Teaching, Learning and Exploration
I have discovered an incredible website to learn more about a tribe that has traditionally inhabited the local regions of northern Vancouver Island.
The site is a rich collection of videos, images, text, audio recording, and even a virtual gallery.
Under the Education tab of the website there exists several lessons outlined with resources consolidated.
I intend to move through some of this content myself in order to better understand their way of existing.
The virtual gallery can be found here:
Well Djembe, it’s been a slice.
I’ve learned lots about the djembe drum. I feel like I know how to do simple beats well, and how to build them into something more complex and varied. I understand the draw to djembe now more than I did previously; I think that this method of creating sound as music is often overlooked, and seen as an incomplete pursuit of sound. I may have even condescended upon it in that way myself, and I think that part of the reason I wanted to do this instrument for my inquiry was to break that pattern of belief. I am happy to feel that perspective shift, and I feel like I understand the immense beauty that drumming can be. The simplicity of this instrument opens up a larger question – is it possible to quantify sound and be able to say one is better than the other? I think it’s easy to get lost in the world of music critiquing and I think learning the Djembe has helped bring me a rejuvenated view: simple is necessary. If we cannot enjoy a simple beat, then how is it possible we enjoy a more complex combination of rhythms, tones and instruments? Though it is just one piece of wood with skin stretched across it, the djembe is extremely versatile and can be used in complex ways. I came to appreciate this throughout my journey, but especially nearing the end, I am feeling that this is instrument, and other single-tone drums have infinite potential in music.
I joined the drum circle at UVic’s Interfaith Chapel last Thursday and it was very fun and engaging. I felt myself more able to keep a consistent beat without changing the pace or rhythm in a negative way. What would happen before is I would play something and, as I got bored of it, I’d add complexities to it, then not be able to keep the original part of the rhythm. I have found that I have been able to add my complexities more consciously and then I am able to make those changes without changing my overall foundation, or disrupting my playing.
To be able to add to my improvisation in this way was one of my main goals of my djembe pursuits.
The other learning experience that arose out of this drumming group was the soar hands I acquired from hitting the drum quite hard and probably for too long. I think that it’s important to continue to respect our bodies, even in the midst of an exciting drumming circle. I basically could not hit a drum for a couple days after! So, I have found that boundary and now I can be aware of my output and pay attention to the amount of pain I may be causing.
“We are the universe experiencing itself.” – Unknown
Since I’ve been a part of men’s groups, we’ve always taken 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning of the meeting to slow down and sink into our present moment. This has been done largely as a meditation.
A couple weeks ago, I noticed a poster about meditation in the UVIC library. It told of a workshop in meditation happening on Monday and Tuesday, October 21 & 22. I thought, since we always did meditation in our group, that this might be a worthy direction for our group to collectively grow. I proposed we all join the workshop and people said they were interested. Long story short, they didn’t really show up. But I did.
The instructor Ahirvad is very experienced in meditation, and had been the pupil of a very accomplished zen master who had moved to New York City and, among other things, created a spiritual community there. He held events that drew thousands of people from distant placed to experience group meditation and other spiritual work. Ashirvad had a calming and passionate nature. He reminded me of other people I have known that have been inspiring to me.
At the workshop, we learned strategies to meditate more effectively, and a pretty modest amount about the philosophies behind meditation and eastern spirituality. Part of the reason that this course was two nights in a row was so that we could practice meditation at home, directly before and directly after sleeping, and return to report our experiences.
Personally, I felt the benefits of the meditation in my day on Tuesday. Not only did it enliven my sleep the Monday night, but it allowed a calmness to drone with me throughout me day. I was sold. I went to the Tuesday night workshop enthused and ready to learn more about meditation. I left with a book, and a new life strategy.
I am looking forward to bringing additional aspects of spirituality and meditation wisdom into our next circles. We have not met in a number of weeks due to logistics and other occurences, but I’m confident that the group will begin to gain more traction in the proceeding months and into the new year.
Today Jesse Miller came in and spoke passionately about the possibilities available to us in terms of tech. FIPPA is a good resource to access, but I feel relatively aware of the risks and how to mitigate them. One important factor is to understand the network you are on, and that what you do on private networks can be seen by the operators of that network. Another thing to be vigilant about is your general impression in public and that people may be capturing your image and sharing it broadly. I think it is interesting to think about our relationship with technology, and I really appreciated Jesse’s very human approach; the issues that are uncovered and brought up thanks the the use of these networks.
Network citizenship means we have a proactive and meaningful engagement with the world through a media platform. It is important that we recognize that responsibility because the internet sometimes seems to make its own rules and we have to understand our moral approach to how we use it.
Today, whilst setting up our wordpress accounts, we learned how to attribute images in terms. We learned that we can’t just use images copy-pasted into our sites without sourcing a credit. Not having the rights to media you are using is not only unproffesional, it is illegal. It is best if we use open-sourced stock images and then try to find the original source of the images. Websites like creative commons https://creativecommons.org/, or pexels http://pexels.com.
I intend to use some of my own photographs on my website, that way I have a personal connection to the photos, and I don’t have to worry about ownership!
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