Using “drums” as a medium, “circling” to move peace – Interview with Ren Xiangtai, Founder of the China 432 Music Drum Circle
Carrying a dream and moving forward
In 1985, Ren Xiangtai was born in Tengzhou City, Shandong Province, the hometown of Confucius and Mencius. Since he was a child, he has had an innate affinity for music, and it seems that he was born with a sense of rhythm. When he was in primary school, he was selected as a percussion snare leader in the school drum and bugle corps, which gave him the dream of becoming a percussionist. Later, he went to Beijing Loren Music School and graduated in 2004.
After graduation, he has been engaged in teaching, performing, researching and promoting percussion and has achieved a lot of achievements. He has written dozens of percussion teaching materials and publicly released two academic papers, which show his strong theoretical and academic skills. In 2016, he was invited to be the judge of the Fangke National Spokesperson Selection Competition. He was invited to judge the final of DCW International Percussion Competition in 2019. In the same year, he was also appointed as a judge of the national spokesperson selection contest by Fangke. In 2021, he was again invited to be a judge of the finals of China Good Drummer. Also in 2021, Ren Xiangtai was elected as the Vice Chairman of the Percussion Art Association of Shandong Province. In the same year, as the chief conductor and coach, he successfully challenged the “World Record for the Most People Playing African Drums Simultaneously” in Qingdao, Shandong Province. In 2022, he was also awarded with a practical application of Chinese design patent protection content in the field of intellectual property protection in China. He was appointed as a director of the IPA International Percussion Association. He was inducted in 2022 as a member of the Chinese Art Profession Teaching.
Join the business community, the beginning of the show
In 2015, Ren Xiangtai joined Guyou Tianxia African Drum, as an Union Partner, responsible for national teacher training and brand operation chain franchising. With his operation, Guyou Tianxia expanded from 6 stores to more than 100 franchises nationwide in just 1 year. In the same year, he became the technical director of Hangzhou Madder Cube Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. and was responsible for developing the innovation and application of jazz drum curriculum on new media. He participated in designing the company’s “Music Education plus Intelligent Accompanying” system, which was highly evaluated by the society and the industry.
In 2020, Ren Xiangtai used African drum performance and teaching to enter the self-media platform, and created the “David African Drum” TikTok account. After 2 years of live teaching on TikTok, he has impacted 30 million people. He used the original five-step teaching method of “listen, sing, play, combine and practice”, which opened a new chapter of African drum education. “David’s African Drum account has 320,000 followers, the head anchor of African drums on the whole network and the sales champion of African drums category on TikTok. The sales in 2 years reached 5.2 million RMB, and in 2022, the African drum course was purchased by more than 10,000 people and the course sales exceeded 1.7 million RMB, totaling more than 6.9 million RMB in sales. Having achieved initial success in the business area, Ren Xiangtai was awarded the “2020 Industry Contributor of the Year” at the 8th China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Leadership Conference.
Creating drum circles to spread love
In 2015, he went to Hong Kong to attend the VMC Drum Circle Facilitator Camp USA, where his performance was highly recognized by Drum Circle founder and international master Arthur Hull. In 2016, he continued his training in Hong Kong, and in 2018, he attended the VMC Drum Circle Facilitator Workshop in Nanchang, China, as a teaching assistant and was recognized by Arthur Hull VMC Drum Circle L3. In 2019, Ren Xiangtai became the international spokesperson and artist of MEINL, Germany, and is the first international spokesperson of MEINL Drum Circle in Asia.
432HZ is the most beautiful frequency in the world. In 2017, based on independent thinking and international connection, he created and established the 432 Chinese Music Drum Circle, combining internationally recognized musical fluctuations with natural therapies, which is his major contribution to the development of drum circles.
Ren Xiangtai actively uses drum circles to deliver love. He intertwines VMC drum circle guide techniques with unique Chinese pentatonic songs and Chinese specialty instruments to give more people a sense of musical experience and spiritual soothing in drum circles. Over the past few years, he has conducted over 300 live drum circles in China, with the number of participants ranging from 10 to 500 per show, meeting the different needs of different groups of people from children, primary school students, junior high school students, undergraduates, adults, socializing, company reunions, dating events, team bonding and other drum circles. He also uses Chinese music drum circle guidance for special groups, which is recognized by the rare disease group of Chinese “porcelain dolls”. In 2019, due to his long-term volunteer service, he was invited by The Illness Challenge Foundation as an artistic advisor. At the same time, Ren Xiangtai also formed the band, 8772, the first band in China for people with rare diseases and disabilities, and personally acted as a special director for the band, fully demonstrating his love, generosity and social responsibility.
Looking to the future and never stop
The Metaverse Drum Circle is the next target that Ren Xiangtai is aiming at. In recent years, Ren has led his R&D team to explore the direction of percussion in the field of metaverse, hoping to bring peace to more people and peace to the world through the combination of the 432 Chinese Music Drum Circle and metaverse. Through his persistent research and efforts, he launched the “Drum Circle Metaverse Software”, a software with international influence. This software includes Drum Circle Metaverse comprehensive service platform, Drum Circle Healing Metaverse virtual ensemble software, Drum Circle Virtual Social Metaverse software, Drum Circle Metaverse live teaching software, etc. He also won the “2022 Industry Influencer of the Year” at the 10th China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Leadership Conference.
In the drum circle metaverse software, Ren Xiangtai put his picture and name into the “music metaverse”. Any ordinary person around the world wearing a VR headset can directly “learn to play drums face to face” with Ren Xiangtai. The virtual Ren Xiangtai will demonstrate , 360-degree demonstration. When players follow the learning, the relevant learning actions, posture is also synchronized in the metaverse, the system will automatically review and propose corrective solutions. Through the virtual “Ren Xiangtai” image to “tell” the player on the spot, your strengths and weaknesses, your progress plan, etc., basically equivalent to one-on-one teaching. This innovation will allow the perfect combination of drumming and the metaverse, and will accelerate the promotion of the 432 Chinese drum circle around the world, as well as the promotion and popularization of Ren’s teaching ideas around the world.
Promote cooperation for development
In 2022, the China Business Daily and other media reported the story of Ren Xiangtai’s musical drum circle. One of the readers is a businessman who has purchased 57 acres of land near woodbury common premium outlets in upstate New York, where he plans to invest in a “senior American camp retirement” project in 2023. The project is surrounded by beautiful scenery and natural environment, but this businessman struggled with the lack of ” unique style”. After reading a story about Ren’s “wrap-around drum circle” in the China Business Daily, he asked an intermediary to contact Mr. Ren, and the two sides had a conversation. In the end, it was decided that the “musical healing” of Ren’s 432 Drum Circle would be the core concept and style orientation of the American Senior Camp. With this clear identity, Mr. Ren and the American businessmen decided to invest together to build their “American Dream”.
Using drum circles to deliver peace and calm, it is hoped that Mr. Ren Xiangtai from Tengzhou, Shandong Province will be able to promote his 432 musical drum circle to the world and set up a global headquarters in the United States to bring peaceful music for human peace.
