In the beginning


Why did folks beat a stick on a log? Appease the Gods? Blow off steam? Impress a probable mate? Accompany oral mythologies assisting memory?

I need a good book on how music may have begin. Plus your thoughts. 

jpwarren58

It began when a walnut fell out of a tree, hit the ground, made a "thump", then developed a distinct percussive cadence as it rolled down a hill arriving at it's final destination in a pond producing an audible "swish".  An individual in a group of an evolving species observed this and thought something similar to:  "Hey, that was pretty cool."  It peaked in 1968 with Ron Bushy's drum solo In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida. 

People first beat a stick on a log, or something similar, to communicate over distance. Survival was primary. The "arts" came later.