Their beats
PERCUSSION EXPLOSION As female percussion passion explodes, girls are picking an unconventional choice — drums
NEW DELHI: The first thing that comes into your mind when you say “drummer” is a big guy with an unkempt beard head banging, while his long mane does a little dance of its own. Over the years, doors slowly began opening for female drummers just as women gradually took on greater roles in politics, academics, and many other such fields.
Drummers are the driving force of a band. More often than not, however, female drummers are regarded as trespassing on male territory and are greeted with sneers from people around. Even though everyone seems impressed by the idea of a girl drummer as this is a rarity, their legitimacy as drummers hardly ever goes unquestioned.
This is probably so because men have always been associated with bass and women with treble. Since the old times, announcements with huge drums were always made by men, as these were played with brute force and strength. Stringed instruments like the veena or sitar were what one called the ideal ones for women in the none-too-distant past, but times have changed.
For some time now, female drummers in professional bands have hogged the limelight. International rockers like Gina Schock, Meg White and Patty Schemel have carved out a niche but when we embark on a quest to find female drummers in Indian rock bands, you would encounter only a few. Nowadays, many girls are brandishing the drumsticks in what seems to be an explosion of female percussion passion.
A Class 12 student, Koel Jain of DPS, Faridabad, shares her experience of being the only girl drummer in her school. Referring to when she, dressed in a saree, received loud cheers after playing the drums on Teacher’s Day, the student said: “It was one of the best days of my life”.
Ishani Kar, 12, of The Mother’s International School, sports a regular look and her beautiful smile is rapidly replaced by a full of attitude gaze at the high hat as she starts playing. She exults that the new beats she comes across or learns keeps playing in her mind, even when she’s sitting in her classroom or travelling in the school bus. For the enthusiastic six-years-old Nyssa Sagar of Sri Ram Millennium School, playing her djembe is the favourite pastime. “I love music and whenever I listen to any song, I try to play along.” says Nyssa in her innocent voice.
Amita Singhani, a housewife and mother of two, defies stereotypes as she began learning drums at 40 and the soft spoken Priyanka Arora of the Indian School leaves everyone speechless when she picks up a pair of drumsticks.
Comparing the scenario which prevailed in the past with the present, Arnab Bhattacharya, who has taught youngsters galore to play the drums, said, “The mentality of parents saddened me at the time when they stated that their daughters only had an option of learning guitars or keyboards. I visited convent schools and played there so that more girls would get inclined towards the drums. It took a while but now 40% of the students in my academy are girls and I would proudly say that they are at par with the boys and at times even better”.
(The contributor, herself a drummer, is an alumna of The Mother’s International and is currently an intern with the Students Edition)