My intention in writing is not so much didactic as experiential; a journal of my own experiments and attempts at understanding the various aspects of the discipline. I want to think through what it is I have been doing, how and why. One of the big questions that I want to attempt to answer is: why the drums? Of all the things a person could do with their time and energy, why do I spend so much of mine with this musical instrument? And of all the musical instruments, why this one in particular? And, why music anyway?
Here is a list of first, immediate impressions.
Sonic power. Of all the instruments, the drums possess an immediacy and force that comes forward in the mix of sounds. It's what I heard and still hear first in every song.
Structural ordering. Music is organised sound, aural architecture. The drum is the instrument that makes and outlines the structure explicitly, at times implicitly.
Movement. The drum pushes or holds the music in it's progression forward. Behind or before the beat, the drum creates the feeling of momentum in a song.
Total engagement. Of all the instruments, the drum kit requires and welcomes the use of the whole body. All four limbs are required, and within this quadrilateral matrix there is a freedom to use each member in innumerable ways and combinations.
Primal and mundane. The drums represent the most accessible and basic form of sound, the kind I hear everyday and night, even alone my heart is there, beating. I have the drums with me all the time. Thinking like a drummer is much like thinking like a skateboarder - mundane forms take on new possibilities. Rhythm is everywhere.
When I was first introduced to the drums at the age of four it was a naive impression of all these and more. Over the years I have found that the drums fit my personality — a kind of symbiosis. No one told me I had to like them, or practice (unlike the piano, the bane of all young musicians). The shape of my heart fit the shape of the sound that they made and the experience that could be had in the moment of playing them.
I wonder if I would have known this had it not been for the friendship my parents had with Jim Coffin. We spent many hours at his house, and as a professional musician with a basement full of instruments he provided me with my first encounter with the drum. As he jammed with a retinue of musicians I sat with a pair of bongos and "played" along. They were all smiles, encouraging. From Jim my mom bought my dad a four-piece Premier kit with hats and a ride. That kit sat in our living room for the next 6 years, and at the age of ten became mine. Symbiosis and opportunity.
Over the years I came to realise that the drums were the centre of every band. A terrible band could be made great by the drummer. A great band would be handicapped by an amateur drummer. Consider a few examples. Imagine Led Zeppelin with anyone but Bonham. Imagine the Police with anyone but Copeland. I saw Nirvana play on many occasions before Grohl joined. The previous guy was passable, but it was only after Grohl joined that me even mentioning this anecdote makes sense. I saw Sound Garden when Chris Cornell was on drums. It was a disaster. Shift Chris to the front, bring in Matt, history. This is an appeal to my own vanity, but also an explanation of all the initial things that attracted me and still attract me to the instrument. The drummer is the first among equals, and the instrument is that which makes the music whole.
Yours in drums,
Chris
