Pad practice fodder

In a dream world, a perfect world, we would all do our “pad” practice— I call it snare drum practice— on an actual drum, and giving it our undivided attention. Somewhere along the line I got the idea that it should also be done formally, standing up— in Charles Dowd's program, playing Portraits In Rhythm from a sitting position wasn't a done thing. But the reality for me is that, to continue putting in my time with Stick Control year after year, I need do it on a silent pad, seated comfortably on my drum throne, and with a little media helper— like, I need to have the TV on. Nothing I'm going to get engrossed in, so I'm not paying attention to what I'm playing, but just a little narrative thread to help the time move.

So, the character actor Kevin Pollak, maybe best known from the movie The Usual Suspects, has a little podcast chat show on which he has talked to a lot of great people, mainly comic actors— great especially if you're a comedy fan, and/or of my generation. He's done a couple of hundred shows, all watchable on YouTube, with way too many interesting and funny people to list: Larry David, Fred Willard, Thomas Lennon from Reno 911!, and on and on. They're all in the 90 minutes-2+hours range, and are interesting without commanding your attention all the time— good for practicing.

So let's get cracking— here are the Spinal Tap guys, to start you off:

Christopher Guest:


Michael McKean and Harry Shearer after the break:


Micheal McKean:


Harry Shearer:


Go to Pollak's YouTube channel for a whole lot more.