I love the drum part on this song. It is challenging, but doable, like all the great drum parts. The three against two in the bridge is particularly cool (around 2:11 on the video, though it doesn't look like much). Camera man totally dropped the bag on capturing the drummer. Did we really need that many lip closeups of the singer?
Friday, January 8, 2010
Visitors
Just a little check in on the blog in general...
I've never written blogs particularly to solicit readers. Mostly my intended audience, for my personal blogs, has been myself and a list of less than 10 friends and family. I was never looking to expand my audience.
A couple of years ago I starting contributing entries about bicycling to a collaborative blog. In that case I WAS interested in having a broad audience. But I was shielded by the collaborative nature of the blog and the fact that the entries weren't really much about me personally.
With this blog, Rhythm Movement, my intention from the start was to recreate a kind of anonymity that I had lost in my other blogging (with disastrous results). I also wanted to focus on one topic, drumming, which had started to take over my other blogs. Further, my intention was partially to reach out to others with my same interest. Tentatively, for sure, because the internet seems prone to flaming. And I hate that. I certainly didn't anyone telling me that my playing and/or my opinions sucked...but I did have a small glimmer of making connections with other drummers.
And this is the kind of blog that no one but a drummer or musician would want to read. It isn't interesting unless you have a passion for playing and for learning about someone else's experience navigating learning an instrument.
I gave out the url to a handful of drumming or music friends, but pretty univerally Site Meter tells me that they don't visit. I suspect the topic bored the hell out of them if they checked it out even once.
So, aside from myself...who is the audience becoming?
It seems that most people are coming from Google searches on specific drumming topics. PASIC brought alot of people in. I can't find any regular readers yet. People find the blog because they are looking for something else. They come...they leave...they don't come back. So far anyway.
This doesn't entirely bother me. I'm writing mostly for my own reference. But I think it will be interesting to see if a regular readership develops at some point. I've made no effort to promote, so it will be slow to develop if at all.
I've not made any particular effort to make the entries interesting to anyone but me either. I ramble a bit and give reflections on my own playing and practice. I don't know if this would interest other people or not. I think it would interest me if I was reading someone else's. And the drummer profiles aren't anything new under the sun (already covered in other places)...it's just a way for me to catalog my studies. Since reading Drummerworld start to end isn't an option for me...I note who I've looked into as it happens.
We'll see how things progress. I seem to still be pretty low profile and that's okay with me.
I've never written blogs particularly to solicit readers. Mostly my intended audience, for my personal blogs, has been myself and a list of less than 10 friends and family. I was never looking to expand my audience.
A couple of years ago I starting contributing entries about bicycling to a collaborative blog. In that case I WAS interested in having a broad audience. But I was shielded by the collaborative nature of the blog and the fact that the entries weren't really much about me personally.
With this blog, Rhythm Movement, my intention from the start was to recreate a kind of anonymity that I had lost in my other blogging (with disastrous results). I also wanted to focus on one topic, drumming, which had started to take over my other blogs. Further, my intention was partially to reach out to others with my same interest. Tentatively, for sure, because the internet seems prone to flaming. And I hate that. I certainly didn't anyone telling me that my playing and/or my opinions sucked...but I did have a small glimmer of making connections with other drummers.
And this is the kind of blog that no one but a drummer or musician would want to read. It isn't interesting unless you have a passion for playing and for learning about someone else's experience navigating learning an instrument.
I gave out the url to a handful of drumming or music friends, but pretty univerally Site Meter tells me that they don't visit. I suspect the topic bored the hell out of them if they checked it out even once.
So, aside from myself...who is the audience becoming?
It seems that most people are coming from Google searches on specific drumming topics. PASIC brought alot of people in. I can't find any regular readers yet. People find the blog because they are looking for something else. They come...they leave...they don't come back. So far anyway.
This doesn't entirely bother me. I'm writing mostly for my own reference. But I think it will be interesting to see if a regular readership develops at some point. I've made no effort to promote, so it will be slow to develop if at all.
I've not made any particular effort to make the entries interesting to anyone but me either. I ramble a bit and give reflections on my own playing and practice. I don't know if this would interest other people or not. I think it would interest me if I was reading someone else's. And the drummer profiles aren't anything new under the sun (already covered in other places)...it's just a way for me to catalog my studies. Since reading Drummerworld start to end isn't an option for me...I note who I've looked into as it happens.
We'll see how things progress. I seem to still be pretty low profile and that's okay with me.
Metronome
So I used to have this shitty metronome that I stole from my high school orchestra. It was a little mini version with the actual arm that went back and forth with the weight on it. Ironically, it didn't work very well. It kind of lumbered. The spaces between beats were uneven. Which is precisely the opposite of the function of a metronome. So I never used it much (with playing stringed instruments).
When I started playing drums I never worried about using a metronome. In the last year I resigned myself to needing one...and the one I had, besides sucking, wasn't loud enough for drums.
I went to a local music store looking for something that cost less than $25 and what I walked away with was kind of inappropriate for my needs. It didn't occur to me that drummers would have special needs in a metronome. It is the style with a dial. There's no volume control. It isn't loud enough to use with drums, though you can plug the headphone jack into a stereo and turn it up. Unfortunately, when you use headphones, though, you can't control the volume. And it is way too loud to use with headphones. And the tone is kind of annoying to broadcast over the stereo. So I'm mostly used it visually. I set it on my drum and watch the lights. The other problems with it is...it only goes to 208 bpm (pretty standard) and it doesn't allow for sub-divided measures. This is a real problem for me because most punk music is in the >175 bpm range...and the stuff that I need the most metronome help can be over 208 bpm. And getting the subdivisions is key too.
I'm cheap and unwilling to pay much for such a device, but luckily I don't have to. I've been scoping out the Korg MA-30 for a while now, but didn't know if it really fit my needs. I didn't want to make the same mistake twice.
Luckily, JoeDrums feels my pain, and posted this helpful video on selecting a metronome for drumming:
After viewing this, I'm fairly certain that the $19.99 Korg MA-30 will suit me just fine. It costs more in stores (I found it at the store I bought my other one at and it is nearly $40 there!), so I've been waiting to buy it until I could assemble a big enough order online to avoid shipping fees if possible. Though, in light of my last post it is probably better to get it sooner rather than later.
When I started playing drums I never worried about using a metronome. In the last year I resigned myself to needing one...and the one I had, besides sucking, wasn't loud enough for drums.
I went to a local music store looking for something that cost less than $25 and what I walked away with was kind of inappropriate for my needs. It didn't occur to me that drummers would have special needs in a metronome. It is the style with a dial. There's no volume control. It isn't loud enough to use with drums, though you can plug the headphone jack into a stereo and turn it up. Unfortunately, when you use headphones, though, you can't control the volume. And it is way too loud to use with headphones. And the tone is kind of annoying to broadcast over the stereo. So I'm mostly used it visually. I set it on my drum and watch the lights. The other problems with it is...it only goes to 208 bpm (pretty standard) and it doesn't allow for sub-divided measures. This is a real problem for me because most punk music is in the >175 bpm range...and the stuff that I need the most metronome help can be over 208 bpm. And getting the subdivisions is key too.
I'm cheap and unwilling to pay much for such a device, but luckily I don't have to. I've been scoping out the Korg MA-30 for a while now, but didn't know if it really fit my needs. I didn't want to make the same mistake twice.
Luckily, JoeDrums feels my pain, and posted this helpful video on selecting a metronome for drumming:
After viewing this, I'm fairly certain that the $19.99 Korg MA-30 will suit me just fine. It costs more in stores (I found it at the store I bought my other one at and it is nearly $40 there!), so I've been waiting to buy it until I could assemble a big enough order online to avoid shipping fees if possible. Though, in light of my last post it is probably better to get it sooner rather than later.
Endurance and Consistency
It occurred to me last night that I haven't been playing as much as I should of late. And this is contributing to a general loss of endurance. I used to be able to play for 2-3 hours and not get tired and not start to make mistakes due to fatigue. Not the case at present. I need to build back up.
Being in a punk rock band with songs that only last 2 minutes and a full setlist of only 45 minutes probably doesn't help matters. I need to return to a practice exercises for an hour, play the set for an hour, play along to cds for 1-2 hour regime.
Hopefully it is just the holidays and my pre-holiday coordination spazz out (which I'm still recovering from) that is to blame. And the minor bass distraction of late.
I also think that I'm nailing down that spazz out to (besides the fact that I was tired that night and was playing on a foreign set and my feet were fucked from walking in foot deep snow all that week) a general sudden awareness of my inconsistency. I think that, for a while, I wasn't super aware of what all my limbs were doing. I just played and kind of thought all was well. I think now I've started to think more about consistency...whether I'm hitting every bass drum beat or every bit of a fill...and thinking about it has thrown me off. Ultimately, it is a good thing...because I SHOULD be worried about consistency. But in the short term it has me psyched out. I'm thinking about it too much and at the wrong times. I SHOULD be thinking about it during practice...I should let it go and play during performance.
A real key on the consistency front is playing with a metronome and building independence. The metronome is pretty new to me. I've only really started to use it in the last month. And it is an eye opener. And as to independence...I think I've long taken for granted that I was being consistent on simple beats when I really wasn't. I can play consistently with JUST hands or JUST feet or just this hand or foot or that. But with each layer added the consistency goes out the window.
It's just a hard time right now because I'm kind of having to unlearn some bad habits...poor stick holding technique and inconsistent hits...so it is a little frustrating. And I'm frustrated in my life in general at present...so it gets a little depressing and makes me not want to practice. Which is the exact opposite of what needs to happen to work through this rough patch.
Being in a punk rock band with songs that only last 2 minutes and a full setlist of only 45 minutes probably doesn't help matters. I need to return to a practice exercises for an hour, play the set for an hour, play along to cds for 1-2 hour regime.
Hopefully it is just the holidays and my pre-holiday coordination spazz out (which I'm still recovering from) that is to blame. And the minor bass distraction of late.
I also think that I'm nailing down that spazz out to (besides the fact that I was tired that night and was playing on a foreign set and my feet were fucked from walking in foot deep snow all that week) a general sudden awareness of my inconsistency. I think that, for a while, I wasn't super aware of what all my limbs were doing. I just played and kind of thought all was well. I think now I've started to think more about consistency...whether I'm hitting every bass drum beat or every bit of a fill...and thinking about it has thrown me off. Ultimately, it is a good thing...because I SHOULD be worried about consistency. But in the short term it has me psyched out. I'm thinking about it too much and at the wrong times. I SHOULD be thinking about it during practice...I should let it go and play during performance.
A real key on the consistency front is playing with a metronome and building independence. The metronome is pretty new to me. I've only really started to use it in the last month. And it is an eye opener. And as to independence...I think I've long taken for granted that I was being consistent on simple beats when I really wasn't. I can play consistently with JUST hands or JUST feet or just this hand or foot or that. But with each layer added the consistency goes out the window.
It's just a hard time right now because I'm kind of having to unlearn some bad habits...poor stick holding technique and inconsistent hits...so it is a little frustrating. And I'm frustrated in my life in general at present...so it gets a little depressing and makes me not want to practice. Which is the exact opposite of what needs to happen to work through this rough patch.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Lessons, Week 49
An unpleasant (to me) but likely neccessary diversion into Latin grooves. 3-2 and 2-3 Rumba Clave and Son Clave rhythms. Stuff they use in Cubin...Afrocuban...music. I suck at it. I'm supposed to practice them and be able to do them next week. Bleah.
Also took a bass lesson last night and realized that I don't need bass lessons. Not right now. What I need is to memorize my major and minor scales and learn the fingerboard backwards and forwards. I don't need someone pestering me to do that...I just have to sit down and do it. Until I do, lessons probably won't help me much.
I was reminded during the bass lesson last night how much I hate lessons in general. Always have. Rarely have I lasted beyond a few lessons with any instrument (except cello, which I was forced to take) before getting totally irritated and quitting. The fellow was perfectly nice and qualified last night...but I couldn't help but feel like punching him. Before I'd even left the room I knew I wouldn't be back.
This isn't interesting in and of itself, because it is typical of me. What's interesting is that I am three lessons away from taking a solid year of drum lessons. And I've never once considered quitting. Not every lesson has been a gem...but I've never felt like punching EN. In honesty, I haven't been very good about following up on the things that we do in lessons. So I could be doing so much better. But the nice thing is that progress of some sort doesn't seem totally dependent on me following up on the lessons. He hangs on to a topic for a lesson or two...and then we move on. Sometimes we come back to things. And usually the second time around, even if I've not worked on the topic, I'm better able to deal with it. There's a mix of what he calls "chop busting" work and just jamming to tunes. A mix of technique and genre. And always, always the constant assumption that I am able and free to learn other things on my own...and that I'm playing in a "working" band on an ongoing basis. It isn't the most structured lessons...but I guess that's kind of what I need. He kind of drifts about to whatever from lesson to lesson...but when I bring a problem or question to him...we drop everything and focus on that. He's pretty great. For the record, he's the third drum instructor I've had in the last four years. I don't know if the time was just right for me (this is a large part of it) or if he just clicks better with me (a pretty big part too, I'm sure)...but it is good. I hope it stays that way. Probably up to me whether or not it will.
Also took a bass lesson last night and realized that I don't need bass lessons. Not right now. What I need is to memorize my major and minor scales and learn the fingerboard backwards and forwards. I don't need someone pestering me to do that...I just have to sit down and do it. Until I do, lessons probably won't help me much.
I was reminded during the bass lesson last night how much I hate lessons in general. Always have. Rarely have I lasted beyond a few lessons with any instrument (except cello, which I was forced to take) before getting totally irritated and quitting. The fellow was perfectly nice and qualified last night...but I couldn't help but feel like punching him. Before I'd even left the room I knew I wouldn't be back.
This isn't interesting in and of itself, because it is typical of me. What's interesting is that I am three lessons away from taking a solid year of drum lessons. And I've never once considered quitting. Not every lesson has been a gem...but I've never felt like punching EN. In honesty, I haven't been very good about following up on the things that we do in lessons. So I could be doing so much better. But the nice thing is that progress of some sort doesn't seem totally dependent on me following up on the lessons. He hangs on to a topic for a lesson or two...and then we move on. Sometimes we come back to things. And usually the second time around, even if I've not worked on the topic, I'm better able to deal with it. There's a mix of what he calls "chop busting" work and just jamming to tunes. A mix of technique and genre. And always, always the constant assumption that I am able and free to learn other things on my own...and that I'm playing in a "working" band on an ongoing basis. It isn't the most structured lessons...but I guess that's kind of what I need. He kind of drifts about to whatever from lesson to lesson...but when I bring a problem or question to him...we drop everything and focus on that. He's pretty great. For the record, he's the third drum instructor I've had in the last four years. I don't know if the time was just right for me (this is a large part of it) or if he just clicks better with me (a pretty big part too, I'm sure)...but it is good. I hope it stays that way. Probably up to me whether or not it will.
Monday, January 4, 2010
David Lovering
I've been learning Pixies songs on bass in a likely unsuccessful bid to join/start a Pixies tribute band. Prior to the idea coming up a few weeks ago, I'd never listened to the Pixies even though they were "popular" around the time that I was really into alternative music. Now that I've been turned on to them, of course, I see them everywhere. Last night, reading Modern Drummer, there was a short interview with their drummer David Lovering (personal website).
The interview was funny because he admitted to no longer being able to play some of the things he played while with the Pixies, and that, for their reunion tours he had to watch videos of himself on Youtube to remember how to play the songs because he couldn't quite tell from the recordings. So we're all in the same boat I guess.
Wiki calls his style "steady and accurate." Apparently he played bass on the song "Silver" on Doolittle. He also drummed with The Martinis, Cracker, Nitzer Ebb and Tanya Donelly. These days he's a magician.
I really like his drumming with the Pixies. It's hard to pin-point why, but I think it is that he makes choices that I would make. I sat down and played along with the Pixies greatest hits album having never heard the songs before. I'm sure I wasn't doign everything he was doing, but the tunes came easily. They made sense in my head and made me happy to play.
Bone Machine (live, back in the day):
The Happening
Silver
No luck so far finding any videos of him with Cracker or Nitzer Ebb.
The interview was funny because he admitted to no longer being able to play some of the things he played while with the Pixies, and that, for their reunion tours he had to watch videos of himself on Youtube to remember how to play the songs because he couldn't quite tell from the recordings. So we're all in the same boat I guess.
Wiki calls his style "steady and accurate." Apparently he played bass on the song "Silver" on Doolittle. He also drummed with The Martinis, Cracker, Nitzer Ebb and Tanya Donelly. These days he's a magician.
I really like his drumming with the Pixies. It's hard to pin-point why, but I think it is that he makes choices that I would make. I sat down and played along with the Pixies greatest hits album having never heard the songs before. I'm sure I wasn't doign everything he was doing, but the tunes came easily. They made sense in my head and made me happy to play.
Bone Machine (live, back in the day):
The Happening
Silver
No luck so far finding any videos of him with Cracker or Nitzer Ebb.
The Mysteries of Music
So I sat down at the kit yesterday for the first time since Dec 30th...which is kind of a long stretch for me. The only practicing I'd done between those two days was some single stroke roll practice pad work on Jan 2nd. I also worked on my stroke techique...getting a good bounce off the pad and making sure my hand position was correct.
For about a month now I've been struggling with both fast single stroke rolls and also with playing eighth notes on the ride while playing double strokes on the bass. Songs that I learned nearly a year ago have been falling apart suddenly due to these issues (i.e. I played them fine for a year and suddenly I couldn't play them anymore). Since then I feel like I've been stuck in my head and my hands and feet have been totally retarded.
Yesterday I sat down to play and everything went perfect. No problems at all. Possibly the best I've ever played the songs in the band's set list. Rolls fine. Bass fine. Coordination fine.
The frustrating thing is...I have no idea what will happen next time I sit down. Could be good...could be bad.
Obviously I have the ability to play the songs the way I want to...because I did it yesterday. But where that ability goes sometimes I just don't know.
Practicing single stroke roll practice and hand technique practice definitely helps...and I should be doing that every day. Leading with the left hand especially. It is shocking how much weaker my left hand is than my right...but I suppose it makes total sense since I'm right handed and since all of the complicated playing happens with my right hand. Until recently my left hand wasn't really doing much. Now, since I'm correcting my techinique, the left hand is "doing more"...that is, the micro muscle movements are increasing. There's some risk of getting into my head too much with the stroke technique too...it can goof me up cause I think about it at odd times and try to correct. I think this is a fine thing to do in practice. But at a show I should probably just try to let it rip. I'm at a weird place right now though...so that neither the new way nor the old way of holding the sticks and playing feels quite natural...so it probably will goof me up at shows whether I try for it not to or not.
There's a show on Friday and I have no idea what to expect from my performance. I think I just need to practice this week, relax as much as possible during the show, and rest up well for a day or so before the show. No crazy exercise routines or walking all over town...get plenty of sleep.
Music is such a "one step forward, two steps back" kind of enterprise sometimes. I know that overall I end up making forward progress whether or not it seems like it day to day. It's hard to see the big picture and how far I've come in four years...or especially in the last year....and to know that I'll be really far from where I am in another year if I just keep it up. It's easy to get discouraged.
For about a month now I've been struggling with both fast single stroke rolls and also with playing eighth notes on the ride while playing double strokes on the bass. Songs that I learned nearly a year ago have been falling apart suddenly due to these issues (i.e. I played them fine for a year and suddenly I couldn't play them anymore). Since then I feel like I've been stuck in my head and my hands and feet have been totally retarded.
Yesterday I sat down to play and everything went perfect. No problems at all. Possibly the best I've ever played the songs in the band's set list. Rolls fine. Bass fine. Coordination fine.
The frustrating thing is...I have no idea what will happen next time I sit down. Could be good...could be bad.
Obviously I have the ability to play the songs the way I want to...because I did it yesterday. But where that ability goes sometimes I just don't know.
Practicing single stroke roll practice and hand technique practice definitely helps...and I should be doing that every day. Leading with the left hand especially. It is shocking how much weaker my left hand is than my right...but I suppose it makes total sense since I'm right handed and since all of the complicated playing happens with my right hand. Until recently my left hand wasn't really doing much. Now, since I'm correcting my techinique, the left hand is "doing more"...that is, the micro muscle movements are increasing. There's some risk of getting into my head too much with the stroke technique too...it can goof me up cause I think about it at odd times and try to correct. I think this is a fine thing to do in practice. But at a show I should probably just try to let it rip. I'm at a weird place right now though...so that neither the new way nor the old way of holding the sticks and playing feels quite natural...so it probably will goof me up at shows whether I try for it not to or not.
There's a show on Friday and I have no idea what to expect from my performance. I think I just need to practice this week, relax as much as possible during the show, and rest up well for a day or so before the show. No crazy exercise routines or walking all over town...get plenty of sleep.
Music is such a "one step forward, two steps back" kind of enterprise sometimes. I know that overall I end up making forward progress whether or not it seems like it day to day. It's hard to see the big picture and how far I've come in four years...or especially in the last year....and to know that I'll be really far from where I am in another year if I just keep it up. It's easy to get discouraged.
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