Music, Drums and Technology
Our body, on its own, can produce melody and rhythm as an independent source. This derives from two ground conclusions. Melody can be generated by our voice and rhythm by our hands and feet. The whole Drums' concept rests in the second conclusion mentioned before.
The sense of a music performance on a Drum Set, could be characterized without any exaggeration, as unique in comparison with any other musical instrument. It's only the Drums that make possible for the four limbs of the human body, to participate in such an effective and a dynamic way in music execution.
Drums' executant is indeed a composer of sounds generated from drums and cymbals. The various sounds which are able to be produced from a simple basic Drum Set overcome twelve. In other words they overcome in number the sounds of an octave.
Drums communicate and cooperate both in rhythmic and melodic base with the rest of the musical instruments. However they have a unique way to compose music. They cover all three basic characteristics of music: a) Rhythm, something entirely obvious for Drums, b) Melody, that is the sequential production of sounds, which are combining same tonic heights (a phrase in the snare drum) and different ones (a phrase being split to all the Drum Set), c) Harmony, that is the nice consonance of notes. With specific ways the Drum sounds can be in a consonance and not being produced randomly.
It's best for the Drummer to have a good knowledge of Theory and Harmony of the musical genre, he or she has chosen. Scales, chords, and ways of composing a music piece constitute some of the most important elements of the music theory, which must be known to a Drummer. The Drums concept doesn't include or support any ignorance in the music theory, but looks a step further.
Studying Drums is a very interesting yet a laborious procedure. It demands a great deal of practice, knowledge of the music theory and a mind and soul constant participation. Without the last, the possibility of someone expressing various feelings and thoughts through this particular musical instrument, would be lost. When a Drummer performs, he or she moves all four limbs of his or her body. Therefore, we can imagine how difficult is to play this kind of instrument and that's because four different commands coming from the human brain, must be executed by the four limbs of the body simultaneously, without interfering each other!
Every Drummer must be familiar with the environment of the Recording Studio. In this particular place a Drummer and the rest of his music partners will write music, will try different performances for their compositions, will record their music.That's why is very important for a Drummer to know the parts and the general setting of a studio and how he or she can use it in order to achieve the best result for his or her music. A very essential help for this goal is the knowledge of Acoustics and Music Technology.
All that mentioned above, represent a sort overview of the Drummer concept. Performing ability, theoretical knowledge and music technology comprise the characteristics of a musically autonomous Drummer.