Hi Tetragrammaton
my friend wants to cover your rendition of Laurence Cottle's "Quite Firm" for one of his end-of-school music performance exams. Would it be at all possible for you to send either a notated arrangement of the band backing track you use or the backing track itself for him to play along to with a click?
Sorry but neither are available.
Hi Phlintlock
If you weren't drumming what instrument would you choose to play?
anything if I could do it well. Trumpet, Piano, Sax, Guitar
Hi euphoric_anomaly
How often do you use traditional grip? I've seen you switch on and off on some video's, but only for a short period of time (1 bar for example). I've never gotten into traditional grip, it feels unnatural and uncomfortable to hold the stick.
I like to use it when I'm playing swing sometimes as it's nice and delicate for ghost notes and buzzes - but I can't get a huge back beat sound from it.
Last question: Is Nil Recurring (the song) in 6/8? I absolutely love that breakdown after the grinding heavy chorus, how you and Colin just slip into a darker tone, the hi-hat notes are especially pronounced even at a low volume, just amazing.
You could think of it as 6/8 or 3/4. I think it goes into 9/8 later on - I can't really remember.
Hi Drumfy
I just saw you perform Sound of Muzak on Youtube, and it blew me away. On the album version, what is the splash cymbal you hit at the very first stroke?
it's an A Zildjian 6" splash.
Hi Netz Ausg
Gavin - Do you ever crash your ride or do you rely on your crash cymbals for this? The angle of your ride suggests not, but just wondered anyhow.
I don't really crash the ride that much.
Hi Nergretty
Maybe you can help cause I can't get my brain around this one. I'm playing 16 even notes on top of 5 8th notes. I can't figure out what note value the 16 notes have or at least my sequencer can't find a grid where these notes will fit evenly. Any ideas? Basically I'm playing 4 even notes over 5 32nd notes I guess so that suggests a 4 over 5 polyrhythm? But what would the note value be and how would I write it?
that is a bit of a brain ache. An easy way to think of this would be to write five bars of 4/4 16th notes and a bass drum on beat one of every bar. Then you would pick out every 5th 16th note. That (against the bass drum) would give you the desired 16 even notes over 5. You could program your sequencer this way and then just multiple the tempo up by a factor of 8. I don't think there's many sequencers that will allow you to write 16:5
Hi Kalma
great work on the new album "Routes" by Ed!
You did a great take on 'Goofy' - liked it more than the one I did, haha
thanks.
I've got a question about recording whole albums..
When I record my drums and compare the songs later, the drums always sound pretty different. When I listen to the new Routes album it seems like the sound was pretty much the same basically. (Actually on all albums I hear..)
So, how do you record an album? Do you have one logic-project you record all songs in? Or do you create a template with "basic-settings" that you like and just do slightly changes?
I start each recording with my basic Logic template that already has a lot of settings in it that I've built up over the past years. But it's really not that much in terms of slight bits of EQ, compression, reverb etc. Then I tweak it to suit the music that I'm playing. Funnily enough Ed's album was recorded over a period of about 18 months - and I'm conscious to try to make it sound the same if I can.
Hi BabyBob
Had a great time with at the Clinic by Gavin Harrison...some pics...
great - glad you enjoyed it.
Why were your Overhead Mics in that position? (Both on the Right side)
Also does the 8" tom look different from the other toms?
I have no idea. That's how the sound guy wanted to do it.
Hi Swiss Matthias
so when you're travelling the world, do your bells travel with you, or do Zildjian have
several replicas for you all over the world?
I take the bells with me. Zildjian have only made a couple of sets as far as I know.
Hi sina
I’m 32 years old and practicing drum by 3 to 4 hours a day. But not just as a hobby but thinking as future career. Is it doable to become a great drummer at my age And practice practice practice could help me to reach to that point then I would be able to join cool bands or I’m totally wrong about being a drummer ?!
By the way here is the list of books I arranged to practice for next three years: HAAHA Am I crazy?!
yes you are crazy if you think you can get through these books in 3 years
. You'd have better results if you just spend the time on 2 or 3 of these books - but REALLY study them in detail. Quality of study is more important than quantity. Plus you need to invent your own exercises and develop your own ideas.
Hi JakkP
I was wondering the next time you're doing a clinic in Dublin, if you could stop by our college, Bimm. Graham Hopkins is one of the lecturers and we try get in as many musicians as we can to show the students some things. It would be great if you could!
I have no plans to make another drum clinic in Dublin at the moment.
Hi Drizzle
Just in case you ran out of money or a gig or both, in a recent interview Richard Marx answered the question "What would be the lineup for your dream gig? he answered :
My “dream” band, off the top of my head, would be Gavin Harrison on drums; Michael Landau on guitar; Marcus Miller on bass and Chuck Leavell on keys. But I’d have no business being in that band. What would your dream lineup be? Or would every stage be too small to fit everyone in?
That's very nice of him to mention me amongst those other extremely good musicians. I'd be honoured to play in a band like that.
Hi szokematyi
Thanks, but I wouldn't want to have the beater that close. The pedal would be useless that way. What I meant was: having the beater at the usual distance from the head, but having the footboard as high as possible. I've noticed, that this way I could put more power into the strike with less amount of movement from the ankle. Meaning: less amount than I'd have to, if my footboard were low(er). Sorry if I can't really explain it in english.
and what I meant was - you can adjust the foot board angle INDEPENDENT to the beater angle. So you can have the foot board at any angle and keep the beater angle the same.
Oh, and one last thing! I've tried to browse through all the pages here, but so far no luck! Has the notation for Plasson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlixwQsc0wY) ever been posted? Or do you have it? (Unlikely I know, but I have to ask!)
not as far as I know.
Hi EvilDrummer
BTW Gavin: What do you think is the most effective way to practice? Doing maybe one or two exercises per day for long periods of time like an hour each and practice those for like 2-3 weeks and the move on to something else. Or... do you think it's more effective to practice many things for maybe 15 minutes each and do that for a longer time say 2 months until moving on?
I think it helps to really grasp an exercise before moving on. Sometimes it might take me a week to 'master' a coordination exercise - other times a few minutes so I couldn't really put a time on it. As long as you do a few hours of good quality study every day - everything should get better. It helped me a lot to record and listen carefully to my playing.
cheers
Gavin