More drums.

A few more stuff...

Westerlies!!

The band formerly known as "Casanova Frankenstein" has now changed its name to Westerlies, and just finalized their new EP! It's got four incredible tracks recorded by our friend Karl Lies at Reference Point Recording. We're selling it for as cheap as we possibly can, because frankly we just want you to hear it and be our friends.

To order one for yourself, click here. The price is $2.99. Tell me that isn't a bargain.

The CasaFrank Project

When music is your profession, sometimes you need a musical release that is...you might say...less musical? That isn't to say that the gentlemen of Casanova Frankenstein are anything but fabulous musicians, but sometimes a drummer just needs to let loose and get the Bonham out, amiright?

Last summer I started playing with a couple of friends under the guise of "Casanova Frankenstein" to accomplish just that. Not fully expecting the attention we received from the first show, we began to practice, play more shows, and write more songs. Since then we have seen a few new band members and a few hundred fans join us in the noble cause of Rock and Roll. 

Here are some of the highlights from the past six months:

West Jordan Gig 9.24.10


Borders Bookstore 8.23.10


Sammys Cafe 6.4.10


Observations:

#1 - Rock and Roll is not as easy as you'd think. I mean, don't get me wrong, in comparison its easy to play, and its easy to imitate, but its not that easy to be good at. I am learning how to play licks that people will remember, how to look cool while I play them, and how to be comfortable playing really loud and really confidently for a long period of time. Rather than being an improviser I have to be a song writer. Rather than being a time-shifter I have to be a time-keeper. I've gone from nuance to 'noisy', subtle to rock solid, and I'm lovin' every minute of it.

#2 - Tuning...ugh. You'll notice that the videos are organized from the most recent to the most vintage. If you pay attention you'll notice that for the first few I was still using Remo Fiberskyns on not only my toms but my snare. All the tuning in the world couldn't make those drums sound good in a rock setting. Finally I invested in some Evans G2's and have been blown away by how great they sound. I didn't realize how much of a difference it would make.

#3 - Girls. Who knew? The rumors are true.

The Capitol Building Gig

Alright, time to jump on this band wagon again. Let's get some stuff out there.

Not too long ago I had the chance to fill in for my buddy Brandon Cummings at the Capitol Building in SLC. Brandon was on tour with the up and coming Charley Jenkins and asked me to do a last minute favor for him. It was an outdoor concert featuring Jarrett Burns,  Ryan Innes and Katie Dellenbach. Jarrett set up the gig with me and originally I was only supposed to play on his set. There must have been a terrible drummer shortage that weekend, because both Ryan and Katie were planning on doing a 'drum-free' set until they saw that I was there and asked if I wanted to sit in. Naturally, I agreed.

So below are some highlights from the show. This is me wingin' it with Ryan, Jarrett, and Katie:

Ryan Innes - Make The Music


Jarrett Burns/Katie Dellenbach - Way High Up?


And just for fun...


Comments: Sometimes I like to think that one of my strengths is reading people, fitting into different situations. At this gig each player had a different way of signaling breaks, etc. Ryan was the easiest to follow with his subtle "over the shoulder glance". Katie didn't cue at all, but her bass player was helpful and her songs were easy to catch on to. Jarrett likes to write songs with 7 and 9 bar phrases and has a not-so-subtle over the shoulder glance similar to Ryan's. Unfortunately, he likes to give cues after the change has already happened. Still one of the finest performers I've played with.

There you have it. Short and sweet.

You Rang?

Continuing the journey of semi-public self-analysis (see post entitled "More to come...") I recently recorded a track from a Dave Weckl Single entitled "You Rang?". This is the second track of its kind that Dave has made available and for me it was a worthwhile, albeit an extremely frustrating endeavor.

Dave's first track entitled "Get to it" was a straight forward funk groove with common 4 or 8 bar phrases, simple solos, and only 4 minutes long. This track on the other hand is a chopped up 3/4 latin feel with very unusual phrases and solos, and nearly 7 minutes long. In my mind I saw Weckl watching the hundreds of mediocre youtube drummers playing along to his first track and saying to himself "let's see if we can find something to weed out all these wannabe's." I for one think it was a brilliant track, though admittedly I was one of the wannabe's that was 'weeded out'.

The thing about this track is that 1) its too long to really memorize all of the ins and outs, thus making it extremely difficult to record 7 whole minutes without doing something stupid, 2) it is a feel that only the more studious drummers are familiar let alone comfortable with, 3) Weckl's recording uses a timbale mounted where his floor tom is, making it hard for anyone to imitate.

So after a number of discouraging attempts, I decided to keep and post this recording. Its nearly painful to watch, but was a terribly great educational experience. Take a look:



Things I don't like
The challenge for me in this piece wasn't the feel, or the time signature, or even following the soloists. For me it was just a matter of 1) not screwing up my fills and solos and 2) keeping my head in the game. To this day I struggle quite a bit with some form of stage fright. When it comes to keeping good solid time I feel like I am very much up to the task in nearly any situation. When the spotlight is on me though, something in my brain goes berserk and I can't think about anything except not screwing up. It happens even more when a camera is on me. I noticed that even my time feel in this one is a little shaky at times. I don't think this is as apparent in other videos that I've posted because I either recorded enough to edit the bad stuff out or I never intended to make it public in the first place. So when it came to this track, it was really just a wrestling match between me and my nerves. If you're a good musician and pay close attention, you'll notice every so often a little musical hiccup where my brain started to think about the camera instead of the music. Others of you might not see it at all.

Of course, most frustrating of all was when I finally made it through an entire track without screwing something up and my stick got caught under the hi-hat and I missed the last two notes. AAaarggh!!! That one however I attribute to playing on my school's drum set rather than on my own.

Things I do like
This was recorded on the third day of my spring break. The first day was spent with family, and the majority of the second day I spent practicing and trying to get back into traditional grip. I worked for about an hour each day out of the wonderful book "Stick Control" and watched a little bit of Jojo Mayer's dvd which has loads of priceless advice regarding technique. I even angled my snare away from me just a touch. You'll notice that I did switch back to matched for one of the solos, but had really only done it in a moment of panic and later discovered that I hadn't needed to.

I was also happy with the 3/4 latin groove that I put together for the track. I wanted to find something that was just slightly more "traditional" than what Weckl does, but that would still fit the groove. The result was a shortened version of a guaguancó pattern, using just 6 beats of the 8 beat pattern. I don't know that it was the perfect fit, but I liked it and I don't care what anyone else says about it. I had experimented with having the clave in the left foot, but decided that the quarter-note feel was more fitting. I had decided to add it in on the reprise after the solo section, but forgot until the last couple of measures. I sort of just threw it in there at the last minute just to show that I could. Lame, but oh well.

I'm starting to realize that I could go on for hours ranting about my own playing so I'll sum it up for the few of you that might have actually read this far. I think that this recording pushed me to a new level, and helped me to face some looming weaknesses that I have really struggled with as a musician. While I don't feel like I have fixed them, I definitely believe that I have had a necessary paradigm shift and am excited to spend some time working on a new project.

I appreciate those of you who are curious enough to read this far, and if you wouldn't mind leaving me a little comment letting me know if it was interesting, worthwhile, or if there is anything you'd like to see in the future I would be delighted to know. It would also be nice to know what kind of audience I have (if any).  Thanks for your support.

Jed

Tommy Igoe - Groove Essentials 2.0

The Play-along...

In mine and Trevor's most recent excursion, we pulled out Tommy Igoe's book "Groove Essentials 2.0" (the sequel). As an unsolicited plug, this book really is one of the greatest resources for any aspiring professional drummer. This first book goes through rock, funk, jazz, and ethnic grooves and has nearly a hundred charts with fantastic play-along tracks. The second book expands with more grooves and charts, and my personal favorite is a section on odd-meter drumming. I'm hoping to put some of that up later. Not only is the book as thorough as it is educational and hilarious, but the recordings are outstanding! I recommend it to every student I have. 

On this occasion, I told Trevor about my little endeavor to upload different playing experiences and more methodically map out my progress as a musician. I told him that I was determined to make public the very first recording that I played that night, and this was the result! 

No. 1

Comments: You'll notice that it took me a little while to settle into this one. Trevor had set up his kit a little bit differently than before and it threw me off. For one, he had added his double bass pedal (which consequently put the hi-hat a little farther out), and he added his first rack tom mounted off to the left of the snare. It all felt a little strange and you'll notice that I nearly miss the drums now and again and at one point even drop my stick. To make it worse, my headphones kept falling out making it hard to hear the track. You'll notice at the end that I don't have nearly the double bass chops that Trevor does, but I decided to go for it anyways. Why not? Right?!

This track was deceptively hard to keep up with. I found myself getting behind and had to make a conscious effort to keep up. The hits in themselves weren't very complicated, but at that tempo a couple of them threw me for a loop. At any rate, it was a good effort and I was happy with the fact that I nailed most of it. I even like a few licks towards the end.

No. 2!




Comments: I know that it says number 3 on the video, but that's because Trevor's is number 1 and I wanted to save it for last. A lot of the same comments apply to this run through. I was clearly more comfortable with the set up, but still made some stupid mistakes. I miscounted the first 8 bars (counting in 2 instead of 4), and couldn't settle in on a texture sometimes (hi-hat vs. ride). This groove I found to be one that I'm not particularly familiar with either. This is what drummers refer to as "four on the snare" because we're playing all four beats on the snare drum instead of just 2 and 4. I kept leaving out beat one because I wanted to play backbeats instead of every beat. Therein lies one of the beauties of the Tommy Igoe book is that it forces you to cover all your bases.

No. 3! (or number 1, depending on how you're counting)




Comments: Trevor might not let me keep this up here for long, but I wanted to put it up so that he could share in some of the glory. He's really a fantastic drummer, but shares with me the fear of having our mistakes out in the open. I've learned so much from the endeavor that I'm hoping he'll be willing to partake of its goodness as well.

In reality, this track sounds pretty good. I love his use of triplets and his hemiola about 3 min. into it. Great job Trevor.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Trevor Goss

(Used with permission...hopefully)

The Jed and Trevor weekly jams...

Just last month I moved up to South Jordan, UT and found myself in the same ward as one of my good friends and fellow percussionist Trevor Goss (pictured above). Trevor's work with the band "To The Death" is legendary in these parts. Trevor and I played together in a number of groups down at BYU and spent a good amount of time in the world-renowned salsa group "Salsa Azul!" (emphasis added). Alright, so we weren't world renowned, but I thought we were pretty good.

(Salsa Azul! at Salsa Chocolate in Provo)

Trevor's drums are set up in Sandy (just across the freeway) where he teaches private lessons, so we started getting together each week to collaborate and refine our drumming skills. This was the first of those occasions and I was sure to document the experience. From the 60+ minutes of footage I put together a short collection of my favorite fills, etc. We also played for a while with me on congas and Trevor playing drum set, but due to my piteous conga playing and out of respect for Trevor's privacy I haven't included any of that. Instead you'll just see snippets of some of each our solos with me on kit and Trevor on Congas. We spent the majority of our time brushing the dust off of our latin grooves and trading 4 or 8 measure solos. This is a common practice among jazz musicians, and you'll see Trevor and I either trying to one up each other or trying to feed off of the other's ideas. I think the result is rather satisfying.

Comments: To be perfectly honest, I had a hard time cutting this one down as much as I did. While there wasn't anything extraordinary, there wasn't a whole lot junk. Most of what I played I thought was interesting, well executed, and in time. In a lot of ways I'm more comfortable with these latin grooves than I am with a straight ahead jazz or rock tune. The groove itself is so rhythmic that ideas come easily. I was also very comfortable playing with Trevor and we knew each other well enough that I wasn't worried about screwing up in front of him.

I also think that one of the biggest factors was that I was able to play loud. One of the greatest challenges for drummers is having to play soft. With guitar or bass, the technique is essentially the same whether you're playing soft or loud. It's just a matter of turning down the volume knob. With drums, playing a double stroke roll and 12 inches is NOTHING like playing it at 3 inches. Its a different technique altogether that you just can't do without having practiced it. In the drumming world this is one surefire way to separate the men from the boys.

One of the greatest learning experiences I ever had was having to play each week at Mimi's cafe in Orem (try the Pasta Jambalaya, it's to die for). It was the kind of environment where everything had to be soft enough for a dinner conversation to still be heard, and it really forced me to think about every single note I played. You wouldn't believe how frustrating it was to hear something in your head and know that there is no way in Hades that you'll be able to play it. This is where I first started to really think about what I was playing. It takes a lot of refining to be able to play musically, and accurately at a soft dynamic.

In this video you'll notice that I actually started out with the headphones on, but realized that it was too hard to hear what Trevor was playing and eventually took them off. Hopefully you'll notice towards the end of the video that my playing had dropped significantly in volume. Though the drums don't always sound as good (on recording) play soft, I think my playing was better when I played softer.

A couple of things that I struggled with, however, were 1) finishing solos, and 2) having more original ideas. There are a handful of licks that I got into and then either bailed out half way through or realized that I had no idea where to go from there. I also find myself hearing the clave pattern in my head and not being able to break free from that one pattern. Most of you won't notice that, but the trained ear will be slightly bothered by it.

In general though it was very rewarding for me to watch this clip and see that I actually had progressed quite a bit. I used to hate watching myself play. This might be one of the first times that I got some fulfillment out of my own playing. At least when it comes to trading 4's over an afro-cuban groove, I'm really not half bad!