I jump in my car... I drive over to Bev's house to feed Lily, Sam and Penny (ANYTHING to keep them from meowing excessively... ugh). Anyhow, as I hop back into my car (yes, there is much activity with my hopping and jumping), I speed towards the freeway and flick the radio on (lots of action words... yes, my mornings are this active).
I should note a disclaimer before I proceed: I listen to radio. I know the playlist is very "selective" (aka, SMALL). I really mess up my CDs because I don't take care of them (part of my deficit of attentiveness to putting them away), so if I'm kind of tired of what's currently in the deck, then I toggle through the stations with crossed fingers, hoping at some point that I'll be delighted by SOME gem of music that I've not yet run across. Related to this story (blog post), I found Welcome To The Jungle played on KROQ at 10pm last night. That was STRRRRAAANGE! They played Reggae this morning. That was not as strange, but still left me feeling a little perturbed. Not to worry. It'll be fine.
KLOS is playing Paradise City by Guns N' Roses, which used to be (and at times STILL is) THE song. I remember sitting in my room listening to the chaos in cacophony that was the Mike Clink production. I was 7 when first exposed to those sounds, and at 30, I'm STILL completely enamored with the entire Appetite for Destruction album. There was something about the energy and the vigor in the music that I just couldn't get enough of (and I think it threw me into this MTV-laden haze where like-dressed bands would deliver goods, but fail miserably when it came to matching the edge and poise of this TRULY motley group of rascals). As I drove and air guitar and air drummed all the parts quite expertly, a pervasive thought entered my soundclouded synaptic cluster (brain): Steven Adler was WAAAAAAY cooler of a drummer than Matt Sorum.
Now, this is a time-old argument among lots of fans of all types of music (particularly those fans with a need for hierarchical categorization of their entertainers of various types (musicians, sports figures, actors, celebrities, etc): "Who is the best?" I fed into that fallacious argumentative pit MANY times as a youth, and once I became a creator myself, then I stopped participating, but there are some instances where this comes up (mostly when I think there's absolutely an answer to that question) and I just have to continue on the downward spiral of opinion.
So, "IMHO" (In My Humble Opinion), I'm absolutely certain that MUSICALLY, Steven Adler was a much better fit for Guns N' Roses than Matt Sorum. Matt Sorum replaced Steven Adler when Adler's addiction to illicit narcotics overtook his ability to be a productive member of the band (also noted, he was one of Slash's closest friends). So, Sorum gets a thumb's-up for being sober. However, Adler played with swagger and swing, while Sorum played with sheer precision and... well... precision. I think that Sorum decently navigates through some songs on the follow-up release to Appetite; the Use Your Illusion CDs. My favorite of Matt's offerings was "Locomotive", and possibly "Double-Talkin' Jive" and "Garden Of Eden" (which are essentially the same beat). I feel that the essence that Steven lays down is palpable at faintest, and kinetic at best. He was fired inside of the Use Your Illusion sessions, but was able to track one last time, on the song called "Civil War" from the Use Your Illusion II CD. The "feel" of that song really stands out from any of the other songs on either of the two CDs, which incidentally is my favorite on either of those releases. WHY?
I think Steven Adler plays with more sense of dynamics. His cymbal crashes are akin to mortar fireworks that explode in the sky, where Matt Sorum has a consistent drive to the song, and the accents don't pull the song in any direction. Sorum is certainly a skilled player, but definitely pale in MY comparison to the addiction-addled Adler.
I wonder if his relation to Lou Adler had anything to do with GNR's rapid ascension to label attention... hmm... I digress.
Anyhow, the end of Paradise City is a 2.5 minute amphetamine rush with heart-racing, screechy vocals by Axl, smouldering guitar solos by Slash, and skin-bashing by Adler. What I find interesting is that with a good subwoofer system, you can hear the kick drum pound out groups of 3 8th notes at a tempo up around 260bpm (I THINK) resulting in a driving pulse to the song. I tried playing this long ago, and my foot would just cramp up from a lack of fitness. Did you realize that Steven Adler used to play with two bass drums? True story! The band suggested it'd be a better idea to downsize the kit to make it easier to lug around. Weird that Matt Sorum used to play with 2 bass drums (even though it was a waste... he never did anything with this left bass drum... just put up cool decals on the resonant head).
Anyways, towards the last half of the beat, you can hear Adler start to vary up the rhythms he was putting down (with the bass drum). I'm thinking he started getting tired, so instead of just powering through, he started to finesse the song a little bit by throwing some more tasteful (than brute) bass drum patterns. I just find it fascinating when I hear environmental/human aspects of the recordings in these old classic recordings. Like when Mitch Mitchell hits his sticks in drum solos inadvertently (listen: "Voodoo Chile" - Electric Ladyland).
Yes, this is the stuff I think about.
Anyhow, I was telling Ryan that I wanted to jam again. I talked about these "Epic" tom beats that I want to throw down. Thundering beats like patterns on my 14" and 16" floor toms that take up a lot of space. I've been thinking about them for some time. I call them "Epic", but in no way do I mean that they'd be "good", or anything to write home about. I've just been thinking that I want to hear some thundering drum patterns that didn't involve cymbals or pocket playing. I also think it'll be good work to write some of these patterns out so I can incorporate lots of hand/foot combinations, and left hand dominant patterns from accenting the snare, hi-hat and cymbals.
It's been 3-4 days since I've had drumsticks in my hands. I need to get my focus in gear.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
A.D.D.
This morning I received texts from Chris Cadiz about some ideas for a new song he had. Jamming them out on Saturday was fun and I dig the song concept, but since Chris and I come from such divergent musical backgrounds, I knew that what I was thinking was going to be far off the mark, making any composing on my end temporary and inconsequential (which I’m oddly fine with). This morning’s texts meant that Chris’s head was spinning with ideas that he wanted to solidify. He suggested that the vibe we wanted to go toward was something like “You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire” off of Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs For The Deaf album. After some productive hours at work, I clicked through my repository of albums on my work computer, and queued the song onto the player. As the groove kicked in and my feet started moving, I start to anticipate the chord changes in the song (and since there are chord changes in this new Trunk track, I was wondering how they’d be addressed in the songwriting process), and in anticipation, I start dreaming of “Birdsong” from Tomahawk’s Mit Gas.
Cue adoration for John Stanier. I remember the “Unsung” drum groove, and my mind wanders to his work on Battles’ “Race: In” off of Mirrored. Oh shit, “No One Knows” starts playing and again my attention is back to the notes coming out of the speakers. I’ve been in dreamland for about the last 2 minutes.
I’ve been thinking of ostinato patterns and their usefulness. Actually, more like dreading them, since I can’t play a simple jazz pattern to save my life. I don’t know what it is, I think it’s just simply my inattentive nature that makes me bored when I try to reach outside of my comfort zone. But if I could get my right hand to play 3 16th notes (with a rest on the 4th) and incorporate a rock beat with my other limbs for this, I think that would be a step closer to being able to play a jazz pattern. I think the stipulation would be that I’d have to play the 2nd and 4th beats on the hi-hat with my left foot (closing the pedal). I’m describing it in a complicated way, but really, it’s basic. Any beginning drummer that has taken lessons can already do this, and they’ve likely not been playing for a dozen years.
So, I still haven’t set my kick pedal up. I keep looking at the instructions that I wrote myself on my mirror (about non-accented double strokes to “Behind Closed Eyelids”) and saying “I’ll get around to you”. I think I’ve been dreaming of the patterns in 4-Way Coordination more than anything, but dreaming isn’t doing, and I’d better get on it.
Anyways, just wanted to spread some love for John Stanier.Monday, June 27, 2011
Start At The Beginning
My name is Chris. I've been playing drums on-off for years, but I feel that every time I listen to a song (either known or unknown), I learn something absolutely new for myself (and wonder how many others it would be useful to. I had aspirations of writing a book about my learning experience on the drums, but as with everything I think about, it's usually a "hey that'd be cool", and then I get bored with it (or distracted by something else). This blog will be my periodic expose about some of the stuff that is frying my brain at the moment.
So far, I wouldn't consider myself anywhere near the drummers I'd like to emulate. I have a ton of "favorite drummers" out there, though the consistent top guys are Jon Theodore (Mars Volta), John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), and Danny Carey (Tool). But then when asked, I have a tendency to vacillate between all kinds of other types of drummers for all kinds of different reasons (David Sanstrom to David Garibaldi, Clyde Stubblefield and Derrick McKensie to Gene Hoglan) and I never really can seem to just nail it down to one guy. There are so many great drummers that have something to contribute to the greater, larger picture of where I'd pull ideas from. Like Paul Rudd. That guy can sit back on a groove all day. Probably doesn't even break a sweat.
Anyhow, I think a right-handed drummer's biggest issue is the left side. There are many drummers who are not afraid of the left side, but I think that has most to do with their inclusion in some kind of high-school drum corps program and from that they've worked out of the George Stone manual and the dexterity isn't suffering as bad as a recreational player like me that started out listening to When The Levee Breaks and wanted to just bash out the beat on a full kit. I think Travis Barker is one of these kats. I saw him play on the Craig Kilbourne show years ago in a drummer tribute to drum corps (Mike from AAF and Chad from 311 and I think Adrian from No Doubt were also in this), so they were all playing marching snares and striking with traditional grip. I'm not one of these types. My left hand sucks. I mean, I'm able to do doubles, but very very slowly. Anyhow, I tried working out of the George Stone book, but found it to not be as helpful as just generally playing around the kit.
I think my favorite book is still Progressive Steps to Syncopation by Ted Reed. That book was phenomenal in introducing new concepts slowly. That's the only book that I've been able to work out of without getting bored. I just got a new book recently called "4 -way Coordination" that I've worked out of (just the first page), but it's got progressive steps like Syncopation, which is awesome and I'm stoked about. It's really kept my playing from deteriorating, and given me a better approach to the drum kit than stuff like the Stone book.
So I got on the kit on Saturday, which was the first time since April 28th (Trunk's Glasshouse show), and there was a little bit of rust that I worked out, but I could feel my mind still being agile, so I was excited that I hadn't lost the fluency of ideas around the kit (I mean, whatever fluency I DID have... there's a bunch of stuff I still need to learn). One of the things I noticed was that my left-side (which usually suffers for my right-side dominance) was actually more comfortable to play with, and that I was starting to get some more ideas out that way. I think one of the things that was key was the fact that I was practicing playing double strokes to a song's tempo (I'd done that about 3 times the week prior). I don't know what the tempo of the song is, but it's "Behind Closed Eyelids" by Shpongle. It's a consistent beat, so I'm not worrying about the tempo/time changes in the song. So, I'm happy that it worked out to where my left hand was actually more developed than before.
Another tactic that I've been using is getting my feet to operate while at work. Pulling the toes up while in a seated position is not something my body is used to, so I'm trying to get it more used to it, akin to playing heel-down (where normally I play heel up). Yesterday on my friend Kit's drumkit, I was able to play some 32nd notes (in a quad roll around the kit) for the first time. Though he is rocking a DW 9000 pedal (where I have some old Iron Cobra with wood beaters), I think playing heel-down definitely contributed to the coordination in the lower leg.
Kemo brought me my kick drum pad back, so all I have to do is steal some used carpeting to save the wood floor in the room from my double pedals and I've got me a cool practice location!
Anyways, I'm just rambling. Hopefully I can keep up the blogging. We'll see.
So right now, the drumming that is occupying my brain (that I'm trying to emulate) is thanks to Gary Novak on Chick Corea's Elektrik Band II - Paint The World. Kind of a corny group, but his work on "Ished" is some of the most fluid left-hand work I've ever heard. He plays with such control of his dynamics, it's not even funny. I think I may have to transcribe that track before I can really know what to do (or what he's even doing).
OH! I almost forgot... something else I'm trying to kind of work on is hand-foot combos. RH-RF 16ths at 80bpm. I've been trying to do that while I work (well, when I'm reading a protocol or something). And left hand lead rudiments.
Alright, that's it so far. I'll try to keep myself updated with my progress.
Later.
So far, I wouldn't consider myself anywhere near the drummers I'd like to emulate. I have a ton of "favorite drummers" out there, though the consistent top guys are Jon Theodore (Mars Volta), John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), and Danny Carey (Tool). But then when asked, I have a tendency to vacillate between all kinds of other types of drummers for all kinds of different reasons (David Sanstrom to David Garibaldi, Clyde Stubblefield and Derrick McKensie to Gene Hoglan) and I never really can seem to just nail it down to one guy. There are so many great drummers that have something to contribute to the greater, larger picture of where I'd pull ideas from. Like Paul Rudd. That guy can sit back on a groove all day. Probably doesn't even break a sweat.
Anyhow, I think a right-handed drummer's biggest issue is the left side. There are many drummers who are not afraid of the left side, but I think that has most to do with their inclusion in some kind of high-school drum corps program and from that they've worked out of the George Stone manual and the dexterity isn't suffering as bad as a recreational player like me that started out listening to When The Levee Breaks and wanted to just bash out the beat on a full kit. I think Travis Barker is one of these kats. I saw him play on the Craig Kilbourne show years ago in a drummer tribute to drum corps (Mike from AAF and Chad from 311 and I think Adrian from No Doubt were also in this), so they were all playing marching snares and striking with traditional grip. I'm not one of these types. My left hand sucks. I mean, I'm able to do doubles, but very very slowly. Anyhow, I tried working out of the George Stone book, but found it to not be as helpful as just generally playing around the kit.
I think my favorite book is still Progressive Steps to Syncopation by Ted Reed. That book was phenomenal in introducing new concepts slowly. That's the only book that I've been able to work out of without getting bored. I just got a new book recently called "4 -way Coordination" that I've worked out of (just the first page), but it's got progressive steps like Syncopation, which is awesome and I'm stoked about. It's really kept my playing from deteriorating, and given me a better approach to the drum kit than stuff like the Stone book.
So I got on the kit on Saturday, which was the first time since April 28th (Trunk's Glasshouse show), and there was a little bit of rust that I worked out, but I could feel my mind still being agile, so I was excited that I hadn't lost the fluency of ideas around the kit (I mean, whatever fluency I DID have... there's a bunch of stuff I still need to learn). One of the things I noticed was that my left-side (which usually suffers for my right-side dominance) was actually more comfortable to play with, and that I was starting to get some more ideas out that way. I think one of the things that was key was the fact that I was practicing playing double strokes to a song's tempo (I'd done that about 3 times the week prior). I don't know what the tempo of the song is, but it's "Behind Closed Eyelids" by Shpongle. It's a consistent beat, so I'm not worrying about the tempo/time changes in the song. So, I'm happy that it worked out to where my left hand was actually more developed than before.
Another tactic that I've been using is getting my feet to operate while at work. Pulling the toes up while in a seated position is not something my body is used to, so I'm trying to get it more used to it, akin to playing heel-down (where normally I play heel up). Yesterday on my friend Kit's drumkit, I was able to play some 32nd notes (in a quad roll around the kit) for the first time. Though he is rocking a DW 9000 pedal (where I have some old Iron Cobra with wood beaters), I think playing heel-down definitely contributed to the coordination in the lower leg.
Kemo brought me my kick drum pad back, so all I have to do is steal some used carpeting to save the wood floor in the room from my double pedals and I've got me a cool practice location!
Anyways, I'm just rambling. Hopefully I can keep up the blogging. We'll see.
So right now, the drumming that is occupying my brain (that I'm trying to emulate) is thanks to Gary Novak on Chick Corea's Elektrik Band II - Paint The World. Kind of a corny group, but his work on "Ished" is some of the most fluid left-hand work I've ever heard. He plays with such control of his dynamics, it's not even funny. I think I may have to transcribe that track before I can really know what to do (or what he's even doing).
OH! I almost forgot... something else I'm trying to kind of work on is hand-foot combos. RH-RF 16ths at 80bpm. I've been trying to do that while I work (well, when I'm reading a protocol or something). And left hand lead rudiments.
Alright, that's it so far. I'll try to keep myself updated with my progress.
Later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)