Maybe We Are Catching Up

A quote from the Modern Classical Music section of the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, November 18th.

"Classical concert promoters don't want to recognize the fact that drums, which not so long ago were considered to not be a concert instrument, have now taken over as the predominant attraction of new audiences. In other non-European, non-Western cultures drumming is not only the center of the creative and musical process, but the spiritual core of the whole culture." In our culture, drums have been seen as something that sits in the back and goes boom-boom-boom. So we are just really catching up."

Old news. We've known all along that drums are the main attraction!

But in most (most, not all, no hate mail please)classical music, the drums role is different. It, for the most part, is not providing a groove, backbeat....there is not a rhythm-section per say. I'm not saying the drums or percussion are not important in classic music, it is, but not like jazz, pop, R&B, rock, {censored} etc etc etc where the drums plays a vital role.

But hey, if drums become more prominent in classical music...more power to it.

i'll have you know, when playing classical music, i lay down a FAT groove, deep pocket, etc.

Another important point of the article was that 30 years ago there wasn't a whole lot of music written for a solo percussionist, but the article says, " today thanks to people like Evelyn Glennie there is a growing repertoire of pieces written and concert calendars across the country are drawing large and enthusiastic audiences." Good news for young percussionists.

I kinda miss playing for the orchestra/concert bands... but not that much. They tend to frown on the open beers and lit cigarettes.

When I was in high school symphonic band we were about 6 strong in the percussion section.

We'd have tournaments of card games to decide who got to play what part.

The loser would have to count 32 measures then a measure of cymbal rolls, then another 48 measures, etc... So boring!

Luckily it wasn't all like that. We ended up doing some sweet percussion stuff too.

It's the drummers that go boom boom. lolz.

Thats why I love my class. We only have 3 percussionists.

But I heard another class has 12.