Chris O'Connor Photo: Andi Crown Photography
Could the tapping, beating and bashing of drums be your path towards better mental health?
Chris O'Connor drums with everyone from the Phoenix Foundation and Don McGlashan to the Finn brothers but he's also a music therapist passionate about the role of rhythm.
O'Connor spoke to Culture 101's Perlina Lau about his experiences, how drumming has influenced his mental health and whether it would ever be compulsory in New Zealand schools.
"I started practicing drumming when I was a kid and so I was given exercises to do," he says.
The physicality of it attracted him, working on coordination between the different limbs.
"I've always conceived those to be kind of like kinetic riddles, in a way.
"There's a sonic aspect of course which is the sound you're making but it's mediating through touching, touching the drum and the physicality of playing as well. The challenge of new rhythms and things is often a physical part of it.
"But that for me was also a real strong source of pleasure in doing it for myself, meeting those challenges."
O'Connor says he's since learned about neuroplasticity and how neurological pathways can be forged through new physical challenges.
"It's really rewarding to solve them."
Drumming has been shown to improve self-esteem, interpersonal trust and reduce anxiety and depression. Studies have also demonstrated drumming improves motor skills and the social health of kids with behavioural and emotional challenges.
"For me the listening has been a crucial doorway into tapping the well-being aspects of drumming and playing.
"What I noticed when I was very young and wanted to listen to music is that I would keep being distracted from the music."
The art of listening is key to any musical skills, and can help increase focus.
"Music starts to open up when you can just attend to the sounds that you're hearing without any interruptions."
When he was younger, O'Connor says the drum was also an emotionally useful tool.
"It was a solace. I could go to the drum kit and sort of shed my concerns."
A new study this year divided 36 teenagers with varieties of autism into two groups.
One group received drumming lessons for two months while the other group did not. Following the two months, those who played the drums showed a marked decrease in hyperactivity and inattention.
Photo: 123rf
Drumming in particular has an immediacy compared to some instruments like the violin that requires lengthy training, O'Connor says.
"The point is when you hit the drum you get the beautiful sound of that drum whatever level that you're at.
"There's less barriers to enjoying the sound that you're making."
The recent research was organised by the Clem Burke project.
Burke, who drummed for American rock band Blondie, says drumming should be incorporated into the school curriculum. He believes it could be a game-changer for children with autism.
O'Connor says when it comes to implementing something like that in New Zealand schools, there's still an idea that music isn't serious somehow.
"There's this idea that music and creative things aren't real, or aren't serious, or aren't important."
But no matter who you are, O'Connor says you can still get something out of music.
"There's something about music that responds well and gives you sort of the big thumb's up, 'yes, keep doing that', you know, and the music sort of responds.
"But what that is, I think, is really deeply personal, the sort of musical riches that reveal themselves when you're listening and able to sustain that.
"And that's a beautiful part of the well-being journey with drumming is discovering what those riches are for you.
"No one can take that away, there's your little beautiful treasures that you discover in music."
