What a treat to vocalize with this Indian Verbal Percussion master teacher. Hope I didn’t step on his toes, musically speaking.

Three words. Drum. It. Out. Seems like a fairly simple phrase implying the obvious concept of ‘drumming out one’s whatever … angst, negative energy, bad mood, bad day at school, bad day at work, bad day at … well you get the point.

For me, the idea of ‘drum it out’ goes way back to middle school, when life was shall we say less than idyllic.

I know what you’re thinking …. ‘What could possibly be so tough for a kid growing up with a mom and dad plus two ok sisters, living in a nice Miami suburb on a nice house on a lake. How bad could your life be that you had so much tween sadness or trauma or whatever that you needed to drum it out just to get through the day? Eh, Scott?’

And I understand your point, whomever you might be. But what you and the other readers do not know is precisely at the very heart of what is now one of the most important and salient topics in our world these days.

Mental health.

And what you do not know now is what I also did not then. Had I known then what I know now and have spent the past 20 years learning and doing a deep dive into my own mental health experiences, going back to my earliest memories through my tweens and well into my early 40s is this:

What I did not know then was just how important our mental health is to our success in life .. at home, in school, on the playground, and everywhere else we live our lives. Mental health was a mystery to me back then. And my lack of knowledge and awareness of how specifically mental health was impacting my efforts in all areas of my life certainly made my tween years as a middle schooler at John F. Kennedy Junior High in North Miami Beach less than a bed of roses or walk in the park as it where.

Chronic sadness, anxiety, fear, social phobia, panic attacks, sweaty palms, memory and concentration challenges were all the norm for me.

Except in band. Where I was a percussionist. A good one, who by 8th grade became section leader, and went on to perform at county contests and perform as part of a local youth symphony by 9th grade. Thanks to my love for and affinity for drumming and all things percussion, I was able to carve out a small slice of joy and happiness in between the darkness that followed me before and after my time in the band room with Mr. Hoffman and my fellow band mates.

Drum it out I did. In band, and at home. My brain certainly liked when I drum, which explains my healthy drum practice regimen. Not only did I sense playing rudiments over and over and learning and perfecting challenging snare pieces for the fun of it was a good thing for me to be doing in my spare time, my brain and body were constantly telling me so.

So, I continued to ‘Drum it Out’ well into high school. And I can say with the highest degree of confidence that if were not for drumming then I cannot imagine surviving the incredible social shark tank that was my high school years.

To be continued.

It’s been a busy month of networking for yours truly. Emails, zoom and skype meetings, LinkedIn messages .. and texts. Lots of texts.

Getting Bambam to the next level takes time, patience, the right message to the right folks when they’re able to hear it and act on it. And now, some 8+ years into my arts startup with a heart, Bambam Drumfun has some new friends and supporters to add to all the wonderful folks who have supported my mission to bring music and art together in one blended arts enrichment class.

Some new marketing has gotten BBDF some much needed attention.

Feel free to reach out – say hi – ask me how we can put together a dynamic, fun, low-cost high impact arts program that can be used over and over and over .. for pennies on the dollar verses more traditional art and music programs.

Thanks for checking in!

Rather than bore you into reading a bunch of clippity clap long form body copy (there’s enough of that in my other blog posts), I’ll simply post a few recent picks of what I’ve been up. Let’s just say that in addition to several new group rhythm programs, I’ve added some new interesting elements to my rhythm arts pedagogy which will make BBDF and its related utility more user-friendly, for both activity providers and the wonderful folks they serve. I call them our drummers because they are drummers and they are part of our community.

Yes, Bambam Drumfun is about creating community, like the community of drummers I enjoyed being a part of with my drum sections back in my marching band days at North Miami Beach Senior High School in the late 70s.

Yes, those were the days . . .

So here’s the latest. December 2021 was as active a month on the networking side for yours truly since well before Covid reared its ugly head.

And the results speak for themselves, including new ventures with Sonata Assisted Living Network, Vision Media, YMCAs of Broward County, and perhaps the most promising of all, a collaboration with World Youth Horizon, a foundation headed by Priceline co-founder Jeff Hoffman and dedicated to enriching the lives of youth around the world, both in and out of the classroom.

With this new association, an immediate opportunity to bring Bambam Drumfun programs to their youth homes in the African nation of Uganda. This program, currently in the planning stage, would be an ideal showcase for my fledgling arts enrichment brand.

50 kids, $5 each. That’s $250 for

Was a total blast chatting with Chris Matthews and Mitch Albom backstage today at the Miami Book Fair.
Chris Matthews.
Chris speaks like a prize-fighter, jabbing and counterpunching in rapid fire, with no editing or punch-pulling. Almost stream of consciousness, near poetic as an off the cuff commentator.
Always a gentlemen even when tossing a sling or arrow or two. Says of Madame Vice President Kamala Harris, “She needs to get out there and define herself, be more regular with the people, talk sports or whatever.” Says she can’t let the bums define her. Also said, about democracy in peril, that the dems need to have a better strategy re: voters rights. They should outflank the GOPs attempts to subvert voter rights by embracing voter ID cards, maximizing early voting, etc.. He’s right – if you can’t stop’em, beat’em at their own game.
Mitch Albom.
Mitch Albom of Tuesdays with Morrie fame, is a man on a mission. This heralded sports writer turned humanist story-teller and major public programs provider in his hometown of Detroit and in Haiti tells of how he got his start in journalism right here in So Fla at the Sun Sentinel (or the paper that preceded it). It’s a serendipitous tale he tells with fondness, as he does with all his stories he shared today at the MBF.
I had the joy of asking him about his piano-playing, which was on display during a video presentation of his Faith Foster Care in Haiti. He shared that he and other writers – Davy Barry, Steven King, Amy Tan and others – formed a very mediocre rock band some years ago and that it’s fortunate he doesn’t quite his day job.
His recent book has to do with the stranger we all come in contact with, and how we treat that stranger. In this case, the stranger who boards a shipwrecked boat of rich folks is the lord. I’ll leave it at that, though the bulk of his talk today centered on how we as a society and as individuals are faced every day with a choice: to help those in need, to lend a hand, to care for strangers? Or to look the other way?
Mitch goes on to stress how redefining his life in this way has transformed him in a way he would have never expected. He speaks of his orphanage in Haiti, and the incredibly harsh conditions the 60+ kids face each say, from the scarcities of basic resources like electric, water and gas to the ever-present danger from notorious Haitian gangs.
One day, it occurred to me, that perhaps I can bring Bambam Drumfun to these wonderful kids, and share with them the simple joys and many mind-body benefits of rhythm-making and arts’n’crafts (though from the video it looks like they already enjoy some dynamic music and art enrichment).
It was a fine fall day at the MBF. No rain, no traffic, two dynamic speakers, and a balloon guy on stilts.