Dec. 16th Silence Guelph. Rare piano/drums duo concert

New from Patreon: Drumnostics Assessment

Would you like to improve your drumming? Whether you're working on a technique, repertoire or concept, I can offer you professional feedback through my latest "Drum-nostic Assessment" Service. You would just send me a video of your playing (up to 10 min.) and any questions. Then I will respond with a video (up to 10 min.) that offers an in-depth critique and helpful resources so you can improve your craft on your own time. Sign up for this Introductory Offer of $50 CDN (tax incl.). Available until Dec. 31, 2024.

Camera Pigeons September Rexidency!

Hi folks, My band, Camera Pigeons, will be performing at The Rex Hotel Toronto on Sept. 3rd, 10th, and 24th, 5:30-7:30. I'll be joined by Allison Au-Alto, Mark Godfrey-Bass, Michael Davidson-vibes, Kelsley Grant-Trombone , and Ted Quinlan-Guitar (Sept. 24th only). We'll be playing a mix of my original music and standards, and I promise we won't be as intimidating as the pigeons in this photo!

Sneak Peek:" Dialogue" from Drum Stories

If you'd like to contribute to the completion of this recording, go to my gofundme page

Consider donating to get my first solo album released!

Thank you for your assistance!

Teaser/Freebee

Hey folks, I'm still promoting my Patreon page . Let's face it. It's a material world, and without material, I'm streaking! So, here's a recent tidbit. I'm playing a sort of Faux rhumba beat derived from Pg. 20 of Steve Gadd's book. If you want help turing rudimental ideas into beats and so much more, for only $5 a month you can have all my stuff!

So come and join me on my Patreon page so I can afford cymbals!

Ted Warren, not dead or in witness protection

Hi Folks, Believe me, I haven't stopped writing. Far from it, in fact. For a measly $5 a month you can get all my latest posts as well as some classics from the old days. Go to Patreon.com and find out I haven't become Howard Hughes (especially the money part!)

Lessons! Lessons! Lessons!

Just letting everyone know that I'm available for online and in person drum lessons! Full details are available on my website Or if that doesn't suit your schedule or budget, follow me on Patreon for only $5 a month!

Ted's Warren Commission at the Uptown Waterloo Jazz festival Saturday July 21st

We'll probably be playing this one when Ted's Warren Commission takes the stage at the 30th annual Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival on Saturday July 21st at 6PM! It's free (meaning it doesn't cost anything. We are generally playing tempos, chord changes and predetermined forms!) w/ Ted Quinlan , Mike Downes , and Allison Au

Camera Pigeons at Jazz Bistro Tuesday June 13th

CAMERA PIGEONS ARE RISING UP LIKE A PHOENIX!!!! (except they're pigeons……) When: Tuesday June 13th. 8-10:30 PM https://jazzbistro.ca/event/camera-pigeons/ Where: Jazz Bistro, 251 Victoria Street, Toronto, On Who: Lauren Falls-Bass (the instrument, not the fish) Michael Davidson- Vibes (and generally good ones!) Kelsley Grant- Trombone ( He's from Winnipeg, so his playing is the coolest!) Ted Warren- Traps (all kinds!)

More Swiss Army!

 

You're in luck! I haven't figured how to post longer videos on my Patreon yet, so it will be posted here as a freebie, for now. Let's face it. The old lRRL sticking IS as useful as the knife in the pictire! ! 

While experimenting in the practice room, I came up with 2 voicing around the toms utilizing this very adaptable rudiment. In the video I start with the feet playing a Bossa pattern, then play the RH Swiss Army Triplets in 8th notes. I then play the rudiment with the initial grace note on the snare with the left hand, the right hand starts on the floor tom and does a broken double to play the next note on the snare and finally the LH moves to play the last note on the small tom. In the second example the RH stays the same but the LH plays the grace note on the small tom and the last note on the snare. Have fun with it. Music is SUPPOSED to be fun! :) 

Sorry about the ghostly low tom! 

Patreon, Patreon, Patreon!

A reminder to all that all new drumming/music info as well as archives from this page are available on my Patreon page. Only $5 a month and you get to support me directly. First 30 subscribers get a free one-of-a-kind improvised drum solo, dedicated to YOU! :)

Why I gave up all my endorsements

 

A FEW THINGS BEFORE WE GET STARTED:

When I use a term like "all"  don't want anyone to get the idea that stick/cymbal/drum/head companies have been beating down my door. Equipment companies have businesses to run (more on that later) and I reach a relatively small amount of people.

Even more importantly, my reasons for ending any exclusive relationships are mine and mine alone. I do not judge anyone else for what they're doing. Believe me, running my own life is difficult enough, let alone someone else's!

Part 1: Youthful dreams

When I first started playing, I would look at the pages of music magazines and see my heroes pictured with the sticks/heads/drums/cymbals of their choice and think, "That's what being a great musician is". I thought through talent and merit alone, these individuals earned their spot on the endorsee roster, and they had hot and cold running gear installed at their houses! So, my first motivation for getting an endorsement (besides the hot and cold running gear) was outside validation, especially because I wasn't getting any from within myself.

Part 2: The Way of the World

As I got a bit more experienced, I realized that artists rarely got gear for free, unless they were a megastar playing for thousands of people a night. Yet somehow, I thought that as a lone Canadian drummer playing mainly Jazz for a limited audience and teaching a handful of students, these companies should be giving me a key to their factories and an extra large shopping cart! This lead to some truly codependent behaviour around trying to get gear manufacturers to like me, and think that I was worthy. I went with one manufacturer purely because they pursued me (not a common occurrence, believe me) not because I was crazy about the gear, and certainly ended up regretting the decision. Later still, I started to realize that music companies are like any business, and that they are trying to make a profit and keep costs low. I don't reach enough people to make it worthwhile it invest much time or money in me, and I totally get that now.

Part 3: 10 cents a (drum) dance

I know a lot of people who have very strong allegiances to their drum/cymbal/etc. brand of choice. In fact a good friend that I went to university with has stayed with the same brand of drum that he was using almost 40 years ago! Although I remain happily monogamous in my personal life, in my drum life, I want to play the field! I would hate not to try something that looked/sounded interesting just because I stated I was playing another brand exclusively. I know some people work around this, especially some of the more famous "endorsees", but I feel it would be dishonest and inauthentic for me to do so. (See top of post.) Conversely…..

Part 4: The hear and now

I also feel at this point I can get my sound, for better or worse, out of whatever I'm playing. I like most drum and cymbals I hear, and lots of companies both big and small, make great gear. At this late stage in my career I don't want to have refrain from filming something I want to document because I don't have my "sponsored" gear there. I often play "drums du jour" as I never travel by air with drums anymore, and even try to avoid taking cymbals in that situation. As well, even with artist pricing, most equipment is super expensive, so I like the freedom of being able to shop for deals. I also think it's a very environmentally sound idea to buy used gear. Finally, I have found I actually enjoy the experience of going to my local brick and mortar music store, and buying as many or as few sticks as I want! It's no secret that actual music shops are really being hammered by the online market, and I like to support them, just as they did me when I was a young drummer.

Part 5: In conclusion

Finally, the biggest reason I wanted to stop endorsing anything exclusively is because IT WAS ALL A BIG PERSONAL EGO TRIP! It really had nothing to do with music, but rather that personal validation I mentioned earlier. I know that what I compose/play/record is beautiful and worthwhile, and that belief comes from within now.  I realize that some folks need tour support etc. but as I stated before, they work in a very different end of the music biz street than I do. :) Thanks for reading my rant, and I look forward to the next time I play, where you can see me with a drum set made of 6 different manufacturer's wares, a united nations of cymbals, and each stick in my hand made in a different continent! :) 

P.S. Trap'd is going into hibernation at this point, perhaps permanently. For new posts, see my Patreon page.

The Who - WOODSTOCK 1969 (Full Concert)

 Although I try my best to break up my drumming exercise, opinion, and video posts, it's 2 in a row after last weeks Bill Bruford footage. This is the Who in '69 at their ferocious best. There is some missing video, although all the audio is present. We, unfortunately miss the historic moment when activist Abbie Hoffman interrupts the performance and gets a guitar in the head for his trouble! Moon sounds fantastic, and has me seriously considering a set up with no hi-hat and two bass drums! Enjoy….

Bruford and the Beat

 Here's a great instructional video that Bill Bruford made in 1982. I remember hearing about it when it came out but I don't know if I would have gotten much out of it at the time. Now, however, I am very pleased with the many nuggets of wisdom contained within, as well as the beautiful solo Mr. Bruford plays at the beginning.  Note: the tunes with King Crimson are muted for copyright reasons, but you have all those albums already, right? :) Enjoy! 

P.S. Just a reminder that I am slowly moving all my Trap'd archives ( as well as constantly creating new content.) over to my Patreon page. Only $5 a month! 

My Patreon is Live!

 Hey all,

Eventually I will be moving most of my posts to my Patreon site. It's only $5 a month and I promise you'll get a lot for that! I realize for those of you that prefer this free format it's a bit of a drag but let's face it, we're living in a material word and I'm a material girl/boy/whatever……..

A Philly Joe lick

 This week I was playing around with this idea (and some variations)……

Truth be told, it's only HALF a Philly lick really, It comes from one of his trades on Miles' "Dr. Jackle" from the Milestones album. Here it is at 1:33.

It's a very simple idea, really. Sort of 3/4 of a paradiddle. That very simplicity is why it's so ideal for variations. Here's me doing a few…..

The first one is playing it as a seven beat figure (the lick plus one 8th note triplet rest) over a 3/4 pattern with the feet and I'm warbling Toots Thieleman's "Blusette" so we can really feel the waltz time…

Next up, I'm still playing it as a seven beat idea, but in str. 8ths and dead stroking the first 2 notes as I head around the drums, giving it a nice pitch variation….

Finally, here's the same idea spread out between hi-hat and cross stick, with the hi-hat also being playing in quarter notes with the LF…..

Obviously, I worked on just using the idea in 4 and moving it around the drums and the carline before I did anything else (see notation at top of the post) but I hope I've demonstrated some of the many possibilities contained in this one little idea. Also, learn all the Philly Joe trades from Dr. Jackle! Only good can come from it…….

Put your hands in the air, like you just don't care!

 Independent coordination is a funny beast. One level of challenge is to play 2 or more rhythms simultaneously. Another challenge is to play differing accents or dynamic levels between limbs. The issue I want to deal with in this post is when the hands are moving to different drums or cymbals at contrary rates or distances.

Here's the first example, that I posted awhile back on Instagram. In it I'm dividing the Jazz Ride rhythm with the RH between the hi-hat and ride cymbal (ride cymbal on 2 & 4)  and the LH is filling in the second and third triplet of every beat and moving surfaces every quarter note.

#2- LH Shuffle between Hi-Hat and snare, RH Jazz Quarter note triplets between the toms.

#3 Same as above, except RH moves between bell of cymbal and small tom.

#4 Both hands play consecutive str. 8ths. LH moves between hi-hat to snare drum on 2 & 4, RH plays downbeats on cymbal, upbeats on large tom.

#5 Same but with order of downbeats and upbeats in RH reversed.

#6 Back to shuffle, but it's in the RH between cymbal and snare, and the jazz quarter note triplets between hi-hat and small tom in LH.

#7 A little more challenging. Nanigo bell pattern12/8 beat in RH moving between bell of cymbal and snare,  LH fills in the rest of the rhythm and alternates between cross stick on snare and small tom.

#8 Same as above but both hands basically move randomly. This is a great way to check if a sticking or rhythm is internalized.

#9 Cascara w/RH moving between rim of snare and floor tom, LH filling in on cross stick and moving to small tom on beat 4 of second bar.

#10 Both hands play 12/8 rhythm. LH moves from hi-hat to snare on 2 & 4, RH alternates between ride and small tom.

#11 Similar to above, but RH plays the back beats.

#12 Another shuffle vs jazz quarter note triplet variation…

#13 Back to cascara, and only the RH moves, but I just like the sound of it! :) 

Finally, the last 2 were inspired by an exercise Bellarmine University's Terry O'Mahoney originally wrote for tympani, and involved the hands playing in 2 different time signatures and rates. In both of the videos below, I'm playing dotted quarters with my RH while I play a seven beat on/off pattern with the LH. Add a bossa foot pattern, and it creates a nice challenge and some interesting textures. 

The great thing about moving our hands about is we can breathe new life into anything we play, simply by creating new combinations of tones and thusly, new drum melodies. Have fun! 

Quality!

It seems like a lot of what I see online involves what someone is doing, (e.g. the fastest, the loudest, etc.) rather than the how or why. Cue my good friend and Pianist/Journalist Peter Hum, who alerted me to this wonderful Tommy Flanagan recording Sea Changes, apparently the last one he made. Here's a great tune from it, the wonderful "Eclypso".

Flanagan and bassist Peter Washington play so beautifully on this and Lewis Nash (as always) sounds creative while still swinging and always appropriate. Above is the beat he plays at the beginning of Flanagan's solo.

RH is playing the bell of the cymbal, the snares are off, and the bass drum is pretty quiet relative to everything else. It's not a super hard beat to play, but works great at a lot of tempos, including very bright. Try it with different BD/HH parts and orchestrating the LH around the drums. Voila! Instant new vocabulary for Calypso-style tunes! 

Link Here

Don't let colours get in the way of content!

 This is another one of those "Cautionary Tale/ Don't Be Like I Was" posts. :) 

As most people who have heard me would surmise, I am fascinated with pulling as many colours out of the drum set as possible, and have devoted a fair amount of time to this. That's all well and good, but it's important to know when and where esoteric sounds fit the music. I remember one time a great trumpet player in Regina, Ron Brooks, telling me that I wasn't "minding the store". I'd like to say that I immediately took his comment to heart, and worked on being as solid, as I was being colourful, but I was young and foolish. (As a sidebar, let's all give thanks to the more experienced musicians in smaller communities all over the world that guide, encourage, and tolerate younger players!) It took me a long time to realize what he meant. Listening, as always, is key. Not only listening to great examples, of solid, groovy, and often deceptively simple playing, but also listening to the band that one is playing with. It's always good to ask yourself, "Is the band getting what it needs to do its job?" "Does the beat feel firm, or am I not giving the band confidence in the time?" I'm not suggesting anyone not to try to explore interesting sounds and shapes, but as with all things, balance and taste is the key.

Here's a great example of someone who really explored the drums, but never at the expense of groove and feel. Mr. Blakey! 

NOTE: The last couple of weeks have featured recordings with Wayne Shorter, yet these posts were written long before his passing. It just goes to show what a huge force in music he's been to all of us!