An oldie, but a goodie, this quick little tip can come in handy.

Part 6 in my series which applies traditional snare drum rudiments to the drum set. Here I demonstrate the basic Single, Double, and Triple Ratamacues and how to create variations for the drum set. I show different orchestrations, rhythmic variations, and double bass drum applications. Whether you’re into Bonham, Gadd, or Tre Cool, you will be able to take something away from this demonstration.

Click here to download the PDF transcription of the examples: PartSixSingleDoubleTripleRatamacue

Part 6: 

Part 6 (continued)

Some of my worst gigging experiences were the result of me not bringing a rug to place under my drums. Sometimes I forgot to bring it, but sometimes I was told that either the stage was carpeted or there was already was a drum rug I could use.

Drum kits that are not secured to the floor tend to slide ALL over the place while you play. I’ve finished songs with my bass drum more than a foot away from me. That’s a difficult reach for even the most flexible drummer! Sliding can happen with hi hat stands and even floor toms too. Some of you young players may not know this, but most manufacturers put metal spikes at the bottom of the bass drum legs and on the bottom of the hi hat stands. If you are playing on a soft enough surface you can expose these spikes by turning or removing the rubber feet on the bass drum or turning the metal screws on the hi hats allowing the spikes dig into the floor (or carpet).

Old Faithful - This rug has been on the gig for 19 years and running!

Sometimes spikes into the bare floor  is enough, and in fact, there are a few drummers who prefer to play this way, I know Steve Smith does. I assume he likes the livelier sound of the drums bouncing off the bare floor. However, many times the spikes will not grab the surface the drums are sitting on (like linoleum or concrete) or you might be playing on a nice floor that you’d prefer to not gouge. Sometimes even a carpeted surface (especially at clubs that book a lot of shows) will be loose and the drums will shift around. An interesting cat to check out is the jazz (and funk) drummer Bill Stewart. For some strange reason he seems to prefer to let his hi hat stand slide all over the place and he has become quite skilled at corralling it with his left foot as he plays. It can be entertaining, though a little distracting from his fantastic playing. Click here to watch Bill Stewart wrangle his hi hats.

What can help keep your bass drum in place is to make sure the bass drum legs raise the front of the bass drum enough that the weight of the drum is resting on the legs and not the hoops. Be careful to not raise the legs too much because you’ll change the angle that the bass drum beater hits the bass drum head. Besides giving your spikes a surface to dig into, another way to secure your kit is to use a manufacturer that places velcro underneath their bass and hi hat pedals to grab onto the carpet. I especially like this. My DW 8000 pedals do not budge as long as there is carpet to grab onto.

Another reason to ALWAYS bring your drum rug, besides keeping your drums in place, is that you can use your drum rug is to mark your territory. Often stages are just big enough to fit all the players and if you’re trying to set up your kit only to find out that your bass player’s giant 8×10 cabinet is in your way and she’s nowhere to be found, you’ve got a problem since many players don’t want you touching their stuff! The first thing I do once the band has figured out the stage set up is to throw my drum rug down to mark my territory. This way the other players know where I’ll be and not take my space while I’m getting the drums out of their cases. So it’s helpful to find a rug that is roughly the size of your setup.  A 4′X5′ rug purchased at K-Mart works for me. I’ve used the same one for 19 years.

If you’ve forgotten your rug and the surface you need to play in is slippery like tile, or maybe you’re playing an outdoor gig, try using using the floor mats from your car. I’ve never tried this, but I remember getting this piece of advice many years ago and thankfully I’ve never had to try it out.

So even if you hear, “They have a rug”, I advise to always bring yours. I like mine because it feels like a little piece of home is with me no matter where I play!

Next in my drum video tutorial series which apply snare drum rudiments to the kit, Part 5 explores the possibilities of the Single Drag Tap. Drawing inspiration from Steve Gadd’s interpretation of the Ratamacue in his video Up Close, I developed my own triplet, 16th note, and double bass drum applications of the Single Drag Tap.

Click here for a downloadable PDF transcription of the examples: Applying the Single Drag Tap

Part 5: Applying the Single Drag Tap to the Drum Set

Part 5 (continued):

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

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.