Drum Lessons Canberra, Drum Teachers Canberra, Learn Drums Canberra…
What are people envisaging/imagining in their minds eye when they are thinking about drums!
Drums…its a big topic…beyond Kick Snare and Toms…beyond John Bonham and Steve Gadd.
I started playing ‘drums’ (the western 5 piece kit - Ludwig…Ringo Vintage)…but since those days drums have become percussion and kit can mean anything!
Kit drummers bring percussion into your ‘kit’ and percussionist bring your ‘feet’ into the groove!
Most would be seeing Ringo Starr, or Phil Collins, or ‘Animal’ from the Muppets…or perhaps G Flip, or Dave Grohl or Karen Carpenter or Sheila E or Anika Nilles….and most would imagine a ‘western’ drum kit with a bass drum operated by the drummers foot/feet…with tom-toms and cymbals and a snare drum.
Playing drums brings those icons to mind. BUT…there is a world of drums and drummers out there…beyond the jazz/rock kit layout…indeed the layout of the the ‘Kit’ that most people think is what DRUMS are has only been around of a century or so.
So…playing kit drums is but the tip of the iceberg. Being able to play drums and percussion of all types and create musical grooves on those ‘instruments beyond’ kicksnaretoms…. its a step toward being an accomplished drummer who plays rhythm musically across the spectrum….using touch and texture, tone and duraton, dynamics and ornamentation in a complementary nature that fits seamlessly with the other instruments that are being played around them.
Kit drummers that venture into and master Percussion will improve their groove on all instruments! And, percussionists that add pedals to their hand drums and start using their feet as well as hands…when that happens global groove will take a quantum leap forwards.
As a ‘Drummer’ don't shun playing congas, or djembe, or Bodhran, or Cajon…work on your groove on Dunduns, shakers, Clave…its all about ‘myelination’…and providing the brain with more data upon which to build your nervous system around your rhythms is the key.
Enough waffling I hear you say. This has been a waffler blog…LOL!
So I leave you with Stewart Copeland ‘On Drums’…he touches on the wider world of drums and percussion and the century or so of the history of ‘The Kit’ (drum kits are the babies of the percussion world)…learn them all.