PLANET DRUM
  • Home
  • Meet us
  • Memberships
    • Prices
    • Taster Lesson
    • Drums
    • Singing
    • Trumpet
    • Guitar
    • Piano
    • Bass
    • Ukulele
    • Music Production
    • Songwriting
    • Crash Courses >
      • 短期集中コース​
      • 速成课程​
      • Cours Intensifs
      • Crashkurse
      • Corso Intensivo
      • Cursos Intensivos
    • Workshops
    • Kids
    • Arts Awards
    • School workshops
    • Online Lessons
    • Corporate
  • Gift Vouchers
  • Blog
    • Blog index
  • Exams
    • Trinity Exams
    • Rockschool Exams
  • Podcast
  • Resources
    • Practice Rooms
    • Metronome
    • Free online courses
    • Drum Rudiments
    • FAQ's
    • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Meet us
  • Memberships
    • Prices
    • Taster Lesson
    • Drums
    • Singing
    • Trumpet
    • Guitar
    • Piano
    • Bass
    • Ukulele
    • Music Production
    • Songwriting
    • Crash Courses >
      • 短期集中コース​
      • 速成课程​
      • Cours Intensifs
      • Crashkurse
      • Corso Intensivo
      • Cursos Intensivos
    • Workshops
    • Kids
    • Arts Awards
    • School workshops
    • Online Lessons
    • Corporate
  • Gift Vouchers
  • Blog
    • Blog index
  • Exams
    • Trinity Exams
    • Rockschool Exams
  • Podcast
  • Resources
    • Practice Rooms
    • Metronome
    • Free online courses
    • Drum Rudiments
    • FAQ's
    • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

Blog

In order to dance

18/5/2020

1 Comment

 

Not all music is made to dance to, but all drumming is dancing,

even if the rhythm is so abstract the drummer is the only dancer in the room.
While there are some instances where being the only dancer in the room makes (sort of) sense, free improv, ambient, or introducing rhythms that are exotic and whose kinetic potential takes time for the audience to understand, rhythm is at its most powerful when it is able to infect a room with a pulse that compels you to move.
​
Notwithstanding the inertia-dictating set-up of most jazz venues today, jazz was created as dance music, not as music for chin-stroking-intellectuals, unwilling to even move to tap their feet.
As dance and music evolved from jazz into a myriad of styles, those who were firmly stuck to their seats took refuge in an academic approach to listening that froze their bodies even further.
drumming and dancing

Samuel Beckett once wrote: 'Dance First, Think Later'.

It seems that some people have taken Beckett's line as confirmation that it's impossible to do both at the same time, a perfect excuse to not move and look down on dance music as self-evidently 'thoughtless'.
However, thought drives action, and in her book Unthought, Katherine Hayles describes how certain impulses bypass the mind to work directly on the body. Rhythm is one such impulse and can go straight from the source to your body. A stubborn insistence on filtering rhythm through the mind before it's allowed to twitch your muscles merely breaks the direct link between reality and experience; the synergy between performer and audience.
​
The result of such broken synergy is often a room full of people gasping to understand what is happening on a stage where a band is too busy playing to themselves to notice they have an audience.
drumming to the beat

That music can be highly complex,

challenging, thought provoking and fuse styles from around the world without compromising on its body-moving force is apparent in electronic dance genres such as Chicago Footwork, Grime, UK Bass and jungle.
To get people moving, perhaps more drummers should dance first, think later, get rid of seats at gigs, go clubbing more often and remember the words of Funkadelic: Free Your Mind, Your Ass Will Follow!

Merijn Royaards, performer, electronic musician and drum teacher
drumming to the beat
1 Comment
Leslie P link
2/11/2023 09:20:14 am

I thoroughly enjoyed this blog thanks for sharing.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020

    Categories

    All
    Bands
    Bass Lessons
    Blog
    Charity
    Chick Corea
    Composing
    Drumming
    Drum Pads
    Drum Practice
    Drums
    Drum Teacher
    Exams
    Female Drummer
    Guitar
    Interview
    Music Production
    Online Lessons
    Percussion
    Piano
    Podcast
    Practice
    Singer Songwriter
    Singing
    Theatre Shows
    Trumpet
    Tuning Drums
    Ukulele
    Violin
    Vlog
    Youtube

    RSS Feed

Visit by appointment only

Privacy Policy


Hours

Office: M-F: 9am-2pm
Teaching: M-F: 2pm-10 pm,
​Sat-Sun: 10am-6pm

Contact

020 3417 5793
​
info@theplanetdrum.co.uk
​
Contact form

Address

The Crypt, St Mary Magdalene Church
London, N7 8LT
​Highbury & Islington station, 0.2 miles

Leave us a review

On Trustpilot
On Google
​On Facebook
Piano Lessons London
Drum Lessons Near Me
Drumming Lessons London
Drum School London
​Bass Lessons London
​Trinity digital exams
Singing Lessons London​
Vocal lessons London
Drum Courses London 
Drum Practice Room London 
Drum Lessons North London
​
Drumming Workshops London
Rockschool digital exams
Bass Guitar Lessons London
Guitar Lessons London

Drum Lessons Near Me
​Drum Classes London
​
Drum Lessons For Kids
Drum lessons London
Ukulele lessons London