The History of the Drumset
Drums are among the most ancient and diverse of all musical instruments (Jaffe 2). The power of the rhythm and drums has long been respected (2). The drumset however, in its current configuration, is a relatively recent addition to the percussionist's repertoire. It has only been in existence since around the 1930s (Aldriage 5). This information introduces the question of how did the drumset evolve to its current condition? In his book Guide to Vintage Drums, John Aldriage states "the evolution of the drumset has been a 'one step forward, two steps back' proposition from the start, with trends coming and going and repeating themselves later" (30). That statement just barely begins to illustrate the extensive past behind the history of the drumset. The influence that Africa had can be traced back to the drumset's earliest forms. That influence was originally brought over by the North American slave trade. The slave trade brought over new percussion ideas and instruments. When Americans saw those instruments they began to create different versions of them, which would later evolve to be part of the percussionist's repertoire. For example, the dundun. The dundun is an hourglass-shaped, two
Shortly following the new additions they began to develop ways to simplify their playing and to involve their legs. This included the first and probably most significant addition to the percussionist's repertoire, the bass drum pedal. The first bass pedal was patented on March13, 1894 (Barclay, Lecture). The bass pedal now allowed the player to use both hands to strike other aspects of his/her "trapset" rather than using one hand to strike the bass drum. This opened a much wider range of what an individual was now able to accomplish. These instruments originated in the European area. They spanned a wide array of instruments such as mallet percussion, timpani, bass drums, woodblocks, cymbals, "knick nacks" used to create sound effects, and many others. -headed drum whose twin heads are laced together by thongs of gut or leather (Hart, 52). By manipulating the tension on these thongs a player can alter the pitch of the tone he is making, thus enabling the dundun to "talk", or produce tones that sound like words (52). This allows him to communicate with neighboring tribes (52). Americans took this idea and converted it into a single-head drum, constructed of brass, in which a foot pedal altered the pitch of the drum. This drum was first called the kettledrum and was later renamed to the timpani drum ("Early Percussion"). The last main influence to the drumset was the early (1790s-1890s) marching percussion instruments. The primary reason for a marching percussion section was to provide a tempo for troops to march along with. Every modern army at the time developed a drum language to control the flow of the troops, wh
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Approximate Word count = 1107
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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