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Bonus: Skype Interview with Jordan Goodman

So as a follow up to our class today I wanted to bring on one more extra special guests who is a friend of mine but someone who has taken a different sort of angle for working in the music business and my friend jordan goodman from baltimore started a company called beat well so just a quick background jordan went to school for psychology and has been a great local drummer a friend of mine for a long time we grew up together he's a fantastic germer he's a fantastic teacher has a lot of private students locally just a great positive person has always been inspirational t his friends to the people that he's taught and his angle which I think is amazing has been tio use drumming as away teo promote wellness and health and with that I'll let him tell you further you know more about it but specifically through just giving someone a drum and letting them play it is such a positive experience and jordan's taken that idea and applied it to so many different types of people whether it be younge...

r kids or whether it be people with autism or whether it be holocaust survivors in a nursing home whether it be educators themselves that work in a school jordan's organized these drum circles too remote wellness health so with that in mind this is jordan goodman he's from baltimore way go back um how you doing in no worries so you know we've been talking about different kind of values and concepts I guess or keys to being successful in the music business and whether you're a musician or you're a, uh industry professional, whatever it is I mean there's certain key values that we've been talking about those things involved you know, setting goals, hard work commitment good communication building good and positive relationships ah lot of a lot of different topics but I thought that it be really cool for people to talk to you who may be interested you know, in the same kinds of things released for these people to hear from you t hear about your story what you do, why you do it on dh where you want to go with it and if you think that there is space for more people to be doing similar things that you're doing so maybe just start by telling people what beat well is and how you got started and what your goals are with it sherman absolutely so be well is my company and through that I offer a program called a beet well placed shot and these beat will play shops uh they, uh you know, I love that you posted this morning you know that that bucket drum video south southwest because the point was that everyone has rhythm right? So we're all drummers we all have a heartbeat and drumming is really the original language of human beings so I basically take that ancient concept this ancient with wisdom and I apply it in a more contemporary setting whether in a school or a mental health clinic where I go to businesses no matter the type of group I put drums in their hands and within seconds we all played together we play separate things but we create one song and because drumming is universal because rhythm is in aa is within us and everywhere without us uh we could do it and I and I can do it in any type of group it's pretty amazing huh? So that's really what beat well is but I am a drummer and like most people probably watching this group one into be a musician and particularly as maybe a performer or you know right in recording songs and that's how I started uh and if you like a kind of go through the evolution of starting as a performer and a and a and a writer and then finding other ways to ah to monetize my skills yeah andi I think that's really cool you know, we've talked a lot of different people who maybe started one direction and ended up somewhere else um but music has always been at the at the center of it all um you know and for for the audience you know, a lot of times it isn't cut and dry um and you obviously have ah background from school you went to school for psychology you have your master's so you know you've dedicated a lot of time not just to music but your education which I think is very, very important which enables you to I think doom or with with your with your mission with beat well, but is this something that people who maybe don't have the, um who aren't as fortunate to get that education or to be able to take it to that level? Is this something that they could get involved with on their own or how could how could some of these people you know, potentially maybe add something some of what you're doing to their career so it's another outlet for them or potentially even another revenue stream for them? Absolutely. So you know, my credentials in the education uh it helps me it definitely helps uh be with the network in and and maybe seyval agency upfront, but there are many people without any you know, post high school kind of education that air doing similar things, you know, you don't need a certificate you don't need a license or any type these things to offer a service to offer a program to any divers type of population uh so there you know, you could be a drum circle facilitator and there's all kinds of different ways you can do that when I started graduate school, I was really trying to find that harold the course and clinic work I was doing and the music work that I was doing the drum lessons playing drums in a band on and I found that there was this whole world that there is a there is a profession of drum circle facilitator were there many people that do that for living full time and probably the world doing it as well what? So I have taken those skills I've created this may be therapeutic bent on the way that I constructed produced a drum circle program or event, but but yeah there's there's all types of things and you don't have to have a certain degree or license like I said in order to provide a service that has therapeutic outcomes sure, but I think that's great, so how would a person who would want to get into this where's a good place to start? So I really kind of started bridge between these two paths together I was in a class in graduate school about the stress response and we had to come up with a research paper and power point presentation at the end of the semester on a stress reducing modality, so I knew that when I'm pissed off, I play the drums right? It makes me feel good for her uh in academic and scientific culture, the oh, we need evidence based research for something to be deemed legitimate even though drumming has and used for thousands of years in virtually every culture often for bonus purposes or community building is just in this culture that we often kind of think and treat our art as a product so only think of a musical experience we either pay for a private lesson where we pay for a song we pay to go to a concert but but uh for millennia people come together to drum to sing to dance because that that's how they build community so I started uh you know, googling drumming, healing stress reduction, wellness all these different types of things and I found this whole world of drumming that until that point I had no idea existed because up into this point my idea of being in a drummer was what you must think of, uh offering private lessons or recording records and performing performing shows so I found out that there is this drum circle movement, right and drum circles uh, you know, have a very, uh there's a stereotype at least in this culture with drum circles we think of sixties counterculture it's remember that occupy wall street movement a couple years ago in new york? Sure, yeah, yep, right so I like to say that the one thing that the conservative media and the liberal media agreed on was that part of what was going on in occupy wall street was a bunch of lazy dirty hippies in drunk sir lt's on dh that's and that that's that's that's a real stereotype sure uh and but the thing is, uh is that there's a reason there's a wisdom uh there's a reason and wisdom and why this has endured for thousands of years across virtually every culture. Okay, it's a universal language and I haven't found a more efficient or effective way to meaningful lee connect individuals. So as I said there's a whole drum circle culture uh and there's all kinds of different avenues if you google that you confined there's a drum circles facilitators guilt they just held this in myrtle beach about a month ago where a drum circle sit still sealed facilitators from all over the world come and it's pretty much like going to uh you know, an annual conference for whatever profession that you're in it's it's definitely legitimate uh, so you have that you also have the drum company and they're the ones who have been ah, you know, putting the science piece into it. So what I said uh, in an academic or science culture, I needed evidence based research for my work to be deemed legitimate so remote teamed up with the neurologist out of pennsylvania and they created a program called health rhythms and the offer training's throughout the year in different areas of the country I've taken to trainings in new jersey and it also south florida uh and once I found this research on it's about twelve, thirteen years worth of research at all these different levels show in reduction in stress a boost to the immune system increased bonding and creativity between people produced turnover rates and burn out in college students on employees all these different levels thes positive outcomes drumming together in a group uh and once I found that research that was like the golden ticket for me uh at least in a master's program in in a in a stock antic field sells anybody used this research and uh and apply it to the to the courses I was taking on and into the internships as a school based counselor and and now out into ah as you said with the kids with autism with holocaust survivors with people in business and and really everyone else I think that's great so it's awesome because it's something that is legitimate is something that anybody could you know if they have the wherewithal to do so they could do this obviously at the core of it is music is drumming you know, the passion there you have to have that but it seems like it's something that is definitely a viable option to get involved with if you're trying to find ways to to support your goals as a musician and to use music as a career I think that's great and I guess you know, the last thing that I really wanted to get from you and and ask you is you know what? Obviously you talked about a lot of things that are benefits of doing this but you know, what is it what do you find relationship wise with the people that do these thes these drums circles with you like how do you find that it changes them you know, in front of you like it has to be just like, straight up positivity, period it's I mean, such a positive experience I know this being a drummer but you know, is this something that people should just get involved with doing just for leisure, even tio to relieve stress? And I'll say this real quick part of what we talked about in this class was having a have the balance between work and in your life and finding things that maybe you know, that you can do to relieve stress or to decompress, I mean, how does this affect people literally? And is this something that you would recommend for people to do even just not even as a career path but like just to do? Absolutely and even if you're even if your work is drifting uh kind of coming at it from from a in intention of to relax to unwanted and to celebrate even I think that's important because I'm a working drummer too, and sometimes uh I can get sick of the drums when it always feels like work, right? Absolutely er that's whether that's the teaching of the practicing or just the packing up and setting up of my actual drums right uh but, uh, you know, when I first started finding the research and drum circle communities that's what I did, I went out and I went to some drum circles and you know it the quality of the drum circle, it really comes down to the quality of the people in the drum circle, so I've been to drum circles where people, you know, the evil comes out and people are greedy and they're playing for themselves and you can tell they're not really listening to the group, they're not funding their best way to contribute to one song and for that, you know, that is not relaxing that's probably more stressful than anything because it just sounds like a bunch of noise and a room full of competing drummers, right? But when the intention eyes right, magic happens so uh and I see it with with with little kids, I just put out a video today on youtube drumming with a bunch of three, four and five year olds in preschool and uh kids get get it because there's a reason we call clan music it's the play right kids know howto play so in the video you can see these kids are just going at it on and as we get older we start judging ourselves right? So when I start doing this work with adults it takes a little bit more for them tio really loosen up because they're judging they're saying am I doing this right? Do I look stupid? Does this sound awful all these different types of things? My job in that type of situation is that helped these adults returned back tio when they were kids when they could just play yeah right and usually when I go into businesses are doing with middle aged adults they usually takes longest for uh for them to really loosen up but I also do it with sea dinners like you've said and I think at that point with the seniors uh I think at that point they uh they let they let go a little bit more they don't care as much I think they're at that point uh and which is great because like you said a couple weeks ago, I did it with a room full of almost forty holocaust survivors all in their eighties and nine and I didn't know exactly what they were getting into it was purposeful plea not announced that they would be drumming that morning when I arrived they said, hey look, this speaker is here and little did they know that I came with about fifty drums and percussion instruments to putting their hands on get them rocking up and within seconds you see uh you know, you see, those are the defense's kind of melts away right and there's some people and even kids especially with teens s I do it with a bunch of teens to they'll be in a circle and will start like this right? Because they're too cool for school and they don't want and and just have fun but when you start drumming and you do it in a group that's really energy and that's a collective energy that builds and you can start seeing those people who are up on a skeptical overtime it melts away because this really, really which is us at our heart we have a heartbeat right on when we drum it's one of the few activities that actually accesses our entire brain, which is amazing and beneficial for all kinds of reasons. But you know, as I'm sure you've seen when uh when you do that bucket drum circle at south by southwest uh their collective energy that you cannot deny I and it feels good it feels great and uh when I do this with people, they cannot help but get sucked into it and uh and I make sure of it to that especially with kids that were making eye contact with each other and we're sharing smiles with one another because the drum is just the tool and the real work the heart of it is in the connection the human interaction between all of us uh, yeah it's it's I have a saying that I trust in thee drunk because it's never let me down that's awesome. Well, you know what? What you just said it's so symbolic to this hole class that we just did you know it be selfless, join in with your community, help each other communicate build that that relationship so we all move forward together and it's so symbolic with what you just described it it's it's a perfect way it's perfect metaphor and its literal too because it's involving music and, you know, it's it's very cool. So I think it's great. I'm glad that that, um I'm glad that you're doing this because I think it will inspire a lot of people and I think that more people need to hear about it. So if people wanted to find out more about you, would they just go to your website? Where did they go? Yes, so the website is beat well, dot or ge and you know, facebook and twitter slash beat well be more b m o r e on if you wanna email be beaten more beat will be more at gmail dot com but I have a bunch of people and as each month goes by since I've been on this path more and more people every month are contacted me saying hey, I see you're doing this type of work in the world and you know I'm a drummer too but I could give lessons and whatnot but I'm interested in what you're doing but I'm really not sure the right way in and you know what? I wasn't sure either a couple years ago but I uh with the power of the internet and what you're doing here is a testament to that you can connect with anyone in the world almost immediately and that's exactly what I did and I'm more than help uh more than happy to help anyone else along that's awesome and very, very cool well do thank you for your time today I think it's great what you're doing and I'm glad that we can share this with a lot of other people so just uh keep doing it and then I'll be in touch anyway to say what's up and you know just thanks again man and we'll definitely talk soon I'm back in town for sure elson thanks brother I appreciate the opportunity man anytime anytime and cool keep it out great stuff peace god