A history of drumming

Drumming is a great way to express emotions in a musical form. Over the years drumming has changed a lot, from using just a log to using a full drum set full of different types. Many forms have come into style over the years from jazz drumming to metal-core drumming. Drumming has changed over the years from its equipment to the styles people now use.

Drumming is one of the most primitive ways to create music and it has been around for eons ever since man could hold a stick he has been hitting it against some other object. The Africans have been using drumming for a long and they still use today just for about everything, it is used for ceremonies and some even use for finding food. Back in the revolutionary war drums where used to help the soldiers walk in time for when they where marching it was also used in combat to help them over come the fear these where know as war drums. Eventually man started to use drums with other instruments to come up with more types of music such as Jazz, Swing and some of the more modern rock and blues all use drums. Over the years there have been many famous people in the drumming industry from all types of music. Some great examples are Danny Carey, Jimmy Cobb, Blake Richardson and one of these drummer are well know for there bands there in and the styles they have developed over the years of playing drums. Now Danny Carey is from the band called Tool and is know for is very off the wall random timing drumming which is very hard for other drummers to follow when they listen to his music. His style is so hard to follow because he doesn’t have a set timing he goes by he just throws his sounds in where he thinks they would sound the best and that is what makes him and his band so unique from other bands. Jimmy Cobb is from the thirties and he is known for being one of the most famous jazz drummers he is mainly a self taught drummer and in know for one of the most famous jazz songs called “Kind of Blue”. He has played at many famous places but the one that he played in the made his so famous was Carnegie Hall. Now North Carolina is know for a lot of things but with today’s music one of the more famous drummers to come out of these hill is Blake Richardson who plays with the band Between the Buried and Me. Blake and his band are known for the more progressive style of music and Blake style is all of his own in 2008 he was voted the worlds third best drummer. (History of Drumming)

A style that has become more noticeable is metal-core drumming. Metal drumming is a very misunderstood style of drumming. Some think that it is comprised of just random beats that are just thrown together; but it is actually a pretty technical form of drumming. It contains some very complex rolls and fills that require the player to be focused at all times. Metal drumming originated from both the swing and jazz style of drumming, which are some of the earliest forms of drumming. Most, if not all, metal drummers train in some version of jazz and swing style when taking lessons. Metal has always incorporated jazz and swing to help them become great drummers. Jazz helps by adding more fluidity to drumming, while swing helps with speed, precision, and foot speed. (Healthy Drumming)

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Metal drumming has proven to be one of the more difficult forms of drumming, because of the speed required. In addition, this style of drumming has some of the more complicated beats. Some famous drummers in the metal world is Blake Richardson from the band Between the Buried and Me, Danny Carey from Tool, and Matt Greiner from August Burns Red. Each of these drummers all have their own unique playing styles, which they have developed over many years of playing the drums. Blake Richardson took many drum lessons which included jazz and swing he says” Jazz and Swing are vital to any drummer if they want to become a great drummer, it helps you in many ways it helps improve your stamina do to the constant playing at a fast tempo”. (Healthy Drumming)

Swing drumming is a very important drum style mainly because the music is quite fast, and the beats are complex. Swing goes by many names: swing jazz, swing music, and just swing. It has been around since the 1930’s it was a new upbeat version of jazz that was created so that the music could keep up with the new faster moving dances and around 1935, it had made come into its own distinctive style. Swing drumming used a lot of a technique called double bass, which helps drummers pick up the pace of a song more quickly. The double bass is where the bass drum has to kick pedals connected together so that both feet can kick the bass drum and make it sound like the drummer is playing faster. Once swing drummers incorporated double bass, the sound to make their music have more of brutal of a sound. (Healthy Drumming)

The equipment for drumming has evolved greatly since its inception millions of years ago. When man first started drumming, the set up consisted of a hollow log and a medium sized stick; in contrast, today’s drum set is more sophisticated. For example, cymbals made a great improvement in the sound of music with its ability to help a drummer to keep the timing of a song. When drummers buy cymbals, they have to take in how much splash or crash they want. Splash cymbals vary in sizes from six to twelve inches. The splash is often a syncopated accent to the drum. These cymbals are often hit very hard so they had to make them a little thicker. However, this thickness can cut down on the richness of the sound that they produce. Splash is a nice little cymbal to add to a drum kit because the sound it produces can add to any genre of music, not just metal or jazz. Then there are crash cymbals which are used of occasional accents and they usually add a sharp sound to the song. The term crash was first used by the company Zildjian who has making cymbals for over 40 years. Crash Cymbals can be mounted on a stand and played with a stick or they can be played with mallets to give them a slower sound and a more swelling crash. (Rhythmic Power)

Bass drums are another crucial part to drumming, because it adds a backbone to the song itself. In other words, it gives the beat a deeper sound. Swing utilizes the bass drum very well. Originally the bass drum was help keep timing so the drummer would not kick all that quickly they kept it to a 4/4 beat a 4/4 beat is a technique that all musicians use to mark the tempo of the song. But in Swing there was the creation of the double bass pedal which allowed drummers to create an even faster beat and let them use the bass drum in different ways from keeping time to rolling on it to add the sound. There are a majority of different types of pedals, ranging from titanium pedals and aluminum pedals, to coil pedals and chain pedals. Iron Cobra is one of the more common of the pedal distributors and there latest pedal The Iron Cobra power glide double pedal uses a coil under the pedal itself to add to the power of the pedal and it also cuts down on how much energy the player uses. (Rhythmic Power)

Snare drums play an even larger role in drumming than any of there other pieces I just listed mainly because it is one the first pieces ever made. The Snare drum was created originally for combat for soldiers to use on there way to battler back during the revolutionary war. Now the snare is used for all kinds of music related things it is used a lot in drum line it is the focus piece in drum line. In drum line there is usually three snare drum players that lead the rest of the line and if they get off beat even for a moment then they through the rest of the line off rhythm. Snares are usually one type of sound but some come with a dampener on them which release the springs that are attached to the bottom of the snare and when they are released it give the drum amore bass sound. There are assortment stands that can come with the snare some are made for standing up and some made for knee height when the player is sitting down. There is also the synthesized snare drum which is a pad that is connected to a small computer that has a large number of sounds built into its database. This snare is used as a side snare so that the drummer can use a normal snare and then this snare to give there sound a more distinct sound from other drummers. (Rhythmic Power)

In conclusion drumming has been around for many years and it has been changed about every year it has been around. The equipment has changed in many different ways over the years they have been made more modern from there original forms. Forms of drumming has changed just as much as the equipment changing from just beats people put together to more distinct styles such as jazz, swing and metal. And the history for drumming is very vast since it is one of the precursors of music.

Work Cited

“The Recorded History of Jazz Drumming.” Public domain. Web. 29 Oct. 2009. <http://www.pd.org/Perforations/perf25/drumming.html>.

Of, Editors, and Adam Budofsky. The Drummer 100 Years of Rhythmic Power and Invention. Minneapolis: Modern Drummer Publications, 2006. Print.

Nichols, Geoff. The Drum Book The History of the Rock Drum Kit. New York: Backbeat Books, 1997. Print.

“History of Drums.” Free Articles Directory | Submit Articles – ArticlesBase.com. Web. 29 Oct. 2009. <http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/history-of-drums-252541.html>.

“Healthy Drumming » Drumming Styles and Facilitator.” Healthy Drumming » Home. Web. 29 Oct. 2009. <http://www.healthydrumming.org/index.php?id=24>.