Making Music with Drums

Drums belong in the family of percussion instruments, and most people seem to have the idea that percussion instruments are cool and hot. This is because of the rock rage that we have in our century, and the idea that striking an object with adequate force (or even violently) will produce rhythm instead of noise.

The conclusion may be drawn that those playing drums may (or may not) have rage inside them, and hitting the drums is a channel for them to release their aggressive emotions.

To play a drum, it is crucial to know first what a beat is, and whatever beat you are thinking of should have timing, pattern or rhythm. With no beat, just noise and not music would result from hitting your percussion instruments.

You can begin learning and practicing a beat even without a drum set. Utilize your hands and even your furniture to improvise and practice those beats you dream up. When you have the beat going, you can now move to your drum set and hit those notes with your drums.

Before you start playing your drums, though, it is helpful to learn the different types of drums and the sound that they create. The Bass drum with its low resonance, the snare with its sharp, rasping sound, the resonating cymbal, which can be further differentiated as high hat, ride, crash and splash, and the tom-toms.

Now, striking the drums with your hands would be a little painful, unlike when you're practicing on your table, so using and properly holding drumsticks would make a big difference. You only hit the drums with the tip of your drumsticks, holding them near the bottom.

Making music by striking objects may be challenging, but do not be disheartened when you don't make music at first. Pretty soon your arms and feet will move to the beat in your head, and your playing will improve as your movements become coordinated.

Angela Nazario, is a freelance web programmer who enjoys writing articles about learning music on the side. See Music Wizard's "Library of Music Articles" at http://www.MusicWizard.com/info/ .

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