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.

Steve Gadd’s musicality is just incredible! One of my favorite videos.

Click here to download the PDF

 An instructional video to this lesson this week  is in the works, but I thought I’d post a sneak peek at the lesson.

Very keen observation/advice that rings very true with me:

“Everything for me revolves around my instrument. It’s been with me longer than anything else in my life. My ability to be a good father, husband, friend, composer, teacher, kite flyer, gardener, pet owner is reflected in my relationship with the drums. When I’m in the groove with work, everything else falls into place for me. I know that sounds simple, but it’s true. There’s a cosmic relationship between what you put into your music and what life gives you back.”

- Jimmy Chamberlin, Modern Drummer Magazine, February 2010

Click here for a drum lesson with Brad Frank coupon.

Ed Shaugnessy: This was probably one of the most informative drum set clinics of PASIC. He didn’t play anything too fancy. He discussed the feel difference between rock and jazz (esp big band style). He emphasized that jazz time is 80% ride/hi hat and 20% bass drum quarter note pulse. He noted that many rock drummers misunderstand the necessity of the bass drum “feathering” to give the feel some bottom end.

He told the story of how he developed his ability to play very fast jazz time by playing along to a couple recorded versions of Cherokee. He literally wore out the LPs. After getting this feel down at the age of 19, he put on his Sunday suit, went to NYC from New Jersey and asked to sit in for a jam session with Bud Powell. Surprisingly Bud said yes. Ed requested the tune Cherokee and proceeded to play the fastest version he’d ever played for 20 minutes. He impressed Bud and someone at the gig knew George Shearing (the pianist) and was offered the gig. He went on to play with Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, and Charlie Parker before becoming a drumming icon on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

For practice he emphasized practicing with recorded music so your time and licks have the proper timing and feel. He recommended Turn It Up, Lay It Down for play along.

He said that he plays a very fast ride cymbal pattern by moving his hand in a counter-clockwise motion as he plays the jazz ride pattern. He also occasionally plays only a quarter note on beat 4 to give his hand a slight rest.

I got to meet him after the clinic and he was a very nice, receptive person, enthusiastic about teaching and learning music. I even got an autographed picture of which reads, “To Brad: Thank! Ed Shaughnessy”. He probably just omitted the “s” in “thanks” but perhaps he was giving me some subtle zen-like message? : )

Captain Picard, who's manning the Enterprise?

Nathaniel Bartlett: I checked out this marimba player between drum set clinics. He had a cool performance in which he connected his marimba to his computer and integrated triggered and prerecorded electronic sounds. He played these sounds through 8 speakers. The speakers were positioned 2 per corner of the room: one up high and one near the floor which produced an 8-way stereo effect. Pretty neat. I wanted to ask if had ever heard of the Googolphonic stereo with the moon rock needle, but I didn’t.

Joel Stevenett

Joel Stevenett plays on soundtracks to video games. Just goes to show you that there are many types of gigs out there. The best bit of advice he gave was to network with bass players because they are the ones who can get you gigs! He also discussed the need for various equipment if you are going to do any kind of studio work. You need to be able to create many different types of sounds so you should have at least 6 snare drums and various sized drums. Electronics are also a necessity.

Dean Butterworth

Dean Butterworth: I was surprised at the relatively low turnout for this man’s clinic. Here’s a guy getting the gigs that most drum set players would love to get: Ben Harper, Good Charlotte, Morrisey, The Used, plus a TON of LA session work. Maybe people are just interested in the more flashy clinicians than the players getting the great gigs. He emphasized the need to understand the drum’s role in rock/pop music which is to support the song. He recommended learning other instruments and dabbling in songwriting to get a feel for the drum’s role, to see things from the other side of the drum kit, and to be able to communicate more easily with the other musicians. He sprinkled a little bit of flashy stuff and said that it’s good to have one or two cool licks in each song to make things exciting, but sometimes it’s just good to lay back and support the song. I really liked the message of his clinic. Much of what he said ringed true with me.

Skip Hadden

Skip Hadden: Skip’s presentation was heavily reliant on a video presentation (Ken Burn’s Jazz). I would have liked to hear him play more. His presentation focused on the birth of jazz-fusion and how it drew from many sources besides jazz and rock. Fusion players also used the styles of avant-garde and Brazilian music.

An interesting point the Skip brought up was that fusion was pretty much born with Miles made the record Bitches Brew. Miles’ inspiration for this record was when he performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival along with Sly and the Family Stone. He saw how the crowd reacted and felt that his approach and popularity was waning. He thought that infusing rock into his playing would be exciting and popular.

Jack DeJohnette

Jack DeJohnette: Sorry my photo has the quality of a Bigfoot sighting, but the house was packed for Jack and I was pretty far away. Jack did more of a performance than a clinic, but it was still very insightful. In contrast to much of the flashy, hard-hitting players performing at PASIC, Jack performance was founded in colors, textures, and form. He never tried to play anything flashy. You’ll just have to check out Jack’s playing. Words do very little justice.

Virgil Donati

Virgil was the ying to Jack DeJohnette’s yang. Virgil’s technique, speed, and coordination are just mind-blowing. I got a chance to briefly meet Virgil at the Vater stick booth. I had a handful of Smitty Smith signature sticks. I jokingly apologized for not buying his signature sticks but perhaps his clinic will change my mind. He was nice and got the joke. It’s always nice to meet a genuinely nice person, even if it’s for only a couple minutes. Nice guy.

He demonstrated some pretty neat hand combinations which involves playing multiple groups of subdivisions with opposite groupings of accents. For instance, playing triplets and accenting groups of four. He did various versions of this idea. He also did this idea with both hands simultaneously so one hand was playing one odd grouping and the other hand was playing a different odd grouping. Crazy stuff.

I liked that he had handouts explaining what he was doing and even gave away a whole bunch of DVDs. I like walking away from a clinic with something tangible to work on!

I got to meet a couple people just hanging around today. First I met Jim Payne who produced the Medeski, Martin, and Wood records and also produced and played with Maceo Parker. I didn’t recognize him while we were chatting until someone asked him for his autograph! Didn’t discuss much with him, just said hello. Nice guy.

I met John Ramsey yesterday. He assembled Alan Dawson’s teaching methods into a book called the Complete Drummer’s Vocabulary as taught by Alan Dawson. I thanked him for putting the book together and he noted that he didn’t write the material. I thanked him for writing it all down because it’s the best drum method book I’ve ever worked out of. The moment got a little “Chris Farley”. Remember when you wrote that book? That was great.

I met a young man named Steve. Didn’t catch his last name. He used to play with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Pretty cool. He watched my coat while I grabbed a beer.

Clinics of the day:

Steve Fidyk (New York Voices, Army Blues Jazz Ensemble): Discussed transcribing mostly. A good tip was to focus on one instrument (usually ride or hi hat) at a time before transcribing all the voices. Recommended the software Transcribe or The Amazing Slow Downer to assist with transcribing.

Tobias Ralph (Lionel Richie, Clay Aiken, American Idol, Jessica Simpson, et al): His clinic focused mostly on how learns a group of songs quickly since his kind of gigging calls for this quite often. He said he focuses on have a stable of grooves he relies on and tries to catergorize each new song into his familiar groove. Emphasized that most grooves have a bass on “1″ and a variation of 2 more bass drum notes within the bar.

Tobias Ralph (Defunkt, 24-7 Spyz, Everlast, et al): Lots of very, very fast playing. His speed and endurance was impressive. Showed a cool lick in which you play a triplet: R on the first note, L on the next two notes. He plays the second note of the triplet on the hi hat and the third note of the triplet on the snare. He moves the right hand around the kit. He also played this pattern as 16th notes with a few little variations with accents on the snare. He played this VERY fast and got a cool drum-n-bass kind of sound.

Benny Greb: A young German player. The groups he’s played with I have to admit I’ve never heard of. Perhaps I’m out of the loop or just showing my age! He is a YouTube phenomenon and has produced a very popular instruction DVD which I plan to buy ASAP. His presentation was spectacular! Brilliant and very creative player. The most musical and entertaining drum set performance of PASIC so far. He produced many cool sounds with his kit including strumming his snare wires, scratching the heads with his fingernails, and even moving his tom back and forth so it clicked against the other drums. When he wasn’t producing cool colors and textures he was laying down very funky and powerful grooves which was interlaced with very creative and flashy soloing. He spoke of developing an inner sense of time by singing a “chit” sound on a quarter note as you practice so that you don’t become dependent on patterns or external forms of timekeeping, but rather, you keep time inside yourself. Hats off to Mr. Greb. Check him out any chance you get!

Akira Jimbo is best known for his ability as a solo artist. He combined electronic sounds and samples that he played live as he accompanied himself on the acoustic kit. The net result was a one-man-band effect. He was very entertaining and seemed to have a very fun time as he played. He did a medley of Michael Jackson tunes, as well as jazz standards.

I wanted to jot a couple of notes from each clinic I attended yesterday while they’re fresh in my mind:

Maria Martinez (Rita Coolidge, Klymaxx, El Chicano, Emmanuel,Trini Lopez,  Barry White, Nel Carter, Johnny Paycheck, et al): Play drum the same way you speak. This can mean using “big” words, or technical licks, versus expressing yourself simply, your body language, facial expression, breathing, and your attitude.

Chris Penine (Coheed and Cambria, Dilinger Escape Plan): Cool lick – accent groups of 3, 5, and 7 within your double strokes to modulate tempos and time signatures within a solo. He obviously spent a lot of time on his technique and independence. He did some pretty cool ostinatos and modulated the time over it. Definitely a lot of time in the woodshed. Lot’s of energy and a very positive and dedicated person. Fond of long black dress socks paired with cargo shorts. New fasion trend?

Sergio Belloti (Mike Stern, Berklee Teacher): Work on your weak hand more than your dominant had. If you work on them equally your dominant had will always be far ahead of your weak hand. Practice your rudiments and licks along with real music, not a metronome. Turn your fundamentals into musical ideas. Don’t practice a paradiddle just to practice a paradiddle.

Zoro (Lenny Kravitz, Bobby Brown, Frankie Valli, New Edition, Jody Watley, Sean Lennon, Philip Bailey, et al) and Daniel Glass (Royal Crown Revue, Gene Simmons, Bette Midler, Freddy Cole, Al Viola, et al): Groove, feeling, and composition are more important than technique (though both are quite technically proficient). Know your roots and musical history. The licks of tomorrow come from the masters from the past.

Lalo Davila (Educator): Connect with your audience and show that you are having fun. Feel the music and be sure that your are expressing these feelings to your audience. Let your inhibitions go.