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With most of my drums in storage (along with most of my other possessions) this weekend's drum circle involved a much abbreviated collection. I had my Mid East ceramic doumbek, a Remo 14x4 "Planet Drum", The big 22" Remo Ocean Drum, and the bag of small percussion. I also brought my stick bag so I'd have all my mallets.
I'm really getting into the big ocean drum. The dual sides with different surfaces allow some really nice tonal variation, and the size of it gets some nice depth. I've found it nice both by hand and with a mallet. My gong mallet is really nice for playing master rhythms -- not too much edge to the attack, so it gets a great boom. In fact, I was able to keep a testosterone
drummer on a large drum restrained using it.
As a traditionally trained musician, I am into phrasing and "line curve" in a rhythm. As a result, I started playing with the master pulse and turnarounds. It allowed me to build turnarounds at the 4 phrase point, with more intense turnarounds at the 16 phrase point (4 4-phrase groups) and really strong ones at the 64 phrase point (4 groups of 4 4-phrase groups). This gave the performance some sense of curve and development, and the dancers really seemed to key off it too.
I've realized that I need to work on stamina. I drummed for about 3 hours, all told, and I could really feel it the next day. (I've also realized that I can keep a steady beat even when the dancers are actively trying to distract me. Useful, since we had some very distracting dancers there...)
All in all, a great circle. I need to do that more often.
I'm really getting into the big ocean drum. The dual sides with different surfaces allow some really nice tonal variation, and the size of it gets some nice depth. I've found it nice both by hand and with a mallet. My gong mallet is really nice for playing master rhythms -- not too much edge to the attack, so it gets a great boom. In fact, I was able to keep a testosterone
drummer on a large drum restrained using it.
As a traditionally trained musician, I am into phrasing and "line curve" in a rhythm. As a result, I started playing with the master pulse and turnarounds. It allowed me to build turnarounds at the 4 phrase point, with more intense turnarounds at the 16 phrase point (4 4-phrase groups) and really strong ones at the 64 phrase point (4 groups of 4 4-phrase groups). This gave the performance some sense of curve and development, and the dancers really seemed to key off it too.
I've realized that I need to work on stamina. I drummed for about 3 hours, all told, and I could really feel it the next day. (I've also realized that I can keep a steady beat even when the dancers are actively trying to distract me. Useful, since we had some very distracting dancers there...)
All in all, a great circle. I need to do that more often.
