Every generation has something new in creating different forms of art. For our generation, Extreme Culture has become for many generation X’rs a way of life. Sports, music, art, its all on the cutting edge right now. One of the newest and most innovative forms of extreme sports to arise in the recent past is Speed Drumming. It’s turning heads everywhere, creating a huge buzz, and spawning a whole new era of drummers interesting in improving their speed chops.
Fast drumming is not a new concept, but the ability to judge with any accuracy the exact speed of the sport has been a recent innovation to jump start the sport. The earliest accounts of speed drumming surfaced in 1975 in Chicago where competition arose to find out who was indeed the worlds fastest drummer. Boo McAfee began work on a device to accurately measure the speed in 1999 in collaboration with engineer Craig Alan. After many changes and hard work, they were ready to present their invention under the name Drum-O-Meter. The machine calculates the number of strokes for up to a 90-second time span for rudiments such as the single stroke roll, the double stroke roll, and paradiddles on typical drums. Their new product was showcased at the 1999 PASIC and soon became available or purchase, coincidentally on April 2nd, which is also the anniversary of legendary drummer Buddy Rich.
With their growing success with the device, McAfee and Alan founded the World’s Fastest Drummer, or WFD for short. The idea was to have drummers compete in competitions to determine who was the faster drummer. Over time, the events have become more publicized and definitely more competitive. National Percussion Institute sponsored the first event, which was won by drummer Johnny Rabb who won with 1,026 single stroke rolls in sixty seconds. He was later able to beat that time with 1,071 strokes in a minute, which got him into the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest drummer in the world.
WFD and the sport of speed drumming are only growing and picking up speed. They now have a regular event at the annual NAMM show. It is growing rapidly in terms of popularity and will continue to gain attention as more people find out about this newest extreme sport. For more information go to www.worldsfastestdrummer.com.
