BEFRIENDING YOUR PRACTICE
Advocating for Your Nervous System
Drumming in GRACES
GRACES, the SIX primary needs of our nervous system, embody the main focus of my drum school, Befriending Your Practice. The GRACES are a framework of Integral Transformative Practice (ITP) from the Esalen Institute that I find integral to the art of embodied drumming.
Because drumming is intrinsically linked with rhythm, sensation, and movement, Befriending Your Practice advocates for your nervous system. Our external world seeks to privilege itself through cognitive bias. GRACES help us even the score.
Committing to the GRACES in our drumming primes us to positively feel and express rhythm. Rhythm lives in the compression and expansion of our systems, muscles, and emotions. The best way to create a stronger connection between rhythm, sensation, and movement, inside of you is Drumming. (I might be biased.)
Adam’s Six Somatic Rudiments
Aligning the movements of our limbs in unison with GRACES requires dedicated practice. I call this approach Somatic Drumming, named for our somatic nervous system. It is a philosophical shift in our attention inward toward the most fundamental building blocks of drumming.
Our Five Schematic Rudiments:
1. Right Arm
2. Left Arm
3. Right Leg
4. Left Leg, and THE FIFTH RUDIMENT!!!
5. The Vagus Nerve, a lifeline we all share, the key element of our emotional and rhythmic regulation.
If our Somatic Rudiments are consistently in unison with the drums, then our nervous system is in presence. This gives us access to Emotional Rhythmic Regulation, otherwise known as ‘the pocket.’ When we are attuned to our Five Somatic Rudiments, we are ready to be in harmony with music and life.
Pocket Talk: Presence Drum Lesson
Here is an example of practicing presence by developing backbeat unison awareness with the left foot.
Adam’s Five Somatic Rudiments:
Our truest building blocks of drumming in action
Betsy Polatin
Befriending Your Practice is also influenced by the work of Betsy Polatin, a brilliant pioneer and master lecturer at Boston University. She applies Embodiment Therapies, Alexander Technique and Somatic Experiencing, to artistic performance. Her inside-out approach to being present in practice and performance inspires my drumming and teaching.