The beat runs deep

The beat runs strong in Ed Mikenas. Strong and deep.

As it does in all of us, he believes, and deeper than we realize.

“There’s research to show that if you’re involved in drumming for more than 15 minutes,” he said, “there’s a quantitative change in your brain chemistry. Brisk repetitve behavior is something your body likes, and it rewards you with a shot of endorphins.”

No wonder rock ’n’ roll drummers look so blissed out. I always thought it was from recreational drugs.

Musically speaking, the Upstate New York native and Lynchburg resident is more than just a drummer. His early musical training was in the upright bass, and
he currently serves as the organist and music director at Amherst Presbyterian Church.

Still, drums have always fascinated him — not just their sound and technique, but their effect on the body and the mind. As a youth services worker with the City of Lynchburg, Mikenas has used drumming for therapeutic purposes and seen it work small miracles.

“There was a student at (an area school) who had lost his father and his mother within just a few months of each other,” Mikenas recalled. “His mother committed suicide while he was in the house. What concerned the guidance counselors about him was that he never cried.

“Club Conga (Mikenas’ former drumming group) did an assembly over there, and he was standing in the back, sort of swaying to the music. When the rest of his class got ready to leave, he asked if he could hang behind. Then he started crying his eyes out. I really believe the drumming broke something loose that he had been holding back.”

Drumming is “self-soothing” for individuals, Mikenas believes, and even more beneficial when done in a group. Some corporations now use drumming workshops as a bonding experience, he said.

“It’s definitely growing,” Mikenas said. “I know of a couple of drumming circles that have started in Lynchburg.”

One, called Nataraja, is composed strictly of women. Mikenas taught them the finer points of his art, as he has done with hundreds of aspiring drummers in recent years. Earlier this month, he even gave a workshop in Hong Kong.

That was done at the invitation of Kumi Masunaga, founder of Drum Jam Hong Kong.

“We got together through another conference that I attended in Arizona,” Mikenas said. “She provided all the drums, so I didn’t have to haul them on the airplane, and we had 60 participants.”

On her Web site, Masunaga says, “Drum circles touch people. When you are drumming, you can’t think! You wake up in the present moment. That’s where the magic of drumming works — it helps people tap into a space where anything is possible.”

Mikenas’ early mentor, even while he was focusing on the bass, was Potsdam State University (NY) music professor Sandy Feldstein.
“He later became one of the founders of the Percussive Arts Society, which has been very influential in drumming,” Mikenas said.

Drumming is one of the few universal languages, Mikenas believes. He saw that firsthand in Hong Kong, where the pounding beat formed an invisible bridge between the cultures of East and West.

“I think they enjoyed themselves,” he said.