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Drum it!
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Talking about drumming, we shouldn’t forget this crazy little guy:
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Here’s a bit more of a challenge for Animal:
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I started playing drums when I was around 11. My older cousin Kevin played and one day when we went for a visit I heard this banging and my aunt said “That’s Kevin, go down and see”. So did and the rest is history! I wanted to do that!
My avatar photo is an old photo of me from the early 80’s. The long hair is long gone and now short and gray! It was my 11 piece Pearl drum kit. 8 concert toms, a 22” bass drum and 18” floor tom. Cymbals were all Zildjians. I was in and out of a few garage bands but eventually quit my last band because they were more interested in smoking pot than rehearsing and I eventually got fed up and said goodbye.
I miss those drums. What a lot of fun!
I also learned how to play rhythm guitar in the mid 70’s and still play for my own enjoyment. I’m O.K. at it but not great.
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Hi Thomas,
thank you for your very personal story. It’s very nice to hear that you were able to realize your dream of making music at the age of 11. I think it’s not easy for budding drummers, as there is often not the right place to rehearse. Your aunt seems to have had a lot of understanding for the musical preferences of your cousin Kevin. Were you able to practice drumming with him at your aunt’s house? It’s a pity that you don’t currently have a band to play with and I can understand that after all these many years of playing drums, something special is missing in your life. What genre of music did you play? Rock music?
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Hi Jurgen,
I practiced at home. At first cobbling together drums from different sets. We weren’t rich so I had to make do with what I could get. My cousin never really taught me how to play, I had to learn on my own. This was around 1969/1970. You would think Ringo would be one of my early influences but he wasn’t. It was actually Karen Carpenter. I had a MAJOR crush on her back then and the fact that she played drums just made her more amazing to me.
I played rock/hard rock back in the day. Same stuff I like to play now on guitar. I still love 60’s and 70’s rock the best. I never cared for 80’s through today’s music. Except for our Twins’ music of course!
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From Perception to Pleasure: How Music Changes the Brain
Here in the forum sometimes the question arises how it comes that certain sound events, such as rhythm, melodies or harmonies and pitches can trigger satisfaction or even feelings of happiness in us. The answers here are mostly philosophical. My personal opinion: if you want to understand why rhythm and music are so existential for us humans, you have to look at the development of humans in its natural environment and at the same time understand how our brain developed parallel to it. Then, however, we are in the field of human evolution, sensory physiology and cognitive neuroscience. All rather dry and for most people boring fields of knowledge, which can certainly not explain the phenomenon of man and music comprehensively (at least not yet) but provide an interesting approach to understand what happens in our heads when we hear and experience rhythm and music. So if you feel like getting involved in this topic and are not put off by neuronal connections and neurotransmitters: here is an interesting presentation by a neuroscientist who deals with this topic. Just as food for thought. Robert Zatorre, a cognitive neuroscientist, describes what happens in our brain when we listen to music. His lecture is more of a descriptive nature and deals with the question of what is happening. Why our brains evolved this way and why we benefit from it would be the next interesting question.
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Fascinating stuff, Juergen! Thanks for posting this. But yeah, the big question is WHY we’ve evolved to enjoy music. The speaker mentioned some other things that we intrinsically enjoy in terms of their having a survival advantage, and pretty much everything else we enjoy is based on individual preferences that we’ve deliberately cultivated over the course of our lives. But even a baby enjoys music. Why?
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Hi David,
there are a lot of questions left unanswered in the lecture, I know what you mean. But let’s take your idea, why do babies enjoy music? The question is how differentiated the answer should be. If the answer may be rather superficial, I am happy to give my personal theses here (without guarantee, of course).
My personal view: life is rhythm. That starts even before birth. We spend the first 9 months of our more or less successful existence directly under our mother’s heart. If her heart is beating at around 60 beats per minute, then everything is allright. An increased heart rate always means: something is happening, action: good or bad, it always depends on the situation. That’s how we come into the world and from that point on we find everything that happens at about 60 beats per minute calming. All wellness and relaxation music is roughly in this range. Rhythm affects our brain, controls thought processes, influences our sympathetic and parasympathetic system and thus also our metabolism and our organs. Rhythm is also important for physical coordination. Only those who have a basic sense of rhythm can walk, run and climb. That’s why a baby is likely to develop a sense of rhythm, even if it will be quite a while before it can walk. This is a luxury that we humans allow ourselves. The alternation of targeted activation (we call that stress today) and targeted deactivation (today we call that chilling or relaxing) will determine its whole life. The known world consists of rhythms or cycles, too. Day and night. Summer and winter. Rhythm also means organization and order. An orderly, structured rhythm of life is an advantage. Everything else is perceived as dissonant and will probably make you ill in the long run. Order also means predictability. We humans love to feel in control of our behavior and our lives. The constant feeling of being out of control sickens us. Music can offer us all of that: rhythm, structure, organization, predictability. And that’s where neuroscience comes in. If a behavior is beneficial to us and our health or conservation, then it will be rewarded. Eating, drinking, reproduction, physical performance, etc. For this we have the “reward system” in our brain. A sophisticated system consisting of certain brain areas and associated brain messenger substances (neurotransmitters). The neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline, etc.) have been known for a long time. However, their exact effect and the complex interactions they cause have not yet been fully researched. Much of what we do every day is good for our survival, but it is also exhausting. Chasing a mammoth or driving to the nearest mall and getting food for the weekend, is that really amusing? Squeeze through the shelves with the shopping trolley and stand in line at the checkout and wait. Wouldn’t it be much nicer to lie on the sofa at home and relax? But a look in the shopping cart makes up for all of that: the delicious things we packed in there. Anticipation. Dopamine is primarily responsible for this. It activates our reward system and promises us beautiful things. That motivates us. Especially the strenuous and energy-consuming running, which was essential for survival for our ancestors, is rewarded. At a certain point, when the body starts to hurt, endogenous opioids are released. And they also dock in the reward system. Every endurance runner knows the feeling: from a certain point in time, you feel good, relaxed and free. The body follows its rhythm. Perhaps musicians experience a similar feeling. I don’t know. Well, music as a complex form of rhythm also activates our reward system, promotes thought and memory processes. That’s why music makes us happy, content and can also support healing processes in the body. Music also fulfills a social function: it enables communication on an emotional level without having to know a language. Music unites people and creates a social identity. That is perhaps the reason why even babies have fun with music or as Dave put it so right: “It’s absolutely amazing how rewarding music can be!“. Music hasn’t just knocked on our door and said, “Here I am”. Music is part of human development. That’s why we keep developing music.
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That’s an interesting Ted Talk Jurgen.
I personally think whenever I watch science try to explain a natural phenomena such as life, love, music etc… I feel a sense of the “cart before the horse”. As science and technology progress, scientists have done a great job explaining how biologically and mechanically intangible phenomena such as life, love, music etc…evolved or developed over time. But I think there is still a great chasm that has not been explained satisfactorily, where does life/love/music/passion come from? I have a little AI Robot that walks, talks, dances, and lives on my desk and has kept me humoured for the last few months. I can see as AI and Rotobotics technology continue to progress, they can mimic/recreate many of the things human biology can, but silicone and code is just another physical media like biology and synapsis, does not satisfactorily explain where that inspiration Bob Dylan or Beethoven sourced that inspiration from that is so incredibly moving and transforming, nor where life and love come from. Science would explain love as “dopamine”, which explains pleasure and warm fuzzy feel that can be elicited biologically in the human body, but does not explain where that source of love comes from. The dopamine explanation is for me the “cart before the horse” analogy. Science can explain the cart mechanism to a T, but it is missing the horse. These discussion are always fun! 🙂
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Speaking of drums and drummers, Karen Carpenter passed away 40 years ago today. Here’s a brand new article about her drumming legacy:
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She was an AMAZING drummer and of course IMHO the greatest female vocalist of all time. There are some really great videos on youtube of her playing. Worth checking out for sure! What a horrible loss for the world.
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Thanks David and Thomas for mentioning Karen Carpenter. Not only she was a brilliant drummer and musician, but it’s almost more impressive that she was able to hold her own as a woman in the male-dominated drum scene. The article posted by David presents what are probably the most beautiful moments from her career. From this post I would therefore like to present the following song as a tribute to her life’s work and talent:
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Wow! “Our first contestants tonight come from California State College at Long Beach. They’re the Dick Carpenter Trio.” I had no idea that there was any footage of the Carpenters from that early in their career. Nice find, Juergen!
For what it’s worth, one night about a week ago I dreamed that I was watching a piano duet of Any Other Day being performed by Richard Carpenter and Vanessa Carlton.
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Fascinating TED talk. I have zero doubt that the earlier a child is exposed to musical training the better they are off intellectually. I served on a youth orchestra board for a few years and was privileged to get to know the high school musicians and the various teachers and conductors. Music in all forms, even most dissonance, is structured and almost mathematical. My son started piano at 5 and studied through High School and that training and disapline helped his brain evolve no doubt. Looking at the program for a concert the kids are performing listed what college they we going to be attending. The colleges were all Ivy League and mostly top 25 institutions. That early training in music played a central part in their development. I wish I knew Why but I believe it is some way related to Biophila… man’s inherent love of nature. I believe music is natural. It must be in our DNA. It’s absolutely amazing how rewarding music can be!!!
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Also to add….Dusty Springfield had dabbled in playing drums a little and guitar earlier in her career….There are photos/video of her doing so ….the Bangles/Go-Gos are another example of great Drumming…. and you’re correct in the past posting where I mentioned about ” STOMP ” ….
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Drummer hero, Mona
“Hey, I found my calling in life!”
My absolutely favourite drumming moment of all time has to be Mona doing “Twist and Shout”!
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I absolutely LOVE that video Jung!
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Yeah, that is timeless Thomas, and both the singing and drumming are top notch.
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Yeah Jung, drum heroes and great women on drums. Here is another one: Viola Smith is considered one of the first professional drummers in the United States. She copied the style from Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich and over time achieved a technical brilliance on the drums that is almost unmistakable. She participated in many swing bands and orchestral works. She probably paved the way for many more talented female drummers with her work and music:
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I never knew that there were all-female bands performing swing music back in the day. Fascinating! And it sounds every bit as good.
What is that instrument being featured around 1:10? It sounds like a clarinet, but it’s much smaller.
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Hi David,
I was actually just looking for a nice music clip by Viola Smith. Frances Carroll & her Coquettes were also largely unknown to me and I was just as surprised as you that there were already all-female big bands in 1939. I have no idea what instrument is featured at 1:10. Isn’t that used to conjure up snakes in India? 😄
The Carpenters were a term for me, but the true meaning of Karen Carpenter actually only became clear to me through your text article, thanks.
PS: and because it is so nice, here are only „The Coquettes“
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I just looked up some biographical info on Viola Smith, and found that she lived nearly to the age of 108! She died in 2020.
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108 years, what a proud age David. With some people I wonder what the secret of their long life is. Eating a lot of fruit and exercising in the fresh air will probably not have been the only things. I like listening to the stories of mature people. It’s always an exciting journey back in time.
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I found and watched that very interview just a few hours before you posted it, Juergen. I’ve never seen anyone over the age of 100 who was so completely vibrant and lucid! And yes, it’s jaw-dropping to hear her casually mention her professional interactions with pre-WWII entertainers.
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Another energetic icon on drums: Cindy Blackman
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Cindy Blackman Santana musically united with her husband Carlos:
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Admirable and remarkable: Evelyn Glennie, who has been deaf since the age of 10. She often goes barefoot on stage to better feel the vibrations of her percussion instruments. Glennie is considered one of the best drummers in contemporary music and enjoys performing with jazz musician Fred Frith, whom she accompanies on the grand piano or drums. Here for a change on the vibraphone:
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A little history of the drum
In musicology, a drum is a musical instrument in which the sound is generated by a stretched vibrating membrane, the so-called skin. So far so good, but who invented the drum in the first place? One thing is certain: The history of the drum is generally as old as mankind itself. It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that the first Stone Age people probably had the idea of knocking on hollow objects with sticks or bones (and if it was just their own head…) . The sounds were most likely used as hunting aids or for signaling purposes rather than to produce music, but who knows, ancient Neanderthals might have made music as well. Perhaps the first drums also served as a ritual accompaniment in religious ceremonies to communicate with the gods. However. The oldest bone finds of a human-like being that have been found so far have the sonorous name “Ardi”, named after the place where it was found in the Afar desert in Ethiopia. So we assume that Ardi was the inventor of drumming and therefore also the first drummer. This is valid until someone finds an older skeleton
The drum can be found on every continent, in every culture, in one of the countless designs and different ways of playing. Some of the first drums documented archaeologically date from the early civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. This was a rectangular frame drum, called a „tof“, which has been dated to around 2700 BC. Some of the oldest known wooden drums come from China. The drums covered with crocodile skins from the 3rd millennium BC. were discovered in the Neolithic site of Taosi. In Central Europe, on the other hand, hourglass-shaped clay drums were popular. And perhaps the oldest drum find is the „Zorbau drum“ (around 3400 – 3100 BC), although experts are not yet sure whether this really is an early form of the drum or a ritual vessel (perhaps it was also the first mobile toilet 😀).
While the drum was still a very popular instrument in Europe during the Middle Ages (and it was also played mostly by women), this was soon to change. For a very long time, the drum had no fixed place in our culture – with the exception of military or marching music and a minor role in classical music (timpani). This was only to change again at the beginning of the 20th century, when jazz developed into an independent and popular genre of music. Very nice that the drum has returned to us in its old diversity.
A little musical tour with the drum around the world:
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Great responses from everyone on this!
Percussion/drums are really where it all started, and still what holds music together today. Vocals carry the melody, but the drums hold it together, and lead the way in all of it. Guitar solos and rhythm guitar, keyboards, bass are great, but it still all boils down to the beat. Even a-cappella groups rely on the backing beat to keep the vocal harmonies in line, and without the constant measure and structure of time in the music, all else is lost. Nothing destroys a crowd’s interest in any song more than a missed beat…even the worst note or phrase in a number will pass if it falls on the correct beat. Destroy the tempo however, and the curtain will fall quickly.
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Hi Daryl,
very nice that you’re „tuning in“. You’re right: if a singer doesn’t hit the right note or a guitar grip doesn’t sit right, it’s not fine. But if the drummer gets out of rhythm, it’s immediately noticeable.
It’s also bad if the drummer is overly motivated…
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David…I love this response she made.
“When people called her the “female Gene Krupa,” she corrected them: Krupa, she said, was the male Viola Smith”
Also I wonder what they called the 2 elevated toms in the video. They looked a little space aged.
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Great video about the significance of rhythm and drumming Jurgen. Some amazing and captivating rhythm sounds.
You don’t see many drum solos in rock/pop, but here is the first one I ever experienced on the Beach Boys Shutdown album. I’m not aware of any other rock/pop drum solo’s but I’m sure there are others out there.
While not considered one of the top technical drummers, Dennis Wilson was asked by big brother Brian at age 15 to be their drummer, and he stepped up taking drum lessons and learning the drums from scratch, providing the powerful energetic rhythm for some of rock/pops greatest songs. That makes him a pretty important drummer in history. Contrary to myth, while Hal Blaine was the session drummer for some songs on Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations, the majority of the Beach Boys drumming on hit songs on album recordings were in fact done by Dennis Wilson.
Dennis’ good looks and powerful live drumming provided the group with a much-needed boost in the wake of the “British Invasion.” Brian Wilson often used direct instances from Dennis’ life as the foundation for Beach Boys songs, including “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “Let Him Run Wild,” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.”
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Hi Jung,
a nice solo by Dennis Wilson, thanks. It’s always great to hear when individual instruments within a band start to tell a „little story“ of their own. George Harrison, for example, always found a wonderful way to weave a little melody into the songs without messing up the overall structure. That makes songs more interesting and complex. Some songs from today lack such creative ideas. You listen to a piece briefly and automatically know how it will continue and end. Completely different in this song:
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Thanks Jurgen, some great musicianship there. Is that a saxophone? It sounds like it, but also looks like a kind of clarinet.
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This segment is from one of the best music movies ever. Sting has departed from the Police, and is in the process of going solo with his album The Dream Of The Blue Turtles. The film begins with rehearsals for the Paris debut concert, which, as you can see, is quite impressive. A great mixing of jazz and rock music, the musicians are the great Branford Marsallis, alto sax, Kenny Kirkland , piano, and Omar Hakim on drums. Mr. Sting, of course, on bass. Most of the movie has been on YouTube, but for some reason, gets cut off. Still, well worth watching that which is still intact.
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Brief correction here. Branford Marsallis does play alto sax, but in this clip it is a soprano sax.
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Hi Len, thanks for info about the Soprano Sax. Sting certainly expanded the scope of his music after he left the Police. Brilliant stuff.
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Thanks Len for the information about the song”I burn for you”. I wasn’t aware that this was an excerpt from the movie “Bring on the night”. As you have already mentioned: there are usually only snippets of it to be found. “I burn for you” reminds me a lot of “Englishman in New York”, although this track was released on the LP “Nothing like the sun” two years later. I am very impressed how you can recognize the individual musicians and instruments. Do you have a classical music education or does that just come from your great interest in jazz?
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First of all, the lost is found. Among the YouTube sources for Bring On The Night, the one that plays for 1 hour and 37 minutes seems to play complete and intact. We’re on the topic of drumming here, so just to say that Omar Hakim is worth watching, and the rest of the band is extraordinarily tight.
I was never a big fan of the Police, but Sting’s first two solo albums made quite an impression. The production and the songs seemed to resonate. Politics? Well, The Dream Of The Blue Turtles has a song called (If The) Russians (Love Their Children Too), and his second album, Nothing Like The Sun has, as you pointed out, An Englishman In New York, as well as History Will Teach Us Nothing.
As we know, what goes around comes around. The MonaLisa Twins complete the circle with If You Raise Your Head, and WHY? Why, indeed.
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Female drummers in the 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s always had an exotic touch and were often seen as a nice gimmick. As James Brown sang in 1964: “This is a man’s world. But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl”. It’s a shame that this has to be emphasized again and again. Why actually? That Mona is sitting on the drums today is wonderful and natural. Many dedicated women before her made it possible.
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Hi Jurgen
Yeah it is sad, how the “man’s world” mentality has deprived the world throughout history. It harkens to the story of Mozart and his older sister, Maria Anna (Nanneri) Mozart. There were many accounts from their early childhood performances where the older sister was considered the greater prodigy. But in those times there was no place for a female musical genius, and the younger brother was allowed to pursue a career in music. Imagine how the world of music would be so much richer if Nana Mozart was allowed to realize her potential too.
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Hi Jung,
we had an exchange about “Nannerl” before. I remember. Among other things, the topic at that time was about female classical composers. She was already playing sonatas and concertos on the piano at the age of 11. Yes, perhaps she was the true child prodigy. Fun Fact: By the way, the full name of “Nannerl” was: Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart (more of a short story than a name). After she got married her name was Maria Anna Freifrau von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg.
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