My name is Steve Gelman, owner of Little Thunder Drum Company, a place where I fulfill my love for making musical instruments.

I started making hand drums from the recognition that these instruments have a very profound effect on human beings causing them to put there attention into the rhythm, automatically quieting their minds and opening their hearts! What lead me to this recognition? In 1973, I became a member of Arica Institute, an international school of consciousness founded in 1969 by Oscar Ichazo, in Arica, Chile.

During the 70’s, about 500,000 people from all over the world; thousands in Los Angeles alone, including myself, participated in a training called the “40 day intensive”. With our Master Oscar’s incredible leadership, we created a school of consciousness!

One of the trainings done in the school is called “The Nine Ways of Zhikr”, a Sufi meditation. In this meditation, we use the voice, mantramically, together with different movements for each of nine different ways of performing the Zhikr. We also play musical instruments to lead the meditation; Ashiko hand drums and Djun-djun are used, as well as guitar or lute, flute, cymbals and claves.

As I learned the Zhikr and subsequently, the guitar and clave parts and played in a Zhikr band in Los Angeles, I was always attracted to the drums.

In 1983, a group of Aricans led by John Anderson, then a student of the Nigerian drum master Babatunde Olatunji, was taken through the process of making six Ashiko hand drums. Unfortunately, the wood we chose to use was Sugar Pine, which is not dense enough for making drums. When we stretched the wet hide on the drums and it dried, the drum bodies shattered.
Later that year, I moved my family to Eugene, Oregon where, among other things, I found Oregon grown Douglas fir, which I still use to make my drums today. Douglas fir has the quality of being light in weight and as strong as oak. It has one of the longest structural cells of any wood; measuring on average ¾ of an inch, which, I believe, makes it a good medium for transferring sound waves, hence, perfect for making drums.

It has been 23 years since I made my first drum and my love for the process has only increased. I have had the great opportunity of participating in a drum workshop taught by Master Babatunde Olatunji, who gave me the understanding that the drum is for making spirit within us, and rituals for us to practice together. Because of this understanding, instead of founding my business on making a profit, I have devoted my business to the pure love of making and playing these instruments. The excitement for making spirit and for making drums, is felt by my students and my customers, and brings me great joy! Each drum is made with great care, one at a time, and is not done until I would be happy to own it myself.

Currently, I am making Ashiko hand drums of all sizes, Djun-Djuns and Sangbas. I will tune your drum for free and give free tuning lessons. Services include; drum re-heading, re-stringing, repair and custom rings of any size for attaching the drumhead. Please feel free to contact me about making, playing, tuning and caring for your drum, or drop in just to say hi!

For more information about Arica Institute Inc., please follow this link: http://www.arica.org

Truth, Love and Light,