The Traditional...The Drum

Hey People,

You know when music began it differed in Western culture to the African culture. I don't want to get deep and critical in analysing both cultures at once, so I'll start with Africa...

I'm sure we all assume that we know that the first form of musical instrument in Africa was the drum, right? Well, that assumption is true. Infact, it dates back years before Era of Slavery. In African subcultures, the drum was used for various meditational purposes; entertainment (dancing, clapping and the drum-beat). The Conga and the Bongo drum are two of the first forms of drums, other such as the marimba were later developed.

What strikes me is this book I read by By Rene T. A. Lysloff, Leslie C. Gay, Andrew (FRW) Rosson titled Music and Techoculture - it has this section on the development of musical rhythm in Africa: it, firstly, acknowledges the Conga and the Bongo as the firsts, but then it mentions the hypnotical secrets burried within the African Rhythm composed with these drums, interesting? Tell me what you think.

The rhythm created a hypnotic trance induction which was experienced by the listener and also strongly by the composer. A consistence rhythm kept playing and trapped the listener in trance making them intouch with nature harmonically - (the philosopher Socrates spoke of harmonic relations of humans to society and vice cersa: Humansare living primates and nature keeps the living alive).

My Point: Through this reading I can say that: once the rhythm of life is understood, the harmony with nature ensure that everything stays in place.

However, meaning differs from generation to generation - music forms have developed from just the drum and the drum is used differently as genres of music start to develop (Rock, House, Bossanova and so on), but if you take the African myth of hypnotic inductions you might start realising how the Beat in a musical instrumanetal does 'hypnotise' someone - it even etermines the way you dance to the music. For this one reason composers and music producers such as Quincy Jones and Andreas Volenvedar see the percussion and the drums as probably the most important element in copmosing a musical instrumental.

Since more genres were emerging, from the Bongos came the drumkit - included the Hihats; the Snare drum; the Kick/bass drum; the toms - and its drum features differed in accordance with the genre. The as we move into a more technological society the invention of The Drum-Machine was significant to the modern. To play the drum (drumkit or bongos) requires skill, but with drum-machine on can simply programme the drum rhythm into the machine for the machine to play it (this requires skill, in a way, but also a alot creativity). Would you say that its malleable? It does allow one to compose any Beat or drum-rhythm.

Click on the Link and get enlightened about The Drum-Machine - this link will allow you to use a drum-machine online and save you production as mp3. Digital Technology is fabulous and it makes a lot of the previously impossible possible. It is on it s way to dominating the world and is currently manipulating us to use it and popularize it, making it an upcoming domination..Is that good or bad? Because of it, more people can produce music by using new technology and new media forms such as computers and the internet..You can to . . Click on the Link, Launch the DigiDrum-Machine from Groove Lab and try it Out . . . All you have to do is Launch It..

Click Here

Peace and Blessings..