Percu-Dance by Curly Fries

CMU105 Musicianship 1A : Percu-Dance by Curly Fries

Rhythm

Lately we have been learning about Rhythm. We looked at lots of different types of drumming, mostly african. We spent time learning african drum rhythms and creating an african drum circle. I was mostly in charge of the bass drum, at first I was finding this difficult, not because the rhythm was complex but because of the timing in comparison to the other rhythms that were being played in the drum circle. Eventually we all got the hang of it and we introduced some improv with cowbells to make the piece sound more interesting. I enjoyed learning this type of drumming because we were also given the opportunity to look into another culture and see what they define music as. Even though drums aren't pitched instruments and don't technically create a melody I believe that the rhythm is almost its own melody.

I believe that rhythm is more memorable than melody "I can't remember any of the pitches that he played, I clearly remember some of the rhythms." Levitin (2006, pg.57) Rhythm is something we all have and its usually the most memorable thing about some music. In a club or at a party or as a solo dancer, we dance to rhythm "Rhythm is what we dance to, sway our bodies to, tap our feet to."Levitin (2006, pg.57) Although music without drums is effective and usually quite soft and pretty I believe that a piece of music with drums has a lot more impact and power. This is not saying that music without drums doesn't have rhythm though. 

After researching other types of drumming we were then given the opportunity to create our own drum group. A few years back I was in the air cadets and in my time there I was part of the band in which I played the snare drum. Ive always found this an interesting and fun instrument so i decided that this was something I would like to do in my own drum group. Me and a few others chose some drums and headed off to rehearse, I taught them a couple of military drum patterns and then we composed some of our own. Although this type of drumming is nothing like african drumming I found that there were some similarities. In both types of drumming several different rhythms can be played at the same time to create layers and texture. They also both have historic backgrounds for the reason the drums are being played. I found that our final piece was very effective and was reflective of military drumming.