Touch The Sound

Welcome to the brand new Hive Drumming community. There was an old one, but the admin for that has not been around for a long time and that means it cannot be moderated effectively. It only costs a few $HIVE to create a new one. I will do my best to make it friendly and useful. I am open to adding people as moderators once I know them.

I will kick things off with a review of a documentary I watched on Netflix recently. Touch The Sound features Dame Evelyn Glennie who is a top percussionist who happens to also be deaf. You would not know it from her performances though. She has learn to feel vibrations to such a level that she can sense pitch.

The film does have some biographical background, including a visit to the farm in Scotland where she grew up, but it mostly shows what she does in terms of performing and teaching. Evelyn went deaf whilst at school, but managed to keep making music despite that thanks to teachers who believed in her. The film crew follow her around the world as she performs in diverse environments and styles. She plays a snare drum in Grand Central Station in New York, items of crockery in tiny Japanese club and many more. There are several scenes where she improvises in an empty factory in Germany with guitarist Fred Frith. There they find sounds in the structure of the building.

There is no narrator apart from Evelyn herself and I think all the music is from what you see being performed on screen. It also makes you aware of all the sounds that are going on around us all the time. Of course there is lots of music and most of it is percussion with traditional drum kits, Latin percussion in a park and giant Japanese drums. Drum freaks can geek out on all the gear on display.

I really enjoyed this and felt inspired. I only recently started learning to play drum kit, but I have previously played African djembe with a drum circle. I feel I want to do some improvised sessions and will suggest it to some of my musical friends. I did a bit of that in the drum circle and it can be great fun taking an idea for a walk to see what comes out. Everyone can contribute something to the sound.

In the last year or so I have seen a few documentaries about drumming. Netflix has Count Me In and there was a series on the topic on Sky Arts. I expect I could find some more online. There is certainly no shortage of lessons and features on Youtube. I am considering getting some lessons that may be a combination of in person and on line. That is something I will look into for next year. Meanwhile I am having lots of fun with drumming.

Rock on!