Percussionese

Little Richard speaks percussionese - the proto-language of drums.
Check out his impression of a drum fill in Tutti Frutti for your MP3 player.

Drag over the black stemmed noteheads...



Drag over that final "boom" a few more times. Listen to how Little releases that note.
He is very great.

The people of Percussionesia speak a peculiar dialect, characterized by Western ears as "noisy and fast", consisting of phoneticized rock drums.

In Percussionesian legend, the ancestors were given their language from the thunder god Bhoom-tsit !Plah, during a hundred year storm.

The modern beatbox is a partially reconstructed Percussionese devoid of its original meaning.



Let me show you. Here's your basic 4/4 rock 'n' roll beat.

And here's the same beat translated into percussionese.

Now you can "speak-a the drums" to your friends. Notice how every word in Percussionese is followed by AN! EXCLAMATION! POINT!