AMAZING DRUMBALLIA PHOTOS


FIRST EMBODIMENT

Assembled in a 25x25 foot wood cabin 3/4 hours west of Ottawa on the shore of the Ottawa river, summer 2001, during two months, of 5 hand made shells and the rest from a buyout filling two station wagon loads when an Ottawa music store closed out its drum sales and repairs section, bought the whole load for just 250 dollars what a deal money never transferred from my pocket into someone's hands faster, no cymbols nothing fancy just shells rims and attachments and pieces of different stands going back 50 years which could be pieced together into something useable, hours spent searching the load for a single screw, single bolt to hook things together, english stove bolts finally found in a hardware store to finish one of the drums.

15 drums in total all playable from a single sitting position comprised the end of the first experiment - ergo how many drums could be spread out in a table top setting and could be hit by thick drum sticks going at full velocity in every direction, including behind.

14 shells including bass drum are visible in the next photo. Photos are second generations from a friend's disposable cardboard camera, originally taken in dark cabin interior without flash, which accounts for their very grainy look. The 3D is better than I'd expected. Focus the two images together to see stereo





The 5 hand made shells used strips of wood cut to width at a large Home Buildall depot, and cut to length then formed into shells inside rims at home in a duplex, cut to length on the kitchen counter, fitted together as shells with parts and rims all deftly screwed together while sitting on the living room sofa watching TV, screwing, drilling, bolting, testing.

At the cabin, a total of 15 drums were assembled (5 handmade including snare and bass drum) in such a way that all could be played from one sitting position on the stool.

After two months money ran out, the project was dissolved, cymbols returned to loaner, a couple of dozen unused shells discarded, the rest transported back to Ottawa to the resident low rent duplex on the west side of Ottawa.

SECOND EMBODIMENT

A year later, summer 2002, handmade woodshell prototypes rebuilt and rebuilt, a new design added called a tympany resonator supported by wires from a tripod, this time an assembly of ten drums plus accessories and cymbols, inexpensive 30 year old high quality Sony cassette tape deck so old it used feet per second as its counter, a condenser mike and band PA mike both second hand and cheap, used to test resonances, the drums each positioned to cross talk with other, drums and the two mikes inserted into hot spots where the loudest concentrations of sound were gathering.

The result was intrinsic amplification, one drum struck produced a sound, a second another sound, the two struck one then the other produced a third larger more resonant sound due to cross harmonics and rebounding reflections in the environment.

Tests continued none stop for a three day period testing different tunings and tensions, modifications of individual shells, placement of mikes, etc.

The tests were recorded simply to keep a record of rythm structures which were starting to emerge out of the cross talks and self amplifying intrinics discovered to be occuring in the unique drum designs.

The tapes when played back on a super high fidelic home theatre system worth 14,000 thousand dollars at a high end high tech TV emporium were so astounding, these 17 tracks on a CD cassette and now online for downloads are the result.

Photos, a carboard disposable camera with wide field in small room, bright inflow of light from windows, usable, just, pictures are the result.









ME PLAYING THREE HOME MADE DRUMS FROM THE SECOND EMBODIMENT

Me playing for two minutes, invited for a quick three-drum show'n'tell solo at an Ottawa federal leadership political speech in Ottawa summer 2003. Two photos by Vusi Moloi of GM drums being played are not shown the photographer reports thinking I was too photogenic to include with the drums, me, I see geezer when I see these next two photos.





















January 2/2004. Ottawa temporarily living in the market district downtown Ottawa. Two of the handmade drum shells including the typany resonator plus cymbols, stands, and other attachments, were stolen from a small car via smashed window during the wee hours during the summer of 2003. The drumballia set currently sits in a tiny living room partially rebuilt, unplayed, until circumstances financial and work space can arrive together to allow another tympany resonator to be built. The tympany resonator is what gave the double lower octave bass resonances in the performances heard on the 17 tracks.

Greydon Moore. Peace.

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