sunday rhythms
spent yesterday afternoon with the Helms’ family…a family that has befriended family and taken us under their wing.
arlene made a killer glazed ham for lunch.. and in the interim period where we all waited for the food to settled down enough to cram some ice cream in, paul, fred (their son) and i went into the basement for some fun.
paul played the drums, fred the guitar…and i got handed the djembe hand drum–kinda like a conga drum. now–i got it by default cuz i was down there–not cuz i play well. but the number of times i join the rhythm circles and attempt to keep up means that paul likes to play with me.
so fred hits a few cords, paul starts a rhythm and i hop in where i think it’s time. didn’t embarass myself too badly–but at the same time, the thought occurred to me that i wasn’t playing the accent, i was playing with the bass drum–or with the tomtom–and the djembe has such a unique voice, that it really should sing solo counterpoint to othe main rhythm.
try as i might, i could not do it. the guys in ocean blue make it sound so easy. all i succeeded in doing was confusing fred and paul. or myself…mostly myself. i was using all the wrong phonetic tones–but i suppose that’s because i barely knew what i was doing.
fun as it was, i was relieved when we stopped. so, i think, were those upstairs being subjected to ‘stairway to heaven’ in 4 different keys. (sorry freddles) always fun. reminds me of the time paul and i found the rhythm room at the COSI museum in toledo. we each grabbed a pair of sticks and worked out point and counterpoint in multiple tones in the room.
drew a small audience–but i can tell u this–i had very little to do with it–the whole thing was driven by paul–and i was doing my best not to screw it up. but it’s enough that i don’t have the sense to quit.
metamorphise in the north and hope one day not to crash in the rhythm and the rhyme of sunday afternoon.