Basseterre, St. Kitts, June 09, 2016 (SKNIS): Royd Phipps, Drumming Specialist in the Department of Culture, said that women are just as capable as men in the art of drumming.
He noted this while giving an update as to what patrons can expect at this year’s primary and secondary school drumming recital dubbed “Heart Beat 16.” As the sole drumming specialist, Mr. Phipps teaches both genders in schools.
“I always feel nice and pleased when I see females in each drum corps,” Mr. Phipps said, noting that in St. Kitts only adult males are seen playing that instrument. “Even the masquerade music, the folklore music, it’s male all the time. When I took up this job, I really wanted to change that perception because there are some real fantastic female drummers around the world.”
Mr. Phipps has done his part in promoting female drumming.
“We had a female workshop, I had many over the years and we had a female group as well but people went overseas to study and stuff like that,” he said, stating that self-advancement is always a positive endeavour. “Hopefully, we can get it back together again and have a female corps.”
A musician and a creative person in general, Mr. Phipps revealed that drumming is more than hitting a drum in a haphazard manner.
“When you get a drum or you put a drum in front of someone, the first place I think they hit is the middle of the drum, which is the deepest sound, the base of the drum,” Mr. Phipps said. “So people don’t tend to use the different tones of the drum, which has six different tones. You could even tune them from a recorder or piano. So it’s really something new to them… So we try to let students know that the drum is a wonderful instrument, just as any other instrument.”
This year’s Heart Beat is once again coordinated by Mr. Phipps and will be held under the theme “Drums of our Imagination.” The audience will be encouraged to imagine positive possibilities on Thursday, June 16, at the Methodist Church Hall, referred to as the Old Boys School, starting at 6:00 p.m.
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