Monday, January 11, 2021

"Bemsha Swing" . Melody on only Cymbal

Hey everyone, Happy New Year. Yes, these are challenging times, but thankfully there are creative people like Dan Weiss around who posted a great idea on Instagram that I'm ripping off here! :) 
(NOTE: if you haven't followed Dan on IG and Patreon, you really owe it to yourself. He's always posting great stuff!) 

It's a fairly simple concept. Play a melody to a tune on ride cymbal only. See what sort of different sounds you can get out of the instrument and how they can represent that melody. Here's "Bemsha Swing".

                                                   

I could lie and say in the last chorus that I was purposefully leaving out certain notes of the melody, but we've all been fed enough untruths lately to last a lifetime! In the context of my experimenting with the sounds, I missed a note here and there but even then, I think we get the general shape of the tune!

Now I'm not sure if Dan does this as well but I continued this idea by playing the same melody on the drum set, one piece at a time, until I had covered all the components of the instrument. I also did all the melodies "one limbed" at first. ( I later used two hands on the hi-hat for more options). I think this is a good way of concentrating on the composition and finding colours on each instrument without trying to get slick or busy.

So, that's it. I have  already found this helpful in my never-ending quest to play more melodically. Have fun and stay tuned for some collaborative blogging in the near future!                                                      

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