Percussion Deconstruction™

This is a companion piece to last week's,  What Ever Happened To Individuality? post. Music today has become so homogenized. So much of it sounds the same because the same small group of producers/songwriters are making all the hit tracks. There often seems to be very little individuality left. This is especially true for the musicians playing on all these songs, but specifically drummers. Rather than controlling their own sounds/feel, drummers are increasingly at the mercy of producers.  Since the advent of digital recording, and software like Pro Tools and Logic, it's possible to completely change a recorded drum track. Individual drum and cymbal notes can be moved in time and retuned. Recorded drums can be easily replaced by samples of other drums. It's to the point where you could do a session, and when the recording comes out, you've been completely replaced and reshaped by the producer. Your actual performance was really nothing more than raw data that was u...

T here was a time when most drum set drummers you heard had their own, identifiable sound. And by sound I mean both the actual sound of their drums and cymbals, and the sound of their playing style. It was easy to hear a new recording and identify the drummer by their sound .  Jazz drummers certainly had their own sound. You could tell Tony Williams' ride cymbal from Buddy Rich's, or Gene Krupa's toms from Max Roach's. Rock drummers had their own identities too. Bill Buford's snare drum was always identifiable, as was Phil Collins' concert toms. Mick Fleetwood always had that very muffled drum sound, and no matter what brand of drums Neil Peart decided to play, he always sounded like Neil Peart. Trending Today Today, things are much more homogenous. And not just at the major pro level, but at the local level too. There just seems to be a general inclination towards sameness. This is due to multiple trends. One trend is that young drum students ...

Too many drummers think endorsements are some sort of ‘trophy’ signifying they 'made it.' Well, not quite. I have some endorsements for gear I play, but I don't for others. I 'made it' to a certain point before the endorsements, but the endorsements haven't made me any better as a player, or more famous. That’s all up to me. Drummers need to know that an endorsement is a ‘two way’ relationship: you need to give back to the company you endorse. I do this various ways: 1) I talk about the gear I use because I really love it and it works for me. 2) I try to feature endorsed gear in promotional photos and mention it in interviews. 3) I always try to play my own gear, unless it’s a situation where I must play rental gear of a different brand. 4) Did I mention that I talk about the gear I use because I really love it? #1 & 4 are really key. The endorsements that I have are for gear that I had already been playing for years! And I had been promoti...

People often ask me how I classify my solo percussion music, or even the music I play in ad hoc groups. I tend to think of it as contemporary classical  music. This usually elicits startled looks. “But you improvise a lot. Isn't that jazz ?” My response is, “Jazz is based on swing, the ding-ding-a-ding cymbal pattern. I don't swing. My music is based more on hierarchies of energy that I push forward, and different levels of meter & pulse.” Ding-ding-a-ding Swing. That brings up ideas of Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Max Roach, Buddy Rich, and Gene Krupa. The ride cymbal and hi-hats are king. I don't use either. Swing is great. I often play it when I'm using a traditional drum set. But for my own music, I don't. Gene Krupa, the king of swing European Echoes My own style comes more out of the European improvisers, who unlike their American counterparts, didn't use jazz & swing as a basis for their music. People like Jamie Muir, Frank Perr...

OK, I'm back… I'll try not to sound like the old man here, but younger drummers often don't realize how good they have it when it comes to studying and learning drums. Back in my day (yeah, I'm that old), when I was a young aspiring drummer, I had school band, private drum lessons, and once in a while was able to see a live band. That was it. That's all I had to learn drums from. Today, the choices are much broader and more accessible. Besides school band and private lessons, there are: Drum videos/DVDs/downloads Podcasts Cable/satellite TV Hundreds of books Bazzilions of recordings And that window to the world, the internet As both a teacher, and an ongoing student (I will always be a student), I take advantage of all the above. It's amazing how much information is out there. If I want to see a video of X drummer, I can probably find one, or more. How do you do that Moeller Stroke ? There's all sorts of videos on the web shot at every possible...

O n March 10, 2011, I tentatively put out the 1st blog post of Percussion Deconstruction ™. I had no real plan except to talk about something I knew and loved deeply: percussion. I wanted to tackle the subjects the often were ignored, or fell through the cracks in other writing about percussion. I've always been a sort of rebel/misfit in my musical and artistic life, so the blog carries on with those same ideas.  The 1st post was entitled, The Death of the Drum Set . Upon rereading it, I still feel much the same way. While there are some true innovators out there, too much of what I hear is just the same old drumming recycled over and over. Trust me, I'm not anti drum set. I'm just bored with so many people taking the easy road and copying their heroes, instead of finding their own creative path. If you were to take a look at my iTunes music playlist, you would see heavy doses of both '60s pop music, and '70s hard rock. While I love listening to both, I ...

Sooooooo, it's been a bit over 5 months since I've posted anything here. After 263 (!) posts and nearly 7 years, a lot of things happened. My life got busier and changed course a few times. I had/have weird health issues which have basically put my life on hold the past 3+ months. I had a lot of ideas I was working on, but somehow couldn't complete. My, “I'll finish it tomorrow,” became next week, next month, and soon, next year.  Writing a blog isn't easy. It takes a lot of time, effort, and you need to keep coming up with ideas. And the over achieving writer that I am, I had 3 blogs. I eventually retired 1, but then started another (don't ask why). So these 3 blogs have constantly tugged at my pants leg, like pets insisting on being fed all the time.  Something had to give That something was this blog, which just kept moving further out of reach, until I needed a telescope to even locate it on the distant horizon. But I never meant to let it go (really)...