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