Wise words from Dave Grohl

I just thought I'd post these comments on American Idol by Dave Grohl. Although the language is strong, it pretty much sums up how I feel about the "world of music as talent contest" mentality that these shows represent......


    “I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves. That’s what bums me out about those shows where people are judged so harshly by fucking musicians that hardly even play an instrument on their own fucking albums. It makes me really mad.”

    He added: “I swear to God, if my daughter walked up onstage and sang her heart out and some fucking billionaire looked at her and said, ‘No, I’m sorry you’re not any good,’ I’d fucking throttle that person, I swear to God. Who the fuck are you to say what’s good or bad?”

    Grohl also reckons the shows homogenise music so that “everyone sounds like fucking Christina Aguilera.” The Foo Fighters singer added: “The next time someone says you’re not a good singer say: ‘Fuck You’. I interviewed Neil Young and he said in his band someone said to him: ‘The band’s really great, but honestly you shouldn’t be the singer.’ If Neil Young had listened to that person then we wouldn’t have had any Neil Young.” (NME)



Thank you Mr. Grohl!

Simon Phillips

Here's a short couple of exercises from drumming great Simon Phillips.
Even though they are designed for 2 bass drums you can easily try the examples with the left foot on H.H.





I love Phillips' post-Cobham very muscular style of playing although it often makes me feel like my drumming is the equivalent of a 5 year old girl at a tea party!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Heel/toe stuff.

Hey all,
Just a quick post about what I've been working on lately.
I've been checking out doing sort of a rocking motion with each foot. In the right foot it creates either a muffled pitch bend sound on my relatively open bass drum (heel up, keeping beater in the head) or an open sound (heel down, rebound off the bass drum head). In the left foot it creates either a closed sound (heel up) or a hi-hat splash (heel down). Here's just a quick example. Sorry for the darkness of the video.



One of the issues when using this technique is having the feet moving the opposite direction from each other.   It's challenging! I'm also working at being able to throw this in in triplets etc.
Like any new idea (and different set of movements) it's a bit awkward and doesn't sound that great. Even when it's working better it might be a while before I can use these in a musical context, if ever.
I'm committed to letting this come out in an organic way and not forcing it on the music.

Try it if you feel like it.


Thanks.

Art Tatum

Hey,
Here's a great documentary of Art Tatum. Watch, listen, and learn. I certainly did!

Modern Drummer Article

Hey everyone,
Just a short post to let you know my latest Modern Drummer article will be in the March 2013 issue.


Here's some demos of the subject matter, "The Blam"









Thanks!

Happy New Year

Hello all,
Just a quick post to say Happy New Year!
I recently was at Humber studios recording with John MacLeod's Rex Hotel Orchestra and Al Kay managed to capture a little bit on video.




Yeah! Dig the trombone-cam!
The tune we recording was the closing theme to the Wayne and Shuster Show (Canadian comedy show from the '70s that the band's spiritual guide, Rick Wilkins, recorded, wrote, and arranged as well as sang with us on the session.)

Finally, sad news from the nation's captial as word spreads of the passing of Jacques Emond, the former programming manager of the Ottawa Jazz Festival.
Jacques was a great guy and as many Jazz festivals became corporate machines, he was always very personally involved and genuinely loved the music. He will be missed.

See you soon, I hope!