Show on Sunday was kind of weird. 6:30pm (really closer to 7pm) on a Sunday evening. A benefit for an elementary school (Lowellpalooza). At the Harmony Bar.
We headlined after The Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Sextet and the Yid Vicious Power Quartet.
Set up was chaotic. The show was running behind and I didn't have a chance to load all of my stuff in ahead of time because of space issues. Basically I had exactly enough time to set everything up and no time at all to check anything. There was no sound check. The sound guy kept turning off my vocal mic so that it wasn't on when I needed to sing. I noticed after the show that half of my hardware wasn't even properly tightened. I'm lucky things didn't fall (crash did fall during We Are the Ones, but unrelated to set up time crunch). The sweetie was at the show and helped me with set up, which was a life saver.
Despite the rush things felt good heading into the set. Strong and steady and able to play fast. Somewhere about 3/4 through I got a little sloppy and dropped a few beats, but nothing too noticeable. My bass foot and ride cymbal were spot on. I stumbled with timing on the very end of "Sun" (which bummed me out because we nearly nailed the whole tune after very little practice) and on "The Way I Love You" (I can never decide if I want to play all the high hat 8th notes on that or not...depends on speed...screws me up...I should just settle...or practice). JG rushed the entry after the guitar solo on "Michael Jackson". The very end of "Suspect Device" was slightly hairy too. We ran over time and had to cut the last few songs.
It was about a thousand degrees on stage and I was sweating up a storm. I had half a walnut burger about an hour before the show and one Spotted Cow pint of beer. I drank one pint of water through the show. I also ate something an hour or so before we even arrived. My stomach was feeling weird and I had a headache. We had walked a bit that morning, but not through snow. I did stand around for about two hours right before playing, but that didn't seem to hurt my feet. There were kids running around everywhere and a low level vocal noise that was unnerving.
We played the show for free, but got free drinks.
I had a good time playing, but it was a little bit of a nerve wracking situation. I was pretty much exhausted afterwards, prehaps more than ever before. The next day I felt like I'd been hit with a shovel.
RS had a good turnout of friends. Dr. K from Pants del Fwego happened to be there by accident and caught most of our set for the first time. The Nugget came by for the end of the set too. And The Moth was there.
Set list (as played, we were calling lots of audibles):
1. PART TIME PUNKS
2. HELICOPTER (switched with Teenaged Kicks)
3. BOSCOBEL BREAKOUT
4. DANCE (4X) TO THE RADIO
5. WHY DOES THE SUN SHINE?
6. TEENAGE KICKS (switched with Helicopter)
7. NEW ROSE
8. STARMAN
9. WE ARE THE ONE
10. POLITICAL SONG FOR MICHAEL JACKSON TO SING
11. EVERYBODY'S HAPPY NOWADAYS
12. THIS SIDE OF PARADISE
13. THE WAY I LOVE YOU
14. SUSPECT DEVICE
15. WARSAW (switched with Suspect Device and then cut for time)
16. FABLE (switched with Starman and then cut for time)
Monday, February 15, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Break My Body
I spent a fair amount of time last night avoiding practicing the drums by working out the timing of Break My Body on the bass. RS had mentioned that there were some tricky time signature things in the first few Pixies songs they were learning...and I guess I had glossed over them. But yes, Break My Body is a little tricky until you get it worked out.
(click image to make larger)
My conclusion, assuming I've got it right, is that the song is mostly in 4/4 with some regular measures of 2/4 thrown in. There's also a couple of spots where it goes into 5/4. I can see where this would be confusing on the drum throne, though it is pretty easy to work out on the bass.
It made me realize that, when I'm playing bass I don't think about counting beats the way I do on drums. I just play along with what sounds right...or I count notes instead of beats (i.e, instead of counting "1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +" for the first few measures of Break My Body I count "1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4". I'm counting the notes and not the beats.
(click image to make larger)
My conclusion, assuming I've got it right, is that the song is mostly in 4/4 with some regular measures of 2/4 thrown in. There's also a couple of spots where it goes into 5/4. I can see where this would be confusing on the drum throne, though it is pretty easy to work out on the bass.
It made me realize that, when I'm playing bass I don't think about counting beats the way I do on drums. I just play along with what sounds right...or I count notes instead of beats (i.e, instead of counting "1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +" for the first few measures of Break My Body I count "1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4". I'm counting the notes and not the beats.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Lessons, Week 54
I don't know if Monday's lesson was lame...or really advanced. Either way it felt like a waste.
Basically we listened to songs by jazz bass player Mingus, Philly Joe Jones, and Herbie Hancock and we talked about structures in jazz music. Most of it didn't make sense to me. Nor did it interest me. Made the mistake of mentioning the bass part writing class I'm taking. Not sure why that led to jazz.
I hate jazz.
I get that it's part of a complete drum education, but I feel like I'm lacking in SO MANY areas...why throw jazz in there too? I just wanna play decent rock drums man. I'm not complicated.
I'm hoping it is just a passing thing. If it sticks around too long I'll have to say something...like "dude...I hate jazz."
All that said...I would have said the same thing about odd time signatures...and now someone in the new band is proposing we play a song that's in 5/4 with a 4/4 passage. So things become applicable eventually I suppose. Maybe I just don't know what's good for me. That's why I pay someone to tell me.
But I can only be force-fed vegetables for so long before I stop coming to dinner...so I'll be keeping an eye on it. He's usually pretty good about keeping things mixed up in a good way...so I doubt it will be a problem.
Basically we listened to songs by jazz bass player Mingus, Philly Joe Jones, and Herbie Hancock and we talked about structures in jazz music. Most of it didn't make sense to me. Nor did it interest me. Made the mistake of mentioning the bass part writing class I'm taking. Not sure why that led to jazz.
I hate jazz.
I get that it's part of a complete drum education, but I feel like I'm lacking in SO MANY areas...why throw jazz in there too? I just wanna play decent rock drums man. I'm not complicated.
I'm hoping it is just a passing thing. If it sticks around too long I'll have to say something...like "dude...I hate jazz."
All that said...I would have said the same thing about odd time signatures...and now someone in the new band is proposing we play a song that's in 5/4 with a 4/4 passage. So things become applicable eventually I suppose. Maybe I just don't know what's good for me. That's why I pay someone to tell me.
But I can only be force-fed vegetables for so long before I stop coming to dinner...so I'll be keeping an eye on it. He's usually pretty good about keeping things mixed up in a good way...so I doubt it will be a problem.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Rock Band
I played the video game Rock Band for the first time last night. I've picked it up on demos in stores before, but last night was the first time I sat in someone's living room and played the game. I find the guitar controllers difficult to use, but my strategy of learning to use them by playing the bass parts on "easy" seemed to be going okay. When I've tried the drums in stores in the past it has been a disaster. Last night though, it went smooth as pie. It was nearly like playing regularly drums...though the bass drum is a little odd/irregular. Also, it is like sight reading a part that could throw any odd thing at you at any time. Sight reading is hard enough...this was worse. Still it was a good time. And I sweated. It requires a lot of concentration. The drums are definitely (besides the vocals) the closest to a real instrument. The guitar/bass stuff is like something entirely different from the real thing.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Lessons, Week 53
I nearly forgot to blog this week's lesson.
I brought in my new copy of Turn It Up Lay It Down Playing the Odds and we went through it.
I also talked to him about how to keep from rushing on the new grunge tunes I'm working on. He suggested clicking my teeth to eighth notes.
I brought in my new copy of Turn It Up Lay It Down Playing the Odds and we went through it.
I also talked to him about how to keep from rushing on the new grunge tunes I'm working on. He suggested clicking my teeth to eighth notes.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Kim Thompson and Nikki Glaspie
I hate when people make a big deal out of me being female and being a drummer. First off, it is awkward, because I don't consider myself female per se. And I don't like people drawing to my attention that most of the rest of the world DOES consider me female. Second off...what the hell? A drummer is a drummer.
That said, it is true that there are fewer female drummers than male drummers. And that I am intrigued when I meet or see a female drummer. So I'm a hypocrite.
Last night on the Grammys I noticed Beonce had a female drummer. This blog backs that up, though the post is old.
It likely was Kim Thompson or Nikki Glaspie (Nikki G).
That blog I referenced also lists the following female kit players:
Sheila E, Hilary Jones, Gina Schock, Susie Ibarra, Cora Coleman, Cindy Blackman, Terri Lyne Carrington, Debra Dobkin, Kate Schellenbach, Samantha Maloney, Meg White, Georgia Hubley, Vera Figueiredo, Torrance Castellano, and more.
He also says "One hopes the day will come when gender is no longer even considered, that we are all just musicians—until then though, lend an ear to what these women are doing on the skins, because they're here now and they're tearing the roof off of the sucker!"
Amen bro.
That said, it is true that there are fewer female drummers than male drummers. And that I am intrigued when I meet or see a female drummer. So I'm a hypocrite.
Last night on the Grammys I noticed Beonce had a female drummer. This blog backs that up, though the post is old.
It likely was Kim Thompson or Nikki Glaspie (Nikki G).
That blog I referenced also lists the following female kit players:
Sheila E, Hilary Jones, Gina Schock, Susie Ibarra, Cora Coleman, Cindy Blackman, Terri Lyne Carrington, Debra Dobkin, Kate Schellenbach, Samantha Maloney, Meg White, Georgia Hubley, Vera Figueiredo, Torrance Castellano, and more.
He also says "One hopes the day will come when gender is no longer even considered, that we are all just musicians—until then though, lend an ear to what these women are doing on the skins, because they're here now and they're tearing the roof off of the sucker!"
Amen bro.
Consistency
I'm becoming more and more aware with the tunes this new group I'm in is playing how difficult it is to play consistently when you are playing slowly. I've always heard it was harder to play slowly than fast...but thought it was bunk. That's because I couldn't play fast but I could play slow...so how could fast be easier?
Now I'm 1 year down the track of playing punk rock at 120-190 bpm all the time...after a year of playing new wavey still north of 100. So I sit down to play Pearl Jam at 73 bpm and I suddenly feel retarded. Like the spaces between notes are HUGE and that I can't keep them consistently the same size in time. It's not so much that I want to fill the space with notes (and make it more busy)...it's just that my body won't wait long enough. I stumble in the space.
And that's a sure sign that this is just what I need to be trying out right now.
Don't get me wrong. It isn't terrible. It is hardly noticeable. Maybe only noticeable to me. But it's there. The inconsistent space. I finally understand what I've been reading all this time.
I read an article in Drum! magazine last night where they interviewed a bunch of really fast metal players. It was fascinating because the whole thing, instead about being about playing fast as you'd think, was about how hard it is to play slowly. That if you mess up at 200 bpm it is hard to notice...but if you mess up at 60 bpm it is really obvious. And that so many "kids these days" just want to learn speed, so that's all they work on. And then they never get the fundamentals down and they never learn control.
Fascinating!
Now I'm 1 year down the track of playing punk rock at 120-190 bpm all the time...after a year of playing new wavey still north of 100. So I sit down to play Pearl Jam at 73 bpm and I suddenly feel retarded. Like the spaces between notes are HUGE and that I can't keep them consistently the same size in time. It's not so much that I want to fill the space with notes (and make it more busy)...it's just that my body won't wait long enough. I stumble in the space.
And that's a sure sign that this is just what I need to be trying out right now.
Don't get me wrong. It isn't terrible. It is hardly noticeable. Maybe only noticeable to me. But it's there. The inconsistent space. I finally understand what I've been reading all this time.
I read an article in Drum! magazine last night where they interviewed a bunch of really fast metal players. It was fascinating because the whole thing, instead about being about playing fast as you'd think, was about how hard it is to play slowly. That if you mess up at 200 bpm it is hard to notice...but if you mess up at 60 bpm it is really obvious. And that so many "kids these days" just want to learn speed, so that's all they work on. And then they never get the fundamentals down and they never learn control.
Fascinating!
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