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Only a few more sleeps until our annual trip to Ghana, and we can’t wait! It’s our 14th tour this year and we’re excited to see old friends, each with a unique story to tell. One of our beloved past times in Ghana is visiting our favourite drum makers and watching them work, joining in the traditional song and dance. It’s such a lively community of artists, musicians and creatives and we’re looking forward to immersing ourselves in the culture once again. Watch this space for photos & videos of our 2018/19 summer in Ghana.

Location: Accra and Volta Region, Ghana West Africa

Dates: December 30th 2018 – January 26th 2019

Come join us!

Our brand new music & wellness retreat is making its debut in March next year and we’ve got a heavy itinerary planned! We sat down with Good Vibes director Simon Fraser to get an insight into what guests can expect from the upcoming retreat:

Where did the concept of Good Vibes come from?

It’s been brewing for many years and it brings all my favourite things together! Drumming is obviously a long held passion, and so is Yoga …..I’ve also been inspired too through my wife Carla’s work and her knowledge of Eastern practices. She introduced me to the amazing Ramona who is presenting on the weekend. So in essence, we decided to hand pick an awesome group of inspiring facilitators for our first Good Vibes.

What made you choose the Great Otway National Park for the retreat?

Sokil is a special place. We are in deep bushland surrounded by animals and no neighbours. It’s a pure nature escape at a venue we have used for many years. There is something raw and lush about Sokil and it compliments our ethos of finding natural harmony and balance.

Can guests from any drumming/yoga/kalari background join?

Everyone is welcome! All levels, all backgrounds. We feel like the different activities (drumming/yoga/meditation/kalari) really compliment one another. All our Good Vibes teachers have alignment in their philosophies around movement and energy. It all starts from the ground up and we will be working towards harnessing our bodies pure kinetic potential in conjunction with mind and soul.

What do you want people to take away from the retreat?

We expect that people will find internal balance and a sense of groundedness at Good Vibes….Plus new connections and a little bit of serendipity.
We use this opportunity to embrace the nature force of the bush we are surrounded by and immerse ourselves in a series of wonderful workshops that will lift the spirit.

What are you most looking forward to at this retreat?

Meeting new people who are ready to open themselves to self discovery and experiencing how this exciting blend of modalities weaves its unique magic through the group. This is the first Good Vibes retreat so one really knows where we will find ourselves – it’s exciting!

Itinerary

Communal jams

Drumming for all levels, beginners, intermediates and advanced

Meditation

Yoga

Body Percussion

Kalari (Indian Martial Art)

Bonfires

Guided walks

When:

March 1st – 3rd 2019

Where:

Sokil Eco Retreat, Great Otway National Park

Tickets

African Drumming is proud to have led the Melbourne Walk against Family Violence through the city – a great turn out for a great cause.

On average, at least one woman a week is killed by a partner or former partner in Australia. We all need to unite to help eliminate this heinous crime and to support those whose lives have been affected.

The summer edition of our legendary high voltage drum & dance event is moving outdoors to enjoy the sun while pumping non-stop tribal music guaranteed to make you dance.

This student performance event brings all of our classes from around Melbourne together to perform their ensembles’ traditional and contemporary West African rhythms.

This Tribalism will also celebrate our end of year jam – so BYO everything to make you happy – Food, drinks & friends!

Everyone is welcome!

Time: 2:30pm

Where: The Post Hotel St Kilda: 304-306 St Kilda Rd

Drumming takes you places! We were out at Jundah Racecourse (1300km’s west of Brisbane) this weekend for the Channel Country Ladies Day celebrations. Awesome place, awesome people, great times!

Big ups to Gabriel Otu for taking the music and dance to the Red Earth!

Rich from the good vibes and happiness that was shared last year, we cannot wait for this new Bali Drum Camp to happen. It is the perfect occasion if you wish to expand your knowledge of West African music at a heavenly location, no matter what your level is !

For more information check out our brochure and sign up form. You can also visit the Bali Drum Camp Facebook page or our FB event page.

We’ve been supporting the great work of a Ghanaian NGO called Dream Big Ghana for a decade now. Recently they have really stepped up their diversity of projects in the local Volta Region communities. When we first started helping, it was directed to their awesome sanitation / toilet block building project, and now they have expanded into a Learning centre and Football academy.

Through the directive efforts of Dougal Croudace and the team at Meet Me There African Home Lodge and this years force of Josie Scott and Graeme Ramsey things are rollicking along in 2017. The local school is now receiving a new toilet block and the learning centre has two sets of drums (to keep the traditional music alive), books in several languages and even a few laptops!

We’ll be leading a group of 25 students right into the heart of this community in 7 weeks time and we can’t wait to help things grow just that little bit more with our physical support and funds raised via the African Drumming community !!

After the success of our inaugural world percussion extravaganza last July, we’re thrilled to bring another weekend of superb

workshops & performances.  If you have workshop requests we’d love to hear from you

TRIBALISM – our favourite student performance event is back Dec 16th in Catani Gardens

Experience African Drumming’s legendary high voltage drum and dance event. The place will be pumping with non-stop tribal music guaranteed to make you dance. This student performance event brings all of our classes from around Melbourne together to perform their ensembles’ traditional and contemporary West African rhythms.

Come join the family drum fun – bring a picnic, all are welcome

When:
Saturday December 16th 2017
From @ 2:30pm

Where:
Catani Gardens,
Pier Road, St Kilda West Victoria 3182

We’ve been busy making drums all week down here in St Kilda …Bruno our drum maker is pumping out the good stuff …

check out some of his handy work on our Ghana djembe range which is well stocked – great value light weight, portable African djembes.

Find our Ghana djembe range here on our website!!

” For me, the djembe addiction took hold in my early twenties. Coming from a classical piano background, djembe was everything piano wasn’t! I still dearly love sitting down and cracking out a Bach prelude but it doesn’t compare to the feeling of playing djembe and being part of a whole community of drummers who share a love for West African rhythms.

I’ve had wonderful teachers along the way – both locally and in Africa – and I’m privileged to work closely with Bangourake who has been so generous in sharing the music and culture of his people with the local drum and dance scene here in Canberra. Yes, behind the grey suits we actually have a thriving community of drum and dance students here!

I discovered early in my ‘djembe journey’ that teaching is what I enjoy the most and is where I can make the most difference. There’s nothing I like to see more than adults, who never had the chance to learn an instrument as a child or claim not to have a musical bone in their body, suddenly engaging regularly in music education and enjoying connecting with others through music. Joining a djembe class really can be life-changing for people. I can’t think of another instrument that has the same power!

Now I just have to hope my two young sons catch the bug and want to play dundun for Mummy! 😉“

“My drumming tourney harks back 4 years ago when my musical wife gave me a voucher for 6 lessons. Lo and behold she created a monster!

Little did she know that my practising would overwhelm her music ever practice. My neighbours even tell me they know when my wife is away when they here me drumming. The benefits of drumming are well known when discussing mental health.

However the spirit of support and camaraderie of the drumming community also plays a tremendous role. Every class where I play instantly transports me away from the trials and tribulations of the business day, and deeply in the circle of rhythms and beats of my drumming group. Of course this is great fun, with regular performances are exciting and entertaining, especially for the drummers.

The more I play the more I recognise there is to learn.
I now have a way to express the music I feel inside.
Now off to practice more as my neighbours do not need too much sleep. ?

Thanks to all my teachers and drumming buddies for all the encouragement”

“Since I was young I have always had a love of music, it didn’t matter what type of music it was. At school I always did music class and learned how to play guitar & trumpet ( but not very well !! ) but I always found myself tapping along to the drum beat, whether it was on the table or empty ice cream containers.

About 8 years ago I went into a deep depression & suffered severe anxiety and panic attacks, my love for everything including music disappeared. After months of slowly getting back on my feet, the love of music slowly returned. One day, while on FB, just scrolling through posts I came across one of my nieces – Jessica May – playing a drum ( which I now know was a djembe) I think I watched the same performance of her everyday, I was hooked.

After speaking with Jess she informed me of a beginners class in Hampton park, although still anxious I convinced myself, with a lot of encouragement from my wife, I attended the class, from the first time I hit the Djembe I felt a feeling that I had never felt before – it was like I had finally found something that brought a smile and excitement to me.

For once in a very long time I knew it was something I wanted to continue & challenge myself. Not only did I love it but I also made and continue to make new friends. It has been just over a year since I played my first Djembe and am enjoying it more & more, now even my wife has starting playing”