Jim Greiner
// drum circle facilitator & percussion educatorJIM GREINER is an internationally acclaimed percussionist, drum circle facilitator, educator and inspirational speaker who lives in the Monterey Bay Area of California. He conducts drum circles and interactive rhythm-based programs worldwide for corporate team building, conference and meeting ice breaking, communities, schools, and private groups through his company, Hands-On! Drumming® Events. His Rhythm Power® Personal Enrichment Workshops and instructional/inspirational DVD’s use drumming as a playful vehicle to reinforce purposeful, positive Life Rhythms. He is also a Latin Percussion® Endorser/Clinician, and is Head Artist of Latin Percussion’s Recreational and Community Drumming Program. Jim Greiner’s many accolades include being is a multiple winner of Drum! Magazines’ Annual Readers Poll Awards for: Percussion Clinician of the Year, Drum Circle Facilitator of the Year, and Percussion Instructional Video of the Year for his workshops and for his DVD, “Community Drumming: For Health And Happiness” (2004) available from Alfred Publishing.
Website: www.communitydrumming.com
Photo: Jim Greiner / Hands-On! Drumming®
Interview:
Spirit is present is all of creation. However, we often get so caught up in the day-to-day living of life, as well as in the thoughts that our ever-active minds create, that we lose awareness of Spirit. Music is one of the ways we humans have found to open ourselves up to awareness of Spirit, and of course, Spirit probably gifted us with Music! Music helps us to move beyond the purely physical and mental realms and enter into the transcendent state where our minds and bodies entrain and let go of mental clutter and physical distractions. Music, when played with an intention to connect with Spirit, is a form of prayer. My area of expertise is rhythm. Rhythmic music is repetition through patterns of sounds, and when this is played with intention, it can put us into a transcendent state of body and mind entrainment that allows us to connect with Spirit. Whether I am performing, playing on my own, facilitating a community drum circle, or conducting an interactive drumming program for corporate team building, I am using rhythm as a vehicle, an intention, to help people engage in the deeply rooted, universal nature of humans to entrain together.
“Music is one of the ways we humans have found to open ourselves up to awareness of Spirit, and of course, Spirit probably gifted us with Music!”
– Jim Greiner, drum circle facilitator and percussion educator
