Marla Leigh – The Joy of Drumming

Discover the Roots of Frame Drumming & Learn the Freehand Style for Enhanced Learning & Brain Health

This opening stage of your journey will begin with creating a holistic relationship with rhythm — easeful, expressive, and deeply personal. You’ll set intentions for what you hope to experience, supported by a gentle release ritual that helps clear your old beliefs about what it means to be musical.

Marla will share the ancient lineage of frame drumming, historically associated with women’s spiritual traditions and carried forward by players of all genders. She’ll also guide you into a place of reflection and the possibility that rhythm can serve as both healer and creative ally.

You’ll explore her Off Paper (OP) method, where rhythms are absorbed through embodied practice rather than read directly from the notations

— an intuitive approach that supports healthy brain function.

Additionally, you’ll investigate the freehand style, and experience how grounding rhythms can help awaken your root chakra.

Marla will also introduce her neuroscience-inspired “takaBDE” exercises — simple and engaging drumming practices that help the brain integrate rhythm through coordination and presence.

In this session, you’ll:

• Experiment with neuroscience-inspired bilateral drumming exercises, designed to support coordination and brain health
• Practice Marla’s OP method for a whole-body approach to learning music
• Discover the freehand frame drum playing style using fundamental techniques and notation
• Explore traditional and non-traditional rhythms focused on grounding and supporting the root chakra

Open the Solar Plexus & Enhance Coordination With Lap Style Drumming

In this next stage of your journey, you’ll experience flow and fun as you explore lap style drumming — a playing style where the drum rests on your lap and its resonance is directed toward your heart center.

Marla will demonstrate a series of traditional and non-traditional rhythms that help activate and open the solar plexus and heart chakras, inviting confidence, warmth, and emotional ease.

She’ll also introduce simple footbell patterns (a percussion instrument designed to be worn on the foot) that layer beautifully with what you’re playing. This is your entry into the world of polyrhythm — two or more rhythms happening at the same time — a practice known for enhancing coordination, focus, and the overall stability of your musical foundation.

In this session, you’ll:

• Learn about fundamental playing techniques and notations for the lap frame drum playing style
• Experience an integrative playing style that helps support coordination, focus, and cognitive flexibility
• Play traditional and non-traditional rhythms focused on opening the solar plexus and heart chakras
• Discover how to add simple footbell patterns to the rhythms, introducing the musical concept of polyrhythm

Explore the Ancient Upright Style Along With Movement & Voice for Expanded Awareness and Whole-Body Integration

One of the first recorded styles of frame drum playing involved standing while holding the drum upright. Marla will introduce foundational techniques unique to this posture, along with traditional and original rhythms to help open the throat, third eye, and crown chakras.

You’ll also get a glimpse into ancient imagery from Layne Redmond’s book When the Drummers Were Women, deepening your connection to the unique lineage behind this form.

Further immersing yourself in music, you’ll engage in gentle drumming and movement practices inspired by Marla’s mentor Glen Velez’s “Handdance Method” that blends together drumming, vocalization, and stepping patterns.

This approach weaves rhythm, movement, and voice into a single practice, offering a playful way to experience music as a full-body awakening.

In this session, you’ll:

• Explore the upright (standing) style — the earliest documented style of frame drumming
• Experience how combining rhythm, movement, and voice supports whole-body, integrative practice
• Discover original and traditional rhythms focused on opening the throat, third eye, and crown chakras
• Practice simple movement and stepping patterns inspired by Glen Velez’s “Handdance Method” to support mind-body coordination

Experience Sweet Sonic Alchemy Through Rhythmic Entrainment & Healing Frequencies

Rhythm and frequency interact to support healing, presence, and inner coherence as Marla introduces you to rhythms from her original composition Grounding, played on drums tuned to 432 Hz — a frequency beloved in sound healing for its calming, heart-centered quality.

As you listen, play, and feel the vibration, you’ll begin to sense how sound moves through the body in a tangible, relaxing way.

You’ll be guided through the principles of rhythmic entrainment — discovering how steady tempo and repetition can gently organize the nervous system, while supporting focus and embodied awareness. The idea is to feel first, listen deeply, and let the rhythms resonate within you.

In this session, you’ll:

• Discover the power of sound frequencies and how different tuning systems shape your listening experience
• Study rhythms from Marla’s composition Grounding, tuned to 432 Hz — often called the “Love Frequency”
• Explore how steady rhythm and repetition — known as rhythmic entrainment — support focus, regulation, and embodied awareness
• Experience how sound and rhythm can naturally organize your nervous system, helping you shift out of stress and into a more regulated, centered state

Discover the Medicine of Moroccan Trance Rhythms for Focus, Joy & Nervous System Renewal

This is your chance to immerse yourself in the hypnotic world of Moroccan trance rhythms. These uplifting, cyclical patterns have been played for generations as tools for healing, celebration, and expanded awareness.

Marla will introduce their cultural and historical roots, offering context that deepens your connection to the music and its lineage. As you learn about these traditional rhythms, you’ll feel how sustained repetition begins to shift your inner state.

Moroccan trance drumming is often played for long stretches of time. Through this steady, continuous pulse, you’ll experience how rhythm can sharpen focus, quiet mental noise, and help regulate the nervous system.

These polyrhythmic patterns are energizing, joyful, and shareable — ideal for personal practice or bringing into community spaces.

In this session, you’ll:

• Explore the history and cultural context of Moroccan frame drumming
• Practice healing and uplifting traditional Moroccan trance rhythms
• Study techniques for maintaining focus by repeating rhythms for extended periods of time
• Experience how sustained rhythmic repetition — known as trance rhythms — supports brain health, nervous system regulation, and endurance
• Discover ways to teach and share these joyful rhythms with your community

Cultivating the Art & Power of Listening Through the Joy of Drumming & Singing

Here you’ll explore the deep, ancient connection between drum and voice, guiding you to expand your skills in listening, presence, and musical flow.

Marla will introduce simple vocal practices — including breath-supported singing, toning, her signature Sing Your Rhythm (SYR) practice, chanting the Ganesha chant, and a Middle Eastern-inspired niggun (wordless song) — all paired with drum rhythms played in your preferred style of lap, upright, or free-hand.

Through these exercises, listening, singing, and drumming are woven together to cultivate a fully integrated, joyful musical expression. The focus is on awareness, play, and the pleasure of creating with both body and voice, inviting a deeper connection to rhythm, resonance, and your own sonic expression.

In this session, you’ll:

• Explore simple vocal exercises and listening skills to open your voice portal
• Discover Sing Your Rhythm, Marla’s inspiring drum-voice practice that supports embodied learning
• Feel the ancient and powerful relationship between voice and drum through various practices
• Repeat a Middle Eastern-inspired niggun paired with a traditional rhythm
• Practice the Ganesha chant with accompanying meditative drumming rhythms

Awaken Your Creative Fire Through Improvisation, Solkattu, and Composing Your Own “Drum Alive” Song

In this supportive space, you’ll experiment with and enjoy the process of musical creation — while incorporating everything learned in the course.

Marla will guide you through improvisation, composing, and rhythm exploration, drawing inspiration from journaling, vocal toning, and Solkattu (a South Indian vocal rhythm practice).

You’ll also explore her signature Seed Rhythm technique, which provides a simple framework to discover the seed or root of a rhythm you want to develop into your own drum song.

In the process, you’ll have time to craft your own “Drum Alive” song — a unique drum song that reflects your growth, creativity, and playful expression throughout the course.

In this session, you’ll:

• Explore Solkattu, a powerful South Indian vocal practice that deepens your understanding of rhythm
• Discover your personal seed rhythm for composing
• Learn about techniques for using listening, singing, and journaling as sources for improvisation and composition
• Be guided through a step-by-step process to create your own “Drum Alive” song
• Have an opportunity to share your “Drum Alive” song with classmates — optional but highly encouraged!

Ditzah Drum Meditation
Video Training From Marla Leigh

Zarafat Rhythm Training Program
Music Downloads and Video Teaching From Marla Leigh