Drumming Grandma

[wyldeflowyr]

Hi, fellow drummers! My name is Laurel and I have been drumming ever since 2001. Now that may not sound like so long but let me tell you that I am 58 years old and this was a huge thing for me. There I was, in San Francisco, at my son Mikey's place, when he got out this good sized synthetic djembe and his girlfriend had a smaller one. They started drumming, and all I could think of was, "I've got to get one of those!" I had never been interested in drumming until this point. Shortly after this, I went back to San Francisco (I didn't know I could even buy such a drum anywhere else) and got my first drum. Her name is Hecate.
Well, it wasn't long before I started looking for a class and found one or two. My first teacher, Cody, said to me, "You need a bigger drum." So I started using Big Mama, which was my second drum and really big, but I was reluctant to use her because she is loud. My second teacher, Liz Broscoe, taught me what I know about rhythm, and my present teachers, Mailly (Francis) Tagba and Abel Guie, both from the Ivory Coast, have taught me much about traditional African drum and dance.
So here I am - the drumming Grandma!

[bubudi]

welcome to the forums, laurel! keep following your heart!

[Djembe-nerd]

Welcome and Say Hi to Liz. I met her at Mamdy's camp.

[anitafay]

Hey Laurel! I'm a big fan of Francis -- if you see this, will you say hi to him from me? I'm Anita, in Arkansas -- I drum with Angelo here. Francis came to perform in the AFRICA IN THE OZARKS festival a few years back. And we're excited to be in the planning stages for another one, hopefully coming up this May.

To see what I'm talking about, Check out our new website: http://afriqueaya.org

Our blog is: http://afriqueaya.wordpress.com

We've also got a new page on FaceBook, if that works for you.

So -- let me stop here, and see whether this post works to connect with you and Francis. Hope so.

Really glad to hear you're drumming, you go girl,

-- Anita.

[e2c]

Hi and welcome, Laurel!

Great to have another woman on board, too!