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.
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.
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.
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!
Sometime back in November my buddy Dave (also shown in the photo with Kathryn below) and I got together for a little jam session at BYU. Dave had just bought a new synthesizer that he was anxious to test out and I had been itching to get my hands working again. So, this was the result. A lot of what you'll see was one continuous jam, where we would morph from one groove into another and just try to read each other's minds, (at one point Dave's mind said "let's play a funky rendition of 'Choose the Right'"). The playing isn't the most meticulous on either of our parts, but I think we each got some good licks in.
This time I had figured out how to condense the microphone to avoid clipping, but had forgotten to do it when we started playing. As a result, the audio is really bad, but not so bad that you can't hear what we're playing so I've decided to post it anyways.
There's two parts, I'm only going to post the first one for now. Again, this blogger video thing isn't allowing me to upload videos that are over a couple of minutes. Is that a rule or do I need to do something special to get it to work? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Comments: For some strange reason I had a really hard time getting into a groove on this occasion. I think I had not played in a while and was worried how I would sound. Not to mention I was again on a drumset that I wasn't comfortable with and I'm sure my hands were cold. By the time we got to the end I things were sounding better. Lucky for you, I cut out most of the stuff that I didn't like.
Some of the things that I'm happy with are: 1) Dave is getting much better at following hemiola's and such, so I was able to take some more liberties with the all the time shifting mumbo jumbo that I'm so fond of. 2) There actually some pretty sick licks in there. I'm sometimes impressed with my own ability to incorporate the diddle rudiments (paradiddles, etc.) and roll right off the snare and toms. 3) I can tell that I was starting to think more about creating a melody with my fills and solos (some of the time) and things are flowing better. You'll see in upcoming videos that this skill has really improved and has transformed my playing in a lot of ways.
As I finished up my first year at ALA last year, the opportunity presented itself to move to another school in Draper, UT. As much as I hated to leave the students in Spanish Fork, a combination of emotional and professional factors made the decision inevitable. So with some trepidation I made my move to Juan Diego Catholic High School in Draper, UT. Here's a picture:
In all honesty, I was blown away by how professional, organized, and Christian the place is. Everything about the school has been a good experience. The faculty and administration is organized and helpful. The facilities are wonderful. The students are motivated and accepting. It's a very classy environment. It is hard to find negative things to say about it, so I won't even try.
My responsibilities include two middle school percussion classes, one high school percussion class, high school orchestra, and four 6th grade band classes which the band director and I team teach. I also run the drum line in the fall, and the steel drum band in the winter. It is the first year that the school has ever had an orchestra and I believe we're off to a good start. Next year we will begin offering strings in the middle school as well. I've moved up to South Jordan to avoid the commute, and I'm hoping that this is a place that I can stay for a while.
So sometime last summer I played for a friend of mine's piano studio recital. She taught a jazz piano course at BYU and wanted to give her students an opportunity to perform with professional musicians (that's us in case you were wondering). They each prepared a jazz standard to perform, and we talked about some of the basic principles of communication in a rhythm section. At the end we performed a song for them and after everyone had left we stayed around to play a few on our own.
That I can remember, the three of us had never played together before. The incredible Kathryn Merriam obviously is playing piano and Chad Bacon is on bass. The other two are much more accomplished jazz musicians than I am and it was fun to play with them. In fact, if you want to hear a great jazz recording check out "No More Blues" on Kathryn's website. She's as good of a singer as she is a pianist. It was fun to play together for the first time and to try to get used to the musical personality that each of them had. It was a particularly interesting experience for me, because 1) I was playing on BYU's drum set rather than my own, 2) There were no amps so the volume had to be kept under control, and 3) I had just finished my first year of teaching and had not really had time to gig or practice at all. It was really interesting to me though, that having spent so much time teaching music and approaching it from the pedagogy side, I had really improved....a lot. My chops weren't nearly where they should have been, but my mind was much more involved as an artist. That might be hard to understand for some, but to me it was very significant. I've heard many musicians say that sometimes the best thing you can do to improve is to just walk away. Insightful.
Even though it doesn't look like it, there were more than 2 people in the audience. I can't remember if we played this tune at the beginning or the end of the recital, but it was meant to be a demonstration of how players communicate to each other. I was still new and unexperienced with the laptop and had no external mic, so the quality isn't superb, but its enough to get an idea of what we sounded like. This is the famous Wayne Shorter tune called Footprints. Take a listen.
Comments: There's a lot of stuff in here that I would love to keep out of the public eye, but as an exercise in being more transparent I have left it unedited. One thing that bothers me is my inability to get away from the main groove. I cringe every time I hear that blasted bass drum on beat one. Sometimes as I listen I feel the groove stagnate, and I just wish that I had changed it up. Throw in a fill, change the texture, stop playing altogether! Just DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!
In contrast however, watching this clip made me feel very good about where I was heading. For the first time that I can remember I was making a conscious effort to contribute as an artist, rather than just being a medium through which the composer could get his message to an audience. I also loved some of the different sounds I was discovering on the kit, and I really liked the double time feel that I threw in now and again. Overall it wasn't a bad take, all things considered.
Track 2: Blue Monk
This is the first student to perform at the recital. As you can see the environment was pretty casual. You'll hear me and Kathryn both giving some directions as we went along.
Comments: While I'm not crazy about most of my solo ideas, or the overall time feel, this one is relatively painless for me to watch. I even get a little kick out of some of the subtle 'Jedisms' that every so often present themselves in my brushwork.
Track 3: Wave
After everyone had left, we were having so much fun that we stayed to play a couple more tunes. This is a personal favorite of mine, a famous Jobim standard called Wave.
Comments: So this is a track that for the most part I actually enjoy. I enjoy Kathryn and Chad's playing much more than my own, but there is still a lot of good things happening. You can tell that I was exploring a little with my right hand push/pull technique as some call it. It was cool the first time, and then got old. There is a balance issue in this one that really troubles me, but I keep telling myself that it was just because of the placement of the microphone and that I wouldn't in good conscience actually play that loud. Let's hope that's true. Other than that, no major complaints. Great playing Kathryn and Chad!
When I first purchased my laptop, I was so excited to use it that I had it shipped to Evanston, WY where I was teaching at a week long music camp. These clips were all taken the same day, which I believe was one of the last days of the camp. Musically speaking, there isn't anything extraordinary on my part, I mostly just wanted to test out the recording capabilities in different situations. Regardless, I think its enough to get an idea of what the gig is like.
The camp hosts a handful of ensembles ranging from orchestras and jazz bands to celtic and folk ensembles. Players include 7th and 8th graders as well as faculty members. I teach percussion techniques classes, world percussion, funk band, and this year a bossa nova guitar class. I also help with the band, orchestra, and jazz band since percussion students are small in number. In this clip you'll hear Shannon Roberts (University of Utah, Woodscross HS) and Mike Giles (Iowa State University). I believe that the first two tunes are arrangements of Shannon's, and the third his own composition. Enjoy!
Comments:
In high school I was notorious for having terrible posture when I played drums or piano. After the first year of college I changed my ways, as well as my set up, and started to play with good posture. I like having a slightly better view of the rest of the players, and found that it increases my reach a bit. For some reason this week I had reverted back to the slouching method in an attempt to get closer to the drums be a little less 'formal' for lack of a better word. I wanted to connect more with the music being made as opposed to the music that was written. Kind of a letter of the law/spirit of the law sort of thing. I think it helped, but after that week I went back to sitting up straight. More than anything else, it keeps my back from hurting after each gig.
Though it makes me slightly uncomfortable to make this resolution public, the desire to improve as a musician and the need to free up space on my laptop has compelled me to start updating my blog on a more regular basis. And while I feel apprehensive about the whole endeavor ( just typing the words "my blog" made me feel a little self-conscious) I know that there are at least a few people out there who would like to see what I've been up to.
Since I recently purchased my new laptop (is 4 months still recent?) I've spent an increasing amount of time filming myself practicing, performing, and jamming with friends. As I edit these clips and sift out the unavoidable garbage, I'll try to post the rest for your viewing pleasure. For the most part, I hope to use this as a means of personal assessment, and as I look back in a few months hopefully there will be some substantial progress. At any rate, there will be lots to see. Feel free to let me know what you think along the way.
