Subtle power

There are a few ways to demonstrate power on the drum set.

The first and most obvious one is through brutal force. The principle being that the harder you hit, the louder the sound. That works only up to a certain extent. Because if you hit the skin too hard, you end up choking them. There is a threshold, a ceiling, if you want, after which the drums cannot give more sound. Even if you hit it with a bulldozer.

Another obvious way is to use orchestration. A a floor tom is louder than a Ride cymbal hit with the tip of the stick. A bass drum is louder than closing the hi hat with the left foot. And, of course, a snare drum is louder than anything else. No matter what: it will cut through.

With these two very popular ways of treating dynamics taken care of, let’s now talk about a third one, a more delicate one. Namely: contrast.

Off to the next blog.