Sat., July 17, 11 am - 1 pm, PST
Online Chö Drum Clinic
Saturday, July 17, 11 am - 1 pm (PST)
Would you like to make your chö drum fit better in your hand & get the best sound from the drum?
Khandro-la will show you how. Please join her for this special 2-hour workshop!
As we practice Chö, we want to have our damaru adapted in a way that fits in our hand well so that it's easy to play and produces a nice sound. This damaru clinic will give instructions on how to adapt your Chö damaru for your practice in a way that helps you to connect with it on a new level. This then opens the door for you to begin to develop a relationship with your damaru and become "intimate" with it.
For registration, please use the form below. You will receive a list of the materials you need in advance and an invitation email with the link to the video conference call.
Make Friendship With Your Chö Damaru And Yourself! An Integral Part of Cho Training
Traditionally, Chöpas or Chö practitioners have very few possessions - Chö drum called damaru and Chö tent. So, one of the most essential components in Chö training is how to make friends with your own Chö damaru.
In the west, we tend to assume that we can play the new damaru we buy from a dharma store or inherit from a friend, right away. However, traditionally, that is not the case, especially in our lineage. All the damaru's have to be modified, they have to undergo surgery, accordingly.
Modifying your damaru according to the lineage specificities is a vital integral part of Chö training and one that will enable you to make your new damaru work for you in your Chö practice. This process will improve your control of the drum: the chö drum will fit better in your hand, the sound will be improved, and you will be able to play correctly and slowly when needed, avoid unnecessary struggles, and much more. Also, Chöpas are required to know the specificities (i.e. an undecorated style of damaru and a banner consisting of five different colored straps) through the lineage transmission.
This part of the training involves lots of specific processes, step by step. It entails assembling what appears to be a fresh and perfect damaru coming from a factory store. It includes your resistance to taking apart a new drum, anxiety about the tediousness of the work involved, laziness, doubt and fear of failure, and so forth. This is a profound practice like a Chö (cutting through) in itself.
Through this initial and necessary process, you will be able to get to know yourself, and your damaru better as well as deepen the relationship between the two like 2 friends. Making an intimate relationship with your own damaru is an indispensable part of the Chö journey.
What Participants Say about the Chö Drum (Damaru) Clinic:
"The clinic was really helpful and insightful, providing very clear instructions on how to take care of my Damaru. It was not only a rare opportunity to work on my Damaru under experienced guidance but also a lot of fun. Highly recommended!"
"It was s bit daunting pulling the drum apart. Choying made commented that we were ‘making it our own and that is very true. I’m not a wonderful seamstress and I was a bit slow with the process. I’d recommend not finally securing the length of the strings before using the drum for a while - a bit too long and they can get tangled, a bit too short and there’s less control."
"My drum now has a different more comfortable feel in my hand as well as a new look. I’m experiencing greater ease in drumming and enjoying the sound. Interacting with the drum in terms of removing old parts, choosing materials, creating new dangers and band, sewing and stuffing the handle created a connection with the drum that is personal and unique. As you said, you make the drum yours."
"Thank you so much for hosting the drum workshop yesterday. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. I would have been too apprehensive to make some of those modifications on my own. So, with your guidance and being with the other women who were also learning, I did gain confidence that I could work on my drum! Actually, I liked getting all the cowrie shells off. I found my drum so much EASIER to play with the strings now in the 10 and 2 position. I did beat the original beaters a long time with a metal mallet. I then put cotton around the softened beaters and shoved this down into the finger of an old glove which worked really well. I am so pleased with the overall condition of the drum now."
"The bashing of the pellets and reshaping them makes such a difference to the sound though it seemed a reckless thing to do at the time!"
"Happy to meet you and thank you for your kind help yesterday by offering the damaru workshop. Yes, it was fun and helpful, motivated me to get creative again. Thank you for your support and willingness to share your knowledge. So many ways to work at cutting."
"I'm very happy with the changes I made to my damaru during our workshop. I enjoyed the workshop very much, and the time spent together gave me more confidence in working with my drum. You will find the photo below. I actually like the look of the drum with the cowrie shells removed, but I would not have done that on my own. I would say the biggest improvement was moving the beater strings from 3 and 9 o'clock to 2 and 10 o'clock. This has helped me more easily play my drum -- definitely. The sound is louder after I took off the large crocheted coverings on the beaters. I will have to see with a bit of experience if I need to soften the sound more. Very good experience and I thank you."
"Thank you so much for the drum workshop today, for sharing your knowledge and skill with us.