Drums

Drums like any other instruments has a story behind it.
Since i dream of being a drummer, i guess one day i will have to know
Y drums are what they are now.

Of course i won't want to bore myself with prehistoric caveman drumming on their logs.

I will Start with a man who has great influence on the development of modern drums.

Gene Krupa (1909 - 1973):




Gene Krupa was born in Chicago, Illinois.
Gene started out playing sax in grade school but took up drums at age 11 since they were the cheapest item in the music store where he and his brother worked. "I used to look in their wholesale catalog for a musical instrument - piano, trombone, cornet - I didn't care what it was as long as it was an instrument. The cheapest item was the drums, 16 beans, I think, for a set of Japanese drums; a great high, wide bass drum, with a brass cymbal on it, a wood block and a snare drum." - drummerworld.com

" Gene is considered the father of the modern drumset since he convinced H.H. Slingerland, to make tuneable tom-toms. Tom-toms up to that point had "tacked" heads, which left little ability to change the sound. The new drum design was introduced in 1936 and was termed "Seperate Tension Tunable Tom-Toms." Krupa was called on by Avedis Zildjian to help with developing the modern hi-hat cymbals. The original hi-hat was called a "low-boy" which was a floor level cymbal setup which was played with the foot. This arrangement made it nearly impossible for stick playing. Gene's first recording session was a historical one. It occured in December of 1927 when he is noted to be the first drummer to record with a bass drum." - drummerworld.com

Gene's classic performance on "Sing Sing Sing" has been heralded as the first extended drum solo in jazz.


Drum Boogie:

The "boogie" represented everything that Krupa was as a soloist, technician, melodist, drummer-for-dancers, dramatist and crowd pleaser. It begins with the familiar Krupa "dotted- quarter" note pattern of ringing rim shots on the snare drum,
progresssed to triplets on the snare and later tom tom accents almost as if he were going to introduce listerners to every technique one by one, buids in volume and complexity to a fever pitch, suddenly drop down to an incredibly soft volume while still continuing the triplet pattern, and finally build up to a shattering climax of 32nd note, single stroke roll, replete with more tom-toms and cymbal crashings. All the while the bass drum beat '1-2-3-4'. - World of Gene Krupa by Bruce H. Klauber.

Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich Drum Battle


I know i can't cover all the drummers, but i would like to show a few more drummers worth noting. Maybe i might go into all the legendary drummers one by one when i am that free. Hahaha!

Anyway to me, Gene Krupa has got this power in his playing and his prominent so called "Gene Krupa style" of ringing rimshots and buzz rolls are worth noting.

Buddy rich(1917-1987):
He is an American Jazz drummer well known for his virtuoso technique and fast hands.
Said to be the best Drummer that ever lived. Very famous for the stick tricks he does, and very much evolved to virtuosic stick tricks done by Jo Jo Mayer.



The left hand technique is something intriguing. Wonderous actually, of how he is able to do such kind of articulated fast roll with one hand and incorporate accents using right hand. At this moment, i am going to take on this challenge to get it...