Drums beat in discord as participants sit in a circle, following the leader who helps them to find health and understanding. No, this is not some primal ceremony of a time long ago or a faraway place, it is a modern drum circle. People of every age, denomination, ethnicity and race are all being healed in some way, by a rhythmic beating that has no written music sheets, and where the only experience needed is life experience.

A drum circle is a group of people concentrated on communication and connection using music. Through this music they are connected, and even healed.



Drum circles are a pure form of communication, “a universal language...” says Alyssa Janney, MBA, of Santa Clarita, a manager at Remo’s Health Rhythms Division.

The Remo Drum Company, located in the Valencia Industrial Park, provides a program called “Health Rhythms,” a drum circle facilitator training course. Unlike recreational drum circles, Remo’s Health Rhythms programs are facilitated. The facilitators become leaders to the participants, guiding them through exercises, which allows the “students” to experience the full benefits of drumming.

The program was founded in 2001 by neurologist Barry Bittman, M.D., and Christine K. Stevens, MSW, a board certified music therapist, in cooperation with Remo, Inc. The company began the program in an effort to help people with their products and it became successful.

Remo.com cites seven independent studies validating claims that drum circles boost social development and immune system health. In one of Dr. Bittman’s studies, results determined that participation in drum circles boosted the natural level of “killer cells,” those that hunt cancer and viruses.

The Remo Company advocates the use of drum circles for health, team building, learning assistance, and as a supplementary therapy to existing treatment. While Remo itself does not run the drum circles, the company provides a facilitator finder on the website, which helps link interested parties with a facilitator.

Health Rhythms currently has certified 1,300 people in 18 countries, and its efforts have helped thousands more.

After one health rhythms event, a woman, with her daughter and her mother, approached the facilitator with tears in her eyes. The woman confessed that her elderly mother was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s, which crippled her mental processes. During the event, the grandmother had looked at her grandchild and for the first time called her by name. She went on to tell the facilitator that though the grandmother might never remember the event, her daughter would never forget it.

As they like to say at Remo, they are “changing the world, one drum beat at a time.”

Drum circles are an amazing and interactive place to meet new people and enjoy oneself. If interested in learning more or finding a facilitator visit www.remo.com/health.