Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is a different approach to drumming.
I’m not a terrible drummer, but I’m also not a particularly good drummer.
Something I feel I’ve taken at its popular assumption, however, is the idea of the drum kit.
A chair, surrounded by drums: The kick drums handled with foot pedals, a snare, some toms, a hi-hat, and one or two crashes. The drummer, given a stick in each hand, will perform a series of rhythmic impacts. Most people know how this goes.
I saw a video, maybe a year ago, where Danny Carey’s performance of Pneuma was being shown to some people, and their amazed reactions were being recorded.
One of these people lamented that he would never be able to achieve this, because he didn’t know how to begin. The show’s presenter then pulled a vase off the shelf in the background, and tapped it lightly with a thin, fibrous stick. The message was clear: Danny Carey used a full kit, sure, but percussion can be made from all kinds of impacts and methods.
I feel like I could improve my own drumming abilities if I explored what shape of kit would work best for me. I’m seriously tempted to do away with sticks entirely, in favor of wrapping a band around each hand, with a wooden bearing attached to one side, to give a sharper sound to hand impacts. I might even completely ditch the assumption of the iconic drums: kick, hat, snare. My drums would likely be made from recycled trash; I’m already collecting some samples in the corner of my room that have some potential.
It would take a lot of rethinking, but I hope to operate a lot more comfortably. The iconic rock band kit is not the “one true arrangement”; it’s just the most popular one.