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.

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.

I’m packing my stuff and heading to Indianapolis in a few short hours. I am very excited to check out the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. The last time I went was back in 2000. When I was there I got to meet Billy Cobham, Omar Hakim, Jim Keltner, Zoro, Ndugu Nhancler, Dave Weckl (and his drum tech), John Riley, Danny Gotltlieb, Gunther Schuller…and many more.

I wonder who I’ll get to meet this time.

In my younger years Rush’s Neil Peart was my Drum God. I must have spent thousands of hours worshiping his playing. Many of my licks today are direct descendants of Mr. Peart. As I got older my focus shifted toward subtlety and song writing. Jim Keltner became one of my new gods. His colors and grooves are shear genius. From him I have also “borrowed” many great ideas.

Something happened to me, and at first this may sound strange, disrespectful, and even blasphemous, but I heard my Gods suck. “Suck” might be a harsh word, but I saw two performances that were less than godly.

The first fall from grace experience was at a PASIC conference when I met Jim Keltner backstage before his clinic. He was a nervous wreck. So nervous, I was surprised that he even made it on stage. When he finally got up there, I have to be honest and say he stunk the place up. His playing was so off and shaky that he actually apologized. More on this in a moment.

My second unholy moment came after picking up Neil Peart’s instructional DVD Anatomy of a Drum Solo. I haven’t listened to his playing in a while so I thought I would gain some insight that elusive drum solo that I used to fantasize about playing for my high school talent show! There were moments on this DVD that Mr. Peart was…just not great.

How could the God of Prog Rock and the A-list studio drummer “suck”? Then something clicked…and it’s one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned.

In these situations Keltner and Peart were not in their usual element. In other words they weren’t doing what they are famous for. After checking out the solo material in Peart’s DVD I watched the extras included at the end of the disc which included a live performance of “Tom Sawyer”. It still gave me goose bumps. I realized that when Neil was playing his solo ideas he was exposing his creative inspirations in hopes to spark others imaginations. When I listened to his finished product in “Tom Sawyer” I understood that he is a master of progressive rock drum composition and capable of creating percussive excitement even in the non-drummer. How many people still crank up the stereo for his four giant fills in the middle of that song?

Jim Keltner is a first-call studio drummer who’s played on so many albums I guarantee that even if you haven’t heard of him, you’ve heard his playing. When Keltner apologized for his poor solo at PASIC, he explained that he needs to be playing along with music. He’s an accompanist, not a soloist. Like peeking behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz, I realized that behind the facade of my drum gods are mere mortals. Average people who have worked very hard to capitalize on their strengths. Kudos to them for going out on a limb and showing a less polished side of themselves.

I’ve been down on myself so many times after watching the speed of Buddy Rich, or feeling the groove of John Bonham and think that I will never be that good. The lesson I’ve learned is that there ARE things that I am good at and are uniquely me. I need to capitalize on these elements when I perform and not think about how someone else would play it better than me. Everyone has their weaknesses, even your heroes, but the best have learned to focus on their strengths.

No matter what level of player you happen to be listening to, if you listen for the unique human element you’ll hear something pleasantly surprising, even with people who have never touched the drums before.

I know this isn’t a unique revelation. Like the song says, you’ve got to accentuate the positive, but I thought I’d just share a moment when this finally clicked for me.

Well, I’ve finally arrived in Chicago, the suburb of Lisle to be exact, and am ready to get things rolling.

The acoustic drums are set up in the “Isolation Booth” (aka the storage room in my basement). Our home is just a little too close to the neighbors so for volume’s sake, I’ve tried to isolate the acoustic drums as much as possible. I was planning to do my video tutorials on my acoustic kit, but for now it looks like it’s going to have to be on my V-Drums.

It seems like all I’ve done this summer is either pack a box, unpack a box, or try to find a box that I’ve packed something in! It’s time to blow the dust of the ol’ chops and get practicing.

Today I’m running through the (Frankified) Rudimental Ritual slowly just to get oriented. I also have an iPod full of classic rock tunes that I will play along with to work on my feel and groove.

My next (and first “real”) video tutorial will be based on the drum set applications I’ve worked out using the Rudimental Ritual. Inspired by Steve Gadd (check out his video “Up Close”) I’ve developed many licks and tricks using literal and loose interpretations of snare drum rudiments. I’ve mutated and twisted many of the rudiments from their original form so they sound much different than the original and are applied at fills, time playing, and double bass drum playing.

It’s time to hit the woodshed and polish this material so I can get it on video!

Brad

Thought I’d share a Facebook chat with a friend from Indonesia. Thanks Gita!

 8:36amGita
hi brad

 8:37amBrad
what’s up?

 8:37amGita
nothing much

how are you

oh yeah

i’ve listened your work “april”

 8:38amBrad
cool, like it?

 8:38amGita
yeah

 8:39amBrad
Thanks!

 8:39amGita
i always love when a drummer can apply chops into instrument

make it unique pattern

 8:40amBrad
Thank you! It’s really just a simple timbale pattern my old teacher showed me years ago. It’s in a book by Humberto Morales

Do you play with a band?

 8:42amGita
yup

 8:42amBrad
do you have a site/myspace?

 8:43amGita
nope

my band is just beginner

the guitarist still learn playing their instrument

 8:44amBrad
how long have you played?

 8:45amGita
well i’ve been drumming for three years

but i don’t know when i try to join a band

they always say that i’m not good enough

until i find my current band

before that the only i do just jamming with friends to improve my playing

 8:48amBrad
I suggest playing a party or something easy. This will force you guys to get prepared. Jamming is fun but if you don’t have an objective you can get lost in the jamming. Performing for even 5 people will improve you immensely

 8:49amGita
thank you for your advice

why is it so hard to apply a pattern in my play?

for example i practice 16th note hi hat pattern

but in band situation

still trap in eighth note pattern

 8:51amBrad
to be honest it is because you don’t know it well enough yet. you have to have patterns down COMPLETELY so you can do it in your sleep.

 8:51amGita
do u have any idea about it?

 8:51amBrad
try playing along to recorded music and apply the pattern you’re working on to different styles and tempos

 8:53amGita
hmm okay

i’ll practice your advice

thx brad

btw

 8:53amBrad
let me know how it goes!

 8:53amGita
what you’re working on now?

 8:55amBrad
ha! unpacking my house! I just moved to Chicago. Actually, I’ve been revisiting some old stuff that I used to practice in high school: rush, led zep, etc. I didn’t always play everything note-for-note so now I’m going back and getting it right!

…and the rudimental ritual as always. My mantra.

 8:57amGita

 8:59amBrad
The best advice I found that works with my students: play along to as much music as possible and get the Alan Dawson book and learn the Rudimental Ritual. I’ve work through a TON of books, etc but these two things (+playing live) will advance you the fastest.

 9:10amGita
wow

tonight is such enligtenment moment for me

 9:10amBrad
Glad to help! Now go practice! : )

 9:11amGita
yeah

hahah