MLT Club Member Jürgen
MLT Club MemberForum Replies Created
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Admirable and remarkable: Evelyn Glennie, who has been deaf since the age of 10. She often goes barefoot on stage to better feel the vibrations of her percussion instruments. Glennie is considered one of the best drummers in contemporary music and enjoys performing with jazz musician Fred Frith, whom she accompanies on the grand piano or drums. Here for a change on the vibraphone:
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Another energetic icon on drums: Cindy Blackman
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Yeah Jung, drum heroes and great women on drums. Here is another one: Viola Smith is considered one of the first professional drummers in the United States. She copied the style from Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich and over time achieved a technical brilliance on the drums that is almost unmistakable. She participated in many swing bands and orchestral works. She probably paved the way for many more talented female drummers with her work and music:
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From Perception to Pleasure: How Music Changes the Brain
Here in the forum sometimes the question arises how it comes that certain sound events, such as rhythm, melodies or harmonies and pitches can trigger satisfaction or even feelings of happiness in us. The answers here are mostly philosophical. My personal opinion: if you want to understand why rhythm and music are so existential for us humans, you have to look at the development of humans in its natural environment and at the same time understand how our brain developed parallel to it. Then, however, we are in the field of human evolution, sensory physiology and cognitive neuroscience. All rather dry and for most people boring fields of knowledge, which can certainly not explain the phenomenon of man and music comprehensively (at least not yet) but provide an interesting approach to understand what happens in our heads when we hear and experience rhythm and music. So if you feel like getting involved in this topic and are not put off by neuronal connections and neurotransmitters: here is an interesting presentation by a neuroscientist who deals with this topic. Just as food for thought. Robert Zatorre, a cognitive neuroscientist, describes what happens in our brain when we listen to music. His lecture is more of a descriptive nature and deals with the question of what is happening. Why our brains evolved this way and why we benefit from it would be the next interesting question.
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Talking about drumming, we shouldn’t forget this crazy little guy:
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A very nice tribute to the music and work of Ringo Starr:
Fun fact: the drum company Ludwig achieved world fame by chance. Ringo Starr wanted to buy a new drum kit in 1963. Until that time, he had been playing one made by Premier. At the dealer Ivor Arbiter (founder of the first pure drum shop in London) he saw a sample of the color "Black Oyster Pearl", which he liked, but only Ludwig had in stock. So Ringo decided to buy this brand. Ivor Arbiter also designed the famous Beatles logo with the dropped T and painted it on the bass drum. As the Beatles became more famous, the name Ludwig also spread, with the logo next to the band's name on the head of the bass drum. In the 60s and 70s, Ludwig was the world's leading drum company. For his services to Ludwig, Ringo Starr received a special snare from the company as early as 1964.
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Here is the entertaining approach of an Egyptian music group to make the body sound:
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Hi David,
thank you for posting the Steve Reich presentation. The minimalist approach is an interesting alternative for me to emphasize certain sound elements, like here the different percussion instruments. However, it is also a hard break with our listening habits (at least with mine). The classic features of a traditional composition, such as the precise definition of pitches, tone durations and the resulting rhythm is missing. A continuous melody is not recognizable either. It’s more like drifting in a complex tapestry of sound. I wondered whether such approaches also existed in modern rock music. Perhaps some progressive rock tracks come closest to this approach.
You have previously reported on John Cage. Do you like minimalist and modern experimental music? Even before your post, I found the following video of this modern perusssion trio and didn’t quite know how to include it in this topic. Maybe this is the right time…🙂
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Thanks David and Thomas for mentioning Karen Carpenter. Not only she was a brilliant drummer and musician, but it’s almost more impressive that she was able to hold her own as a woman in the male-dominated drum scene. The article posted by David presents what are probably the most beautiful moments from her career. From this post I would therefore like to present the following song as a tribute to her life’s work and talent:
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Oh yes David, the Blue Man Group. I never got to see them live, but I’ve seen several excerpts from their shows. Some of the ideas were pretty wacky, but presented in a funny and entertaining way.
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Hi David,
there are a lot of questions left unanswered in the lecture, I know what you mean. But let’s take your idea, why do babies enjoy music? The question is how differentiated the answer should be. If the answer may be rather superficial, I am happy to give my personal theses here (without guarantee, of course).
My personal view: life is rhythm. That starts even before birth. We spend the first 9 months of our more or less successful existence directly under our mother’s heart. If her heart is beating at around 60 beats per minute, then everything is allright. An increased heart rate always means: something is happening, action: good or bad, it always depends on the situation. That’s how we come into the world and from that point on we find everything that happens at about 60 beats per minute calming. All wellness and relaxation music is roughly in this range. Rhythm affects our brain, controls thought processes, influences our sympathetic and parasympathetic system and thus also our metabolism and our organs. Rhythm is also important for physical coordination. Only those who have a basic sense of rhythm can walk, run and climb. That’s why a baby is likely to develop a sense of rhythm, even if it will be quite a while before it can walk. This is a luxury that we humans allow ourselves. The alternation of targeted activation (we call that stress today) and targeted deactivation (today we call that chilling or relaxing) will determine its whole life. The known world consists of rhythms or cycles, too. Day and night. Summer and winter. Rhythm also means organization and order. An orderly, structured rhythm of life is an advantage. Everything else is perceived as dissonant and will probably make you ill in the long run. Order also means predictability. We humans love to feel in control of our behavior and our lives. The constant feeling of being out of control sickens us. Music can offer us all of that: rhythm, structure, organization, predictability. And that’s where neuroscience comes in. If a behavior is beneficial to us and our health or conservation, then it will be rewarded. Eating, drinking, reproduction, physical performance, etc. For this we have the “reward system” in our brain. A sophisticated system consisting of certain brain areas and associated brain messenger substances (neurotransmitters). The neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline, etc.) have been known for a long time. However, their exact effect and the complex interactions they cause have not yet been fully researched. Much of what we do every day is good for our survival, but it is also exhausting. Chasing a mammoth or driving to the nearest mall and getting food for the weekend, is that really amusing? Squeeze through the shelves with the shopping trolley and stand in line at the checkout and wait. Wouldn’t it be much nicer to lie on the sofa at home and relax? But a look in the shopping cart makes up for all of that: the delicious things we packed in there. Anticipation. Dopamine is primarily responsible for this. It activates our reward system and promises us beautiful things. That motivates us. Especially the strenuous and energy-consuming running, which was essential for survival for our ancestors, is rewarded. At a certain point, when the body starts to hurt, endogenous opioids are released. And they also dock in the reward system. Every endurance runner knows the feeling: from a certain point in time, you feel good, relaxed and free. The body follows its rhythm. Perhaps musicians experience a similar feeling. I don’t know. Well, music as a complex form of rhythm also activates our reward system, promotes thought and memory processes. That’s why music makes us happy, content and can also support healing processes in the body. Music also fulfills a social function: it enables communication on an emotional level without having to know a language. Music unites people and creates a social identity. That is perhaps the reason why even babies have fun with music or as Dave put it so right: “It’s absolutely amazing how rewarding music can be!“. Music hasn’t just knocked on our door and said, “Here I am”. Music is part of human development. That’s why we keep developing music.
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Hi Fred, the umlaut is a basic problem here. Never mind. Juergen or Jurgen, thats’s fine. Of course, now that you write it: Slagerij = Slaughter = Schlachter (another word for butcher). Here with us the comic Tintin is called “Tim und Struppi“ and in the German edition the butcher’s name is „Mister Schnitzel“ (I like TinTin’s animated cartoons very much). I suppose that the group Slagheri named itself this way because of the heavy percussion ensemble. I just watched some of their performances. They exude a great deal of dynamism and energy. Have you already seen Slagheri live?
Here’s another attempt to unite as many drummers as possible, even if it’s only virtual definitely a very nice idea.
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Hi Thomas,
thank you for your very personal story. It’s very nice to hear that you were able to realize your dream of making music at the age of 11. I think it’s not easy for budding drummers, as there is often not the right place to rehearse. Your aunt seems to have had a lot of understanding for the musical preferences of your cousin Kevin. Were you able to practice drumming with him at your aunt’s house? It’s a pity that you don’t currently have a band to play with and I can understand that after all these many years of playing drums, something special is missing in your life. What genre of music did you play? Rock music?
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Hi Len,
I struggled with jazz for a long time. My listening habits were geared too much towards rock and pop music. But jazz music is a veritable cornucopia of creative ideas and ingenious musicians. For some, jazz is the pinnacle of music.
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Hi Jacki,
I think as far as music lessons are concerned, we both have probably had similar unpleasant experiences, but finally we ended up here in the music forum and that’s a very good thing. 😀
You mentioned the formation „Stomp“ a while back on another topic. I think they also fit this topic very well:
