if (strcmp() > t= engine_get(t)) {?format=<lucid|achilles>... --- drums & music --- In Speed Metal, Fastest Drummers Take a Beating Few Humans Can Keep Up in Battle With Drum Machines http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304591604579288531126033... [q] When new technologies arrived, metal drumming standards entered the realm of the physically impossible. [/q] /* so i read the above article and it reminded me of some issues perhaps correlatable with computing today.... i have thought about this a lot after taking up electronic drums for music therapy, learning via self-study, to benefit from the rewiring of circuits and coordination, etc. very much like juggling actually, these two realms combining, and also extending into processing concepts in terms of looping and sequencing of patterns. first, there is so much going on that shares a fundamental limit with how music is conceived of and limited to an outdated paradigm based on perceptual awareness, that the framework of ordinary approaches normally assumes an absolute frame of one-way movement in time of a coordinated group led by a conductor, and this is how music is processed, organized, how songs are defined, relations, instruments designed, etc. like a rationalization in a given view that then may not allow other dynamics in that controlled domain, even, if not due to heresy what this leads to is a technical approach, to refinement, where virtuosity is tied to speed and dexterity and memory, repeating over and over older code performances as flawless as possible, within a range of interpretation though in a finite or contained or bounded way. this extended into radio, recordings or copies of originals, and mp3s, copies of copies, then carrying on this ~music or sound-information or patterning, people training to repeat play the code via lifelong training of authority-based instruction, yet the ideas and concepts fixed in a narrow range of thinking, as if music itself has become its own notation. music as signage. the language of music overtaking the music of music, as its truth. rote performance in a sense. so the assumption arrives at a song if successful, plays eternally, via endless concerts and furtherance by others repeating the code. instead of, perhaps a song only exists in its truth once, in a singular instance, and then it is another song, and cannot be recaptured the same. also: that there are experts or musicians, education needed to play complicated instruments whose interfaces are cryptic to the uninitiated if not musicians themselves, by technical design or engineers who make equipment, yet the _musicological questions have been removed from these same instruments, in their further development in an electronics-based context, especially with computing, where now instruments ship buggy and broken, designed to fail, and with artificial limits or constraints that prevent anything beyond existing bounds from being explored, to control and shape parameters that feed into existing industry automation, as if new music is another can of soup on assemblyline, volunteered or subsidized, paid for the ideal technical performer, to which technology itself aspires, is the robot musician who can function at speeds and with memory and dexterity and coordination humans cannot, and yet in this substitution or equivalence, the truth of music as more than repeated patterns is lost to a reductionist approach, where it is merely language as language, doing things yet at another more detached layer, perhaps even disconnected from a relational, emotional grounding via music, such that it becomes or is technique, only, music as technology, audio engineering with a pleasing aesthetic layer determined by polls and behavioral psychologists if it makes a brain wave peak or entrances a heart rhythm, therefore determining it is effective as an influence, meant to modify or control response, including salivation via music-video [video] A Mohawk Robot With Four Arms Is Playing The Drums... http://www.memecenter.com/fun/691462/a-mohawk-robot-with-four-arms-is-playin... [video] Robot Drummer Animatronic - By: Steve Joy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nUAi8kDR_4 ...thus, the future could be with a 'drummer' in a band that is a machine or automaton, a puppet or animatronic model with increased capacity to perform serial gymnastic sequences of patterns, and this could involve more than four limbs in-sync, as part of a core band-setup. (if you see a Chuck E. Cheese robot at a future concert- run!) Chuck E Cheese's Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEWiilxASZM SO-- MAYBE THINGS ARE ALREADY THIS FAR GONE... in terms of destruction of culture and robotic repetition of 'songs' as if babel, where meaning is replaced by pattern matching as a potential condition where music is a disconnect or escape or bubble condition or virtual layer of self that is sustained in the parameters of music, though this in a context of engineering and a loss of insight from music as music, or from 'new music instruments' via electronics, beyond a given conception that locks it into a realm of calculation and computation, versus a larger exploration of ideas and truth beyond previous limits of what music was conceived of, such that today music is a regression, several centuries caught in an inaccurate framework that perhaps results in its being an inward or introvertedness that is this interaction, lost to the reality of the present day, as if a dream-state yet in a negative dynamic, via detachment, as if a higher state or condition when instead perhaps ungrounded, unreal, fantasy, ego even, as if everyone wants to read eachother's diary and relate on these terms, then go buy stuff and copy one another and belong in the latest trend engineering, as if on gerbil wheel, used as engine and energy for cultural development in these devolved terms, against higher truth and greater relation than only what can be achieved within the contained, forced dynamics it doesn't need to be this way, yet that is where it is heading, seemingly without alternative, due to a status quo that is unquestioned (again, loss of culture, language, communication, and awareness to reason and agree and develop otherwise). so the ideal tends towards the future of this guy: Robot Drummer: “Spruce Deuce” http://highlyliquid.com/hl2012/blog/304 [video] Spruce Deuce v1.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfVCmPT6l68 ...where, via archaic MIDI protocols, and further refinements, such an 'electronic drummer' or 'MIDI drummer' would be able to replace a drummer by technically playing or ~performing a score, in place of a person, yet able to do more than a person and at greater speed/accuracy if developed this way, while lacking in other parameters, like being a human, relations with others in the band on an intuitive level, (beyond those designed for intercommunication and control). for instance, if built-out of specs allowed it, perhaps such a drummer could keep up with "speed metal" genre drumming, who knows- maybe even puffs of smoke could emit from eyes and elbows, flames from ears, to bring in extra effects layers to bring the point home of what is going on- the superman as robotic emulation that surpasses functionality in a limited technical domain - minus actual awareness, musical ability, beyond repeating code if mimicry, though perhaps with AI, its own sensibility could develop, though as music it may remain ungrounded beyond its being about matched patterning, or so it seems highly likely that a gap exists between generating music off a midi-score as interpretation and someone having insight about what a song means or is about- though perhaps music is not this today or does not extend that principle into its technologicalization, where technique replaces it, thus the format, the hit song as pattern, remade over and over and over, played over and over, that level of mindwashing and brainwashing of media, commercials having more insight and truth than many songs in their at least attaining authenticity, honesty in communication than other more manipulative or hidden-profit behind fashion trends agenda of cult engineering, this multimedia spanning all of consumption, from ego to attitude to clothes to drugs to status to in-group out-group, as if everything is mediated as if a school hallway scene, that level of adolescence mainstreamed with geriatrics continuing the illusion, ultrahipcool (this is to critique music as marketing, as if a style that can be 'canned' into formatting that then contains its essential quality or value (truth) versus more superficial aspects of this that can involve mimicry or repetition of previous patterns, language as music, or music notation as if music itself, the code referencing itself for its validation and not connected or external truth, which then can become ungrounded from culture it supposed represents/describes. in this way it may not exist as general 'shared consciousness' as believed, even while marketed and profiting this way, an engine of success or business model, versus of aesthetic truth that communicates beyond these boundaries, into another realm of awareness, understanding, perhaps involving musical communication between individuals as a basis for computation or establishing social relations, a level of shared awareness based on music as foundation for literacy in its interdisciplinary depth) the gap is what, then. where. how. who (cannot ask that question). why. (probably not that either). the situation or context is... about a shift in culture, values, perception, including loss of awareness and understanding, governance, replaced by technical approaches, managers of other principles, developed into a remotely administrated and controlled framework. music. instruments. media. relations. skills. truth. consciousness. bound into this, held back by it, captured and contained with it. detached from self, group, and higher aesthetic functioning so in a pre-electric context, 'drums' once used for communication and signaling then evolve into a drum set, from marching band carrying around a bass drum and others snares, to putting these on the floor in a given arrangement and going at it within other parameters, that level of change and new consideration- big band era, then moving into mics and mixers and amplification-- and with electronics, presumably, the first drum machines, not unlike a lot of repetition-based rhythmic processes that could be programmed, yet with sound versus say telephone multiplexing via routers, etc. sound engineering and music production then having overlaps, a large electronics hobbyist dimension becoming an electronics industry in music via all the electronic gear, do-dads, extras, that help establish or create a given sound or noise, a signature, seemingly everything believed justified the resulting 'end products', or not. in that 'shaping a unique sound' may be at the expense or cost of retaining or accessing or developing music principles within instruments themselves, that functionality lost. instead turning to presets, of which add-ons then allow to be further tweaked, 'refined' as a 'unique signal', though not necessarily dealing with its production or possibilities prior to the condition of notation, as language, within those de/con-fined parameters and frameworks. (so everything is really special, though not necessarily meaningful as music, though as private communication that is capable of being modified to n-degrees, that is an effect for that, and a chain of them will be your own special sauce, as long as not sharing the electronics secrets though in these days, logfile and receipt snooping, someone will be able to piece it together and soon enough another clone of the sound will arrive out of central music formatting inc, and replace efforts with a chart-topping hypnotic hit, to selling fries at baseball games next. talk about the patriotrism, worksong. talk about the commercialism, musical careers today, infected by the celebrity worm as a basis for cultural communication within these parameters then also framing questions of music, feedback only in certain institutional views deemed ok to support the charade of one-way authority over this process, keeping questioning at bay) then things hit the wall. no progress beyond a certain point in music instruments in this 'new and improved' electronics context. like everything has been stuck in the 80s with equipment, excepting that of midi-controllers which makes the computer into the instrument, and music into a question of excel-like parameterization, and HTML-webpaged, canned production via tools and endless varieties of hot-swap software circuits, emulating plugboards & everything thus, the disemboweling of piano into keyboard controller that requires a computer to work as a sound-device, that can then be mapped to organ, synth, piano, or other sampled sounds. and somehow, via MIDI, the keyboard becomes the centerpiece and limit to further MIDI considerations, such that the piano-roll defines music in terms of its notation (sign=sign) and does not question possibilities or concepts of music beyond those so far technologized, such that dials, buttons, and switches, then map out this quasi-instrument as 'reading/writing' tool yet only in a very limited dictionary and with highly biased, warped selections to choose from and within that finite realm-- all music is allowed, yet nothing outside of its model is possible to explore. such that, sure you can play along to a preprogrammed hip-hop pattern, yet it is not possible to split a note geometrically, or move things in space-time, or program music in its code outside its being a representation - tape-recorder playback of given filtered action, in a linear, one-way, authority-based approach all based on a narrow approach to time, this embalmed in the MIDI spec, basically killing off potential for music in an electronic domain by turning it into a technical question with a given response, rationalization, set of choices; the question of music is absent in these tools, they are designed instead to produce copies of what already exists within parameters that already exist, that is the specific raison d'être the electronic drums and drumset being two different things, the ecosystem never uniting beyond the parts, then moves into a computer-based context of desktop controllers where people can play drums with their thumbs to 'set down beats' with little capacity beyond this same level of dexterity in terms of what it involves as a question of drumming, beyond say input via tapping on a desk to get a beat, than say communicating larger longer ideas than what fits into a given set of software fields for MIDI rhythms, the foundation of the music. drums are more than this. though in a digital audio workstation (DAW) context, sometimes not more than an arbitrary string needed to generate others that are output as new songs, song as information, information as communication. and perhaps that is all okay, necessary even in terms of the situation, yet music involves vastly more than this in terms of questions and shared cultural communication. though it seems to have been made trivial, as if only a technical exercise, and equated with meaning and skillls that go far beyond this and ground in a larger framework or knowledge that potentially even some of these tools do not allow it is not to suggest taking away the freedom to explore music in varieties of ways, instead it is to question the depth or shallowness of this exploration as a standardized, normalized, and mainstreamed as music produced and received as culture, dumbing-down awareness and then accepting culture at a lower level than is necessary to relate within, socially, mentally, emotionally. unless everyone is in a crib playing with shiny toys and rattles, making noise, and that is the shared condition (perhaps requiring being drugged out of your mind to not be bothered by it, especially in terms of aesthetics and lack of insight, the din of 'music noise'() so this realm completely fascinates me, there is total potential to turn this situation around via another conceptual approach, a paradigm that meets the electromagnetic situation and reframes music within a more accurate nonlinear/multilinear context, getting outside this narrow false absolutist view from classical ideology and music training, its institutionalization and into new parameters and functionality that opens up the instruments for music literacy, understanding, development of skills, interaction, relations, based on music as a shared practice tied into with literacy, social development, awareness, technological advance and refinement, and at its core, about aesthetics, thinking and ideas, truth accessed and involved for instance, take the robot drummer situation. compared to the Def Leppard drummer who lost a limb in an accident and continued to drum one-handed, via technological assistance. a similar condition exists with juggling, where some believe that you need to juggle more balls than your hands to be juggling, thus 2 hands require at least 3 balls to be 'juggling', and yet it also is implied that less than 3-balls is not juggling, when anyone who learns to juggle quickly realizes the steps it takes to get there involves being able to juggle two balls with one hand, that this is a core skill (and adept jugglers can juggle three balls if not more balls in one hand) It is this kind of false limit that may keep people away from juggling because not everyone is at the highest skill level or will achieve that virtuosity yet could still benefit from juggling at a lower level as a learning practice. and if someone only has one-hand, it could be legitimate juggling to juggle 2 balls and is in essence the same as juggling with two hands and three balls in that certain principles are involved and shaped and can be explored in those parameters, such as movement, speed, height, and so on. including with those two-handed, that learning to juggle one-handed in each hand is a core skill and necessary to be effective at juggling, as this ambidextrous condition is what is a challenge, mirroring of various patterns in different directions, thus starting with one-side or the other, as this effects brain processing, as if the pendulum is involved or something that connects both hemispheres of the brain as the side that is preferenced then moves into new relation with the other side, neutralizing out bias given the amount of practice, developing new nerve connections, brain cells, this changes memory circuits, functionality, coordination, thinking or possibility, even, opening up options instead of accepting given limits, and learning step by step how to go about this drum sticks are very much like this, one hand biased and learning to use both, coordinate, and explore basic patterns, from the most basic, single tap here, single tap there, to multiple tap sequences then mirrored across to the other side, as with changing direction in juggling a given pattern, reversing it, so too, using drumsticks to tap out rhythmic structures in reverse using opposite hands, and learning from this as a skill, process, many dimensions involved so the big failure of 'the drummer' in the intro article is that they cannot keep up with the MIDI score, and a better clock is needed or metronome so others can play in sync together 'as a band', thus the computer solves the technical problem. the drummer as instrument not good enough, supposedly, in a high-tech context. what is needed instead is a Shiva-like multiarmed character with insane speed and processing ability, then the band would look good while the drummer flails and generates smoke and heat. [image] album cover http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_npo9ydLAc3I/SEWXECn2ddI/AAAAAAAAAZU/cmS_5TjZ_S8/s4... the thing is- as with early photography studies by Muybridge of horse hoofs on the ground- the time-lapse of a drummer is indeed this multi-armed epiphany doing what to most is physically and mentally impossible to coherently understanding in real-time, even if it is dissected, because the issues of dexterity and awareness may be so beyond what most people are capable of, that it is really a unique skillset and capacity to be able to take this functioning on at a higher level, requires special skill or talent or dedication to attain that performability, and yet, slowed down, it can also be more manageable for others at a different skill level or way of playing that does not just rely on speed or given styles of playing. drums are not just a particular sound, style, genre, or format, it could be opened up to more than is questioned today in terms of the instrument - in that instead of emulating and rationalizing a style or particular approach to drumming, it could be requestioned based on more knowledge than an extended linear progression of a given trajectory allow - such that separation of drum machine from electronic drum set may not be structural, only a choice, and likewise others so in a non-profane context of serious issues with the way equipment is and its technical limitations, consider the sculpture of Shiva in terms of its capturing this increased capacity that is some inherent limit in the given technical approach for ~electronic drumming... Multi statue armée en Thaïlande http://fr.123rf.com/photo_11044455_multi-statue-armee-en-thailande.html so consider again the issue of time. if this was a many-instanced view, most drummers would have a sequence very much of this many-armed approach. though if a score is sped up so fast, at some point only a multiarmed robot or a superfast two armed robot could feasibly drum at a certain pace, beyond human capacity, due to time, energy, ability to process information. it is perhaps a classic case of multitasking though within a group-subgroup dynamic of (drumset (drums)) where a certain limit is approached to what can be performed in terms of given parameters of functioning. multitasking -- handyman http://www.affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/handyman_small.jpg multitasking -- office work http://www.getthere-fromhere.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Shiva-Image.jpg not sure if it is evident yet, though this is a condition also existing in computing, whereby there are large gaps between tasks that have no larger relation to one another beyond certain limits or parameters, incompatible or unintegrated software or frameworks or approaches, thus atomizing everything into a separate domain or task or chore, and thus losing efficiency, whereby 'speed' is the ability to coordinate in that framework, keep it coherent, and get things done simultaneously, not unlike banging out a sequence on drums where is this going? there is a physical and mental limit to what can be done and it can be reached and then hold back functioning, as a barrier, yet also people can be judged against what is an institutionalized inefficiency or false constraint, due to design, that forces these dynamics, which can then turn against efforts, such as making 'work' less productive, etc, even when home computing was sold as an efficiency device, to make things easier when instead it becomes more and more time-wasting chores and routines, upkeep, hassle, etc as if an ulterior motive designed in from the start, its dysfunction programming and formatting user dysfunction. in this way, the problem with tools shaping the user via negative influence, the dynamics set up in a devolutionary or regressive way, via detached, ungrounded, unreal, or otherwise inferior approaches that then become standardized, the norm to follow, etc so this is about time, about tools and technologies in a context that are interacted with, communication, and about intent or symbiosis between a person and technology, perhaps bridging into a larger organization of others and other technology (playback, etc) the electronic metronome is basically the keystone to electronic drumming in a band in so far as it relates to music notation, a style of playing, the shared 'music score' as code & program. that a person would have to play so fast to keep in sequence is akin to GHz and CPUs, as this relates to design parameters, is it really better or a design approach leading to other values. though the central idea is that timing and drums are structuralized in the framework of a band and a drummer performs an advanced metronome function within the band, that today for some a machine can replace and extend into other functionality that may or may not be manageable by or with a drummer at the helm. in place of a drummer, some have a PC with software tracks, hooked into mixer, controlling drums via software interface. others have drummers with triggering of additional samples or patterns, to allow this information management via sticks hitting trigger/sensors in the drum kit, to activate a given sound or sample or recorded playback. so the upper limit appears to be- a physical entity aka drummer cannot feasibly play this or play it as needed , thus some electronics equipment or tools will do it, and perhaps there is no need for a drummer in the band, they are not fast enough or cannot manage the sounds, (perhaps even there is irregular timing or something, cued other than by drums, etc). so here is a bit of clarity on this situation: no where does it say there has to be only one approach or direction with 'time' in music, and yet it is a forced perspective that has now become the structure for all electronic music instruments, in a one-way flow of time that moves into 'speed' as a view of increased or advanced processing. as if linear flow is all of it. music has no perspective, no dimensionality, it is a flattened realm of inquiry stuck within an 16-18th century notion of space-time that is pre-Einstein, perhaps pre-Copernican even, as if everyone needbe sitting at the feet of Beethoven then evolving to churn out rap songs next in endless strings of concatenation of themes, structures, values, as if 'composers of reality', eventually by way of merely saying or singing language to various melodies and tunes, as if music and song is definable in fixed parameters endlessly extendable, never stale, rotting and the ruins of culture, festering and stank in its role and importance, loss of connection with truth beyond finite beliefs shared in-group, scaled to consumerist ubiquity & for sale why could there not be 'many clocks' at once, perhaps moving in different directions within a drum set. in an acoustic context this is not possible. in an electronic drum set it is possible yet not able to be explored given the way things are designed and structured for emulation and extension of previous styles. the depth of music buried under an emptiness of its value and insight by a genre past its time, yet repeated endlessly on the radio and online as if eternal, vs. cultural tyranny of noise that seeks to mask out other views, stand in as if 'the standard' when instead this is conceit, based on power politics, control over media, enforced authority and forced perspective, that somehow everyone holds certain musical truth in common, as if aesthetics and shared awareness can be engineered for and scaled to populations via expert propaganda of repeat iconic performance, tv-specials, awards, superbowl halftime shows i have several ideas about a new approach to electronic drums as an ecosystem of various components, including mixer, looper, sequencer, sampler, metronome, and drums combined into a single instrument interface. much like a web server that spans another virtual machine or process, to manage or access another dimension, so too, why not allow a drummer to have 'multiple arms' via the tools themselves, by allowing a drum machine to capture patterns that the drummer plays, set them up as a loop in real-time, and then add and subtract and shape this information while it is live within the equipment. many clocks, different directions for the sound, starting one pattern in certain instruments and send it in a given direction and then another with different sounds in another direction, and let them go on their way while playing yet another sound, different rhythms, within this layered context. hell, who needs a band, even, if you have such a drum set. this is more like drumming as programming though in haptic or even neuro-feedback or voice-control interface, prototype for future computing even in its communicative function, if considering performance could be over the network and thus local and remote via HDTV connections. so shared work model in teleconferencing into music, new MIDI standards allowing multiple times, though far more is involved than can be sketched here in these parameters. the larger point of it is that even though it is not allowed, 'the music' of drumming exists in a context beyond the way the equipment is now designed, yet could be reconsidered, once again questioned for what is going on in musicological terms, the substance of instruments, and then open up these parameters for music to breath within versus be stifled by lack of ability to do anything other than playing as fast as possible as the innovation path available, versus multilinear and ecosystem and other dynamics that could also be possible, if these situations would be evaluated in their truth, versus just as profit for the automated machine and music-production ideology that formats these tools as formulaic, calculator-like devices that produce endless strings of self-same limited parameter computations over and over, as if equated with heightened awareness and grounding of culture by mere communication. in other words, maybe virtuosity of expertise in a given instrument is not the aim or goal and instead literacy of music via instruments and as a way of forming and shaping awareness and consciousness and forming a basis for shared communication at a greater depth than existing culture allows though has historically been achieved and held with great reverence, in that music forms the centre of shared experience, brings many together in one relation and that instruments can do likewise. (in this regard, some of my ideas include people being the performance themselves, musicians as networks of multiple timed looping patterns and interacting as ecosystem, being able to move through music at any point or path as with software models thus the song is interpretable, non-repeatable even, an environment that is navigated, this could include performance, headphones allowing positioning or moving around acoustic space, etc. software tools anyone can use to learn musical principles. musicological instruments that redevelop existing types along more fundamental musical structures and principles, such that music instruments are reading/writing instruments, gaining that level of interaction and ability to communicate beyond existing notation parameters that deter such developments) a drumset that is grounded in its electromagnetic context and can access the truth of this condition in that parameters of music allow it to be tapped into, explored, understood, and experimented with, then potentially relates to a next-level of computation of the sensor-based environment requiring orchestration from within chaos, into order, via looped patterns of tasks and routines of separate elements (whether tom-tom, sequencer, metronome, or pantry, computer, e-ink wall display). the larger dynamics involve similar principles, how to manage multilinear flows of information, shape them, program them, secure functioning while existing or starting in another framework. how to make the transition, what is the conflict in ideas or ideology, what if the difference in values, in control, management, authority, is truth driving the process or its representation that can be warped, subverted, and what if what today does not work together at all instead could be naturally, organically cohesive as an ecosystem, harmonious, due to recognizing shared principles, functionality, parameters and functionality that are symbiotic, and provide feedback in shared frameworks that benefit the whole infrastructure which is scalable, because it is based upon shared truth this truth of music is truth of life, truth of culture, truth of people, truth of society, that is the value that has been replaced by another set of principles moving in an inhuman direction that then holds people against its values as if inferior when it is the opposite- these tools need to serve people, not the other way around. they should free the imagination and open-up options, not deny or break these connections to maintain some other agenda or priority; and yet music like everything else has become trapped in this realm of falsity, held captive to mimicry and substitution of a false-view, seldom do i hear music of my own nature anymore and thus these words about future instrument design, what is needed, within these ruins of civilization and its- our- lost culture <>---- reference ---<> [q] Drum: It is an instrument frequently used in rites and rituals; its rhythmical sound is sometimes (e.g., in Buddhism) equated with the hidden sounds and powers of the cosmos. Often (e.g., among black African peoples) the drum served magically to call down heavenly powers; the war drum in particular was closely associated with the symbolism of LIGHTNING and THUNDER. -- In China the sound of the drum was related to the course of the SUN and especially to the winter solstice (i.e., that point when the yin principle exerts its greatest influence but also when the sun, and hence the yang principle, begins to increase its influence again). See YIN AND YANG. -- The drum is the symbolic heart of the universe for Native Americans. [/q] --- The Herder Dictionary of Symbols, p.62 DRUM A symbol of primordial sound, and a vehicle for the word, for tradition and for magic (60). With the aid of drums, shamans can induce a state of ecstasy. It is not only the rhythm and the timbre which are important in the symbolism of the primitive drum, but, since it is made of wood of 'the Tree of the World', the mystic sense of the latter also adheres to it (18). According to Schneider, the drum is, of all musical instruments, the most pregnant with mystic ideas. In Africa, it is associated with the heart. In the most primitive cultures, as in the most advanced, it is equated with the sacrificial altar and hence it acts as a mediator between heaven and earth. However, given its bowl-shape and its skin, it corresponds more properly to the symbolism of the Element of earth. A secondary meaning turns upon the shape of the instrument, and it should be noted that it is in this respect that there is most variation in significance. The three essential shapes are: the drum in the form of an hour-glass, symbolizing Inversion and the 'relationship between the two worlds' (the Upper and Lower) ; the round drum, as an image of the world, and the barrel-shaped, associated with thunder and lightning (50). [/q] --- A Dictionary of Symbols, j.e. cirlot. p.85 :;.:|: drummer :.|;.: [video] interview with Kenny Aronoff: Part I (27:18) http://www.theblackpage.net/interviews/kenny-aronoff-part-1 [video] interview with Kenny Aronoff Part II (22:26) http://www.theblackpage.net/interviews/kenny-aronoff-part-2 Listening... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listening --= on tuning =-- Here’s Why You Should Convert Your Music To 432 hz. http://zedie.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/heres-why-you-should-convert-your-musi... the surrounding context https://www.dropbox.com/s/ov2yfxa3435wbgd/ruins.gif {educational fair-use of copyright, 2013} 411-A1A/56 413-C2B/812-NET r80,e#W9s/95x02+k