I found this exercise when digging around for my tax papers! A metronome is required. Start at a slow tempo and play straight through. Once you get comfortable, try it a various tempos, but not continually faster, trying mixing up the tempos. Experiment with setting the metronome as quarter, eighths, half, and whole notes.

brad frank drums great timing exercise

The idea is to feel the juxtaposition of the various subdivisions. When you get comfortable playing any subdivision (locking in with the metronome) you will be able to better feel when you are rushing or dragging once the metronome is not  on. For example, if you can feel septuplets (dividing the beat into 7 parts) versus sextuplets (6 parts) you’ll be able to develop a sense of when you are rushing or dragging the subdivision because sextuplets will feel like quintuplets (5 notes per beat) or septuplets. Getting comfortable with this exercise really helped me to feel steady with my timekeeping when I didn’t have a metronome to rely on.

You can play alternating sticking starting with the right or left hand. Also try playing it with double strokes. Download the PDF: Rhythm-Timing Exercise

Currently I am recording all the audio portions of my video tutorials using the amazing, and free for mac owners, Garageband. I own Logic, but I’m still in the learning phase with that software! Anyway, one of my biggest problems was the fact that I was experiencing a large reduction in audio quality and volume when I was dumping the raw Garageband tracks down to an MP3 in iTunes.

My tip for you Garagebanders is to not mixdown or send the file to iTunes with your interface on. After recording I’ll save, quit Garageband, shut off my interface (I use Tascam US-1641 16 channel mixer), turn Garageband back on, THEN mix and dump to MP3.

I can’t explain why, but when I mix and send to iTunes with the interface off, I can set the recording levels MUCH higher without getting any distortion. Actually, I don’t use the level indicators to set my mix. I just use my ears. When recording individual tracks I set the levels as high as possible, just shy of the tracking clipping or distorting. When balancing the levels for each track in the entire mix, I’ll turn down the tracks that need to be quieter, rather than turning tracks up that need to be louder.

I have the master volume turned all the way up. Even though signal is totally buried in the red, as long as you don’t hear distortion, you’ll be fine.

When you are ready to send a Garageband song to iTunes, select: Share/Send Song to iTunes/

Make sure to change “Audio Settings” to “Highest” and then select 192 bitrate. Those are the settings that seem to work the best for me. The audio is still going to be quieter than a professionally mixed and mastered song, but your track will be a little bit louder and sound better!  Please let me know if you’ve discovered a better technique!

I’m happy to announce that last night’s audition was a success and I’ve been invited to join Victoria Fuller’s band!  The other musicians include Jeff O’Connor on bass and Owen Cooper on guitar, both great players.

Update: After my successful audition, due to time restraints I was unable to accept the drummer position.

Here’s info on Victoria from here website: VictoriaFullerMusic.com

CD – “Small Moments”

Music, lyrics, acoustic guitar, and main and backup vocals by Victoria Fuller. Producer DannyShaffer, also plays bass, lead guitar, and some keyboards. Other musicians on the CD are: – Gerald Dowd – drums. – Scot Bennett – keyboards (Tours and records with Beach Boy legend, Brian Wilson, and has solo CD, The Dotted Line,) www.myspace.com/scottbennettmusic . Carter Luke – Keyboards. Jeff Jabobs – Keyboards (Toured with Billy Joel, and still touring with Foreigner) www.cdbaby.com/cd/jjacobs . Tim Bales – Trumpet (Real horns, www.timbales.net.) - Zach Duenow – (guitar, and harmonica) and Dorathea Duenow (Drums) www.myspace.com/duenow . Cello parts by Jane Ferris. CD package designed by me and Liam Davis (of Frisbie) www.digfrisb/ie.com/.

Available for purchase at CD Baby , Downloads on Victoria’s myspace page http://www.myspace.com/victoriafullermusic, , and iTunes

Honorable Mention Music Award winner in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Photo By Jack Perno

Victoria Fuller’s music is folk rock with jazz, blues, and pop overtones. Her voice is like a cross between Joni Mitchell and Ricky Lee Jones. She writes about love lost and found, overcoming struggles in relationships and life, and finding the good that’s there, revealing personal anecdotes. Strong memorable melody lines lead you on a journey with some surprises and enough differentiation to keep your interest throughout, with some nice harmonies. In her CD, Small Moments, produced by Danny Shaffer, she is accompanied by such artists as Grammy winner Scott Bennett who tours and records with Beachboys legend Brian Wilson, and Jeff Jacobs, who has performed with Billy Joel and a touring member of Foreigner.

She was raised on a farm in Pennsylvania, near Allentown. As a child she excelled in art and music, climbing trees, and bugging her older brother and sister. She taught herself the guitar at age 13 and then began songwriting. Her father, a businessman and photographer, and her artistically inclined mother encouraged her to be creative and she was also inspired by her equally creative siblings. She studied art in college, and then moved to Colorado, where she performed her music and created art. In search for knowledge and adventure she traveled to China on a biking tour, to Africa on photo Safari, and on the Amazon on a house boat creating botanical illustrations, She has lived in Paris to study French, New York to immerse herself in the NY art scene, and in San Francisco to study at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Photo By Jack Perno

She moved to Chicago in 1992 to get a degree in art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She gave up music for several years to concentrate on the visual arts but could not stay away forever, and began to pursue it once more. Now she is both a singer/songwriter and an accomplished sculptor / painter, Showing her work at the Chicago Cultural Center, at the Navy Pier large-scale outdoor sculpture show, and extensively throughout the United States.

Below are my four videos demonstrating various ways to interpret  the snare drum rudiment The Drag.  I was inspired by Steve Gadd’s interpretation of the Ratamacue in his video Up Close. You should definitely have that one in your video collection. Steve stretched out the rhythm and replaced a snare note with his bass drum. The result was a new idea to play around the drum kit that sounded much hipper than your average military style Ratamacue. I thought why don’t I do my own interpretations with other rudiments? So I did! Hopefully this will inspire you to develop your own licks based on the Drag.

Click here for a printable set of exercises based on these video lessons.

Part 1 is a demo song showing all of my Drag interpretation in a song context.

Part 2 demonstrates the basic drag with 16th note and triplet orchestrations.

Part 3 shows advanced rhythmic and linear applications of the Drag. Click here for a PDF transcription: The Drag Part 3 Examples

Part 4 displays my double bass (kick) drum interpretation of the previous Drag-inspired rhythms from Part 2. Click here for a PDF transcription: The Drag Part 4 Examples

Since arriving in the Chicagoland area several months ago I’ve been learning to wear many new hats. The first hat is that of a gigging drummer. I’ve auditioned for a handful of groups and have found myself in the drummer seat for a few groups in Chicago area. First is an experimental art-rock group named Wilshire. We will be performing downtown Chicago at the Whistler on April 13. Here’s the write up I just discovered on the Whistler’s site:

WILSHIRE awakens from its WELL DESERVED hiatus—(8 years, grandpa!)— and is dusting off the ol’ TASCAM 4-track, re-learning how to TUNE its guitar, & frantically running SCALES for a reunion gig at the WHISTLER on April 13th. CRICKETS, do-wop pop-noise, MULTIPLE drummers, HARMONIES parts 1, 2 & 3 (!!), plus saxes, TRUMPETS!!! & their ilk… what don’t this ALL-STAR BOY BAND do!? Featuring REID COKER (The Judy Green), Chris Sherman (FRUIT BATS), Nathaniel BRADDOCK (Occidental Brothers DANCE BAND International), CHRIS!! Warland (Ancient Greeks) & BRAD FRANK (Pillar to Post). Let’s not be STOOPID. Let it be, at the WHISTLER!!!

I’m excited to have the opportunity to play with such talented people!

I’ve also landed a gig with an indie rock band named Pretty Side Down. The band’s web site currently contains only demos (pre-me) and needs updating. We’ve been in the process of completing our 6 person line up and should be ready with a demo CD and live performances somewhere around June. Honestly, I think our singer mentioned that a low profile gig has been booked for June but I haven’t confirmed the date yet. I’ll definitely post the dates when I get them.

I’ve also landed a gig with a straight-up classic rock cover band. This group is still in the process of landing the right bass player. We keep auditioning people, but we decided to wait for just the right person. It’s fun playing with these guys since they like to play songs that are classic rock, but a little off the well-beaten path of the Brown Eyed Girl type songs. I’ll post when we get our group ready to perform. There is a potential name-dropping-worthy prospect who may play with us, but I’ll confirm that with you when it happens.

I have an audition with a jazzy pop singer named Victoria Fuller this Thursday. Owen Cooper, the guitarist from Pretty Side Down hooked me up with this opportunity. I just received the music today so I’m going to have to woodshed between now and Thursday night! Wish me luck!

So that other new hats I mentioned earlier, besides drummer, have now included: audio engineer, videographer, web designer, and marketer. Between preparing for auditions and rehearsing with new groups I’ve been working on my first four part video series based on re-interpreting the snare drum rudiment called The Drag. The final video is uploading on YouTube as I type this. I’ve spent the winter months huddled down in my basement relearning (and learning) audio engineering techniques. I took a couple recording engineering classes in college and have spent enough time in different recording studios to kind of know what I’m doing! It’s definitely an art and I’m still learning the tricks of the trade (thanks to my brother too) but I think the drums sound pretty decent so far on this video series.

Presenting on video is much different than teaching a private lesson or drum clinic! I’ve spent a lot of time researching cameras (the Flip is great) and lighting techniques as well as public speaking techniques. It’s painful to watch yourself say “umm”, “soooo”, or “ahh”. I think I’m getting better at my public presentation and each time I shoot a video it’s better than the last. My brother, Harry J Frank is a graphic motion designer and well-versed at video tutorials. Check his site graymachine.com. He’s pretty well known in his graphic design circles. His video tutorials are very popular. With his tips on equipment, eq settings (he used to be a pro sound engineer),  lighting, and speaking on camera, not to mention even giving me a copy of the video editing software Final Cut (thanks!) my next drum videos will look a little slicker, though I am proud of what I’ve put together so far!

As far as being a web designer, if you’re reading this, you can see what I’ve done with my website. I composed it in Wordpress. That was a steep learning curve! I think I got it looking pretty good though. I’m always in the process of tweaking it but my main focus now is filling BradFrankDrums.com with CONTENT. Please check back often, or RSS the site, as I plan to post many more lessons, transcriptions, and videos. Don’t be afraid to email me a question or post comments on what you see.

I think the video is uploaded, in HD too, so better get back to work. Please drop me a line if you have any questions or comments about this site, my drum lessons, the bands I play with, or anything else.

Brad

Hello to those of you who checked out my Youtube drum tutorials. The videos are still works in progress. I’m posting them on Youtube to see how they look, but I have not finished writing out all the transcriptions. I’m currently recording Part 4 (double bass drum interpretations of The Drag) . I will get the video and the transcriptions posted ASAP, but for now you can click on this link for a PDF transcription of Part 3 of my drum tutorial: The Drag Part 3 Examples

I recently bought one of these multi-surface practice pads and I really dig! I highly recommend picking one up. It adds a whole new dimension to your pad practice. It mimics a drum set quite well. Check out the video for details.

I know videos that contain only audio are lame but I had to include this often unheard of Bonham groove.