WFD World's Fastest Drummer Extreme Sport Drumming
Encyclopedia
WFD World's Fastest Drummer Extreme Sport Drumming describes the sporting event that surrounds self proclaimed speed drummer
s and a mechanical instrument called the Drumometer
, an electronic device invented by Boo McAfee and Craig Alan that is used to count drum stroke
s. The Drumometer is accepted by Guinness World Records
and the WFD World's Fastest Drummer Extreme Sport Drumming organization as the official device used to determine the World's Fastest Drummer.
uncovered a deep well of competitiveness." After experimenting with various WFD competition formats in the southern United States
, the event achieved international prominence when respected studio and clinic drummer Johnny Rabb
became the first person to break 1,000 single strokes in 60 seconds, claiming the title World's Fastest Hands and recognition from the record keepers at Guinness. McAfee and Alan then officially sanctioned their events and copyrighted the phrase World's Fastest Drummer. This was followed by ads in Drum! and Modern Drummer
magazines touting Rabb's accomplishment and their Drumometer device. Subsequently they created new classes of speed drumming: fastest feet (for two-footed bass drumming), bare hands, and tag team, among others. Drumometer orders then followed, and the race to best Rabb's feats began. Musical genres - death metal
, country, jazz
, rock
and drum corps - have since battled for dominance in the various categories.
, the first drummer to regularly perform near 1200 single strokes in one minute, double strokes champion Seth Davis and Canadian Tim Waterson
, the first person to score over 1000 single strokes on a bass drum, and the first identifiable personality of the bass drum division via a series of instructional videos touting his widely emulated heel-toe technique.
In 2001 WFD acquired its most recognizable competitor when Dream Theater
drummer and Berklee College of Music
professor Mike Mangini
joined its ranks. Initially Mangini was hard pressed to surpass Afanador
, but eventually became the first drummer to surpass 1200 single strokes in one minute, and has since dominated the sport, holding several world records at any given time including fastest hands both match grip and traditional grip.
conventions beginning in 2003. With the retirements of Rabb and others from active competition, the sport continued to witness successful runs by New Jersey website personality "Tiger" Bill Meligari and North Carolina percussion instructor Eric Okamoto, who holds 2 World Records in Closed Double Strokes(1744)and Paradiddles(1279). Recent champions include Matt Smith who at 16 became the youngest WFD champion and the harbinger of a new youth movement within the sport, and two bass drum competitors Tim Yeung
and Mike "Machine" Mallais. Yeung (a star of metal drumming) was instrumental in popularizing the sport within that genre, while Mallais decimated most of the existing bass drum world records formerly held by Waterson and Mangini at the Winter 2007 world championships. After the retirement of Waterson, Yeung and Mallais helped usher a new found popularity in the bass drum division.
By every indication, the hands competition becomes more difficult each year, with the best competitors now representing a much younger core demographic. On July, 2007 in Austin, Texas, WFD hands champion Thomas Grosset (age 16) performed 1156 single strokes in 1 minute matched grip, the highest score ever recorded in the final championship round. Grosset's top preliminary run of 1194 made him the new WFD 16 and under World Record Holder and third in the world rankings just behind Afanador. Shortly after losing his 16 and under record, Matt Smith set a new world hands endurance record, and was followed closely by 18 year old Daniel Rice, scoring 1108 in the preliminaries. On June 2008, Smith returned to break Mangini's traditional grip record of 1126, with a score of 1132, leaving the sport almost entirely in the hands of younger competitors. Mangini's former dominance of WFD has recently been deemphasized. Still he holds the single stroke overall hand record, 1247 achieved with matched grip, considered WFD's most coveted accolade.
WFD competitors now exhibit a more international flavor as opposed to what once was an American/Canadian dominance. In 2006 British drummer Rees Bridges became the first European to win a world's title, sparking greater interest in a WFD UK division, managed by drummer entrepreneur Ed Freitas. Later in 2006 WFD staged an elaborate national competition in Australia with smaller events held in Hong Kong and elsewhere, while the first official WFD China Championship is scheduled for 2012. After an extended hiatus WFD Championships returned to NAMM Conventions July 2011 with Australian Joey Moujalli and American Kevin Bernardy taking hands and feet titles respectively.
Another controversy centered around implementation of a hands technique called "push-pull" that allowed competitors to score more than one beat with a single motion but was neither a double stroke or buzz roll. In 2011 it was determined that push-pull qualified as a hybrid single stroke but requiring a separate category with its own records. The ruling further asserted that world rankings would remain limited to traditional singles competitors.
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
s and a mechanical instrument called the Drumometer
Drumometer
A drumometer is an electronic device invented by Boo McAfee and Craig Alan that is used to count drum strokes.-Official status:The Drumometer is accepted by Guinness World Records and the WFD World's Fastest Drummer Extreme Sport Drumming organization as the official device used to determine the...
, an electronic device invented by Boo McAfee and Craig Alan that is used to count drum stroke
Drum stroke
In music, a drum stroke is a note performed on percussion instruments known as a drum. There are four basic strokes.The Full Stroke begins with the tip of the drumstick held 8-12" above the striking surface...
s. The Drumometer is accepted by Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
and the WFD World's Fastest Drummer Extreme Sport Drumming organization as the official device used to determine the World's Fastest Drummer.
Purpose
The primary goal of most WFD competitions is to determine who can play the most single strokes in sixty seconds. According to author Josh Davis, "the DrumometerDrumometer
A drumometer is an electronic device invented by Boo McAfee and Craig Alan that is used to count drum strokes.-Official status:The Drumometer is accepted by Guinness World Records and the WFD World's Fastest Drummer Extreme Sport Drumming organization as the official device used to determine the...
uncovered a deep well of competitiveness." After experimenting with various WFD competition formats in the southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, the event achieved international prominence when respected studio and clinic drummer Johnny Rabb
Johnny Rabb
Johnny Rabb is a professional live/studio drummer, author, inventor, and instructor. As a Product Specialist for , Rabb performs around 70 international clinic dates per year...
became the first person to break 1,000 single strokes in 60 seconds, claiming the title World's Fastest Hands and recognition from the record keepers at Guinness. McAfee and Alan then officially sanctioned their events and copyrighted the phrase World's Fastest Drummer. This was followed by ads in Drum! and Modern Drummer
Modern Drummer
Modern Drummer is a monthly publication targeting the interests of on drummers and percussionists. The magazine features interviews, equipment reviews, and columns offering advice on technique, as well as information for the general public...
magazines touting Rabb's accomplishment and their Drumometer device. Subsequently they created new classes of speed drumming: fastest feet (for two-footed bass drumming), bare hands, and tag team, among others. Drumometer orders then followed, and the race to best Rabb's feats began. Musical genres - death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
, country, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and drum corps - have since battled for dominance in the various categories.
Early years
Early stars of the event in addition to Rabb included a veteran jazz drummer named Art Verdi (first person to break 1100 single strokes), Jotan AfanadorJotan Afanador
Jotan Afanador is a Puerto Rican American drummer who is most popular for winning The Battle of the Hands at the 2002 World's Fastest Dummer World Finals andfor setting his first Battle of the Hands World Record of 1,123 Singles on August 10, 2002 ....
, the first drummer to regularly perform near 1200 single strokes in one minute, double strokes champion Seth Davis and Canadian Tim Waterson
Tim Waterson
Tim Waterson is a Canadian drummer who formerly held the world record for the fastest number of strokes on a bass drum, with a record of 1,057 single and 1,407 double strokes per minute....
, the first person to score over 1000 single strokes on a bass drum, and the first identifiable personality of the bass drum division via a series of instructional videos touting his widely emulated heel-toe technique.
In 2001 WFD acquired its most recognizable competitor when Dream Theater
Dream Theater
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...
drummer and Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
professor Mike Mangini
Mike Mangini
Mike Mangini is an American drummer, and the current drummer for the progressive metal band Dream Theater. He has played for Annihilator, Extreme, James LaBrie, and Steve Vai, among others. He lectured at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and is also known for his work as a session musician...
joined its ranks. Initially Mangini was hard pressed to surpass Afanador
Jotan Afanador
Jotan Afanador is a Puerto Rican American drummer who is most popular for winning The Battle of the Hands at the 2002 World's Fastest Dummer World Finals andfor setting his first Battle of the Hands World Record of 1,123 Singles on August 10, 2002 ....
, but eventually became the first drummer to surpass 1200 single strokes in one minute, and has since dominated the sport, holding several world records at any given time including fastest hands both match grip and traditional grip.
New era
Beginning in 2002 WFD world championships became a biannual affair (winter and summer), and were permanently stationed at National Association of Music MerchantsNAMM Show
The NAMM Show is one of the largest music product trade shows in the world, founded in 1901. It is held every January in Anaheim, California, USA, at the Anaheim Convention Center...
conventions beginning in 2003. With the retirements of Rabb and others from active competition, the sport continued to witness successful runs by New Jersey website personality "Tiger" Bill Meligari and North Carolina percussion instructor Eric Okamoto, who holds 2 World Records in Closed Double Strokes(1744)and Paradiddles(1279). Recent champions include Matt Smith who at 16 became the youngest WFD champion and the harbinger of a new youth movement within the sport, and two bass drum competitors Tim Yeung
Tim Yeung
Tim Yeung is a prominent extreme metal drummer. He was born on November 27, 1978 in Rochester, New York and currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Tim started playing drums when he was 11 years old.-Biography:...
and Mike "Machine" Mallais. Yeung (a star of metal drumming) was instrumental in popularizing the sport within that genre, while Mallais decimated most of the existing bass drum world records formerly held by Waterson and Mangini at the Winter 2007 world championships. After the retirement of Waterson, Yeung and Mallais helped usher a new found popularity in the bass drum division.
By every indication, the hands competition becomes more difficult each year, with the best competitors now representing a much younger core demographic. On July, 2007 in Austin, Texas, WFD hands champion Thomas Grosset (age 16) performed 1156 single strokes in 1 minute matched grip, the highest score ever recorded in the final championship round. Grosset's top preliminary run of 1194 made him the new WFD 16 and under World Record Holder and third in the world rankings just behind Afanador. Shortly after losing his 16 and under record, Matt Smith set a new world hands endurance record, and was followed closely by 18 year old Daniel Rice, scoring 1108 in the preliminaries. On June 2008, Smith returned to break Mangini's traditional grip record of 1126, with a score of 1132, leaving the sport almost entirely in the hands of younger competitors. Mangini's former dominance of WFD has recently been deemphasized. Still he holds the single stroke overall hand record, 1247 achieved with matched grip, considered WFD's most coveted accolade.
WFD competitors now exhibit a more international flavor as opposed to what once was an American/Canadian dominance. In 2006 British drummer Rees Bridges became the first European to win a world's title, sparking greater interest in a WFD UK division, managed by drummer entrepreneur Ed Freitas. Later in 2006 WFD staged an elaborate national competition in Australia with smaller events held in Hong Kong and elsewhere, while the first official WFD China Championship is scheduled for 2012. After an extended hiatus WFD Championships returned to NAMM Conventions July 2011 with Australian Joey Moujalli and American Kevin Bernardy taking hands and feet titles respectively.
Controversy
WFD events have not been without controversy. From the beginning, drummers were divided into positive and negative camps, with this phenomenon rapidly accelerating as Mangini, Rabb, Verdi and Afanador especially surfaced on television programs and commercials, with opposing sides simultaneously battling in Internet drum forums, magazines and youtube comments sections. WFD detractors have contended that musical instruments should not be used as tools for sport and depreciate musicality, while defenders cite the quest for technical excellence, and its innocence as a non-musical exercise. As the argument has become more complex, hundreds of WFD hopefuls issue unsubstantiated Internet Drumometer videos purporting to be world records.Another controversy centered around implementation of a hands technique called "push-pull" that allowed competitors to score more than one beat with a single motion but was neither a double stroke or buzz roll. In 2011 it was determined that push-pull qualified as a hybrid single stroke but requiring a separate category with its own records. The ruling further asserted that world rankings would remain limited to traditional singles competitors.
WFD Champions
- Summer 2011 "Fastest Hands" Joey Moujalli (995) "Fastest Feet" Kevin Bernardy (860)
- Summer 2007 "Fastest Hands" Tom Grosset (1156) "Fastest Feet" Matt McKasty (907)
- Winter 2007 "Fastest Hands" Jeff Guthery (1054) "Fastest Feet" Mike Mallais (978)
- Summer 2006 "Fastest Hands" Matt Smith (1030) "Fastest Feet" Hensley Souryavong (774)
- Winter 2006 "Fastest Hands" Rees Bridges (1007) "Fastest Feet" Tim YeungTim YeungTim Yeung is a prominent extreme metal drummer. He was born on November 27, 1978 in Rochester, New York and currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Tim started playing drums when he was 11 years old.-Biography:...
(872) - Summer 2005 "Fastest Hands" Randy Briggs (1021) "Fastest Feet" Dan Prestup (858)
- Winter 2005 "Fastest Hands" Chaz Stanbach (924) "Fastest Feet" Matt Garrett (888)
- Summer 2004 "Fastest Hands" Sam LeCompte (1061) "Fastest Feet" Adam Fachler (844)
- Winter 2004 "Fastest Hands" Bill Meligari (1019) "Fastest Feet" Mike DuncanMike DuncanRobert M. "Mike" Duncan was the 60th Chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was elected in January 2007, replacing Ken Mehlman, and served until January 30, 2009, when he withdrew from renomination to the chairmanship...
(782) - Summer 2003 "Fastest Hands" Eric Okamoto (1018) "Fastest Feet" Kermit Tarver (768)
- Winter 2003 "Fastest Hands" Kai Katchadourian (909) "Fastest Feet" Reno KiilerichReno KiilerichReno Hilligsø Kiilerich - is a heavy metal drummer from Denmark. Kiilerich has played with such bands as Panzerchrist, Evil Morgan, Kobeast, 12Gauge, Chthonic, Downlord, Exmortem, Hate Eternal, Strangler, Old Man's Child, Vile, Human Erupt, and Dimmu Borgir.-References:...
(878)