Buy a turntable, redux

Four sides, five bucks.

I finally took my own advice and got a turntable- a fancy late 80's Kenwood digital tracking model, my original Sony from 1982 having bitten the final big one after several years of deteriorating performance awhile back. A few things I've noticed:

You listen to less stuff.  The laziness induced by the set-and-forget computer mode of listening actually works to your benefit: the path of least resistance is to play the side again, and again, which is what you're supposed to do anyway.

You listen to more stuff. Putting something on, skipping tracks, and changing records is more cumbersome, so you tend to let the thing run, so you hear all the things you'd skip over on the mp3 player if they don't grab you in the first five seconds. Ballads, for one. The format helps you listen to more than just the show-stoppers. Musicians with professional ambitions do not get the same luxury of diving straight for the money shot in their listening, like regular fans do.

You give yourself a chance to learn a little something about the recording. You have the personnel, composer, engineer, producer, and more right under your eyes if you just flip the sleeve over, so it's easy to take in a lot of small bits of information by accident. You can often get the same info on the computer, but you have to look for it- it could take you a dozen mouse clicks, a little bit of typing in Google, and some scrolling around to get it.

An album side is the perfect container. About the length of a Simpsons episode, minus commercials, and poetically brief if you've gotten used to the too-long CD format, or the permanent shuffle mode of the iPod, or the global content-tsunami aimed permanently at your face that is Pandora, Spotify and the rest. The LP side is the suite of the later 20th century.

It's cheap. Today on the way home from a lesson I picked up a '70's trio record with Joe Sample, Ray Brown and Shelly Manne, and a Flora Purim record with Airto and Joe Henderson for a grand total of $5.80,  and passed over a bunch of worthy <$3 things simply because I didn't feel like sorting through the stacks again looking for them, and I knew I'd be back. For my $2.80 I got a great lesson on playing the ride cymbal from Shelly since I've been sitting here writing this paragraph.

Ballard Jazz Festival dates

I just got my gig dates for the Ballard Jazz Festival in April; I'm making up for my total, shameful absence from the Portland festival by playing two nights as leader. First I'll be playing on the Brotherhood of the Drum night on Wednesday, 4/18, at Conor Byrne. Michael Shrieve will be emceeing (and playing?), along with Kobie Watkins, the great Gregg Keplinger (hopefully playing duo with Rick Mandyke), and my old boat colleague Eric Eagle, who's been doing a bunch of touring lately. Probably one or two other people. Matt Chamberlain and Matt Cameron have each done it more than once, so maybe one of them will be on it, too.

Then I'll be playing the Jazz Walk on Friday, April 20 at the Eagles' Lodge with the Seattle iteration of my Ornette band- Rich Cole and Paul Gabrielsen plus Weber Iago on piano.

Get updates on the festival timing, locations, and more. If you're in Seattle, cumon down and say hi!

Stick Control implied rhythms

I hope you dig all of this Stick Control stuff; I just happen to be working with this book a lot right now. One of my reservations I've always had about it- about the way the first three pages apply to the drums, anyway- is that the musical content is hidden behind the sticking patterns. And I don't want to base my playing on patterns of Rs and Ls, I want to base it on common musical language. So what I've done here is give the rhythm suggested by the right hand part of exercises 1-72 from the front of the book; if you drop out the left hand, or accent the right, these are the rhythms that pop out. I've written the more syncopated rhythms jazz style (as in Ted Reed), with long notes on the &s wherever possible. For easy reference, I've put them in the same format as the original:

Keeping these pages handy while working with the Stone exercises on the drumset will get one seeing the rhythmic content behind the exercises in fairly short order. If like me you use Stone and Reed a lot, hopefully making the connection between the two will encourage some different ways of thinking about each. I would be cautious about the way you apply this to snare drum practice, however; hanging everything off of the right hand is a normal thing on the drums, but when working strictly on hand technique you want to be more balanced.

Get the pdf.

Grooves o' the day: found items

[UPDATE: Link fixed!] I found these inside an old copy of Mel Bay's Stage Band Drummers' Guide I just purchased on Ebay: two pages of beats cut out of 1984 issues of Modern Drummer. I actually remember these, and had played through them at the time.

The first page is part of an odd-meter series by a post-Dixie Dregs, pre-Winger Rod Morgenstein, in which he transcribes some famous grooves by Billy Cobham, Simon Phillips, and Russ Kunkel. The other is more of a period curiosity: a collection of random fusion beats from the heyday of the "signature" groove, written by James Morton. None of them sit very easily on the drums, so playing through them will certainly put some new moves under your hands.

Get the pdf.

YouTube audio from the Morgenstein piece after the break:

More Stone on the drums

Here's something timely to the ECM feel post. I've been using Stick Control quite a bit in my practicing lately- particularly my application in 5/4 (and a similar thing in 7/4), and in fooling with it began using this simple but effective variation:

These are most effective in a moderate to bright 2. Definitely experiment with substituting your own fills for the given triplets/roll.

Get the pdf.

VOQOTD: listening

Because it bears repeating:

Through listening alone you can find ALL the answers.  

- Jamey Aebersold

A crash course in the ECM feel

Look for the photos with water
and the Helvetica font.

The "ECM feel", as it's now being called, is a style that evolved in the late 1960's and 70's, and has since become one of the major time feels of modern jazz. It's associated with the ECM record label because that's where you find most of its major early practitioners and first/best recorded examples. Before you do anything, I suggest hitting the read more link at the bottom of the page and listen to the audio examples.

Some of its features: Even 8th notes, non-repetitive, linear, broken-up (pick your adjective), possible suggestion of a backbeat, Brazilian influenced. Light, airy, ride cymbal based feel (get yourself a Paiste 602 Flat Ride to complete the period effect). Had it's beginnings in the 1960's work of Tony Williams, Roy Haynes, Paul Motian and Barry Altschul. The drummers it is most generally associated with include Jon Christensen, Jack Dejohnette, Bob Moses, and Airto.

There is no standard method that I'm aware of for developing this feel, but if you work through one or more of these suggestions and do a lot of listening and playing you should begin to find it

UPDATE: In the comments Clint lets us know that Berklee professor Skip Hadden has a method book and mini-series of videos at the Vic Firth site dealing more broadly with this style. Onward:


Practice methods:

Basic coordination using the 8th/2-16th cym pattern. You can also think of it in cut time:

Use regular jazz vocabulary with even 8th notes (converting them 8th note patterns to 16ths if you're thinking of it that way). Working out the same materials with two or three more complex cymbal patterns- and with plain 8th notes- would also be helpful; you could pick a pattern from Syncopation pp. 34-37 (new edition) and put it in double time, for example.

Stick Control- the first section, and maybe the flam section- and the same part of Syncopation as above, plus the long syncopation exercises. Play this (and all the following) with the right hand on the cymbal and the left on the snare. Also play the first section with the hands together on the cymbal and snare on the Rs, and the bass drum and/or hihat (w/foot) on the Ls.

Paradiddles and paradiddle-diddles and their inversions, plus plain old doubles- RRLL and RLLR RLLR- with/without a flam at the beginning of the R or L hand double:

And Swiss triplets in a 16th note rhythm. They make a 4:3 polyrhythm, so find a place to stop to fit them within one or two measures of 4/4:

Using the feet:

Again, with the right hand on the cymbal and the left on the snare, play all of the above over an ostinato with the feet; either samba or baiao, or double some/all of the right hand part with the bass drum. Also play an ostinato with one foot let the other play sporadically to fit with the hand part.

Note: It would seem to be an obvious choice for developing this style, but I don't like to recomend Dahlgren & Fine's Four Way Coordination to anyone seeking immediate results; as I've written before, I've seen it turn into a bit of a tar pit for more than one young drummer. But if you keep your eye on the practical result you want to achieve, and don't get bogged down with the need to learn it "completely", it should also be useful here. Vol. 2 of Dahlgren & Fine's Accent On Accents would be a good substitute/supplement for Stick Control for the exercises above, though.

Audio examples and discography after the break:

Free jazz handbook

That's free as in free beer, not as in Albert Ayler. Jamey Aebersold, the godfather- I guess- of jazz playalongs, has a very useful book covering the basics of jazz improvisation of available as a free download. Much of it is written for tonal instruments, but there's a lot of good advice and important general information applicable to everyone, including drummers:

"There’s no way anyone is going to play jazz or improvise well without listening to those musicians who have come before. Through listening alone you can find ALL the answers. Each musician is a result of what they have listened to. It’s easy to determine who people have listened to by listening to them play. We all tend to use imitation and it’s good to do this. Some feel that if they listen to others they’ll just sound like them. This is not true but your ego will try to convince you it’s true. The ego hates competition or what it preceives to be competition. Don’t let it fool you. If no one listened to anyone else, why play music?"

"One major point to remember concerns the avoidance of attempting to accomplish too many goals while practicing. The mind cannot easily digest more than one or two major points at the same time and still be effective. Always be very clear as to what you are practicing a particular exercise for."

"STARTING A PHRASE OR MELODY 

1. At what part of your instrument will you begin your idea? Middle register, high, low?

2. How do you want to begin? Slowly, with held notes and use of space/rest? Quickly, with lots-of attention, motion, visibility? Moderately so as to suggest a searching mood? [...]

4. Once you begin, do you want to ascend, descend or stay in one area, register?

5. Do you want to use pick-ups ... one, or more? If so, make sure they lead to the first strong beat!

6. Once you’ve begun your phrase, how long are you prepared to maintain your continuity, thoughts, ideas? One measure, two, four, eight? Have you thought of it?

7. What rhythm are you going to initially play? Does your mind already “HEAR” the notes/pitches in rhythm? Can you actually play them? Remember, your first phrase represents the first several words or idea of a sentence. Think before you begin. [...]

9. Is your initial idea coming from your mind or is it something that your fingers have picked out? [...]"

"Don’t try to play everything you know in one solo. Take your time and plan ahead. Try to visualize your solo with ups and downs, fast sections and slow sections, loud and soft passages, tension and release sections. Aim at overall Tension-Release to your solo. Utilize repetition and sequence. Listen to jazz masters on recordings to get ideas and to wet your imagination. Music is for ears."

Get Jamey Aebersold's free Jazz Handbook

From POINTS TO REMEMBER:

• Two factors that stop people from improvising are fear of getting lost and fear of playing a wrong note.

• Tape your own playing and listen to yourself. Don’t be critical. Just Listen.

• Humor is an important part of creativity.

• Can you practice for one hour without interruption?

• If you don’t think before you play a phrase, it is not improvisation - just an exercise.

• Think each note before you play it.

• Don’t practice the same thing forever - break new ground.

• Most music is grouped in 2, 4 and 8 bar phrases.

• Most drummers sing the melody to themselves to keep their place but they can learn to hear in phrases.

• Jazz players usually play eighth notes - play scales and exercises this way.

• Listen and lift ideas off records.

• LISTEN! -Over and over and over! All the answers to your questions are on the records.

• Listen to Jazz every day.

• If you are well equipped technically you can take chances.

• In live Jazz there is interaction between players.

• It is great to play with people who are a little or a lot better than you - they will push you to improve.

• No one is a born player. Good instruments and teachers are important but the player makes himself.

• Charlie Parker practiced 11 to 15 hours per day for three years to four years.

Transcription: Jon Christensen - Dansere

This goes out to my old friend Tim Willcox, who turned me on to this record- Jan Garbarek's Dansere, with Jon Christensen on drums. Christensen is pretty important to the current thing going on in drums in the Pacific Northwest- a lot of younger-than-40 drummers here are working in this vein. I think of him as sort of the Billy Higgins of the 70's- unpretentious and infinitely musical. This transcription starts at the beginning of the 5/4 section in the middle of the tune.

Notes:
- Covers the beginning of the 5/4 section through the piano solo.
- He appears to be using three cymbals on the recording, which I've transcribed as two- a ride cymbal and a smaller cymbal. I believe the ride is a Paiste 602, possibly a Dark Ride, by the way...
- I've used parenthesis to give a sense of shape within measures. Notes in parenthesis are very soft ghost notes, and accents in parenthesis are just for shape- play them slightly stronger than the surrounding notes. Regular accents and housetops have their normal function.
- Each measure of 5/4 is divided into 3/4 + 2/4, with a tied note on the & of 3.
- The main cymbal line is played on the ride cymbal, until the last measure of the piece, where the right hand plays the hihat, as noted in the transcription.

Get the pdf | Get Dansere by Jan Garbarek | get mp3

YouTube audio after the break: