Rhythm Knowledge Heals Brain Injury

In one of my masterclasses, a long-time student of my Rhythm Knowledge material shared this incredible story about the effect of it on his wife’s brain after a traumatic experience.

Here’s Mark’s unedited story:

“Fortuitously, during COVID, Mike Mangini was giving Zoom lessons. As excited as I was to have an up-close and personal drum lesson with one of my drum idols, little did I know that he and his system would play a much bigger role in my life. I participated in a Zoom lesson with Mike on February 13, 2021. Mike Mangini's lesson and his book, Rhythm Knowledge, stress the connection between the brain, audible commands, visual shapes, and limb movement. After the lesson, I felt enlightened, excited, and joyful about the experience. Little did I know, a life-changing moment would soon occur less than two weeks later.

On February 26, 2021, my lovely wife suffered an unexpected massive brain bleed in the left hemisphere of her brain. She was in perfect health, and it truly was sudden and unexpected. Because her brain bleed was on the left hemisphere, it rendered all her right side, her dominant side, totally lifeless. I even asked the doctors if her muscles were working, and they said, yes, she has the same strong muscles, but there is a disconnect in making them work. When I heard "disconnect," it was the magic word that made me think of Mike Mangini’s previous lesson and his method. As drummers, we are always looking for ways to strengthen our weak hand or weak side to have parity with our dominant side. He had mentioned during the Zoom that if we wanted to strengthen our weak hand, we had to send a signal from the brain, speak (command) what we wanted, and look at the limb to make sure the message was getting transmitted—the brain, speech, visual, limb connection.

I immediately used Mike Mangini's method with my wife with simple commands. For example, her right hand would not open, and the fear was that it would remain crippled. I told her to look at her hand and audibly direct it to open. I did the same with her leg: “Look at your leg, it needs to unfold before you step off the bed. Look at your leg, command your leg to unbend.” When learning to walk, we used the same technique: “You know how to walk, look at your leg, direct it to take a step.” We did this many times throughout her recovery, and thanks to God and the divine intervention of putting Mike Mangini’s Rhythm Knowledge method in front of me, my wife made a full recovery!

I wanted the chance to tell Mr. Mangini personally and finally got the opportunity on March 30th at a Masterclass. Fellow drummers and musicians, all I wanted from Mike Mangini’s Rhythm Knowledge was to improve my timing and paradiddles. Little did I know it would be part of my wife’s recovery at a very difficult time.

Thanks, Mike, from the bottom of our hearts. God bless you

Mark and Diane Alvarez”