Stomp On!
Drumming takes practice, hours upon hours, day after day, year after year. I love marching bands, rock concerts, and the Ati-Atihan, they inspire me to drum on my Congga. But the one show that completely inspires me to practice on it, or practice on anything, and to perform – is Stomp. It is a show of drumming perfection . . . without drums.
The group bangs on cans, their bodies, and just about any household item that makes sound. They hit things with their hands and sticks, not drum sticks, but broom sticks and even basketballs. Everything they hit, and hit with, are everyday household items. Have you ever seen a man try to impress a woman by tapping a tune on an inflated plastic shopping bag? Have you ever been moved to dance to the rhythmic sweeping of brooms by percussionists, not just to clean, but heavy duty cleaning of an extra dirty stage with touch fistfuls of sand, for added scratching sound?
There are many reasons to watch Stomp. I watched it to inspire me to practice more, until my wrists are in pain . . . and then practice even more. If I need inspiration to drum I visualize the energetic beats of the show and I’m good to go. My drum teacher says he watched Stomp to share percussion lessons with his classes . . . that anyone can drum on anything under the sun. You don’t need a drum set or a Congga to learn or play, you just pick up something solid and hit it more than a couple of times and you’re drumming!
The Stomp ensemble can actually make an orchestra out of match stick boxes, amaze with plastic tubes, and give new meaning to the word clapping. You can make music with your body or on anything, as Stomp shows. I’ve experienced jamming with seasoned percussionists in Makati over this past year of 2014 in the Legaspi Sunday Market, A Venue, and Glorietta. Each time I finish I think, “I’ve got to practice more!” But after Stomp I thought, “Now I REALLY got to practice more!” No matter how important actual performing is to develop skill or to realize you got to practice, watching Stomp also does that for you.
Yes, you can drum anywhere on anything if you practice long enough. And watching percussionists performing live or on video will help you learn a thing or two. Drumming is such a natural activity for music. Your hands and lap are musical instruments, they’re free and you carry them everywhere. Making beats is already instinct and lifelong; at the Legaspi Sunday Market, parents bring their six year olds up to the percussion group and the kids bang away at the drums. They play loud, they play their own beats. They’re natural. If you can’t play that natural but you want to learn, make five or six babies, on their sixth year give them brooms, throw sand on the floor . . . and copy them.
Stomp is entertaining whether you’re a percussionist or not. They make drumming not only moving to hear, but fun to watch because everything is choreographed. Now, I want you to get more out of this article than a description of the show, I want to give you a drumming lesson that you don’t need drums or sticks for. It’s one of the first things I learned. Hit a desk or your lap with your right hand twice, then your left hand twice: RR LL, repeat until you almost pass out. A lot of tunes mix that combination into their songs in many variations, and you can experiment on your own. Now you can play. . . stomp on!
