"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." Walden, by Henry David Thoreau.

Eugene - The "different drummer" Jill Sager steps to is only part of the picture. For in the big drum circle of life, it is Sager, founder of the Hands On Rhythm and Drum School in Eugene, who helps others find the music of their own drumming.

She does it through drumming classes and drumming circles in formal class settings, at community and 0lder adult centers, including Willamalane Adult Center in Springfield, and at various care facilities around town. And she uses the term 'drum" to include a wide array of hand-tapped devices, including a variety of drums.

Older adults are among the most enthusiastic of her "students." Sager tells of a 96 year-old woman who, at the end of a drumming session, commented that, "This is the most fun I've had in a long time." And for those in care facilities, Sager has found drumming to be an activity that residents have responded to, even when they cannot express that response verbally. "Staff feedback tells me it works," she says.

Drumming has not only been found to be a good way to "relax and energize the body," Sager points out drumming is also a way to foster a sense of community. After a drumming class at Willamalane Adult Center, she says, "There was so much heart; people all making music together - it helped them all come together."

For Sager, the Hands On Rhythm and Drum School is a culmination of her own training and interests. With a degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies, a background in therapeutic recreation, classical training as a pianist, and an interest in drumming that goes back 30 years, the idea of a school to combine these interests and skills came to her in a "brainstorm."

"I opened the school because I felt there were people who want to ha d-drum as a way to express themselves." As Sager says in the Hands On Rhythm and Drum mission statement, the school is "dedicated to serving community and individual wellness through the healing art of hand drumming percussion, and group rhythm-making in a supportive, creative and inclusive environment."

And why this interest in acting creatively? It's in our hearts to do it," she says. The task of the school: "learning how to access what's inside of you already."

Few people, however, "give themselves permission" to just express themselves without some formal training. The school, she says, "gives them permission." And that's permission without any formal training.

Along with the personal expression aspect, one of the places drumming can lead to is better health, claim some researchers. Indeed, drumming has taken its place in the pantheon of alternative medicine, for yes, beating on a hand-drum has been found to help the body.

"Drumming really does increase the immune system," Sager explains. She points to a scientific study of 111 men and women that was conducted by Dr. Barry Bittman, a medical director of the Mind-Body Wellness Center, Meadville, PA. The study's purpose: to "determine the role of group drumming music therapy as a composite activity with potential for alternation of stress-related hormones and enhancement of specific immunologic measures associated with natural killer cell activity and cell-mediated immunity." The results: in a word, it helped.

To Sager, accessing the different drummer inside each of us is a way not only to better health but also a way for "fostering confidence, instilling knowledge, taking the mystery away, and having fun." What's more, "Once people do it, they are totally hooked," she says.

For more information about drumming or about location of classes and drumming circles, contact Jill Sager, Rhythm and Drums, 541- 343-5920. Information also is available at her website, www.handsonrthythm.com.