There are a myriad of types of musical instruments in the world. Both supermodern and those left in the distant past. Centuries pass - the instruments are changing: the harp has "grown" to the harp, the lute has been replaced by the guitar, the harpsichord has "turned" into a piano. From cymbals, humanity came to synthesizers and vibraphones. And only the drum remained practically unchanged …
IN THE RHYTHM OF LIFE
The drum is the first man-made musical instrument. And a blow to dry, taut skin is the first musical sound that our distant ancestor "created". Perhaps that is why we, moving further and further from the times of primitives, are dragging the drum along with us?
Yes, but not only. This primitive device for extracting sounds is not as simple as it seems. And it affects us much more than, perhaps, we ourselves would like.
Actually, the drum can be called a musical instrument very conditionally: after all, it only sets the rhythm. With one caveat - not "just" at all! Because rhythm is the basis of our life, that which structures our being. The heart beats in a certain rhythm, conducting the entire work of the body, there is a clear rhythm in our gait, existence outside the daily rhythms is inconceivable … And the calendar is nothing more than the embodiment of cosmic rhythms within which human life flows. Is it any wonder that man carried the instrument that creates the rhythm through the millennia - and is ready to carry it on, until the end of time.
MOTHER'S HEART
Promotional video:
There are people who do not like violin music. Some people don't like the organ. Someone hates the flute, but there is no person in the world who would not respond to the sounds of drumming. Do you know why? Because the love for these sounds is inherent in us at the genetic level.
No wonder: after all, a measured, booming, rhythmic clatter is the first and for a long time the only sound that a person hears. Of course, we are talking about the mother's heart, under the soothing "song" of which the baby (at first just an embryo) spends all nine months released by nature. Studies have shown that if a mother's heart is interrupted, the baby in the womb panics. What does a little man feel when he finds himself in a big world filled with any sounds, except for the most necessary - rhythmic beats? That is why wise doctors and nannies instruct young mothers: in the first months, hold the baby in your arms for as long as possible, press it to your chest. So that he could hear his heart beating, so that he felt that in the “big world” these sounds did not disappear at all, but only sound less often and more muffled … But always,at any moment you can hear them - and again fall into that blissfully calm state that the baby experienced, not yet separated from its mother.
WE WALKED UNDER THE ROUND OF THE DRUM …
Yes, drumming can put you into a trance, and sometimes that's great. For example, if you are engaged in breathing practices, travel to other worlds and dimensions, master meditative dances … But the drum can also enter a state of combat trance, in which a person loses himself, loses his personality, dissolving in the general mass, in an aggressive crowd. It is not in vain that military parades are held to the accompaniment of drumming, and most importantly, it is the drummer walking at the head of the column who leads the army into battle!
To the rhythmic clatter of ritual drums, shamans and priests of most cults plunge the "flock" into prayer ecstasy, that is, into an altered state of consciousness, getting the opportunity to freely manipulate these people, inspire them with any thoughts, demand any action. It all depends only on the frequency and strength of the beats, on the change of rhythms. That is why the "drum parts" have always been considered sacred: the one who knows how the sacred drum should sound, truly owns the world! By the way, it is known that in primitive cultures the drum was equated with the sacrificial altar. The player who plays it becomes a mediator between Heaven and Earth.
Lyudmila SAZONOVA, Candidate of Art Science