Drums again

Drums are hard for me to play. That simple. And then compound that with the fact that building something, without electronics yet, that is then very quiet and you have my first embarrasing performance. Yesterday arvo I made this. Yesterday night I played this.

It’s setup for use with piezos, not attached yet though, that drive a bunch of the previously mentioned ringing oscillators from an early eighties drumbox. After playing it last night and reaching a threshhold of embarrasement because it wasn’t loud enough and highlighted my inability to play with two hands I’ve realised that, on one hand it needs more dangly shimmery options but also it’d be a good idea to mic or piezo the “tins and pots” for their actual sound and the beauty of that is that I won’t need to summ or mix all the different piezos or mics, electrets, because the sounds all come in separately so I can just parallel them all up to the same preamp, while on the other hand technically I need alot of practice being a drummer.

So I had what amounted to a discouraging performance where I felt I somewhat let the side down but in getting the above photo I had to get the offending article out of the back of the car and upon taking it inside, setting it up, and having a little play I was again in the land of wide and open horizons and what little depression I felt entirely subsided. With this setup, incl all the electronics, I’d like to look at the territory between a ringing oscillator and a regular oscillator thats on all the time. Oscillators that ring for a little longer than a drum beat but not to the point where they become continuous.

So with this foray into beats I suppose an underlying dream is coming to the fore and the realisation thereof is becoming more apparent. This dream entails getting together all the instruments and electronics neccessary to create a performance of sorts with a band of similar miscreants to myself that could go around visiting schools and offer performances and a following workshop to the kids. Of course, the whole thing would have to be theatrical as well, costumed, staged etc, but it’s still a little way off but with this particular foray I can actually smell the future of it coming into being. Echoes of future beats coming back to me!