Hi Anthony Amodeo
every year I ask my more advanced students pick a tune they find very challenging and have them transcribe it. one of them picked The Sound Of Muzak .....I think he did a fantastic job on it I would love for you to check it out if you were at all interested .....i could send you the PDF
It's nice to know that folks feel inspired to transcribe my drumming. Unfortunately I don't have time to check all the transcriptions properly and I'm sure your student spent some quite considerable time on it.
Hi funkmonster
The suggestion of getting snare-focused books is a really good one, though may I ask for some personal recommendations? I know of a few titles which I've been itching to get, like the Wilcoxon titles but they don't seem to come easily. My local music shop shelves are filled with "7 Greatest [insert popular band name here] Songs" books... I really want to avoid getting crap books as I'll be paying hefty shipping costs if buying through Amazon.
The Wilcoxon books are good and Fred Albright Contemporary Studies For Snare Drum is excellent (but quite hard). Stone's "Stick Control" is very good too. Anything that will getting you working on accurate articulation is the key.
Hi SantiBanks
The backing track for Beyond the A has mostly just a 16th note pulse without accents. Is this on purpose and do you actually think in the different time signatures or just in 4? Im struggeling a bit with the transition fill from the small bridge to the verses (between verse 1 and 2). I always forget a note or I add one extra.
You can divide it in your mind anyway you want. It does all add up to 4/4 but I think of the verses as 9+7 9+7 9+7 7+9. Coming out of that and playing fills - is not easy.
Also, there was a video from you playing something (I can't remember what it was, maybe the videos for AKG?), but you switched the 8" tom to the position of the 12" tom (so next to your ride). Marco Minneman plays with that setup a lot. Was there a particular reason to have the 8" tom there?
It's from my second DVD - I just moved it there to shake things up a bit and see if got me moving about the toms a little differently.
And last, I'm in the market for an additional monitor set. In the rehearsal clips for the GH05 tour, it seems like you have two extra monitors on the table (as opposed to the 5.1 NS10 set). Are those Genelec 1031's? How do you like them as opposed to the NS10's?
They are Mackie HR824s. I actually set off to buy the Genelec 1031s but when I compared them in the shop I thought they sounded too good. Possibly flattering the music in an untrue kind of way. The Mackies just sounded flat to me and therefore I thought they would be more useful as 'monitors'.
Hi szokematyi
I remember that you used (maybe still do?) cut out rings in the inside of your floortoms sitting on top of the reso heads. Have you tried this idea with clear powerstroke3s as reso? If not, do you think it could work?
Yes I still do that. They have to be independent from the skin otherwise it won't work as a 'floating gate'. Pieces of cotton or cloth will also work well in the same way - but it's a bit unpredictable where they might land on the bottom head after any particular hit. The rings always go back into the same place.
Hi dr_flam
Can you give some hints about the tuning of your Protean snares? For example what is the difference in tuning bewteen the two? I guess the 12" will be some pitches higher than the 14".
I tune them for whatever the song requires. I always follow this tuning method
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdma3m5LUzs and just try to find the right pitch that suits what I'm trying to play. Of course the 12" has a different character and has more 'pop' in it's attack. The 14" has more body to it so between the two of them I can usually find what I'm looking for. I usually have the reso head tighter than the top head.
Hi kerrek
Hey Gavin, I have a question about your riff in Bonnie the Cat. I know you say that it's in 4/4 time, and I cognitively understand how that's true, but I cannot help but feel it in (7+9)/8. My question is something to the effect of this: What makes it a syncopated 4/4 rhythm as opposed to a mixed meter? (And on a broader level, what is the underlying difference between syncopation and meter changes? To me, they are often indistinguishable because I can see both perspectives equally well.) Is it in 4/4 because you, as the composer/architect feel it in 4? Is it in 4/4 because you as the drummer feel it in 4? Or are both ways of viewing the rhythm equally valid and subject to the listeners' interpretations? Simply put: In your opinion, who decides the meter: the writer, the performer, or the listener?
Good question. When I composed the rhythm I thought of it in 4/4 - but that's not to say that you might prefer to hear it another way. Both are valid. You might hear a 'feel' difference in the way that you play it - when you think of it in another time signature. In my second book (Rhythmic Perspectives) I examine this in depth.
For instance when working with an orchestra - let's say we have a piece that has some 'funky' syncopation in it - they might struggle to make that sound good if you force them to read it in 4/4. So if you rewrite it in a way that the funky accents are more on the downbeats (by using a series of odd time bars and possibly even changing subdivisions) they may find it easier to play and be able to nail it in a more accurate sounding way.
I remember my Dad's (big band brass) generation not loving to read 16th notes - but when it was written out as 8th notes - and the tempo doubled - they breezed through it. Whatever is easiest on your eyes. I really don't like to read 32nds especially if there's dotted notes and rests in there.
To the listener it sounds exactly the same. So the time signatures are just there to help you perform it in the easiest way. Sometimes I have rewritten parts in a different way because (to my eyes) it made more sense than the way the composer had scored it out.
It's also true that once you hear it one way - it's hard to un-learn it - and hear it another way. That has caught me out a few times.
cheers
Gavin