got into music probably when I was five. I've always been drawn to music that has an oral tradition and when I turned 50, I decided that I'd never really done what I wanted to do. So by the time I was 53 my husband bought me my first djembe for Christmas and since then, it's just had me."

Morrison is a teacher in the school system. A few years back, she introduced a hugely successful world rhythm program into her curriculum at Connaught Street Elementary School.

"I started drumming on water cooler bottles with kids at Connaught Street School and very soon after that we got a set of world drums through a grant from the Harvest Jazz and Blues," she said. "Since then, anytime there's a drum anywhere, I gravitate to it.

"What I've found is that children who don't have any place where they excel, children with Attention Deficit Disorder, or children who have a hard time fitting in all find a place in the rhythm. Because a drum circle is a community, it immediately brings everyone together and equalizes the playing field so what ends up happening is that every child then has a voice. If they can't speak their voice in language, the drum becomes their voice.

"What's really, really neat is that I see kids that start off being very tentative and shy and through drumming, you see them grow and open up. It's incredible to watch."

Behind us, a few drummers have begun warming up. She quickly turns her head and almost instinctively starts edging in the direction of the sound before remembering our conversation. Luckily, she shares another experience before I lose her to the rhythm's calling.

While on sabbatical this past year, Morrison has found the time to share drumming with other groups besides children. She is a true believer in rhythm's ability to heal the heart, mind, body, and spirit.

"I work with a group of women who are in a 12-step, live-in, rehab program. I started drumming with a couple of women who could not speak in public and you would not believe the transformation. I'm not going to say it's all due to their drumming, but for one woman in particular, the drum has become her voice and she has been using it to articulate emotion like anger and hurt. Once she was able to drum it, she was then able to articulate and deal with it. She is very elegant when she talks about what drumming has done for her and how she has been able to change herself and her ability to deal with her emotions is a positive way."

Suddenly, the park's atmosphere has changed. The close to 20 drummers behind us have started in on a pattern and Morrison quickly takes her seat to join them. As I scan the park, I see individuals, families, stray cats, and curious kids all coming to get a better look at what has just begun to take place.

The park has come alive. High tones, low tones, bells and shakers are all sounding in relative unison. Fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, sisters, and brothers from all walks of life now speak in a collective voice, free from arguments, attitudes, and agendas. This is what it sounds like when a community is speaking from its heart.