The Drum Café: Building Wholeness, One Beat at a Time

the drum café

For an hour, we are engaged in a cooperative activity that leaves us feeling energized, exhilarated, and unified. We feel surprisingly motivated and ready to share ideas and work as a team.

Funny how after just an hour of drumming together, my company feels more like a community.



Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Drum Café?

The Drum Café brings interactive drumming to mergers, product launches, conferences,

road shows, year-end functions, incentive breakaways, and other corporate events to bridge gaps

and understanding among different groups (diversity, multiculturalism, etc.). Venues vary widely,

from traditional conference centers or intimate settings in nature to massive sports and performance arenas.

What Inspired the Drum Café?

The Drum Café was born not long after Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa

in 1994. This was a time of ambivalence, a period of joy, fear, and hope, where many people anticipated bloodshed and war. With 11 official languages, cultural differences, and a history of a

minority that had held power for decades, South Africa needed to undergo a radical change.

Under the guidance of President Mandela, bloodshed and war were averted, and South Africa was

transformed rapidly and profoundly into a “rainbow nation,” which brought together cultures,

races, and communities under a unified banner.

The Drum Café took Madiba’s1 philosophy as the core of its approach and during South

Africa’s time of transition, it brought the message of cohesion and unity to hundreds of companies across South Africa. The Drum Café facilitated communication and cooperation between

black and white, male and female, old and young. It taught how to bridge the gap between the old

and the new, and to foster understanding and friendship between employees from vastly different

cultural backgrounds.

How Do We Work and What Are the Outcomes?

Prior to any event, client and consultant explore the factors affecting the organization and

its key goals. This understanding is used to shape the process to address these issues.

On the day of the event, a team of facilitators and musicians collaborate to teach the group

simple drumming rhythms. The group is taught to play the same bass rhythm and to listen to one

another. As the session progresses, the music gradually becomes more harmonious and the team

is transformed into a percussive orchestra. The analogy between an orchestra and wholeness provides perspective into the synergy between individual and team. Figure 1 is a visual representation of a Drum Café session.

Following a Drum Café experience, participants are often more open to taking in new

information and concepts. This experience fundamentally alters participants’ perceptions of

what can and cannot be achieved and lays the foundation for organizational change. Because the



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Disparity/Individual

No cohesion/High stress levels



NOISE



!

Disparate: Participants

playing on their own, not

listening



!



Breaking barriers



Moving from noise to

structure



Teaching a bass rhythm



Unifying message of group



1



2



3



Teaching many-part

rhythms



1



2



3



Putting the rhythms

together



Bass Rhythm

MUSIC!!



Unity/Group

Synergy & Cohesion/

Energized



Synchronized:

Listening to each other and

making music as a group



MUSIC

Figure 1. Creating Unity Through Music



the drum café

learning is hands-on rather than taught, participants can extrapolate their learnings and draw

insightful analogies based on the principles of music and drumming.

One manager talked of being allowed to “let her hair down” in front of her employees. She

explained how at work she had struggled to create bonds with her employees because her managerial position had kept her distant. She reported that after the Drum Café experience, her relationships had significantly improved and there was a much more relaxed atmosphere in the

office, which has been of great benefit to her team’s performance.



Table of Uses

Typical Setting



Brief Description and Results



Time and Participants



Connecting Diversity

Usually at client premises, conference centers, or under a tree.



• Participating in an exercise of communication, effective listening skills, and

the power of a truly synchronized organization promotes the power of

nonverbal communication.

• Feelings of isolation and dissent disappear, as the drumming experience

bonds every participant into a motivated and unified whole.



• 60–90 minutes

• 10–500 people



Conflict Resolution



• With the proliferation of negative interaction between individuals and

teams, the handling of conflict is often

very difficult.

• Drumming together helps break down

barriers to create a more effective and

harmonious environment.



• 60–90 minutes

• 2–200 people



Road Shows, Conferences, and

Workshops



• A series of shows delivered around the

country when unveiling new vision,

mission, and values of company.

• It can draw people together, celebrating success and ensuring that the delegates leave feeling invigorated and

motivated.



• 10–90 minutes

• Up to 100,000 people



About the Author

Warren Lieberman (warren@drumcafe.com) graduated with a degree in physics and applied

mathematics at the University of Cape Town and also attained a BSC with honors in electrical

engineering. He started the Drum Café from his home in 1995. Warren recently produced and

directed the Off-Broadway hit Drumstruck. He also published a book on traditional music in



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South Africa—The Drum Café’s Traditional Music of South Africa by Laurie Levine. Warren has

also produced two CDs of African traditional music and fusion music. He is currently developing

a traditional African orchestra that uses only traditional African instruments (such as Kudu

horns, cow horns, and marimbas).



Where to Go for More Information

References

“Bongos in the Boardroom: Companies Go to Extremes to Foster Teamwork.” The Detroit

Business News, February 14, 2004. www.drumcafe.com/articles/Bongos%20in%20the%20

boardroom%20Companies%20go%20to%20extremes%20to%20foster%20teamwork%20

-%2002-14-04.htm.

“Drum Sessions Protect Employees from Burnout.” Reuters, February 19, 2004. www

.drumcafe.com/articles/Yahoo_drum_article.htm.

“Drumming Up a Happier Workplace.” BBC News World Edition, February 20, 2004. www

.drumcafe.com/articles/BBC/BBC_News.stm.

Laurie, Levine. Traditional Music of South Africa. Johannesburg, South Africa: Jacana Publishing,

2005.

Organization

Drum Café—www.drumcafe.co.za/www.drumcafe.com

1. In South Africa, “Madiba” is an affectionate nickname for President Nelson Mandela.



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brian tate



JazzLab

The Music of Synergy

Everything we do is music. Everywhere is the best seat.

—John Cage



Making Your Own Music

A large group of participants enters a ballroom. Rather than taking their usual seats, they form

two large concentric circles around the perimeter of the room. They are about to become musicians for the rest of the morning. Following a brief introductory talk on how to make music

(breathe, stay loose, jump in, have fun), rhythm and groove are quickly established with clapping

and rapping, growing magically from a single pattern to two parts, and then to four parts. Then

comes the moment everyone has been anticipating: playing the rhythm instruments they have

made themselves from instructions sent prior to the event. Shakers, drums, scrapers, bells, and

woodblocks are readied for the debut of the “artistic, mystic, synergistic mass rhythm orchestra.”

Within minutes, an entire room full of self-described nonmusicians is in the groove and having

a great time. Everyone is discovering a new way of listening, getting “in synch,” experiencing

diversity in action, and creating organizational synergy—where the whole is indeed greater than

the sum of its parts (figure 1). They are now musicians for life.



What Is JazzLab?

JazzLab is an exciting, enlivening, hands-on experience, using music making as a way to transform your organization. From an hour-long workshop to a daylong intensive, participants

become musicians, composers, conductors, and improvisers—and no musical experience is

required! It emphasizes working together, having a great time, and making music that sounds

wonderful. JazzLab uses music making to address vital organizational questions such as:



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Figure 1. Combining Instruments and Rhythms Creates Synergy



• How can we listen and communicate better?

• How can we create effective teams yet still retain autonomy?

• How can we better foster creativity and innovation?

• How can we encourage diversity?

• How can we create effective structures, but not be bound by them?

• How can we think better on our feet?

How Does JazzLab Work?

JazzLab is based on the premises that:

1. Everyone is musical, whether they know it or not.

2. Making music is an excellent metaphor and training tool for whole-system thinking.

3. Rhythm and percussion are quick, easy, and effective ways for people to make music

together.

JazzLab begins with clapping and keeping a simple beat. A single, shared pattern divides

into two, then into four parts. Voices are brought into the mix with a rap song in four parts. Then

the rhythm band is formed, with each group of instruments given their own part. Participants

then get to conduct or play in an improvised symphonic “movement” with the large ensemble.

Smaller groups are then formed, with participants creating and performing their own original

compositions. Finally, “improv trios” are formed, where three players sit facing each other with an

array of instruments and create a two-minute free improvisation on the spot.