Interesting Links
These are websites with discussions of importance to drum circles, organizations that keep you plugged into the drum community at large, events and festivals and people or drum related things you didn't know you needed to know about until now.
Why Freestyle?
http://synthrick.tripod.com/dddc/id24.html
Rick Cormier, may well be the guru of - certainly the most ardent advocate for- the basic philosophy behind a succesful freestyle community drum circle. One of the co-founders of what is now the Drumfish circle, he presently shepards the Different Drummers Community Drum Circle in Yarmouth Maine. This article is probably the best argument you will ever hear for freestyle over facilitated circles. Except, of course, for playing in a freestyle circle yourself. While you're at it, visit his website, full of art, music, drums and humor and get some of his famous "Rick Sticks" superball mallets. http://synthrick.tripod.com/index.html
Respect
http://www.chidjembe.com/drumdollars.html
This is a paper by Dr. Lillian Friedberg from the The Chicago Djembe Project on the subject of drum circles and cultural colonialism. It is an intense and sometimes excoriating challenge to be sensitive to the cultures we may be borrowing from (or imitating) as we choose certain rhythms or use our drums in certain ways. Even if you do not agree with everything she has to say, there are lessons to be learned here and perhaps, discomfitting truths to be faced. Drum with respect.
Magic
http://spiritfirefestival.org/index.php
http://www.4qf.org/_FiresRising/index.htm
Dance, drum and chant all night for several nights in a row. Transport, ecstasy, bliss and connection are likely results. Powerful inner work can be done on nights like these; profound feelings of love and connection are evoked. All of it powered by the sound of the drum. Where, you ask, can I find such gatherings. Here. Go, and know the joy the drum can give.
Drum Circles Afoot
If you are leaving home and looking for a drum circle wherever it is you are going this is probably the most accurate and comprehensive list available on the web. Along with the listing, he has a dvd and cd of useful drum circle rhythms, a link to the absolute worst drummer jokes you will ever hope to find
http://drumcircles.net/circlelist.html
The Tree, the Drum, and the River
by Joshua Levin
This story is more than just a beautiful, masterfully wrought extended metaphor of the drum circle as a living being. It is also a gentle teaching on the importance of shared intention, listening and respect that nurtures not only a piece of music but the life of the drum community itself.
http://vgdrum.org/index_files/TDR.html#Name
bravenet.com