What the drummer is (for an ensemble)

The drummer and/or percussionist is in retrospect the most important member of any ensemble, and I'm not just saying that out of lack of modesty. The percussionist sets the musical flow for which the entire band has to follow and pay attention too in order to sound as solid as possible. Without a percussionist, the ensemble will sound bland and lacking in any rhythm (because wouldn't be any), and with a percussionist who can't keep a solid beat, the entire group will be playing off key. For anyone who loves to dance, I don't think you would be dancing to any club songs if there wasn't some kind of beat created by a bass or snare to bump along too. The talent of drumming ranges from the simple beats kept along with a smooth jazz trio, to that incredibly complicated, technical stuff that's played by progressive rock groups. Whatever the case may be music needs a back beat of some kind, and depending on the percussionist and the style of music, certain degrees of musical education are required to play the drums or percussion in a certain way. Of course, that shouldn't put a hole in creativity. Some of the most groundbreaking drumming and percussion artists are the ones who have combined different genres of music in their drumming, thus breaking any bearier between conventional genres of music. Any group that wants to be creative whether it be a jazz, rock, hip-hop or metal band, should always find a drummer who has a knowledge and influence of several different genres of music.

What the blog's about

OK, I'm going to post blogs about one of my hobbies and pastimes, playing music. Drumming in particualr. My father is a professional musicician and a graduate from the Berkleee College of Music in Boston so ever since I was very young I had a strong tendency towards music and the arts. My father is a drummer and plays with several local groups and gets hired by big bands and swing bands when a drummer is needed. I didn't get started on playing percussion until I was in fifth grade. It was the middle school band so I just started out playing just a snare drum and just the bass drum because we were fifth graders and that' what we were told to do basically. It wasn't until I was in seventh grade that I got started on the drum set. My middle school band teacher allowed me to play the set with two older, more experienced kids, even though I had no prior experience with the concept of hoe to play the drum set. To my surprize, at the very first jazz band practice, I was able to pick up on how to do it instantly. It was then I realized that maybe i have a knack for this kind of thing. When I went on to high school, I kind of lost interest for a while until I got into music that was very drummer and percussion oriented. Bands like Led Zeppelin, Rush, and Black Sabbath rekindled my passion for the set and i eventually started my own band which lasted for about 3 months and to be honest, was pretty terrible, me included. But as I started taking music classes, I realized that the art of percussion was much more in depth than I thought. So for my blogs and project, I will give a run down on different styles, artists, and instruments that make being a drummer and percussionist so freakin cool.