Steve Smith

Steve is underrated with his left hand ability
He plays those one handed rolls during his solo which is fantastic
 
I am a big Journey fan myself! Steve has the touch when it comes to playing the right thing at the right time on drums! He plays the music like it should be played. Journey is a music group and their style in song writing reflects just that! Neil on guitar with Steve on drums is like a match made for beautiful playing in true musicianship!! I still get blown away listening to some Journey tunes!! The mark of a great drummer is to know when to hold it back and let the music speak for itself! Steve does just that with his Journey work emphasizing the rythym and the dynamic's of the song!!
 
You can hear a recent interview with Steve Smith and he talks about his experience with Journey and his future plans with Journe.

Enjoy,
www.kenoshadrummers.com (click on interview by S.S.picture)
 
You can hear a recent interview with Steve Smith and he talks about his experience with Journey and his future plans with Journe.

Enjoy,
www.kenoshadrummers.com (click on interview by S.S.picture)

Jamndrummer,

Thank you for that awsome interview.

Steve Smith is one of my favorite musicians. I have had the great fortune to see him play with Journey back in the early '80s and a few times more recently with Vital Information. Truly a living legend.

Thanks again.

Check this clip out. This is Vital Information playing with Bill Evans
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Rattletrap&search=Search
 
For those of you that never had a chance to see Buddy Rich live, do yourself a favor and catch one of Steve's live performances with one of his bands. He puts chills up my spine. He is a true master behind the set of drums. He can swing a big band like no other. His left hand traditional grip is up with the all time greats.
Steve is in my top five of all time. In no order, Steve Smith, Gadd, Buddy, Harvey Mason and Cobham.
This picture was taken in the spring of 2006 in Lebanon, PA.
PICT0146.jpg
 
The thing about Steve I love is that he really does sound better every time I see him. Even at his level he is improving all of the time. His solos are by far the most musical and interesing that I've ever heard. Even my non-drumming friends love them!

He also keeps improving on his solos. I saw him do one on a video years ago and kept hearing the basic melody at other performances excpet that he kept adding more and more to it! The last time I heard it was through the roof!

One of the best of all time in any style...
 
Wow, I watched his DVD and its a must. I think it's good for both beginners and experienced players. I learned a huge amount of things that are definitly useful.
 
Steve Smith DVD: Developing a strong swing Pulse (From Shuffle to Straight Eighth)

Hi all,

I have been studying the section on Steve Smith's DVD entitled Developing a Strong Swing pulse. He explains that by using the 3 over 2 polyrhythm in the following exercises helped him develop his strong swing pulse.

He first starts off by playing this polyrhythm in his hands, with the 3 syncopated quarter note triplets on the snare and the 2 on the ride cymbal, while the bass drum plays quarter notes with the hi hat on 2 and 4. Then he plays it with the classic jazz ride pattern, as this polyrhythm falls naturally into it. Then you accent the 2 and 4 while playing the syncopated quarter note triplet against the swing and shuffle ride pattern.

My question is regarding the next section which he covers which is to do with Straight Eighths. He says that although they may sound unrelated, the Straight Eighth rhythm came directly out of the shuffle. I think that when he's playing the shuffle pattern in his snare part, he starts to accent the upbeats, so that you can hear the straight eights?? How do I approach this??

He then plays the polyrhythm with his feet and goes through the same exercises, of accenting the 2 and 4, with the swing and shuffle, which I can do, but it's when he switches to straight eights again then I don't understand how he does this.

After this he finishes by playing this polyrhythm in his feet and playing a variety of rhythms on top with his hands which is just ridiculous for independence- solid!!

By the way, went to NYC last week and had an unbeleiveable time, saw Stanley Clarke at the Blue Note with Lenny White and Patrice Rushen, got a picture with Joel Rosenblatt another night, and got a picture with Steve Smith who I went to see with Vital Information at the Iridium, fantastic!!
 
Re: Steve Smith DVD: Developing a strong swing Pulse (From Shuffle to Straight Eighth

All you need to do is to gradually move the upbeats closer to the downbeats. It's very difficult to make this transition smooth.
 
Re: Steve Smith DVD: Developing a strong swing Pulse (From Shuffle to Straight Eighth

Hi all,

I have been studying the section on Steve Smith's DVD entitled Developing a Strong Swing pulse. He explains that by using the 3 over 2 polyrhythm in the following exercises helped him develop his strong swing pulse.

He first starts off by playing this polyrhythm in his hands, with the 3 syncopated quarter note triplets on the snare and the 2 on the ride cymbal, while the bass drum plays quarter notes with the hi hat on 2 and 4. Then he plays it with the classic jazz ride pattern, as this polyrhythm falls naturally into it. Then you accent the 2 and 4 while playing the syncopated quarter note triplet against the swing and shuffle ride pattern.

My question is regarding the next section which he covers which is to do with Straight Eighths. He says that although they may sound unrelated, the Straight Eighth rhythm came directly out of the shuffle. I think that when he's playing the shuffle pattern in his snare part, he starts to accent the upbeats, so that you can hear the straight eights?? How do I approach this??

He then plays the polyrhythm with his feet and goes through the same exercises, of accenting the 2 and 4, with the swing and shuffle, which I can do, but it's when he switches to straight eights again then I don't understand how he does this.

What I did was to use the loop repeat button on the dvd and watched each measure of a section over and over and over, until the beat was filling my head. I slowed it down to 1/2 speed and had that 1/2 speed sound in my brain down cold. Then, sat at the kit and slowly worked it out, limb by limb, hit by hit, beat by beat, measure by measure, increasing speeed as I became more comfortable.

I spent a month working out that section of his disk, but found it quite satisfying when I would move forward, even if it was at the rate of half a measure a day. (Having newbie coordination, that is about the speed I was at!) I found it particularly helpful watching how he brought his right hand ride into the groove to the straight eights. I recall having a very difficult time going from the ride 2 and 4 jazz spang-a-lang to the jazz shuffle, to straight eight beat ... I couldn't get it to consistently line up correctly when I made each transition. Sometimes it would be on 1, othertimes on 2, or 3 or 4. I had no control. If you listen really closely, you will eventually be able to hear each hit line up with the rest of the limbs. Hopefully it won't take you as long as it did for me, but I found the result quite worth the effort. When I figured out that puzzle and played the section through, man, that was the first day I felt like a drummer. Of course it wasn't anything more than a monkey see - monkey do type thing, but it still felt great. I use that entire section, from the 3/2 to the straight eights, and back again as part of my jazz warm up. I love the sound of that polyrythym and feel comfortable with it finally. I like the fact that the complete groove includes a couple fills, a splash hit or two, a small tom run, rimshots, different dynamics on the snare, kick and HH, it just feels good. Hope this helps or gives you the push to find your way to success. Have fun! Joey
 
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One of the best drummers there is. because from kind of rocky'sh he went directly into jazz-fusion progressive kind of stuff real cool!
keep it up steve!
 
If I am not wrong, Vinnie Colaiuta and Steve Smith were roomamates in Berklee... And what came out? 2 worldtop drummers, Steve is brilliant and powerful, Vinnie is .. Genius.
 
Steve Smith DVD sticking misprint?

I'm new at drumming so this might be an amateur error on my part; but those of you who own the Steve Smith Drumset Technique DVD might be able to explain this sticking:

Go to chapter selection
Go to exercises, licks, and phrases
Go to toms, flams

Right after Steve says, "Let me show you that again a little bit slower."

At the bottom of the screen it prints this: RRL RRL RRL RRL
While Steve is really playing this: r LRL r LRL r LRL r LRL

Next at the bottom it prints this: RRLR LLRL RRLR LLRL
But he's actually playing this: r LRLR r LLRL

And finally the screen prints this: RRLL RRLL RRLL RRLL
I believe Steve is using this sticking: r LRLL r LRLL

Is the sticking played as I see it and not as the DVD explains it? Or am I missing something?
This really has me confused because I'd swear there's a typographical error in the DVD (like the Jeff Queen DVD which they correct with an errata line while he's making the mix-up) ; but, as I said, I'm a rank amateur and, although I can trust my instincts, I defer to those more experienced than I.

Thankyou for your time if you can look at that DVD and correct my mistakes.
 
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I have admired Steve and have followed his career since the Jean-Luc days, from Journey to now.

I finally had a chance to attend one of his clinics two weeks ago. I arrived a little over an hour early so i had a chance to watch him set up his kit and talk drums with him. It was an absolute thrill!

The clinic was excellent and he spent a great deal of time discussing his interest in Indian rythms as well as demonstrating them. He hung around after the clinic and talked more drums and signed a drumhead for me (proudly framed in my drum room).

Steve is a master musician, class act, and one hell of a nice person.
 
Re: Steve Smith in clinic

OH man, those are awesome pics! I got extremely lucky and got pulled out of the crowd in 1985 to be his demostrator. So I got to play Steve Smith's drums with him telling me what to play! He was a great clinician, and I'm sure he's even better now.


That must have been a little intimidating. I'm sure that was very memorable. Where was the clinic? I saw him at Atlanta Pro Percussion that year. Such a fluent and graceful style. A bunch of us went to the local jazz club that night and he sat in for about an hour. I offered to buy him a drink but he said no thanks...didn't touch the stuff.
 
Going to see Steve Smith and Vital Information tomorrow night at a beautiful small outdoor venue, in New Delhi.

He's already done a show here, and tore the house down. I missed that show.

Will get a chance to meet him afterwards. Will post a review soon.
 
STEVE SMITH IN DELHI- a review

steve smith delhi.jpg


A cool evening, in the Garden of 5 Senses, a beautiful outdoor amphitheatre, in South New Delhi.
A crowd of 2000 was warmed up by a very very hot Indian opening act called PINK NOISE.
Imagine a very young Dennis Chambers sound-alike kid on the drums and a Scofield inspired guitarist, Alphonso Johnson sounding bass player, and a young Joni Mitchell girl singer... doing great original music..what a treat.

Their performance did justice to the stage they were about to share with Steve. At about 8.00, Steve and the gang came on.

Vital Information includes
Drums - Steve Smith
Guitars - Vinny Valentino
Bass - Baron Browne
Keyboards - Tom Coster


... and re-defined musical genius

I got an opportunity to meet the man before the gig and he is as humble, and friendly as he appears in his dvds.

I also got a chance to see him play up close ( see pic ), from practically on stage.

I had two epiphanys during the gig

1. That drumming greats know something most of us never will.

2. That there time and then there is time.Theres groove and then there is groove, ..he plays the same notes as you and me, in the same meter, what we do might be good but what he does... magical. You cannot learn that.

The band was seriously hot too, and they sounded like they enjoyed playing because the audience was highly appreciative, and lapping it all up. Baron and Steve we so locked in,it was scary, and Tom Coster was flying on the Hammond B3 patch, doing Jimmy Smith tributes.

Tom also performed his famed tune Europa, that he wrote for SANTANA on an accordion, with Steve playing the kit with his hands. Vinny Vatentino sprinking the tune with some crazy arpeggios..Beautiful.

Some of the tunes were tala oriented ( Indian rhythmic meters, grooves,e.g; in 71/2 ), which is something Steve is very inspired by after Zakir, the great Indian tabla maestro turned him on to Indian rhythm.
It was incredible to see him vocalize the notes in an indian time-signature, and comp that with playing jazzy drums.Talk of independence, not limb to limb, but body and mind.Steve ended the show with a virtuostic solo, with his patented hi-hat tricks thrown in which had the crowd howling for more.

You guys missed a good one; )

Thought I'd share my experience.
 
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