Drums

Information about Drums

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Bass drum made from wood, rope, and cowskin
The drum is a member of the percussion group that can be large, technically classified as a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of implement such as a drumstick, to produce sound. Drums are the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, and the basic design has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.Most drums are considered "untuned instruments", however many modern musicians are beginning to tune drums to songs; Terry Bozzio has constructed a kit using Diatonic and Chromatically tuned drums, few such as timpaniare always tuned to a certain pitch. Often, several drums are arranged together to create a drum set that can be played by a musician.

Construction

The shell almost invariably has a circular opening over which the drumhead is stretched, but the shape of the remainder of the shell varies widely. In the western musical tradition, the most usual shape is a cylinder, although timpani, for example, use bowl-shaped shells. Other shapes include a frame design (tar Bodhrán), truncated cones (bongo drums, Ashiko), goblet shaped and joined truncated cones (talking drum).

Drums with cylindrical shells can be open at one end (as is the case with timbales), or can have two drum heads. Single-headed drums normally consist of a skin or other membrane, called a head, which is stretched over an enclosed space, or over one of the ends of a hollow vessel. Drums with two heads covering both ends of a cylindrical shell often have a small hole somewhat halfway between the two heads; the shell forms a resonating chamber for the resulting sound. Exceptions include the African slit drum, made from a hollowed-out tree trunk, and the Caribbean steel drum, made from a metal barrel. Drums with two heads can also have a set of wires, called snares, held across the bottom head, top head, or both heads, hence the name snare drum.

On modern band and orchestral drums, the drumhead is affixed to a hoop (also called a "rim"), which in turn is held onto the shell by a "counterhoop", which is then held by means of a number of tuning screws called "tension rods" (also known as lugs) placed regularly around the circumference. The head's tension can be adjusted by loosening or tightening the rods. Many such drums have six to ten tension rods. The sound of a drum depends on several variables, including shape, size and thickness of its shell, materials from which the shell was made, type of drumhead used and tension applied to it, position of the drum, location, and the velocity and angle in which it is struck.

Prior to the invention of tension rods drum skins were attached and tuned by rope systems such as that used on the Djembe or pegs and ropes such as that used on Ewe Drums.
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Drum carried by John Unger, Company B, 40th Regiment New York Veteran Volunteer Infantry Mozart Regiment, December 20, 1863

Uses

Drums are usually played by the hands, or by one or two sticks. In many traditional cultures drums have a symbolic function and are often used in religious ceremonies. Drums are often used in music therapy, especially hand drums, because of their tactile nature and easy use by a wide variety of people.[1]

Within the realm of popular music and jazz, "drums" usually refers to a drum kit or a set of drums, and "drummer" to the actual band member or person who plays them.

History

In the past drums have been used not only for their musical qualities, but also as a means of communication, especially through signals. The talking drums of Africa can imitate the inflections and pitch variations of a spoken language and are used for communicating over great distances. Throughout Sri Lankan history drums have been used for communication between the state and the community, and Sri Lankan drums have a history stretching back over 2500 years. Japanese troops used Taiko drums to motivate troops, to help set a marching pace, and to call out orders or announcements. Fife-and-drum corps of Swiss mercenary foot soldiers also used drums. They used an early version of the snare drum carried over the player's right shoulder, suspended by a strap (typically played with one hand using traditional grip). It is to this instrument that English word "drum" was first used. The oldest known drums are from 6000 BC.

Notes

1. ^ Weiss, Rick (1994), "Music Therapy", The Washington Post (no. Jul 5,1994), <[1]

See also

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Several American Indian-style drums for sale at the National Museum of the American Indian.

Types of drum

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percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration. The term usually applies to an object used in a rhythmic context and/or with musical intent.
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A membranophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating stretched membrane. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification.

Most membranophones are drums.
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Skin layers: epidermis, dermis, and subcutis, showing a hair follicle, sweat gland & sebaceous gland.]] In zootomy and dermatology, skin is the largest organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of epithelial tissues that guard underlying muscles and organs.
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A drumhead is a membrane stretched over one or both of the open ends of a drum. The drumhead is struck with sticks, mallets, or hands so that it vibrates and the sound resonates through the drum.
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drum stick or drumstick is an object used to strike drums and other percussion instruments to produce sound. Some specialized drum sticks are called beaters, mallets, or brushes.
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Sound is a disturbance of mechanical energy that propagates through matter as a wave (through fluids as a compression wave, and through solids as both compression and shear waves).
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Timpani (also known colloquially as kettle drums) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl commonly made of copper.
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The Drum kit

1 Bass drum | 2 Floor tom | 3 Snare | 4 Toms | 5 Hi-hat | 6 Crash cymbal and Ride cymbal
Other components
China cymbal | Cowbell | Sizzle cymbal |
Splash cymbal | Swish cymbal |
Tambourine | Wood block | Rototom
A drum kit (or
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cylinder is a quadric surface, with the following equation in Cartesian coordinates:



This equation is for an elliptic cylinder, a generalization of the ordinary, circular cylinder (a = b).
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Timpani (also known colloquially as kettle drums) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl commonly made of copper.
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Bowl may refer to:
  • Bowl (vessel), a common open-top vessel used to serve food
  • Bowl (drug culture), the receptacle in which marijuana is placed prior to smoking
  • Bowls, a precision sport popular in the United Kingdom
  • The Bowl (Utah vs.

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For other uses, see Tar (disambiguation).


A tar is a single-headed frame drum. The tar comes from North Africa and the Middle East. Depictions of these frame drums date back thousands of years.
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The bodhrán (IPA [ˈbɔːrɑːn] or [ˈbaʊrɑːn]; plural bodhráns or bodhráin
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Bongo drums or bongos are a percussion instrument made up of two small drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called a hembra (Spanish: female), the smaller drum is called a macho (Spanish: male).
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An ashiko is a kind of drum shaped like a truncated cone and meant to be played with bare hands.

The ashiko drum is played throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas.
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The goblet drum (also chalice drum) is a goblet shaped hand drum used in Arabic, Assyrian, Persian, Balkan, Armenian, Azeri and Turkish music. Its thin, responsive drumhead and resonance help it produce a distinctively crisp sound.
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talking drum is a West African drum whose pitch can be regulated to the extent that it is said the drum "talks". The player puts the drum under one shoulder and beats the instrument with a stick.
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Timbales (or tymbales) are shallow single-headed drums, shallower in shape than single-headed tom-toms, and usually much higher tuned. The player (known as a timbalero
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resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude at a certain frequency. This frequency is known as the system's resonance frequency. When damping is small, the resonance frequency is approximately equal to the natural frequency of the system, which
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Steelpan (also known as steeldrums or pans, and sometimes collectively with the musicians as a steelband) is a musical instrument and a form of music originating in Trinidad and Tobago.
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The Drum kit

1 Bass drum | 2 Floor tom | 3 Snare | 4 Toms | 5 Hi-hat | 6 Crash cymbal and Ride cymbal
Other components
China cymbal | Cowbell | Sizzle cymbal |
Splash cymbal | Swish cymbal |
Tambourine | Wood block | Rototom
The snare drum
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A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who perform instrumental or vocal music. In each musical style or genre, different norms have developed for the sizes and composition of different ensembles, and for the repertoire of songs or musical works that these ensembles
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orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus.
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A hoop is an object in the form of a circular band (resembling a geometrical torus or toroid). Hoops are made of various materials in various sizes for various uses:

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A screw is one of the six simple machines. A simple screw is a helical inclined plane. A screw can convert a rotational force (torque) to a linear force and vice versa. The ratio of threading determines the mechanical advantage of the machine.
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Several factors determine the sound a drum produces, including the type of shell the drum has, the type of drumheads it has, and the tension of the drumheads. Different drum sounds have different uses in music.
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A djembe (pronounced jem bay) also known as djimbe, jenbe, jembe, yembe or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin covered hand drum, shaped like a large goblet, and meant to be played with bare hands.
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Ewe music is the music of the Ewe people. Its highest form is in dance music including a drum orchestra, but there are also work, play, and other songs.

It is featured in A. M. Jones's Studies in African Music. He describes two "rules" (p.24 and p.
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Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a qualified professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.
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Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media. It stands in contrast to art music[1]
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