Supercool Music: A Living Article© Part 33: Ocean Drum Music by Demian Arriaga

One man. One drum. Much music. 😎

   The man I’m referring to is Demian Arriaga, supercool drummer who spent part of this year’s springtime playing drums in the studio for Heffron Drive’s upcoming songs for 2017. 😎 Both members of Heffron Drive, Dustin Belt and Kendall Schmidt, were kvelling about how great the drum sessions were going. I was excited about this because I love the sound of good drumming! 🙂 Kendall mentioned the drummer’s name, Demian Arriaga, and I got in contact with him, telling him how much I was looking forward to hearing the music. He responded graciously, enthusiastically and humbly. 😎 He said good things about Dustin and Kendall, not bragging on himself. I couldn’t seem to wait to hear his drumming and realized there might be some drum solos on YouTube (not of Heffron Drive’s new music yet, of course, but other footage 😉 ). There were quite a few treasures of drum work there! 🙂 So much good stuff. 🙂

   The footage I’m reviewing is one minute and two seconds in length and features Demian having fun playing an ocean drum. This clip is so fascinatingly unique and good. 🙂 The ocean drum is an instrument similar, in a very general sense, to a Cherokee hand drum or a bodhran. Its sound differs greatly from that of those two individually unique instruments. The narrow edge of the ocean drum is rested on the player’s leg and balanced with their hands as it’s held so that the people watching will see the large O of the circumference. And so you can see a good reason for its name. 😉 😎 The drum, which is just a few inches thick, has a clear cover on it with an ocean scene depicted inside. 🙂 A small collection of metal beads is contained within this enclosure and adds another dimension of music to it, as Demian excellently demonstrates. 😎 At times, this drum sounds akin to a steel drum, depending on how it’s being played.

   Demian, in this brief video, shows a whole wealth of music that this instrument can do. 😎 He’s an excellent drummer. 🙂 I appreciate good drumming and this is such cool footage that I’ve watched it many times already. 🙂

   The first twelve seconds he makes use of his fingertips in a series of cool movements from the nine o’clock side (as you would be seeing it) and down to the six-thirty portion with his right hand while his left hand plays the twelve o’clock area. The drum has a really neat sound and the rhythm he’s playing is very cool. 😎

   The next part gives a good example of how those beads can add to the overall ocean sound of the ocean drum. 🙂 By hitting the top edge of the drum’s edge with his left palm, the beads shift and bounce at the bottom, as if it were ocean sand. He does this at just the right moments, making a groovy ocean tune. 😎

   Demian makes use of various portions of the drum surface, bringing about some supercool music. 🙂 😎

   At thirty-three seconds into this music footage, Demian speeds up his right hand’s pace, adding to his ocean drum song with amazing style and artistic gracefulness. 😎

   With some instrument artists, you can “hear” the music just by watching them play the instrument – with the volume turned all of the way down on whatever you are watching it on. Demian is one such artist. 😎 As I watch this treasure clip of ocean drum music, I notice this visual. I paused the footage, backed it up and silenced the sound. Yes, you can “see-hear” the music, the energy, the tempo, the beats, the style, the vibes. Very, very cool. 🙂 😎 You might want to try that out for yourself. 🙂 I appreciate visual music like this; music that everyone can “hear”, including those who are deaf. 😎 The deaf can, in a sense, “hear” music through watching movement as well as in feeling the music through the vibration of touch – I’ve noticed this with a few music devices/players. 😎

   Volume back up! 🙂

   By forty-four into it, his right hand is doing a fast-speed tap on the nine o’clock side and his left hand is keeping those beads bouncing at the right moments. 😎

   Several seconds later, both talented hands are getting those beads to bounce and shift in greater volume. 😎 The whole layout of this instrumental piece is very good. 🙂 Excellent drummers can do that. 🙂 😎

   Demian finishes up with more cool notes and rhythmic beats. 😎 This footage is very entertaining and fun to watch from start to finish – and for each replay, too! 😉 🙂

   Thank you, Demian, for sharing your drumming talents with the world. 🙂 And thank you, Raul Arriaga, for posting this supercool footage on YouTube for all of us to get to enjoy! 🙂

Jean247

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