Visceral Musings on the... dammit It's just a post about drumming and music :|

They say the first experience of a child with music is listening to the mother's heart-beat. Then I think that each and everyone of us have an inborn sense of rhythm and time. And it's visible in our most trivial of activities, like walking and clapping of hands.Now I think that's good enough for a cinematic intro. Now let me get to the matter.

   The drum or 'percussion' in technical words was the first instrument ever used by man. I think the reasons are pretty obvious. It is the most basic way to make a sound using your limbs. And still today it is the basic thing that is needed to produce rhythmic music. But what has attracted me the most about it is it's versatility. You can just implement the features of any genre of music into what you're playing, to create stuff of your own in an instant. Whereas I'm sure you'll be finding it quite tough to create an original guitar riff of some decent quality( Well, you may disagree and happily think that you're right). No, I'm not saying that drums are better than guitar( In fact I like listening to good guitarists more), but just that the complexity factor in learning it is much much less. That is why I think they're are a lot more self-taught drummers than guitarists.

   Now everybody has drummed at some point of life. If not, then you're lying. It might have been with Pepsi bottles, or on the bench on an afternoon class at school, or on a proper drum-kit. But i think it's all the same. A more appropriate person to ask would be the drummer Sivamani, who uses plates, briefcases and god knows what else in all his 'big' stage concerts. It's all about the sound and the rhythm. You may use drumsticks, the bare hands, feet, chopsticks, or some goddamn twigs,and if you can make something listenable out of it then you are a drummer. Some guys even start drumming on a guitar. Now that's quite an irony. Well I started to learn to play a drum properly when i was 9 or 10 (can't remember properly). It was the south Indian percussion instrument, the mridangam. Then i started playing on the drum kit when i was 13 and it still gives me a beginner's excitement to play it .

   There's this thing (especially among young people) about musical tastes that seperates musicians into the cool and uncool territory, which I find is totally annoying. Don't know about others, but I respect every genre of music that's out there. Not that I like listening to Vuvuzela's all day, but just the basic respect for all kinds of good music. And another thing is that you never know where some influence kicks in. I listen to everything from Indian classical music to death metal, and it really helps me sometimes to merge stuff together and play something new. The Indian music scene would have been much better if everyone had been true to themselves in appreciating good music. With the vast amount of talent if different genres of music that we have in our country, I find it very hard to believe that musicians don't work together with someone of a totally different genre. Had it been somewhere else, we would have seen a local rajasthani singer performing along with Motherjane (check them out now if you haven't yet) or something of that sort.

                  I had to somehow write these things down in here. They have been lingering in my mind for so much time now. May not make much sense to you, but still you read it till here, so that's good enough for me :)

P.S. -- Next time you are bored and find your books sitting jobless in a corner with lots of dust on them, keep them on a table , and start drumming on them. And take books of different sizes because they give different sounds and give you a great feeling when you find that cool new rhythm.