If the drums were lost

As a drum teacher, a student recently asked me, what would it be like if there were no drums? It took me a minute or two to come up with an answer that could possibly explain the loss of what I do for income/hobby and more importantly what it would mean for music. It’s hard to imagine life without the rhythm we hear in our popular music. There is no rock and roll, blues, funk, disco, reggae, jazz as we know it as they are all based on rhythm. It is almost unthinkable what the world itself would be like if the drums disappeared…

First, let’s go back to a time when there was actually an absence of drums in music. James Blades author of Percussion instruments and their historywrote:

“With the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire, percussion music was banned for being mischievous and licentious; drums and cymbals were particularly singled out as evidence of the devil’s pomposity“.

As BC becomes AD, drums were pushed out of the music scene and wrote history for the next eighteen hundred years. Much later, drums found a place on the battlefield as an instrument to intimidate the enemy and to excite the spirit of the attacking army itself. Fast-forward to post-slavery New Orleans and the marching war drums become the “snare game,” played by one person and introduced to Jazz music. And the battery is born. What a chance encounter that was. If these particular moments never happened, what would our modern music look like? If the drums never hit the battlefield or the streets of New Orleans and stopped when they did, would we be the same society we are?

The whole world would be quite different, I think. There are no drum corps at football games, no marching bands at the parade, and certainly no drummers at the school desk with pencils! I’m not sure, but I think rock and roll wouldn’t be the same or even exist without the drums to inspire the guitar, bass, piano and vocals. Would the Beatles have conquered the world without Ringo dancing? I really doubt it. Would “Wipe Out” have been so spectacular with only guitars? No. Or would In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida have been a hit without drums? Oh! The Muppets without Animal – absolutely unthinkable! And before Rock and Roll there was Jazz, Blues, Dixieland, Bebop, Swing, Country Western to name just a few. They all had drums and it was the beginning of Rock as we know it.

If you’re like me and pay attention to movie soundtracks, more often than not they’re peppered with drums and percussion to set the mood. It can be a completely different experience to watch movies without rhythm.

For me personally, it would be a complete change of my life. My earliest memory of being interested in drums was in elementary school. I was probably in grade 3 or 4 and during an assembly the drummer of the school band (its name was Rhonda) did a typical stuffing “around the kit” and I was hooked. In sixth grade, when band class was offered, I wanted to play drums, but they were full of drummers, so I chose baritone trumpet. It wasn’t until after I graduated that I had the chance to try out a friend’s drum set and eventually buy it from him. Within 2 years I was lucky enough to start playing in bands and I never looked back. I have played country, reggae, rock and many original projects on drums both on stage and in the recording studio. About 10 years into my career, I bought a set of congas after seeing a Toto concert with Lenny Castro on percussion. I was amazed to hear and see the power of a drummer/percussionist combo, not to mention the sheer talent of the rest of the band. I had to get into this part of the rhythm and find out more. I read Mickey Hart’s books “Drumming At The Edge Of Magic” and “Planet Drum” which sent me on my own journey to find the other side of drumming. I became friends with a Senegalese drum master who taught me how to play, build, and teach the djembe drum, which led me to many other styles and types of percussion instruments from many cultures.

For a time I was a very busy studio drummer in the Okanagan, as well as playing with some of the best bands in the area at the time. I’ve been through the trials of the road touring BC and Alberta and definitely learned the “pay what’s due” part of the business; There is a whole book to write about just that! When my wife and I moved to a smaller town, there weren’t many openings for drummers. The few bands that were there already had someone playing drums. So I switched gears and played mostly auxiliary percussion (congas, bongos, timbales, etc.) in bands. I was also drawn to some local theater productions, which, by the way, was a great way to hone my reading skills.

Now I have a perfect balance between playing in a weekend rock band, teaching both drums privately and hand drums in groups. I also build and repair just about anything to do with drums and percussion, and have plans to continue marketing some of the percussion accessories I’ve developed over my 40-year career.

But life without the drums? I can’t really answer that, since drumming is such a big part of my personal life. Music has such a powerful effect on me when I play it with other musicians and it is enjoyed by a crowd of people dancing. It is my meditation, my therapy. It is quite possible that I was locked up in a sanitarium at a young age for touching and hitting anything near me and making strange percussive noises with whatever I was holding. At least he wouldn’t be alone there. There would be a million other tappers and thumpers like Ringo’s, Keith’s and Animals to keep up with.

Drum in…