Little Drummer Boy

     If I could play one instrument other than harp, I would play drums. You get to control the rhythm and to hit on things and collect all sorts of cool gadgets like cow bells and kettle drums. Whatever orchestra or music group I play with, the percussion section always seems to have the most fun.

     So this Christmas I experimented with this secret desire to “percuss” even though I never touched a drum. One of the harp pieces I am practicing crosses a baroque and Flamenco flavor and instructs me to slap the sound board–the flat top of the harp’s hollow body–creating the sound of bongo. It is wild fun. As I worked out an arrangement of The Little Drummer Boy for this 2012 Christmas season, I tried inserting these slapping sounds. It must have been effective and authentic sounding because on the Sunday before Christmas, one of the audience members who had sat behind me asked me “How did you play the drums when there weren’t any on stage?” I confessed it was a thrilling moment. But I hadn’t yet brought my sounds before a real drummer.

     Between Christmas and New Years my mother and I took my large harp to a Christian Youth Retreat in Arkansas where in addition to meeting friends, listening to speakers and teaching some ourselves, I played in the rock worship band. Although I vigorously threw myself into the music, the harp is a quiet instrument. I am usually featured on softer songs, heard playing raining glissandos and improvising during ministry time. Then came the last morning meeting.

     The leaders began to pray for the band’s drummer. I started to run up and pray for him since I admire this drummer very much but then they called for his “brother musicians to come uphold him.” I’m not a brother. However, this left the keyboard and guitars unattended. In the musical stillness, I rushed around to the harp and began my newly arranged Little Drummer Boy. A burst of laughter from the back signaled my mother’s recognition and after a few measures, the rest of the audience clued in.  Well, almost all of the audience.

    Still deep in prayer, the leader lifted the microphone, and intoned, “Just listen to the beat of that music! How appropriate for a drummer.”

     “It’s The Little Drummer Boy,” his wife whispered to him, and then everyone was laughing.