"Lessons in Rhythm and Lessons in Life" is an exploration of how we are all linked together with the things that we hear in nature and in our daily lives.  It is okay to hear, to smell, to taste, to feel, and to sense all that is around us.  Native Americans gather together and play drums in order to link up with the spirits in nature.  Numerous other cultures including "African-American" cultures have used drums and rhythms to express their spirituality.  We all have the ability to link up with, and to identify the sounds and the rhythms that surround us every day.  The "city sounds" of the morning alarm clock, the whistling tea pot, the coffee maker timer, the microwave timer, the doorbell, the school bus horn, the windshield wiper, and the automobile engine.  The "out in the country sounds" of the crunching of snow under your feet, the swishing of the water behind the boat, the ocean tides, the airplane flying overhead, the corn picker, the combine, the tractor, the hay bailer, the horses, the cows, the pigs, the sheep, the goats, the bullfrogs, the squirrels, and the birds.  The "school sounds" of people walking and talking in the hallways, the class bell, the bathroom echo, the football game, the basketball game, the soccer game, the baseball game, the ipod, the cellular phone, and the all too familiar sound of the computer connecting to the internet.  As we begin to think of all of the sounds that influence and surround us every day, you begin to realize that there are hundreds of the, and that most of them are made up of rhythms.  I like to think of them as the "wave beat of life".  In fact it is usually these rhythms" that we hear, that enable us to identify with sounds around us.  Our day to day lives are filled with rhythms that make us feel safe, rhythms that wake us up, rhythms that put us to sleep, rhythms that make us laugh, and rhythms that make us cry.  Stars, planets, moons, suns and asteroids surround the earth.  Outer space is filled with millions of solar systems and galaxies.  Did you know that these heavenly bodies make sounds and rhythms?  Put all of these rhythms together and you have a sort of "wave beat of the universe".  I suspect that somewhere out there in outer space, there are other life forms.  On a clear night that space being is out there beating on a space drum, shaking a cosmic space shaker, blowing a space horn, and he or she is looking up at the night sky and wondering if there is anyone else out there.  Let us endeavor to explore that "wave beat of our daily lives".  It will be surprising, it will be interesting, it will be exciting, it will be informative, it will be entertaining and above all else, it will be a whole lot of fun.

The Kansas City Streetband Free Mini Concert