Drumming as extreme sport

The Drumometer is a little box which measures how many times you can hit a drum in 60 seconds. It's not pretty or especially clever, but it does come with a great story: Inventor Boo McAfee was at NAMM in 1975, and saw veteran jazz drummer Barrett Deems proclaimed to be the World's Fastest Drummer... "Suddenly, a voice in the crowd said "Oh Yeah! What machine did you use?" As Boo turned to his left, he quickly realized that the gentleman questioning Mr. Deems’ claims was none other than the legendary Buddy Rich. Buddy was standing larger than life in a turtle neck, wearing a large silver medallion and loosely gripping a lit cigarette as though he was undoubtedly the coolest man alive. For the next twenty four years Boo could not get this picture and the question out of his mind." So, in 1999, he met an electrical engineer, they developed a prototype, and it went on sale.
The recently released

Drumometer II (which costs $159 with a practise pad) is now the official timekeeper at the World's Fastest Drummer tournament, a sponsor-heavy, wrestling-inspired annual contest (complete with Girls of the WFD on the website). It has preliminary heats all over the world (Hong Kong, South Africa and Dubai are currently competing), with the final at NAMM in January. The current world record holder is Mike Mangini, with 1,274 strokes in 60 seconds.

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

I saw this on The Richard and Judy Show last week. It is truly BONKERS!!! Great! Great! Stuff!!!

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:06 pm

and for the umpteenth year in a row the "Worlds Smartest Drummer" competition contest is cancell due to lack of contestants

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:07 pm

Poor guy, he couldn't get the image of Buddy Rich out of his head for 20 years!

"Bunch of schoolgirls! You think you're fast!? I'm giving you two weeks notice! What, you don't work for me? ...
No goddam beards!"

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:22 pm

HEHEHEHE! lmao! that's from the buddy rich out-takes, right? that freaking wfd championship belt would bring a tear to elvis' eyes.

1247 in 60 seconds that's over 20 strokes a freaking second. is that even possible?

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:10 pm

grrrreeeeeaaaaat story! Looks like keen fun!

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:23 pm

on the machine it says like 13222 not 1247. what up with that?

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:28 pm

Holy Hard On! that first blonde babe I remember from a pet commercial. I'd like to pet that....

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:32 pm

" on the machine it says like 13222 not 1247. what up with that?"

That's his 15 minutes endurance score...

# posted by

Tom Whitwell : 5:33 pm

Many eons ago I had this wonderment about how fast people could tap their finger. As a guitar player I was nevah verra fast and I thought maybe I just had slow fingers.
I compared my finger tapping best with our drummer and he was wayy ahead of me, I was stunned. (I'm easy to stun)

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:41 pm

they have one of these at my local hang out music store and it is totally addictive, like totally radical.

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:58 pm

knox'man and the 'wee lil man' are mere posers. wait till yo asses are at cky next week. my bro's gonna show ya the 'wf fucking deee'

BAM

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:56 am

cyk? dumbass :)

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:30 am

Yea OK your real fast
but can you make a crowd dance ?
how many band leaders hire a cat based on this trophy?
Listen to Mangini on the X-treme disc ; He sounds Amazing. Still I don't get how this applies to the gigs he or any 1 does
Hello Mc fly?
Duck B.

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:03 am

A 15 year old kid from Michigan is one of the best young jazz drummers in America, but nobody heard of him until 1051 single strokes a minute got him all over the Internet. It's about endorsements for new guys which DOES lead to the gigs. The gimmick isn't a gig in of itself which is the part some people don't get.

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:37 am

My ol' neighbour suffers from Parkinson disease - maybe that's the right contest for him...

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:02 pm

20 strokes per second? Phht! That isn't much... give me some blonde cheerleader pr0n and I'll easily do 30 strokes / s

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:43 pm

The kid from Michigan is amazing! Wonderful to see kids involved at this level in sports. More power to them. Us old farts need to simply get out of the way and enjoy as spectators.

hehehe, I agree on the cheerleader post, but 30 for how long?

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:58 pm

More proof that Drummers really are sub-normal.

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:09 am

I've been hearing a great deal about this 15 year old matt kid. can't wait to catch him doing the whole xtreme sport drumming thing. Does anyone know if it is coming to Houston?

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:38 pm

i am from detroit and i saw that kid do an exhibition at a WFD. He dropped his sticks and still set the 16 and under world record. But he kicks drum set butt. he's a jazzer. I think this contest is about the kids havin fun.

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:19 am

I have recently learned that Flo Mounier of the band Cryptpsy will actually be a WFD contestant at this month's NAMM world championships. One of the best known metal drummers vs a bunch of high school kids in a head to head confrontation on the main outside stage. How surreal is that? I can understand him wanting to be part of some kind of video plug publicity. But to compete for a drumset against a bunch of young kids and 20 something unknowns? I just don't know. It doesn't sit well. This contest is obviously out of control.

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:16 am

Matt Smith was crowned new WFD Champion, July 16, 2006. Youngest ever at age 16. High hands score 1109.

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:21 am

this kid smith really has a great future. congtrtulations to anyone oing for greatness.

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:47 pm

wfd rawks, there's a new one coming in two weeks here in LA. Check it out at worldsfastestdrummer.com

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:03 pm

the 13222 or whatever it is refers to one of the other records, as far as i can remember its for fastest feet endurance, which is 15 minutes long with single strokes on the feet

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:03 am