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Tidal Beats is a community drumming organisation based in Blackpool, UK. The work we do is based on our experiences of the beneficial aspects of group drumming; scientific research to support this can be found here.
Tidal Beats want to spread the pleasure of drumming to everybody we can, and do this in a number of ways:
Running a Community Drum
Circle
Between 2023 and
2025 we ran free fortnightly open-access drumming sessions in Blackpool's Stanley
Park, doing a mixture of free playing
and teaching some specific patterns and rhythms. Most of the people who
joined in found us by just being in the park by chance, though there were
a few who came along specifically. Hundreds (if not thousands) of people
participated and we had plenty of very positive feedback.
Both these sessions and our many previous ones bore this invitation:
"Everybody's welcome, from experienced players to absolute beginners - we believe that if you have a heartbeat, you have a sense of rhythm!"
Please click the image on the left to see photos of the drum circle.
We have worked in many schools, youth clubs and community centres, and also at a variety of events - from small community celebrations to large corporate functions - for both educational purposes and, of course, purely for entertainment!
Drumming in a group helps people to learn a variety of skills, such as teamwork, the ability to compromise, co-operation and consideration for others, as well as body skills like co-ordination, self-discipline and listening. Group drumming also increases self-confidence and generates a great feeling of achievement - creating something bigger than the sum of its parts can be very empowering.
Please click the image on the left to see photos of African drumming sessions.
If you would like to know how we might be able to work with your group, please contact us (see below for details). Our group leaders are community arts workers, each with over thirty years' experience.
In late September, in the four years from 2009 - 2012, we booked Eskdale Youth Hostel in the Western Lake District, Cumbria, and took over their premises for a weekend of djembe drumming and percussion sessions (both taught and improvised), music evenings with world groove DJ John Tree and live percussion, plenty of social time and relaxation - and we even tried to teach some circus skills!
In September 2015, September 2017 and November 2018, thanks to support from The Big Lottery Fund, we ran more Drum Bash Weekenders. In September 2020 we were unfortunately prevented from holding another drum bash weekender at Eskdale by the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Please click the image on the left to see photos of the drum bash weekend through the years, or click the leaflet image to see a full-size version.
To hear rough recordings of some of the rhythms we have played, click here.
During the summer of 2013 we ran a series of events throughout the Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde area, creating recycled ramshackle rhythms using 'Everything & the Kitchen Sink', our interactive junk percussion music sculpture. We were lucky enough to have been financially supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, meaning that we could make the events free for everybody, and over the eleven dates approximately 1200 people joined in with us.
For photographs, our write-up,
comments people made and an edited version of the Preston FM radio show that featured the tour,
please click the image on the left.
There's also a video of
'Everything & the Kitchen Sink' being played improvisationally on the
front lawn of Eskdale Youth Hostel during one of our Drum Bash Weekenders.