IKAR DRUMS

I'm sure that we all experience our own paths to connecting and prayer and service. In my opinion, the key to the experience being fulfilling to all of us (the drum choir as well as the congregation) is to be open and aware of our "heart" at all times. I mean both your own individual heart as well as the congregations "heart." The heart beat that we reflect in our drumming is the key. We all need to be aware of it and listen closely to it. The sound and the vibration of your body and your soul should feel part of the bigger picture. This moment, these moments are not about us. They are about all of "us": the congregation, the air, the muses, the spirits,...G-d. What ever way you think and connect with the divine. This is primary. All else needs to disappear. The space is key. Leave room for something else to enter. Leave room for the spiritual breath to fill you and then follow where it leads.

Music is not the note played on the piano or the hit on the drum head, it is the time before and after that note. It is in the space that separates sound from sound, noise from noise where the divine resides.

by Ross "The Beat" Levinson