History and Culture of Percussion Instruments

In our long rich history percussion instrumentshad the same origins.
have played a key role in our historic culturalIn recent years, the latest materials and
development through the ages. Additionally a hugetechnology have been engineered to produce a
modern culture exists around percussion drumsplethora of majestic sounds at volumes
that have both a formal and ritual aspect to it.unobtainable in past years. We have also seen the
Below is a very brief overview on how percussionintroduction of electronic drum instruments that
instruments especially percussion drums havelend a different style of music to that of that raw
played a vital role in culture and societysound of percussion drums.
throughout history straight through to modernSome, such as Native Americans, use drumming
times.as a central aspect of many rituals and
If we look at our most primal instruments,ceremonies. Many informal drum circles also exist.
percussion drums would certainly be up there.Some are casual, meeting informally to provide
With their beautifully sounding rhythmic qualitiesdrummers with a space in which to jam and
that resonate with all of us. It is the sheercollaborate. Others are more formal, meeting for
naturalness of these instruments such asspiritual or ceremonial reasons. Percussion
percussion drums that have endeared them to usinstruments also form the basis for various
for centuries.genres of modern music. Rap and hip-hop
Going back through the ages, the first instrumentoriginate from spoken word combined with
ever created was in fact the percussion drums.percussive tracks, with little or no additional
Up until that point the only "musical instrument"instrumentation used. Percussion is a key element
that existed was the simple human voice. It isof dance and other forms of electronic music,
widely though that percussion drums were madeproviding the pounding rhythms that inundate
out of logs, that were hollowed out to create thethousands of clubs nightly.
most fantastic sounding tones that people couldPercussion even forms the basis of
dance and sing to.drum-and-bass, a type of electronic music derived
As human capabilities got greater, there washeavily from complex percussive rhythms. The
further diversification, and this created the abilitypercussion drum, while deceptively simple, has a
for people to add more sounds such as bells tofascinating history that extends from before
instruments. The regionalism of drums alsohistory into modern times. The culture resulting
resulted in a wide variety of percussion drumsfrom that history is equally rich, providing an
each with noticeably different sounds and certainlyenvironment for the expression of many differing
hugely different designs. This resulted in a hugetypes of creativity and the exploration of vastly
array of different sounding instruments that allnew avenues of the human spirit.