As of late I have been getting a lot of mileage out of playing simple patterns over extended periods of time without thinking too much about it. To my way of feeling, the muscles have their own intelligence when it comes to learning motions and, more importantly, how to become efficient with those motions.

With my background as a drum corps gear head, I have noticed more and more that my mind can actually inhibit my body’s ability to learn new things because I try to overanalyze everything! While the marching or drum corps tendency towards analyzing every subdivision of every beat for clarity in terms of timing accuracy, tone, and/or dynamic context is necessary in those activities due to their competitive nature, the meditative mindset I’m suggesting here simply says, “Do it again, and again, and again, and again….and don’t think too much about it.”

So that’s where this MasterClick comes in. As described, the file is approximately 31 minutes long. Essentially it progresses from 60 bpm to 180 bpm over 20 minutes, and then back down again in 10 minutes—In other words, a long slow climb followed by a steady warm-down. The speed-ups happen at 1-minute intervals, while the slow-downs happen at 30-second intervals. So it’s not a steady accel or decel, but a series of short stair steps that change by 6 bpm increments.

The MasterClick is comprised of sounds that will project through a long ranger in case you are an instructor and wish to use this to torture your students like I do! (ear plugs are recommended) The base metronome sound is actually a sample of a BOSS DB-90 metronome pumped through a Long Ranger. Additionally, there are some audio cues that indicate changes in tempo.

For instance, when the tempo is about to speed up you will hear an upward-bending slide whistle sound 4 beats before the actual tempo change. Same thing when you are in the last 10 minutes of it—the slow-down part—except that you will hear a downward-bending slide whistle cue. The cue for the end of the whole thing is 4 loud cowbell beats.

If you want to give this a try (and I highly recommend it!), download the file first. You can find an audio example of this click track here.

(To download this file, right-click it (control-click for the Mac) and choose to download the linked file to your hard disk.)

Hey guys!!

What an amazing day yesterday!! Paul surprised Ringo at our Radio City Music Hall gig in NYC last night and came up and sang The Beatles “Birthday”!! He was REALLY surprised!! We did a “secret” soundcheck/rehearsal at 2pm that Ringo was unaware of… When Paul hit the stage, I looked offstage and saw Ringo and knew he was thinking “I’m not just watchin this I’m gettin on my drums!!!” I had such a blast!

Love from the road!
Gregg

Pretty cool to see these legends sharing the stage again.  Enjoy!  Thanks for sharing, Gregg!

It is great to be back to our series “Exploring the rhythms of Brazil”. In this post we will learn about another rhythm that comes from the Northeastern region of Brazil: The Ijexá

The IJEXÁ rhythm (pronounced Eee-jay-shah) arose from the rituals of Candomblé. This is a religion which came from the beliefs of the Yoruban people that the Portuguese brought to Brazil from West Africa to work in the sugarcane mills and mines. This slave trade centered in the Northeastern Brazil, and happened during the colonial period, from around 1500 to 1822. The Africans used their culture and religion to resist the oppression of slavery and, in to doing, became a major part of Brazil’s music, dance, festivities, cuisine and culture.

Ijexá is an ethnic sub group of the Yoruba people. In the Candomblé religion it is a nation formed by slaves that came from the city of Ilesha, in the state of Osun, in northwestern Nigeria. The Ijexá rhythm is played in the Candomblé Rituals, although it has been adapted for the street parades.

The Ijexá is played by the Blocos de Afoxé or Afoxés, associations of people bound to a specific Terreiro de Candomblé, that parades in the streets during Carnival. As they parade down the streets, they dance and sing in the Yoruban language praising the Orisha Oxum (Deity of the lakes and waterfalls) . This is why the Afoxé group is also called Candomblé de Rua (Candomblé of the Streets). Commonly people call the Ijexá rhythm Afoxé.

The instruments used by the Afoxé groups come from those used in the Candomblé Rituals. They include the three Atabaque drums (Rum, Rumpi and Lê), the Agogô and the Shekerê or Abê. The atabaques are cone-shaped, wooden drums covered in ox skin; the lowest-pitched one is called Rum, the medium-pitched one is the Rumpi and the smallest, highest-pitched one is the Lê. They are played with thin sticks called Aquidavis.

The first Afoxé to parade in the streets of Salvador, capital of the state of Bahia was the Afoxé Embaixada da África ( Embassy of Africa) in 1885.

The biggest and most renowned Afoxé group of Brazil is called Filhos de Gandhi (Sons of Gandhi) who were founded in 1949 in the city of Salvador. It was named in tribute to the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. The allegories of this Afoxé group, which figure prominently in the procession, are a camel, a grey elephant, a black-and-white goat, and two pictures of Gandhi. In the parade the 3,000 members of the group dress in white clothes and turbans, to symbolize peace.

There are other Afoxé groups in Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, but the state of Bahia has the most influence because it has the largest population of African descendants.

The Ijexá rhythm was largely incorporated in Brazilian Popular Music (MPB) by a variety of artists such as: Gilberto Gil,  Caetano Velloso, Djavan and many others.

I leave you guys today with a video from Clara Nunes entitled Ijexá. Here you can see images of the city of Salvador and members of Afoxé Filhos de Gandhi playing and dancing to the Ijexá rhythm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG1kE_syKJE

Enjoy it!

See you next time.

AXÉ

From Brushes to the Kitchen Whisk

There is no doubt that drumming started with the hands, the ears, and a desire to say something with music.  Today, there are so many types of drums, cymbals and percussion instruments, that we as drummers have a ton of different sounds at our disposal.  Almost as vast is what we can hit our instruments with.

Here are a few examples of tools, other than drumsticks, that can inspire music while still playing the drums.

• STANDARD OPTIONS

1. Brushes-  Great for jazz and ballads.  Soft and elegant, makes many sounds and very practical for every drummer to have.  I use the Vic Firth Jazz Brushes and Heritage Brushes for their feel, thick sound and balanced handles.

2. Mallets- From Timpani style rolls on toms to cymbal swells, these felt tipped cousins of the drumstick can give a drummer a lot more options without changing standard drumstick technique.  I prefer T2 Cartwheel Mallets for their wider surface area.

• BE CREATIVE

3. Swizzle Sticks/Mallets- A combination mallet/drumstick that are very usual for quick changes.  The TG25’s are always near by in my stick bag.

4. Multi-Dowel Sticks- Softer thank sticks but with a stronger attack than brushes, this family of sticks can really be a life saver in a quick but rock setting.  The Rutes are my favorite, for their feel, attack, and the wooden handle makes a great rim click sound.

• HAVE FUN

5. Shaker/tambourine Sticks- Anything from egg shakers taped to a stick or brush, to a mallet with some rattling effects, these types of sticks can add a lot of color to any groove and cover those percussion parts that we might normally need another drummer for.  Lately, Vic Firth Maraca Mallet has been a great add to my studio sound arsenal.

6. Kitchen Whisk- That’s right, I may not be a chef, but a whisk can definitely “mix” it up when looking for new and interesting sounds. (Maybe one day, Vic Firth Gourmet will run a hybrid cooking/drumming whisk!)

• Feel free to write in and share your preferred equipment and how they have enhanced your drumming.
• For more examples, please check out my video and more at www.youtube.com/ftdrum456
  

]]> http://www.vicfirth.com/exchange/2010/06/14/playing-without-sticks/feed/ 3 http://www.vicfirth.com/exchange/2010/06/09/youtube-clip-of-the-week-zappa-vs-schwinn/ http://www.vicfirth.com/exchange/2010/06/09/youtube-clip-of-the-week-zappa-vs-schwinn/#comments Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:18:06 +0000 Andy Tamulynas http://www.vicfirth.com/exchange/?p=1216 Today’s video features a young (and largely unknown) Frank Zappa on the Steve Allen show in 1963.  He’s performing an improvised piece for bicycle, “pre-recorded electric noises” and orchestra.  That’s right, bicycle.  He’s blowing through the handlebars, tapping on the frame, bowing the spokes and more.  Now, from an instrumentation standpoint, this isn’t totally revolutionary stuff, even for 1963.  John Cage’s Third Construction had been around for over twenty years already.  Still, to the average television audience, Zappa must have seemed like he was from another planet.

Right off the bat, it’s pretty clear that Frank’s appearance on the show was intended as comedic relief (get a load of this guy playing the bicycle!) Steve Allen cracks jokes, the audience laughs.  To be fair, it is strange.  The studio audience has probably never seen anything like it before.  It’s easier to digest it as comedy, and so the idea of it having musical, experimental or artistic value is dismissed.

But that was 1963.  Would it be different today?  Considering the popularity of percussion as an area of study and the growth of chamber percussion in general, I would hope so! Give it a watch and let us know what you think.

I know that’s not quite contemporary percussion, but it’s interesting to think about whether a performance like that would be received any differently today.  Someone playing a bicycle, or a tin can, or blowing into a conch shell really isn’t that strange anymore, is it?  What do you think?

I’ve been considering the Rudiment posters that we’ve printed at Vic Firth. Way back when (a little over 10 years ago now), Vic used to print calendars and mail them to every school in the country.  I proposed a poster with rudiments instead…  It’s much more useful, and band directors wouldn’t have to throw them away every year.  Little did I know that we’d wind up printing well over a quarter million of those – and get over 9,000 unique visitors every month to our rudiment feature on the site!

Now the thought plagues me…  Is that really the best we can do?

Would it be better to have a “ESSENTIAL STICK TECHNIQUE” poster which would include:

The essential stroke styles (rebound, down, up, tap, bounce)

7 Essential Rudiments (or 10 -12, whatever)

Essential Exercises (where you cover all the other misc techniques that do not necessarily fit as a ‘rudiment’ – like “8 on a hand”, “Bucks (duple/triple)”, “Chicken & a Roll (duple/triple)”, “Grid” – Accents/Diddles/Drags/Flams (duple/triple) and “Timing” (duple/triple).

It seems that a poster with that info in the hands of a band director, drumset instructor or student would be much more valuable.

Here is the sheet music for the piece. It has some specialties regarding notation that you might not be used to; however I think you can adapt to it pretty fast. The right hand is written above the line, the left hand below. Instead of regular flam notation there is a little line attached to the notehead (‘). A note with the right hand (above the line) having this attachment on the notehead will therefore be a flam “left/right” and vice versa. Got it? That is a pretty common way how the Swiss notate flams.

It takes a little while until you are used to it but then I think it becomes easier than reading regular flam notation with the little note plus having to read the sticking. Notating in two different levels instead of indicating stickings is another typical Swiss thing that can also be found in Scottish Drumming as well. Some of the very first American Drum Manuals (like Charles Ashworth’s 1812 book) is also written this way – however with the left hand on top and the right hand on the bottom. O.K., so read along with the video and check out what goes on.

In the next post I might explain a little more about typical Swiss ingredients and some more “hybrid-like” patterns. Have fun and feel free to throw any questions in!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PRINTABLE PDF!

Well, not this guy.  And you know what?  I think he pulled it off!  It just goes to show, as long as you can get into a groove, it doesn’t really matter how far over the edge you push everything else.  This guy is without a doubt over the edge (and possibly out of his mind).

I had a blast watching this.  Hope you do too!  Enjoy.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Anyway; understanding that there is a musical relationship between a drum and flute part is something which is almost forgotten in these days. Many of the pieces had a special function in the military use (like waking up the soldiers, getting them ready for the march etc.) and are part of what we know today as the „Camp Duty“. This collection of tunes was also the most important source when the 26 Rudiments were chosen in the beginning 30‘s.

For my column that I write with the German magazine „drums & percussion“ I elaborated on a number of these traditional tunes and created alternating versions to the original fife part. I also included a good amount of Swiss Rudiments that can be found in traditional Basle Drumming. Some of these patterns are still not included in the 40 PAS Standard Rudiments as we know them today and a fair number of them looks pretty wild on paper. However you will notice that most of them can be played very comfortable.

This little video clip is about one of the more famous fife and drum tunes; the so called „Garryowen“. The history of this ancient Irish piece dates back to the 17th century; throughout the years the melody has spread into many countries and it is still one the most common military marches in the US today. Beside VF marching sticks I use a rope tension drum that has been manufactured by Cooperman; the shell is solid esh while the hoops are solid, bended pieces of maple. The tacking design on the side was originally found in a  place called „King‘s Landing“ (for those of you who have probably heard about this little village located on the east coast of Canada.

So, before we get a little deeper into some of the rudimental passages just lean back, listen to the tune and enjoy! Hope you like it; feel free to contact me for any comments questions or whatever comes to your mind!

Claus

www.claushessler.de

Let’s start with a definition of what I consider to be “literal” practice techniques.

How many times have you cracked open a drumset book and it’s filled with pages and pages of groove permutations? You can easily spot these kinds of books – they are usually 5 inches thick and weigh 3 pounds! When you flip through them, you’ll see page after page of 8th note hi-hat lines with every possible combination of 8th note bass drum and snare beats.

Sometimes, there are whole books devoted to one style – with titles like
“The Definitive 8th Note Rock Book: 10,001 Great Rock Grooves!”

In my opinion, this “literal” type of book completely destroys a students’ (and my own) since of creativity and fun.  Open the book to page 1, set the metronome on 120 and work through each line. Check them off when completed. On to the next page.

Give me a gun, I want to shoot myself.

The Conceptual Approach

A great example of “conceptual” learning applied to a book is “Stick Control for the Snare Drummer”. Taking the 1st page, you can apply endless practice techniques that will open doors of sound development, independence, groove and (of course) stick control. One short page can become a lifetime pursuit.  There’s tons of other examples: Ted Reed’s “Syncopation”. Gary Chaffe’s “Time Functioning Patterns”.  The list goes on and on.

When writing my book, “A Fresh Approach to the Drumset”, I wanted to have certain conceptional approaches that would give young students the tools to open up a huge world of groove possibilities. Here is an example of using a simple chart of 8th note rock permutations:

It actually looks quite boring, doesn’t it? Unless you’re a beginner, the thought of combining different measures of 8th note rock patterns can make your eyes roll back in your head!

However, if you apply an almost endless number of groove concepts to these simple patterns, you’ll soon discover that it’s not as boring as it seems. Here’s a brief list of how you can use these simple “Combos” to practice a wide variety of styles (from very basic to more advanced):

1. Basic combo

Mix and match numbers to come up with 4 count grooves. For instance, measure 1/measure 2 then 1/3 , etc.

Starting with the first line is very basic – starting with the 2nd is a little more difficult for younger players (since there’s no strong count one on each bar).

From there, you can switch hands for an open-hand approach (left hand on the hi-hat 8ths, right hand on the backbeat). And with all of these concepts, you should apply DYNAMICS and TEMPO VARIATIONS to develop a musical approach!

2. Add open hi-hats

For the sake of consistency, I’d encourage you to NOT make open hi-hat patterns random. Force yourself to apply ONE concept throughout the grooves – that’ll expose weaknesses in the independence between the feet. AND you’ll discover cool grooves that within various combos that you might have never thought of before!

3. Move to the RH to the ride cymbal and add the left foot

4. Vary the ride pattern

* Practice the 16th ride patterns with alternating strokes or all one-handed.

Next, move away from a duple subdivision and play with triplets instead:

Or, with a double time “hip-hop” feel:

Don’t forget that you can also apply open hi-hat and left foot hi-hats to all these ride variations! The upbeat left foot gets fun when you apply it to the triplet subdivision!

5. Play in different styles

Lite Rock/Country: Play the combo at a slow tempo with soft 8th note hi-hat and cross-stick snare (heel down bass drum).

Rock Ballad: Loud and slow with a trashy ride and slammin’ backbeat / heel up bass drum.

Punk rock: Ultra-fast and trashy with quarter note ride.

50’s Rock: Halfway between straight and swing –  ala Elvis’ “Hound Dog”.

Shuffle: Add ghosted snare on the 1st and 3rd note of the triplet, but keep the original snare notes strong:

There’s a few ideas to get you started! As you can see, the only limit to what you can do with a few simple patterns.

If you have other concepts on how to apply these 8th note combos, I’d love to hear them!

Once you open your mind up conceptually to what you can do with a few simple patterns, you’ll never get bored – and you’ll never lack for a challenge. My problem is that I’ll start practicing this simple little chart – applying variations, dynamics, tempos, styles – and 2 hours will go by and I’ve neglected working on other important stuff (not to mention going to bed at a decent hour)!

In my book, I have many other combo pattern charts that you can use: 3/4 Grooves; Syncopated 8ths, 16th Beats, Triplets, Jazz Comping Figures, Reading, Duple/Triple Sticking Patterns and Duple/Triple Accent Patterns. If you like the idea, I hope you’ll check it out!

A FRESH APPROACH TO THE DRUMSET

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Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or advanced drummer, you’ll benefit from the simple step-by-step approach for learning technique, independence, music reading and grooves.

A FRESH APPROACH to the DRUMSET will give you a solid foundation to take your drumming to the next level!

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