Redeveloping "working" chops

 One of the things I've noticed has live music work has (thankfully) opened up a bit is how much certain non-playing abilities have atrophied. These include:

-Finding cheap parking in close proximity to the gig

- Finding parking AT ALL!!!

-Figuring out a good route to the venue that doesn't take too long

-Selecting the best drums, cymbals, and sticks for the gig AND NOT FORGETTING ANYTHING *

-If you're the leader, picking sets, which tunes to play, avoiding consecutive keys, grooves, and tempos…

-Negotiating with management

-Paying everyone

The thing is, all these skills, just like musician ones, can get out of shape if we don't use them regularly. 

Don't be too impatient with yourself if they have to ramp up again. We were doing this for a long time before it all stopped for 2 years.

* But if you do forget something (say, a snare drum) if you find yourself in the east end of Toronto, go see Nathan at the rental counter of the Scarborough Long and McQuade, he'll fix you up. :) 

What a coincidence! Here's me playing with Kirk MacDonald at The Black Bear Pub on Tuesday July 19th, 2022. Oddly enough, I'm playing a rented Mapex Black Panther snare! Even more oddly, this is the last footage of me playing while still having an appendix, as it was removed 2 days after. Life is interesting, that's for sure…..

Recent online stuff

 Hello all,

I thought I would post a couple of things from some of my other social media, just because I don't think it garnered enough attention! :) 

From a recent tweet……

There's nothing wrong with ambition, as long as it's accompanied by taste….

I posted this for all the naysayers when a musician tries to go beyond their instrument's normal role and experiment. (Hence the ambition.) But it's always good to remember your role in the band and how to carry that out effectively. (Taste.)

Also, here's a few brush patterns I posted on Instagram recently. In all of them, both hands are circling counterclockwise and the right brush is running over the left hand to create a flam sound. I've said it before but I'll say it again; learning to play circles in either direction with both hands is extremely useful! :) 

Finally, here's a beat I got hipped to from Cruise Ship Drummer's more Reggae lead-ins post. It's the main part Sly Dunbar plays on the tune "The Dope". Fantastic! 

So cool how a lot of these intros/fill-ins are quite ahead of the beat before settling into a super laid-back groove. I will post more about the relationship between placement of the beat between beats and fills at a later date. Groove on, my people! 

Physical logic (Flams)

This, like many of my posts, was inspired by Dan Weiss….

Certain things we do on the drums have a certain "physical logic" to them. Flams are a great example. Creating a good flam usually requires having the sticks at 2 different heights, so it makes sense that we might accent the "main" note of the flam. But, because a flam is a thickening of a stroke , it already is emphasized without an accent. In this set of exercises, we're working on playing unaccented flams surrounded by accented strokes, like so…...

I have also made some videos utilizing this concept. NOTE: I am still working on this idea myself, so I don't have these perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. I decided, however, to leave them as is. There are a few reasons for this. I, like all practicing and growing musicians, am a work in progress, and I wanted to reflect that. I also think there's too many demonstrations of concepts that are more like ego trips that are designed to distance the person posting from the people reading. This isn't the case. I am just like you and am continuing to learn new things and challenge myself. :) 

So, have fun with this, and don'y worry if it's slow and awkward at first. Anytime you challenge yourself, you are improving the musician you will be in the future. :) 

PDF here

Thomas Sowell on Maturity

 "You have matured when you are no longer concerned with showing how clever you are, and give your full attention to getting the job done right. Many never reach that stage, no matter how old they get. “