A
Anthony Amodeo
Guest
I saw a video once where moon broke a right bass drum head. He had the stage hands change the right head while he continued to play. It appeared that Moon was playing the left bass drum like a hi-hat playing eight notes. I heard that Moon would lead with his left foot think this is what they meant.. As others have mentioned he did not use a lot of hi-hat.
When I look at the videos of that premier kit that he played, the over-head toms appear to be the same size. When I listen to Moon, I can not hear the toms being tuned to differently. I hear different floor toms but not different overhead toms.
It is hard for me to hear any buzz, double stroke, or triple stroke rolls from Moon. He seems to be playing a lot of rhythmic fills without the use of the cymbals.
Because Moon did not play the hi-hat, he used his ride a lot, but he also used a lot of the crash cymbal as a ride. He crashed the cymbals more often than other drummers. Drummers would open and close their hi-hat slightly to add color, but since Moon was riding more often, he needed to accent and add color so he would use the crash cymbals to add color and phrasing.
a couple things
yes his mounted toms were commonly all the same sizes which is not uncommon for 60s drum kits at all ......this happened until the mid to late 70s when he started to layer concert toms ....and even then some of them were the same size
for example ...the pictures of Lilly kit had three 14x8 mounted toms tuned higher to lower from left to right , two 16X18 floor toms and one 16x16 floor tom which was commonly used as a drink holder.... ( this floor tom sat at the rock walk at GC on Sunset in hollywood for a long time next to Keiths gold Premier kit )
as for the cymbals......back then manufacturers weren't really labeling cymbals or differentiating much between "crash" and "ride"...they were just cymbals of different weights and diameters ...of which Keith generally played one 20" and two 18" of various manufacturers .. often Paiste with a Zildjian mixed in periodically
and yes Keith commonly pumped 8th noted on the bass drum that would play simultaneously with his right hand that was usually constantly switching cymbals ......and often live if his right foot was playing a pattern his left foot would be pumping 8ths as if it were on a hi hat
he also commonly played a single stroke four pattern on his feet in the middle of measures or every other measure
not sure I have ever heard the term "overhead tom"....but I know what you mean
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