Boom Drum

I hope everyone has an outstanding Christmas today! Enjoy this little pic and video I dug up on the web.

A Few Great Tony Royster Jr. Performances

Tony Royster Jr. is arguably one of the best technical drummers out there. He effectively combines musicality with lightening fast chops, and great stage presence making him extremely in demand in the hip-hop/ pop realm. He maintains a busy schedule as a clinician, session musician, and the regular touring drummer for Jay Z. Known by many as a child prodigy, Tony has been playing drums since the age of 3, and was a world class drummer by the age of 12. The following videos of Tony are just a few of hundreds available online. Look him up and check out more of his stuff on youtube, or go to his profile on www.drummerworld.com to see pictures, videos, biography, etc…

Tony at the Age of 12 Doing a Solo

Tony Groovin’ With His Band

Tony Doing a Performance at Musicians Institute with ASAP

Bring Tambourine Into Your Live Playing with the Hat Trick

As many drummers know, tambourine can add great texture and motion to virtually any groove. From programmed hip-hop grooves, to big fat classic rock grooves, tambourine can add the needed motion to spice up your playing. I have gradually become more fond of tambourine in the past year or so, and have recently been exploring options available for bringing it into a live scenario. In my exploration, I came across the Hat Trick hi-hat tambourine made by Rhythm Tech.

The thing I like most about this is the number of options it gives me in live situations, and even in the studio. I use it in two primary ways:

1) Hitting it with a stick much like a side mounted tambourine can be a great way to add it under your backbeat for choruses, or bigger sections of tunes that need an extra punch. You can also use it alone as your backbeat for softer sections of songs, or for parts where you may only be playing a shaker, and need a backbeat option other that snare/cross stick.

2) Bouncing the hi-hat, triggering the tambourine tone. This can also be a great way to add tambourine to choruses, or sections where you don’t have a free hand.

Below I have put a picture of the hat trick, and this is a perfect opportunity to debut a song I recently recorded the hat trick on. It’s an original christmas song by Julie the Band. You will hear the hat trick on all of the pre-choruses, and choruses. Notice how it brings a much needed distinction between sections, especially in a song that is so texturally based, and earthy sounding.

This is the original song “Merry Christmas” by Julie the Band. Listen for the Hat Trick, and enjoy!

A Few Great Drum Books for the Beginner/Intermediate Drummer

Whether you’re self taught, taking lessons, going to school, or whatever method you are using to better your playing and understanding of the drums, The basic fundamental concepts remain the same. There are a few books on the market that I personally recommend to all of my students, and have worked through myself at some point. These books all contain fantastic information on various subjects including reading, simple grooves, rock drumming, rudiments, etc… Lets go through them, and take a closer look at what these books are all about.

Joel Rothmans “Reading, Rudiments, and Rock Drumming”

This book is an all encompassing collection of a bunch of different drumming concepts. The majority of the book is broken up into sections starting very basic, and progressing to some fairly advanced reading/playing concepts. Each section contains a page of reading, a set of hand exercises, and a set of grooves. Each of these categories within the sections tie in extremely well with each other, and progress at the same rate in difficulty. This book is great for the self-taught drummer, as it eliminates confusion, and incorporates three of the most essential areas of drumming.

Louis Bellson’s “Modern Reading Text in 4/4″

This book is basically designed to only help one learn how to read, but the content is fantastic. It starts very basic by introducing quarter notes and 8th notes, and their corresponding rests, and then gradually becomes more difficult. There are a few things that set this book apart from other reading books, one being the length of each section. I have found that most reading books move from concept to concept too quickly, and don’t contain enough practice material to properly digest the concept. This book provides 3-7 pages of reading, plus a summary page at the end of each section to ensure proper understanding of the idea. It also contains countless exercises, and great explanations.

“Encyclopedia of Reading Rhythms” by Gary Hess

This is by far the most comprehensive reading book I have ever come across. I have studied for countless hours from this book, and with the amount of information it provides, one could spend years practicing it. It starts very basic, but unlike most reading books, it progresses to an extremely advanced level. It takes one through virtually every reading concept imaginable including odd time reading, advanced triplet notation, and even complex roadmaps at the end that incorporate all of the previous material. This book is a fantastic source for learning to read not only rhythm charts, but also drum set charts/figures as well.

These are just a few of a collection of thousands of great book out there. Have fun practicing, and bettering yourself, and your playing!

So the original band I work with, Julie the Band, is putting out a series of videos on youtube, that are basically music videos of various songs we have been working on recently. There is going to be a mix of covers, and new originals filmed in a few different spots at the Julie the Band house in Venice, CA. The tunes we have posted so far are the famous Otis Redding tune “Try a Little Tenderness”, The Beatles’ “Oh Darling”, and a new original song called “Lips Stained with Mine.” We also just finished writing and recording an original Christmas Tune called “Merry Christmas.” I have posted the newest additions to the video archive below, and the Christmas song will be up shortly, so enjoy!

Julie the Band Cover, The Beatles – Oh Darling

Julie the Band Cover, Otis Redding – Try a Little Tenderness

NEW Julie the Band Original – Lips Stained With Mine

Developing Good Drumming Dynamics

First let’s start by defining what dynamics is as it applies to music. Dynamics is basically the volume that a given note is played at. Dynamics are notated in music with a few different markings as shown below.

Common Dynamics

Even as a drummer, one should be able to exercise good dynamics. Anything you can play very loud, you should also be able to play very soft with the same amount of control,  and at the same tempo. Many drummers have the misconception that playing faster means playing louder, but this is not so. Playing latin or jazz, and studying the concepts that apply to those styles is a great study in dynamics.

There are a few easy ways that any drummer can achieve a sense of dynamics, and it comes down to technique. One thing that every drummer should incorporate into their playing is called a “rim shot”. To “rim shot” simply means to hit the head of the drum and the rim of the drum at the same time. This mostly applies to snare drum technique, but some drummers even use this on toms. This maneuver creates a much louder crack, and will cut much better than by just hitting the middle of the head. Another way to achieve good dynamics is to get control of your ghost notes. Ghost notes are very quiet notes in between backbeats that give a groove motion. Ghost notes can really open up a drummers playing, and make a groove happen. Below I have written out a couple of grooves that incorporate ghost notes that are great for developing this technique. The ghost notes are the ones in parentheses.

Ghost Note Grooves

These are just a few basic methods you can use to help develop an understanding of dynamics. I also suggest going on youtube and watching a few drumming legends demonstrate these concepts. Watch Steve Gadd play his famous paradiddle grooves, pretty much anything Dave Weckl does, and Tony Williams play swing. These guys have all developed an outstanding understanding of dynamics.

An Overview of the Most Common Drum Woods

There are countless factors that determine the sound that you get out of a drum. In order to really understand the character of any drum, you must first understand it’s origin and makeup. This knowledge begins with the type of wood your kit is made of (provided of course that your kit is made of wood and not carbon fiber, acrylic plastic, metal, etc…) There are surprisingly only a few that most standard drum kits are made from, but each type is very different, and will produce very different tones.

Drum companies take a few things into consideration when choosing types of wood to build kits from. The wood must be in great supply making it affordable, and profitable for sale. It must also be workable, or easy to shape and manipulate. This minimizes the amount of labor each drum requires. It must also have an attractive grain (depending on what kind of finish it will get such as a clear lacquer, or a stain.)

The most common types of woods used in most kits are poplar, maple, birch, and mahogany. Let’s go through each one, and explore the differences:

Poplar-

This is the lowest quality wood out of the four listed above. This doesn’t mean it sounds terrible, as I believe it’s a great beginner kit wood, but it will not even compare to a quality birch or maple. It will somewhat mimic the tonal quality of birch as it will be bright, and punchy, but will also maintain some low end. This wood is also often used for inner layers of maple or birch kits, and does not have a grain conducive to staining.

Maple-

This is in my opinion the best all around drum wood for a lot of musical situations, as it’s extremely versatile, and abundant in supply. It is a medium/hard wood that will produce a very even, warm tone. It has a fair amount of punch with a good low end, and is great for live situations, and recording. It also has a very attractive grain, and is great for clear finishes, and stains.

Birch-

Birch is the hardest of these woods and will produce the brightest tone. It can also have a great punch, and a lot of attack, but with a beautiful low end. Birch kits can be great for live situations as they cut through the mix well, and sound very powerful.

Mahogany-

This is a very soft wood (the softest of these four.) It is commonly very punchy and has the most low end of the group. These drums can sound amazing when tuned well, and sound great on recordings. They are more delicate than birch, and definitely cut through.

This is just a brief overview of the most common drum woods out there. You should definitely do significant research into these woods, and generally know the sound they are going for before buying a kit.

Burying the Beater VS Pulling Off the Head

The debate between which bass drum technique is better will never end. Its one of the drumming communities equivalents to discussing religion, or politics. Some drummers think burying the beater is the only way to live, some think you just can’t get a pleasant tone out of the kick drum without pulling off, and some simply don’t care. Let me make clear that I am a strong supporter of pulling off the head, and the sound I achieve with this technique. I believe that pulling off the head is a sure way to get a completely true sound out of the kick drum, and never fails. I also believe, however, that if you are going to bury the beater, there is a right and a wrong way to do it. I choose to pull of because I have trouble finding the right way to bury the beater, so I just don’t, and have never had any complaints.

The main issue with burying the beater, in my experience, is in recording. This is where the right and wrong way of doing it comes in to play. A lot of drummers who bury the beater, whether they know it or not, do not plant the beater firmly enough on the head when they kick. This results in residual “bleeding,” or tiny, unintentional flub notes following the initial stroke. Sometimes this is loud enough to be picked up in a mic, and has to be EQ’d out later. The correct way of burying the beater, is to be able to achieve a clean stroke with no residual notes to follow. The simple fact is that some of the most legendary, and most working drummers of all time have buried the beater. Steve Gadd, and Josh Freese both employ this technique in their playing, and are two of the most recorded drummers ever. Anything these guys practice can simply not, I believe, be considered wrong, just perhaps different than you might do it.

Below I have demonstrated both techniques on an electric kick drum pad. This will at least give you an idea of the difference between these techniques. Have fun experimenting with both!

Burying the Beater/ Pulling off the Head