MEDITERRANEAN FRAME DRUMS

– ONLINE AND LIVE LESSONS –

MEDITERRANEAN FRAME DRUMS

– ONLINE AND LIVE LESSONS –

A journey into the rhythms and traditions
of the Mediterranean with Simone Campa

For over fifteen years Simone Campa, artistic director and founder of La Paranza del Geco and of the Slow Food Orchestra Terra Madre, internationally recognized multi-instrumental musician and sound therapist, has decided to make available his experience, the courses held and the meetings made in all Simona Campa has been the artistic director and founder of La Paranza del Geco and of the Slow Food Orchestra Terra Madre, internationally recognized multi-instrumental musician and sound therapist for over fifteen years. He now offers all the knowledge he has gained working with researchers, artists and anthropologists that share his passion for the Frame Drums of Southern Italy and the Mediterranean, through online or in person lessons ( in compliance with current regulations and in complete safety).

Techniques and styles

Simone Campa teaches different techniques and styles, both traditional and contemporary, which involve the use of different drums, including:

Salento tambourine (pizzica pizzica from the province of Lecce and Lower Murgia, taranta from Salento)
Calabrian tambourine (tarantella from Reggina, Aspromontana area)
Sicilian tambourine (tarantelle – Sicilian ballettu, waltz)
Neapolitan tammorra (tammurriata – dance on the drum of the Vesuvian area)
Mediterranean frame drums (Turkish, Kurdish and Iranian / Persian daf – Sufi and popular rhythms, Maghrebi bendir – Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Egyptian riq and doff rhythms)
modern tambourine (accompaniment techniques for rumba, funky, folksinger)

THE FRAME DRUMS

The origin of the frame drums has been lost in the mist of time: there are iconographic materials that are over 6000 years old that show men and women who play this instrument, mainly in the context of rituals or religious ceremonies. Science now shows that the constant rhythm of the drum creates changes in the central nervous system, facilitating the production of Alpha and Theta brainwaves, as opposed to Beta that characteristizes what we call ordinary consciousness.

Our ancestors chose the tambourine not only for it’s sound but also for it’s unconscious symbolism. The circle is a perfect geometric figure and represents the perennial cycle of life; it is impossible to distinguish a beginning or end. Everything follows the cycle and is present within it, in every moment, without a pause. The circular shape universally symbolises perfection, the solar and lunar cycles and, combined with the tambourine’s pulsing rhythm, it also represents the natural movement through the seasons, life, agriculture and all the other cycles that occur every year along hand the transcendent and spiritual.

The monotonous rhythm of the drum helps us to enter an altered state of consciousness and helps us to free our intuitive body expressions. Which in essence is a fundamental part of Mediterranean Sound Healing which is a combination of healing rhythms and rituals related to mystical and iatromusical ceremonies (healing rites using music and trace), archaic vibrations of ancient instruments and traditional songs in different languages and dialects. Through different dance formations such as in a circle, line, as a solo, in pairs we have the opportunity to reconnect with natural movements that are linked with the cycle of life. Movement is experienced as an incessant transformation-transition into forms- a balance between fulfilment and emptiness, tension and relaxation and equilibrium and imbalance.

THE FRAME DRUMS

The origin of the frame drums has been lost in the mist of time: there are iconographic materials that are over 6000 years old that show men and women who play this instrument, mainly in the context of rituals or religious ceremonies. Science now shows that the constant rhythm of the drum creates changes in the central nervous system, facilitating the production of Alpha and Theta brainwaves, as opposed to Beta that characteristizes what we call ordinary consciousness.

Our ancestors chose the tambourine not only for it’s sound but also for it’s unconscious symbolism. The circle is a perfect geometric figure and represents the perennial cycle of life; it is impossible to distinguish a beginning or end. Everything follows the cycle and is present within it, in every moment, without a pause. The circular shape universally symbolises perfection, the solar and lunar cycles and, combined with the tambourine’s pulsing rhythm, it also represents the natural movement through the seasons, life, agriculture and all the other cycles that occur every year along hand the transcendent and spiritual.

The monotonous rhythm of the drum helps us to enter an altered state of consciousness and helps us to free our intuitive body expressions. Which in essence is a fundamental part of Mediterranean Sound Healing which is a combination of healing rhythms and rituals related to mystical and iatromusical ceremonies (healing rites using music and trace), archaic vibrations of ancient instruments and traditional songs in different languages and dialects. Through different dance formations such as in a circle, line, as a solo, in pairs we have the opportunity to reconnect with natural movements that are linked with the cycle of life. Movement is experienced as an incessant transformation-transition into forms- a balance between fulfilment and emptiness, tension and relaxation and equilibrium and imbalance.

THE COURSE

During the course you will learn the basic techniques of playing the playing the drum, as well as the finest techniques from the Mediterranean culture. This will allow you to generate obsessive rhythms of trans-contemplative dance, a repetitive pulse that creates a hypnotic cycle that leads to a modified state of consciousness and expansion of perception.

Learning these percussive instruments will go beyond the body’s consciousness overcoming it’s own fatigue and over coming the imposing limits of the mind.

Some of the Southern Italian (Campania, Sicily, Salient, Puglia, Calabria) drums will be presented in the course. Many of their traditions, that include sacred-rituals and ecstatic trance festivals which use the Tamburellotympanon, originate from the rites of Dionysus in Crete, Greece and Magna Graecia.

You can also study:

The Daf, a sacred of the Anatolian goddess Cybele (Cybele), which is linked to the Sufi ceremonies of Kurdistan, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Egypt.

The Bendir, a drum of the Maghreb and North African traditions, which is prominently made up of polyrhythms and ternary rhythms like that of the “tarantellas” of the southern Italy and also accompanies Berber (Amazigh) rituals.

During this course we will also use various archaic and natural instruments such as shells, stones, seeds woods, rattles, clay percussion and castanets.

THE COURSE

During the course you will learn the basic techniques of playing the playing the drum, as well as the finest techniques from the Mediterranean culture. This will allow you to generate obsessive rhythms of trans-contemplative dance, a repetitive pulse that creates a hypnotic cycle that leads to a modified state of consciousness and expansion of perception.

Learning these percussive instruments will go beyond the body’s consciousness overcoming it’s own fatigue and over coming the imposing limits of the mind.

Some of the Southern Italian (Campania, Sicily, Salient, Puglia, Calabria) drums will be presented in the course. Many of their traditions, that include sacred-rituals and ecstatic trance festivals which use the Tamburellotympanon, originate from the rites of Dionysus in Crete, Greece and Magna Graecia.

You can also study:

The Daf, a sacred of the Anatolian goddess Cybele (Cybele), which is linked to the Sufi ceremonies of Kurdistan, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Egypt.

The Bendir, a drum of the Maghreb and North African traditions, which is prominently made up of polyrhythms and ternary rhythms like that of the “tarantellas” of the southern Italy and also accompanies Berber (Amazigh) rituals.

During this course we will also use various archaic and natural instruments such as shells, stones, seeds woods, rattles, clay percussion and castanets.

You can play? Can’t you play? It does not matter.
What matters to have results in this field, as in many others, is desire.

Frame drum lessons can take place online or face to face, in compliance with current regulations.
A course of at least 5 lessons is recommended.

You can play? Can’t you play? It does not matter.
What matters to have results in this field, as in many others, is desire.

Frame drum lessons can take place online or face to face, in compliance with current regulations.
A course of at least 5 lessons is recommended.

ONLINE

Choose the platform you prefer

skype_google_meet_lezioni_online-1-100x50-2

LESSON DURATION: 50 minutes
COST: € 25
5 LESSONS: 115 € *

IN PERSON

Carried out at:
Sonosphera – Music and Sound Therapy Atelier
Corso San Maurizio 71, Turin (Italy)

LESSON DURATION: 1 hour
COST: € 30
5 LESSONS: 140 € *

ONLINE

Choose the platform you prefer

skype_google_meet_lezioni_online-1-100x50

LESSON DURATION: 50 minutes
COST: € 255
LESSONS: 115 €*

IN PERSON

Carried out at:
Sonosphera – Music and Sound Therapy Atelier 
Corso San Maurizio 71, Torino

LESSON DURATION: 1 hour
COST: € 30
5 LESSONS: 140 €*

The first lesson has a total duration of 65 ‘which includes a preliminary part (15’) dedicated to defining the specific needs of the student.

Availability on weekdays (Monday to Friday) and ample time flexibility (from 9.00 to 22.00).

Possibly also on weekends, if agreed in advance.

TERMS OF PAYMENT

Lessons are payable via Satispay, PayPal or Bank Transfer.

* The offer of 5 lessons is to be paid in a lump sum at the beginning of the course.

The first lesson has a total duration of 65 ‘which includes a preliminary part (15’) dedicated to defining the specific needs of the student.

Availability on weekdays (Monday to Friday) and ample time flexibility (from 9.00 to 22.00).

Possibly also on weekends, if agreed in advance.

TERMS OF PAYMENT

Lessons are payable via Satispay, PayPal or Bank Transfer.

* The offer of 5 lessons is to be paid in a lump sum at the beginning of the course.

  • “Simone Campa is a multifaceted artist. A teacher and a careful researcher. The Italian and non-Italian tradition owes him a lot, also for his ability to bring together distant but ancestrally united worlds. ”

    EMANUELE B. Cantautore | Bruxelles
  • “ An eclectic and creative artist, active in the fields of music, theater, soundtracks and sound healing. ”

    ZORIA S. Appassionata di musica tradizionale | Torino
  • “ Excellent tambourine teacher and very effective even online at the time of quarantine! In addition to technical lessons (for a beginner like me) it is also proving to be a journey into the history and culture of frame drums. ”

    SANTI S. Allievo di tamburi a cornice | Sicilia

Don’t have a drum?

If you don’t have a Neapolitan tambourine or tammorra, you can order them from artisans and builders from Salento, Calabria and the Vesuvian area.

Don’t have a drum?

If you don’t have a Neapolitan tambourine or tammorra, you can order them from artisans and builders from Salento, Calabria and the Vesuvian area.

SIMONE CAMPA

Simone Campa, a cosmopolitan musician from Turin with proud Apulian roots, a sound therapist who has been involved for years in researching the rituals and social function of music throughout the Mediterranean area. Expert and passionate about musical projects focused on intercultural dialogue: in addition to the Slow Food Terra Madre Orchestra, he is the founder of the La Paranza del GecoArtistic Company, one of the longest-running traditional music experiences in Italy – over twenty years of activity. With the Paranza del Geco he has performed in over 1000 performances of music, dance and Commedia dell’Arte in 30 countries and with which he brought the rhythms of Southern Italy even in Senegal, thanks to the Afrotaranta project developed with the International Cooperation of the Piedmont Region.

For the European Commission and the Erasmus + international project he was speaker at conferences on the theme “Performing Arts and Traditional Music as tools of intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding – Performing Arts and Traditional Music as a tool for intercultural dialogue” at the European Parliament in Brussels in January 2017.

He has held seminars and masterclasses of Mediterranean frame drums and music of Italian traditions at the MIM Museum of Music Instruments in Brussels (Belgium), the EGE Universitesi of Izmir (Turkey), the G.F. Ghedini of Cuneo, the APM – Foundation for the High School of Music Improvement of Saluzzo (Cuneo), at the BA Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, for Arts Council England, for the Faculty of Arts of the University of Krakow (POLAND), the Izmir Akdeniz Akademisi – Accademia del Mediterraneo and Ege Üniversitesi / Ege University (Izmir TURKEY), the USI University of Italian Switzerland.

Always passionate about the creative relationship between sound and word, storytelling and music, he oversaw the soundtracks and incidental music of John Turturro‘s Italian Folk Tales theatrical performances (produced by Teatro Stabile Torino, 2010); Leonce und Lena by G. Buchner, directed by Cesare Lievi (production Fondazione Teatro Piemonte Europa, 2016); the adaptation of Romain Gary’s novel La Vita Davanti a Sè edited and interpreted by Silvio Orlando for Materadio 2018 – the party of Radio Tre Rai / Il Cardellino srl / Teatro Carignano in Turin; de Lo Stesso Mare with Alessio Boni, Maria Amelia Monti and the playwright Edoardo Erba (production Nido Di Ragno 2017).