Despite losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic, Stevenson Ranch resident Robin Blate found solace in drumming. She believes drumming has numerous health benefits, and she’s now trying to take it to facilities for seniors around the Santa Clarita Valley.
Blate’s goal is to start drum circles for seniors. She’s been approaching activities directors at senior homes around the valley and proposing to lead residents in collective experiences in which they play hand drums and percussion instruments together.
“I’m not a drummer, and I don’t want to teach drumming to seniors,” she said during a recent interview. “I want to introduce them to the joys of rhythm and wellness.”
Many seniors, Blate said, don’t have socialization to help them enjoy their advanced age. Drum circles would offer that. Additionally, she said that the activity helps those with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, depression and anxiety, and coordination and concentration issues.
Drumming, she added, is even good for those who are healthy and are looking to prevent cognitive decline.
According to Arianna Monge, who’s a board-certified music therapist, a facilitated drum circle is an amazing activity to engage people.
“Anyone who’s inspired enough to learn to facilitate rhythmic events can and do make a difference in their community,” Monge said during a recent telephone interview. She said that drum circles would be especially important to the well-being of seniors.
Blate, who’s a senior herself, feels music has always kept her young. She was born into a musical family. Her dad played piano, saxophone and clarinet. She played violin. Her sister sang. Her mom, she added, was their audience.
For most of her career, Blate has worked in office settings. Her first job at 19 years old was for an ad agency. One of the group’s biggest clients was McDonald’s, and she recalled meeting entrepreneur Ray Kroc, who was president of the company at the time.
Over the years, Blate worked sales jobs and office manager jobs, but the one position she spoke most highly of was the one she had with CBS Records in the 1970s. She was the executive assistant to the Los Angeles branch manager of sales and promotion. It was a dream job, she said.
One of the highlights during that time was when she got to meet Ringo Starr, the drummer for the Beatles.
“We were having a big party for Ringo because he had just signed for CBS after leaving the Beatles,” Blate said. “My boss came to me, and he said, ‘I want you to present Ringo with a signing gift at this party.’ It was a huge pillow that said ‘Ringo.’”
During the interview, Blate proudly showed off pictures of herself with Starr.
Blate eventually had to leave her job to move to San Jose with her husband, who’d been promoted in his line of work. She wished she stayed because she had one of those jobs that, she said, people would “give their right arm for.”
“You’d go to work and all you’d hear was music,” she added. “Michael Jackson used to come into the office — when he was cute and normal. And Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Chicago. There were parties, concerts. It was amazing.”
It was during the pandemic, after she lost an office job she was working in Valencia, that she got involved with the Remo Music Center in Valencia.
She met Elsie (Belli) Van Bruaene, the sister of Remo Belli, who was a professional drummer, inventor of the first successful synthetic drumheads and founder of Remo Inc., a company that produces a wide range of percussion instruments. Blate said that Van Bruaene, who’s 100 years old, was always enthusiastically telling stories about her brother and how famous bands all over the world used his drum head, including jazz drummer Buddy Rich and Starr, too.
“Elsie suggested I join the (Remo) drum circle on Zoom,” Blate said. “(I) didn’t have a drum, but had pots and pans and spoons … After a few years, I started assisting the facilitators on Saturdays for a kids’ drum circle. I call it drum therapy.”
Blate said she loves seeing the kids play. The average age at the Saturday drum circles is usually between 2 and 8 years old, though she’s seen kids 6 months old come with their parents. The number of participants at each circle also varies. Sometimes there can be five people in a circle, sometimes up to 40.
According to Blate, many of the kids who attend have never seen a drum set or other percussion instruments before, though she believes it’s not necessary to know how to play.
“They (the kids) start out really shy,” she said, “and then all of a sudden, they’re just banging away.”
According to Monge, who’s also the rhythm and wellness brand and program manager for Remo Inc., the Remo Music Center, which came to Valencia in 2018, has set out to share the activity of drumming with all people, not just musicians, with the belief that drumming can benefit their well-being.
“We do adult drum circles on the first and third Tuesday of every month,” Monge said. “And then, every Saturday, we have a family ‘kids drum circle,’ which is what Robin is involved in, and she’s helped out a lot with our kids circles over the last several years.”
According to Mike DeMenno, Remo Music Center manager, Blate is a dedicated volunteer, offering her kind, generous and gracious personality to Remo’s drum circles.
In a letter about her, he wrote that he’s worked closely with Blate to organize and facilitate the weekly interactive music events for families.
“Robin’s ability to connect with diverse groups of people, combined with her creativity and organizational skills, has made a significant impact of the success of the events,” DeMenno said. “Whether engaging children in musical activities or ensuring seamless coordination behind the scenes, Robin consistently demonstrates professionalism, enthusiasm and an admirable work ethic.”
A couple of months ago, Blate was driving home from one of Remo’s drum circles when she asked herself, ‘Why can’t I do this for seniors?’”
And so, she created business cards and began visiting senior facilities, handing out the cards and offering to lead drum circles as part of their activity programs.
The back of her cards read: “Remo’s dream was to put a drum in every household, not to make drummers, but to better the human condition. He sought to promote awareness of rhythm as a tool for maintenance and restoration of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health for all.”
Monge applauded Blate for her efforts to carry on with Remo’s dream.
“We’re really proud to see Robin’s initiative,” Monge said. “And our population of seniors — just in this country alone — is growing exponentially, and so, the demand for this is only going to continue to grow. We need people like Robin out there spreading the joy and activity of drumming.”
That’s become Blate’s goal. She’s seen what drumming does with kids, she’s experienced what it’s done for herself, and she’s on a mission to enhance seniors’ well-being through the experience of drumming.
“I’m passionate about the effects of drumming for seniors,” Blate said, “and want to share the importance of keeping healthy and active in the golden years.”
For more information about what Blate is doing, email her at [email protected]. For more about the Remo Music Center, go to Remo.com/rmc.
