ShmoopTube

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[Dino and Coop singing]

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One of the main roles of drumming in our society is to

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make parents regret every decision they've ever made. [Parents walking away and closing the door]

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Seriously, buying a drum kit as a birthday present? [Kid playing the drums]

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Always a dangerous game.

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But in some societies, drums provided a great way to communicate, through appropriately [Someone playing a bongo drum]

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named "drum messages."

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But…why drums?

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Why not just talk…

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…or use sign language…

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…or even pass notes? [A paper plane hits a girl in the head]

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Though we don't recommend doing that last one in class, unless you're a big fan of detention. [Student passes someone a note in class and gets sent to the principals office]

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Well, the greater the distances between people, the harder it is to communicate. [Student with his thumbs up]

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Sure, you might be able to yell across a soccer field to a friend… [Man shouting to his friends]

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…but once you get a few miles away from each other, you're out of luck.

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At that point, the only message you'll be communicating is: "I'm very loud!" to people [The man's friends drive off and he is still shouting]

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walking past you.

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These days we have cellphones to solve this problem, but they're a pretty new innovation. [An arrow is shot into a cellphone]

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And that's where drums came in.

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To send a message using a drum, we first need to make a drum.

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We start with a big log. [Chainsaw chopping a log]

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The bigger the log is, the louder our drum will be.

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Then we cut a big slit in the side of the log, and use that slit to hollow it out.

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The more the log is hollowed out, the deeper the sounds it'll make. [Hollowed out log]

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So if you like low tones, prepare thyself for big piles of wood chips.

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And we definitely don't recommend wood chip angels. [Girl making an angel in a pile of wood chips]

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They're not nearly as fun as you might think….ouch… [Girl gets lots of splinters in her arms]

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Once the drum is complete, it can be used to communicate! [A sparkling new drum]

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…Great, we forgot what message we wanted to send. [Guy looking confused]

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All that work for nothing.

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But for the people who remembered what they wanted to say, they would use sticks to beat

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out a specific rhythm on the drum… [Woman playing a drum]

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…and then people miles and miles away would hear that rhythm and know that grandma was

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saying hello!

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Or…whatever the message happened to be. [Girl looks happy]

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Different beats would mean different things, so people miles away wouldn't just be hearing

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a cool rhythm: they'd be hearing a clear message. [Woman at a BBQ listening to the drum message]

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And if that rhythm happened to make people really want to dance, well, that was just

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an added bonus. [People dancing]

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This drumming produces sound waves that can be heard at distances of up to seven miles away. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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However, the range of these messages could be extended even more by sending the message

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to one village…

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…which then sends it again, so even more villages can hear it. [Woman listens to the message and then plays it]

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Pretty good for a telecommunications network made entirely of wood.

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Hm…we wonder why pine satellites never really took off… [Log floating in space]

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