Drum It With Brummet

Drum It Forward In 2009 I organized the Drum it Forward project after hearing of the condition of percussion instruments at a local school. My drum student mentioned that his school had no drums to play due to the fact the instruments were in disrepair and no one could fix them. Deciding to do something about it, I arranged with the school to repair their drum set as well as various hand drums and some marimbas. Now their music class had rhythm once again. I recognized that other teachers may not have the budget or skills to maintain drums and percussion instruments and likely would appreciate this help I could give. I was able to help out numerous schools in the interior of BC offering my skills to fix their drums and percussion - and did several trips... loaded up the RV with my wife, two dogs, boxes of parts and drum heads. I donated 2 - 3 labour hours servicing instruments at each school, college or community music teaching centre; piecing together what they had and drawing from th...

    Sound Quotes Sharing inspirational, informative,  amusing quotes from people in the music industry.  Want to submit a quote with our audience?  Find our  Submission Guidelines & Contact Information   HERE "Nobody could have predicted  the effect of John Bonham's drum introduction  on 'Good Times, Bad Times,'  because no matter what he'd played in before,  he'd never had the chance  to flex his muscles and play like John Bonham." ~  Jimmy Page ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

    Did you know ? Larger rodents, like gophers and rats, communicate by tapping their paws on the ground!  Skunks will stomp their back feet so hard they lift their body off the ground.  Beavers will slap their wide tails. Mice will pat their paws on their sides or leaves. That percussion resonates in the soil and across water-ways  letting their families know when there is danger, or if it is safe to come out.  This can also be used to communicate territory, dominance or familiarity.  ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

    Answering Your Q's  Q:  What can you tell us about the history of drums? It has to be the East Indian Tabla, a finger drum. When they are learning to play these drums they have to learn to sing the rhythms first, then they learn to play them on the drums.  You can play many notes on the two drums depending on how you might even change the tension of the skin with the heal of the hand while hitting the drum with the fingers.  Instead of a 4 note phrase like there is in most popular western music, they could have a 23 note phrase. So that's one bar of their music. 23 notes, that he would have to learn πbefore going on to the next one, all this on top of the different timing of the sitar player.  The Tabla is a very intricate instrument and requires mastering polyrhythms.  ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

Drum Trash As a drummer, sustainable entrepreneur and instrument inventor, I am forever finding uses for items often thrown away.  Broken cymbals: Use for special effects (stacks, ribbon crashers) Cut down to make cup chimes: check out the two links below for my method of safely cutting down broken cymbals and the resulting cup chimes.  Part 1: https://drumitwithbrummet.blogspot.com/2024/12/repurpose-broken-cymbals-part-1.html Part 2: https://drumitwithbrummet.blogspot.com/2024/12/homemade-cup-chimes.html ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

    Sound Quotes Sharing inspirational, informative,  amusing quotes from people in the music industry.  Want to submit a quote with our audience?  Find our  Submission Guidelines & Contact Information   HERE "My favorite instrument is the snare drum.  In Scotland, the snare drum is very prominent in Highland bands.  The Scottish style of playing is in my blood.  It's a very powerful instrument,  but it can also be soothing,  like velvet.  It's a real challenge for composers." ~ Evelyn Glennie ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

First aid for your drums Knowing what to look for and how to avoid on-stage disasters that can stop the show can go a long way. Even better is to spot the things that wear out or loosen on a drum set before you hit the stage. When it comes to the nuts and bolts of a drum set and all the hardware that holds it in place, there is no substitute for good maintenance. A poorly maintained kit will provide you many bad memories of scrambling to fix something either just before, or during an important performance you are playing in. Face it – any performance is important and it is good practice to not screw ANYTHING up, if possible. When on stage you want everything to go smoothly so the audience remembers the music, the performance - not the time the drummer’s cowbell fell onto his snare mic during that delicate intro! • Cymbal sleeves can wear through, leading to keyholes. • Pedal springs and hooks can weaken and wear (thinning of metal) • Cymbals crack (edge or radial - can be cut or drille...

  Answering Your Q's  Q:  What is it like to drum in groups? Drumming tends to relax you because you forget about the stresses in life.  It is meditative, only instead of chanting mantras you play a rhythm. It takes you away for a moment.  I have noticed that there is a growing interest in the healing power of drumming, medical practitioners are using them for brain-damaged and autistic patients. They can have fun and do something creative with their minds.  It can be really powerful in a drum-circle.  It can be loud; it can be dynamic too.  Usually the beginner’s workshops are a little louder, but they are a lot of fun. The more advanced circles tend to layer and loop rhythms and that is when you get to hear the dynamics. ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

    Sound Quotes Sharing inspirational, informative,  amusing quotes from people in the music industry.  Want to submit a quote with our audience?  Find our  Submission Guidelines & Contact Information   HERE "When I was in Milwaukee,  I would go into this sneaker shop  near my mom's salon  and chop it up with the older heads about music.  At school, I would make drum noises on the table so much  that I would always get suspended." ~  Sheck Wes ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

  Did you know ? Laboratory macaque monkeys were observed using objects to drum and communicate social dominance to each other. They will use anything around them to create a rhythm including shaking cage doors.  Further research revealed that when monkeys drum, they stimulate the communication areas of the brain, and is this is now thought to be the origin of primate vocal communication systems.    ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

  To Mute or Not to Mute? This is an area of personal preference; some drummers refuse to use any muffling at all and others swear by it. Myself, I have always used slight muffling due to the fact that I was doing studio work (under scrutiny of microphones) when my career first started in the early 80's. In this environment any funky overtones were always addressed.  Rings: I personally don't like the plastic zero-rings as I feel they take too much out of the tone and I like as wide-open a sound as possible. They also got in the way when handled and often got bent and kinked beyond repair.  Noise Gate: I discovered a cheap method that is much like a mechanical noise gate; a small square of terry cloth-like material gaff taped to the edge of the metal hoop (not the head) so when the drum is struck the flap of cloth rises off the head allowing full tone, then drops down onto the head to cut off any discordant overtones. Very effective and very low cost.  Gels: Gels are...

   Sound Quotes Sharing inspirational, informative,  amusing quotes from people in the music industry.  Want to submit a quote with our audience?  Find our  Submission Guidelines & Contact Information   HERE "I love to talk about the drums and music.  I started playing drums when I was probably six  and played a lot until I was about ten or eleven years old.  I had a drum set at home,  and I would just bang on it.  I'd even go on the Internet  and study basic beats." ~ Sean Berdy ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

  Drum Trash As a drummer, sustainable entrepreneur and instrument inventor, I am forever finding uses for items often thrown away.  Reuse Drumheads: Cut strips from snare side head (thinner) for mounting snare wires. Also the snare side is in better shape as it isn't hit. Utilize the aluminum rings from old drumheads for flesh rings on hand drums (cut off mylar and smooth any sharp edges). Use as parts trays in workshop. Give away to less fortunate drummers if not too damaged - drummers change out their heads regularly and their "used" heads are in better condition than a beginning drummer's.  In an upcoming post I describe how my extra parts and pieces helped to implement the Drum it Forward program to repair some school instruments. ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

   Sound Quotes Sharing inspirational, informative,  amusing quotes from people in the music industry.  Want to submit a quote with our audience?  Find our  Submission Guidelines & Contact Information   HERE "It's certainly no coincidence  that big bands became the entertainment  of the army in WWI and WWII,  and that jazz drumming style is very military influenced.  The snare drum comes from the military  and becomes the core sound of jazz drums." ~ Damien Chazelle  ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

    Did you know that Dave is also an author ?  Find this book at:  https://www.amazon.ca/Down-Road-Collection-Dave-Brummet-ebook/dp/B0DYS8DVS9 His family memoir recently received this amazing review: “Lillian and Dave - your  Down the Road  feels like a time capsule cracked open with heartbeats still echoing inside.  Four generations, wars, migrations, love, grit you didn’t just write a memoir; you stitched a quilt out of history’s forgotten whispers.  The kind of book that smells like old photographs and coffee-stained letters. You two have done it all from talk radio to blogging to drumming up (literally) inspiration and somehow your story still deserves louder applause.”  ~ M. Meadows Aren't our readers absolutely wonderful !? ** Visit our full library of books & be sure to follow us there to be notified when we publish one of numerous #books in our publication schedule.   https://www.amazon.ca/stores/author/B0845RLK1X ~~~...

  Did you know ? The oldest drums were found in Neolithic cultures in China  about 5,500 BC, & scientists believe  they were  often played for ceremonies. ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

  Sound Quotes Sharing inspirational, informative,  amusing quotes from people in the music industry.  Want to submit a quote with our audience?  Find our  Submission Guidelines & Contact Information   HERE "The thing about playing percussion  is that you can create all these emotions  that can be sometimes beautiful,  sometimes really ugly,  or sometimes sweet,  sometimes as big as King Kong  and so on.  And so there can be a real riot out there,  or it can be so refined." ~ Evelyn Glennie ~~~     Follow Dave:   on Amazon Subscribe to:   Brummet Media​ YouTube Channel​  ​ ~~~

  Tuning Concepts I would like to share some knowledge on tuning your drums the old fashioned way - by using your ears and a drum key. Yes, there are several tools available to help you tune a drum, but personally, I believe in learning the old school way before costly gadgets and tools were available. Besides, not everyone has the budget for one of these devices ($65-$150) or wishes to pack around another thing. Over the past 45 years I have developed a system that for me, has worked - and got me a ton of work in recording studios, because my drums sounded so darn good! Good sounding drums make me play better which in turn makes the band I am playing with sound as best as it can. I have always received positive comments on the sound of my drums and engineers rarely had any changes to make. I know the effort it takes to tune my drums well is worth it when onstage a guest vocalist turns around and says, "man those sound great!"  Rather than repeat what another drummer has alre...