Drums can be traced back to 6000 BC and have been used in almost every culture throughout history for a variety of purposes. Is it any wonder that the drums have such an appeal today? They've been used as a form of communication, a call to arms, and as important part in some of humanity's most sacred, religious and important rituals.

In Africa, hourglass shaped pressure drums, also called talking drums, were used by natives to communicate to a group, usually as part of a ceremony. Far from making a similar noise each time the tightly-stretched hide was struck, leather cords stretched the length of the drum allowed the person beating the drum to change the pitch by squeezing or releasing the cords. These drums are popular in West African music today.

Message drums, also called slit gongs, were made from a single log, with sounds that could carry 5 miles to another tribe or village. The logs could be elaborately carved or plain, but the emphasis was on the sound. The log was hollowed and slit cut in it, its length determining the pitch of the drum. Native American Indians regularly used slit gongs to communicate, too. Hollowed out logs are among some of the earliest discoveries of a type of drum used in ancient times.

Drums were used as communication devices during the Revolutionary War by troops, as well. Each camp had a drummer who played something designed to communicate their status to the other camps. Drums were used to motivate soldiers to move, they were used when commencing battle, and they were used as the beat for the death march of the condemned.

Medicine men used drums to perform their sacred healing rituals, and most ancient cultures used them in almost every ritual from birth to marriage to burial. The beat of drums is part of our humanity and our heritage, even though it seems that today drums are only used to keep time for rock bands and heavy metal guitar solos.

A truly skillful drum solo may touch that tribal ancestry within all of us and connect with us in ways we can't even begin to understand. Listening to tribal drums may forge such a connection but even listening to modern era drummers and percussionists like the late Buddy Rich can demonstrate the true skill required to play a musical instrument, even one considered as basic as the drums.

Drum sets are a relatively new development, with the first drum set appearing in the 1800s. They let one person play the snare drum, cymbals and bass drum (thanks to the foot pedal) where it always took 3 separate people before. This gave way to drums being used in jazz and swing, and then in the 50s, drum sets being used with rock music.

But the tribal beat that our species played thousands of years ago still appeals. Browse your music score today and you'll find heavy metal music with pounding drums sold alongside entire albums filled with tribal drum solos.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-12-08 21:19:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related Posts

• Taiko Drums Top the Video Game Charts The traditional Taiko drum has a long history in Japan. Split into two varieties, the byou-uchi daiko and the tsukeshime-daiko, the taiko drum is an instrument used in traditional and modern Japanese music. The drums have a new renewal of interest in the young generation as the video game, Taiko......
• The Drum Kit The percussionist in any musical group will have to his aide a number of percussive elements. This set of drums will have a variety of instruments including drums, cymbals, and any other instruments that the musical group will need. Different genres will require differing pieces of equipment. So what goes......
• Primer for Bass Drums The essential driving force behind a completed drum set is the bass drums. These are the heart of the drum set because all of the additional equipment is attached to them. The bass also provides what is essentially the underlying beat to your drumming rhythm. Your drum set needs to......
• Musical Instruments: The Drum, the Heart Beat of Music Many individuals enjoy drums as an instrument that is fun to play and exciting to get to heart but many music lovers truly believe that drums are the heart of music due to the way that they keep time and rhythm for the rest of the instruments or for other......
• Drummer Live 2008 London Drummer Live 2008 was a part of the London International Music Show, and it was a very well attended event. The main showroom was full of drumming musicians, filling the entire building with the energetic drumming. Missing from the event were drummers Ronn Dunnett, and Nicko McBrain. MC this year......

Related Websites

• Choosing A Loan Consolidation Company Carefully Many of the people that would like to find a way to complete a loan consolidation to reduce their debt quickly do not understand the importance of finding a good loan consolidation company.  There are thousands of loan consolidation companies across the nation and each one is charged with matching......
• Musical Instruments Bass When some people hear the word bass, they immediately think about the bass guitar, a popular instrument in many types of music today. However, there is actually a large number of different instruments that fall under the base category, and the bass guitar is only one of them. Bass instruments......
• Music & Emotions: Can Music Really Make You a Happier Person? How many times have you turned to music to uplift you even further in happy times, or sought the comfort of music when melancholy strikes? Music affects us all. But only in recent times have scientists sought to explain and quantify the way music impacts us at an emotional level.......
• A History of Drums and Tribal Music Different styles of drums all have their own unique histories. African tribal music and the drums associated with it are completely unique to the other drum types that have been developed throughout the world. One example of an African tribal drum is the Djembe, a drum that has an extraordinary......
• Introduction to the Bodhrán pt 2 A traditional Irish instrument, the Bodhrán is an open frame drum. The head of the drum is traditionally made out of goat skins, but other animal skins as well as some synthetic materials can be used. The head of the Bodhrán is tacked to one end of the frame and......

Online Stores

• Extension Cords Electrical Solar Home Improvement
• So-Called Dollars Exonumia Coins Paper Money

If you liked this article, vote for it on del.icio.us and stumbleupon.



Categories:

Musical Instruments Drum, Types of Drums

Tags:

american indians, ancient cultures, call to arms, communication devices, death march, drum solo, gongs, heavy metal guitar, hollowed out logs, hourglass, leather cords, medicine men, message drums, music today, revolutionary war, rituals, rock bands, sacred healing, talking drums, west african music