Drum Magic Bridges Ages and Abilities at Brandon Family YMCA (VIDEO)

Jana Broder has been banging the drum slowly — and quickly, and loudly, and softly and passionately — for more than a decade now, and for eight years as the owner and drum-circle facilitator for Drum Magic.

Specializing in corporate, festival and community drumming, Broder was center-stage in a circle of campers at the Brandon Family YMCA on Aug. 3, doing what she does best, building team spirit.

There, as she has done numerous times for scores of children and adults at youth group gatherings, corporate training and team-building sessions, school and scouting events and summer camps, Broder demonstrated the beat and watched in never-ceasing amazement at the ease with which she captured her audience’s attention — and received in return their complementary, hands-on mimicry. 

“When I moved to Florida [in 2001], nobody here was doing this,” Broder said in an interview, after several sessions with campers, including a group of kids with physical and developmental disabilities.

She does it, she added, “because it’s so healing, because it’s so rejuvenating, and because anybody can do it, no matter the age, the race, the culture, the disability. Every single person can do this."

Border is a past, and now honorary board member, for the YMCA.

According to Broder, as noted in promotional materials for her Drum Magic business, drumming builds self-esteem, promotes team play, prevents bullying through unity, allows for creative expression and serves as a great release for energy.

Need more reasons to delve further?

“Drumming brings back sharpness to senior citizens and to Alzheimer’s patients,” Broder said. “It brings happiness to grieving and bereaved adults and kids. It brings joy to people battling diseases, like cancer. It helps everybody.”

The “help” is especially welcome in troubling times, she added.

“There’s very few times in life that people will say, ‘Here this is, hit this as hard as you want,’ “ Broder said. "People don’t know how relieving this is, how much it reduces stress [to hit a drum]. Adults will sit down and let it all out.”

Broder is quick to answer, “What are the five things you need to know about drumming."

Her answer: “It’s easy, it’s fun, it’s good for you, it helps you sleep [later] and it relieves stress."

As for Broder, she said she discovered drumming when she “ran away from home," in 1998, from Atlanta to California.

She witnessed drumming and said, “I’m going to do that."

And so she did — and continues to do so, by her accounts, 12 to 15 times a week and with approximately 2,500 people a week.

Hers is a business that appears to be recession-proof, and she has her reasons for believing that is so.

“I’m a whole lot cheaper than the big, expensive speaker,” Broder said. “I’m still a bargain and everybody gets to join in.”

She carries with her, from engagement to event, her own collection of drums for people of all ages and abilities to use.

“It’s so unusual and unique,” Broder said about her still-thriving business. “And everybody can drum together."