Drums
Image by paulbr75.
The Drums
"Most drums are membranophones composed of a skin or skins (or plastic material) stretched over a frame or body-shell of wood, metal, earthenware or bone. Drums are sounded in two ways: percussion, where they are struck with the bare hands or with beaters, or shaken as in the case of rattle drums in India and Tibet; and friction, where the membrane, or a stick or cord in contact with it, is rubbed or the drum is whirled on a cord."
"Pitch is controlled by the diameter and tension of the drum-head. Volume and resonance depend on the amount of air inside the shell. The sound produced by drums is short; thus, any continuous sound can be produced only by rapid repetition."
Quote source: "Drums" in the Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford Press [online]. Accessed 04/13/2017.
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Women Playing Drums
Image by fietzfotos @ Pixabay
Image by aszak @ Pixabay
African American Women Drummers
- Bernadine WarrenSource: The Willene Barton Story by Dan Kochakian
- Hattie SmithSherrie Tucker, "Nobody's Sweethearts: Gender, Race, Jazz, and the Darlings of Rhythm" American Music, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 255-288.
- Jerrie BirdPlayed the drums with the Harlem Play Girls. Source: Albert White, "Harlem Play Girls thrilling southwest," The Pittsburgh Courier, 03/21/1936, p.16.
- Kali MaliSource: The Willene Barton Story by Dan Kochakian
Online Sources
Books
Women drummers : a history from rock and jazz to blues and country by Call Number: ML385 .S592 2014Publication Date: 2014
The drum : concepts of time and no time from African, Latin American, and African-American origins by Publication Date: 1983Dissertation: M.A.; Wesleyan University; 1983Mandiani drum and dance : Djimbe performance and Black aesthetics from Africa to the New World by
Publication Date: 1995
African American Women Drummers
- Alma J. Hightower (1888-1970)Source: Making Music in Los Angeles: transforming the popular by Catherine Parsons Smith.
- Bernadine WarrenSource: Madame Jazz: contemporary women instrumentalists by Leslie Gourse.
- Dez ThompsonSource: Billboard, 01/09/1943, p. 26.
- Elayne Jones (1928-2022)Source: Notable Black American Women, Book 2, edited by Jessie Carney Smith. Pub. Gale Research, 1996.
- Henrietta FontaineSource: Swing Shift: "All Girl" Bands of the 1940s by By Sherrie Tucker, 2001.
- Jennie ByrdPlayed the drums with the Harlem Play Girls. Source: Albert White, "Harlem Play Girls thrilling southwest," The Pittsburgh Courier, 03/21/1936, p.16.
- Jessie Mae HemphillSource: Notable Black American Women, Book 2, edited by Jessie Carney Smith. Pub. Gale Research, 1996.
- Marian PankeySource: Women Drummers: a history from rock and jazz to blues and country by Angela Smith.
- Mattie WatsonSource: Swing Shift: "All Girl" Bands of the 1940s by By Sherrie Tucker, 2001.
- Rae ScottSource: Women Drummers: a history from rock and jazz to blues and country by Angela Smith.