My Left Foot Became Like An Anchor, for My Right

Today I was brushing up on my right foot, rock chops. Mostly consistent 8th notes around 170-180 bpm.

While making sure every attack with my right foot was solid and at the same velocity, I brought my left foot into every pattern. It's a good test in keeping time, independence, and composure. A good accountability. The trick is to play everything thing you already know, but add the left foot on all the quarters to hold the pulse down. Play it well, and you'll increase your tempo and composure.

Pull out your iPod with a recent favored drum track. Play the song all the way through with your left foot on the quarter pulse (or 8th if it's in 6/8, ect). Don't stop. You should be able to play everything your hands and right foot have been doing all along. Make sure NOT to flam your feet when landing together on the downbeats.

If you are a begginner this may be a more advanced step for you, but since the average drummer's tendancy is to rush, it never hurts to start early in the game. It's in everybody's nature to do this. That's why this is a good thing. To remedy rushing.

Also, If ever I start to fumble, I stop playing with my hands. Play only the kick drum pattern a long with the hi-hat. When that's sounds good, I add my hands back. If it's still pretty rough around the edges, that's when you change your tempo.

A classic rule when focusing on any rhythm is, if you can play it slow, you can play it fast. This generally goes for all musicians. What you're doing is building both mind and body muscles. Think of it like body building. You wouldn't go to the gym and start lifting 250 pounds right away. And if you could, it wouldn't last long. You'd start out at a reasonable weight and build by steadily adding more weights.

Same with rhythm. If the metronome isn't already out, I get it out. Try starting about 10-15 bpm slower. It may be uncomfortable at first, but you're building your strength and composure. Increase the bpm about 5 beats faster at a time.

When you're back to the right tempo of the song you'll notice a HUGE difference. You may even thank me.

This stuff separates the men from the boys, if you know what I mean. The Chefs from the cooks. The pros from the interns. The... ok I'm done.

Christmas Acoustic Set

I'm doing this short December run with Everlife. Our rehearsals were at a house, and my dynamic wasn't needing to change much once we arrived to the shows. I really find it to be a respectable challenge to stay as minimal as I can when doing acoustic performances.

I felt I only needed one tom along with the kick and snare. hi- hats of course and then my sweet ride, which has a great wash when needed. Some may think it's dumbing down the playing, but I say it's opening up and exploring the different sounds of each drum.

First time I've every used only hot rods (someone needs to find a new name for them) and brushes for an entire set. A shaker appears for one song. So does a ride sizzle. Some rim clicks and heel down kick attacks and hi-hat pulses. Just keeping time and staying musical from here..

Chill-Out and Warm-Up

If you're like me, you've probably found that the analytical brain can be swarmed by over-thinking at times.

When I was younger I was under the impression that it was just about hitting the drums as hard as I could. All the drummers I knew were 5 years older than me and 2X my mass size.

Today, I can still play aggressively, but there's something more important and steady that has to be there as a foundation for the over-thinker and over-player.

Stewart Copeland has a simple, great way of explaining it to this drummer... Hear him out.

The Click

Use it. Breathe it. Sleep with it. Smell it. Taste it.

Don't eat it.

All tempos.

Getting BIG Rock Flams

In this video I mention a small contrast between the drum set and the style of a marching drum flam. Focusing really on a simple way of getting your disciplined rudiment to 'sound like you mean it' when playing the drum set.

The general idea of a flam is when one stick hits the drum right before the other upon attacking the same beat. In fact they sound like when you say the "Fl" part of the word flams. (a sort of onomatopoeia)

They are used in most styles, and in rock they are a great extra voice and texture to your fills and sometimes groove.

I had been playing drumset for probably 4 years before I tried out for high school drumline. When I showed up to tryouts, one of the senior drummers saw me practicing a flam exercise on a pad and right a way criticized it. I had been taught decent stick control at the time, but what I was doing was lifting both of my arms way up and coming down on the pad with equal intensity in both. Like I was use to on the kit. Still young.

I was teased a bit. Those were great if you were John Bottom, maybe. But I was going to be playing a really tightly tuned drum that exposed your every attack, not to mention playing with 3-5 others, the same thing at the same time in unison.

It wasn't before too long that I learned to keep the left stick about a half an inch off the drum head and bring the right hand all the way back without lifting my arm and then viza versa when doing a right hand flam.

So here's a video to demonstrate a bit of the two, and you'll feel comforted to know that you can have BIG rocking flams like Dave Grohl and then also flams that won't be having your drum instructor telling you to hit the ground for 25+ push-ups.... That's what I had to do anyway..

At the end of the day it just comes down to having great stick control and knowing the context of what you're playing..

Freese Takes All

Halloween night I got a call from a friend who had an extra ticket to see Ninch Inch Nails at the Summet Center in Nashville, and honestly, I've been a bit of a distant fan of there's over the years, but an appreciator non-the-less.

There was no question, I was going..

Since this was a last minute thing, I was in a state of less expectancy. Oblivious in some sense yet curious. The stage was flat black, simple looking as the house lights were on and we waited.

Lights went down and the full band starts out rocking, lights flashing. The norm of what to expect from a rock show. Halfway through the second song the drummer, out of nowhere, spits out these amazing single stroke 16th note fills that were seamless. "I know that I know this drummer." I couldn't see him clear because we're in a suite on the second level..

Our friend James splirts out the drummers name... no other than Josh Freese.. Of course! He started playing with them back in 2005. Them and everyone else respectable... practically.

It just got better. And better.

What other drummer could come in and play a show like this and be this eclectic? Josh Freese ladies and gentleman. The dude has played on many modern pop and non-pop records you've heard. I'll just let you look him up on wikipedia for the mass discography.

He hit the highs and the lows of the set perfectly. At one point in the set the band plays a musical interlude where the singer is on a marimba and a mod, the guitar player on a xelaphone, there were keys, Freese had a stripped down kit with triggers and a bunch of rad sounding axilery percusion. It ruled. Not to mention that all there drums sounds kick butt.

By the end of the jam, he was playing completely around the beat, but in time. Fills were well placed. One of the best shows I've seen all year.

Drummers, musicians, live music appreciators, if you have a chance to see NIN when they come to town.. make that happen. And Drummers, Freese doesn't disapoint.

I haven't even started talking about how killer the visual aspect of the show were.

But, this being a drum blog, I'll just let you know that it is one of the greatest visual shows that I can ever remember seeing.

Totally worth it. Great band. Great drummer. Makes all the difference.

Looking for more on Freese?
You should check out this Modern Drummer issue, there's a great interview about his session work and how he lays it down for such a collective drummer as himself. Check it.

Listening To Music With Your Whole Body

Let this deaf lady tell you all about it. Kinda cool. Kinda different.



Percussionist | Evelyn Glennie

Independence, Control, and Tempo

It wasn't until a little over 3 years ago until I really took ownership of training my drum set independence. This is not something to be learned over night. In fact, I still am working on dedicating my whole body and mind to timing when I sit down at the drum set. It's like being an athlete. You're always in training if you want to be the best at what you do.

If you're not quite sure what I mean by the concept of independence, I'm talking about each limb, left and right, hands and feet being connected to you yet with the ability to carry on separate rhythmic patterns all at once, in time. Mouthful... and handful.

Hands and feet are all physically connected to your body. That's easy to understand. But it's important to be capable of carrying on tempo on their own, sometimes all together and with different rudiments and poly-rhythms.

In rock drumming you can sort of escape this idea for a while without having to keep a consistent rhythm with both feet. But in jazz you aren't as fortunate. Neither in bosa nova, samba and other advanced styles/rhythms. But to the rock drummer out there, it can only improve your timing, and also open a door to more creative options.

To be honest, I got thrown out of my element a few years back. At the time I felt pretty comfortable with my timing and feel. Drumline did test my tempo. I thought the four years of a Dr. Beat bleeding out my ears at every rehearsal and having my two feet marking the pulse of almost every notated rhythm I played would do the trick.

While it did help me largly in precision, timing, and playing along with others. When getting back to the drum set, it didn't necessarily remedy my performance 100%.

So when I got the privilege of having a few lessons with Ndugu Chancler, lets just say I had it coming to me. He's played everything practically.

He sat me down at a set of drum pads and had me play quarter notes with my left foot(hi-hat) and on beats 2 and 4 with my right(kick pad). My hands were on the snare pad playing a simple repetitive 8th and 16th note pattern. Needless to say, I was on that throne tackling the same concept with different variations for the whole hour instruction.

Towards the end of the lesson he had me play a roll out of time, yes out of time, while my feet kept the steady pattern in tempo. It was a joke at first. I'd either be playing the roll in a triplet pattern, a 16th note pattern, or I'd just completely biff it and fall apart. My body and frame of mind were so used to trusting my hands for tempo, and mostly my right hand.

Eventually, I got my mind back and focused on the tempo with my feet. And was able to play freely with my hands. Again this is not something that happens over night, but definitely separates the men from the boys when it comes to tempo and control.

So I hand this over to you now. At VicFirth.com they have some free online lessons with many including Ndugu's. You can learn directly from him on these basics that I think all seasoned drummers should eventually acquire.

This particular lesson focuses on feet timing while playing to a click/metronome.

Lesson #7: Foot Technique | Ndugu

This lesson applies what I've been talking about when refering to independence. He uses rudiments on top of the foot patterns, and at one point plays a roll out of time shortly.

Lesson #3: Rudimental Work-Up | Ndugu

You can check out his other online lessons here.

Good luck.

Drum Mentor and Online Lessons

I am now giving online drum lessons.

With a few requirements like Skype, a webcam, and a computer, I'm giving online lessons to serious drummers looking to venture on to the next step.

Check out my home site at aarontosti.com if you are interested. I talk a little more of my background and what a lesson from me might look like.

I'm exciting about this oportunity!

Diddles and Pu-da-das

Diddles and Pud-da-das

Stewert Copland, one of my favorite drummers of all time, is probably most vivid in my mind for incorporating and stylizing diddles and double strokes into his playing. Unique and one of a kind for that time period. It was usually on his hi-hat mixed in with the reggae feel of the sidestick and kick. The most obvious being The Police song "Walking on the Moon".

Adrian Young, Chad Smith, Carter Beauford, and Tim "Herb" Alexander are all other great drummers that brought this concept to the table for me. Chad Smith would put triplets into his playing and I remember listening closely to distinguish whether they were pu-da-das or not. "Herb" would do the same. And, I'll always remember song "#41" off the album Crash. Carter drenches the hi-hat and ride with these rudiments, but I can't imagine the song with anyone else playing.

So here's an inch of knowledge that you can take to improve your musicality in drum playing. I didn't mention much about stick control, but it plays a role for sure. It's not cool to be sloppy. Well, being loose when playing jazz is cool, but that's another blog...



Disclaimer: I exploited this idea to show a certain concept. It's not always a good idea to go wild with this concept when playing along with other musician. Use tastefully.

Rediculous

Pimp My Golf Cart?

BBC News on Rock Drummer Stamina

Clem Burke from Blondie actually did this..

"Burke was connected to equipment to measure his heart rate and oxygen uptake, and the levels of lactic acid in his blood. He found that during a performance, his heart averaged between 140 and 150 beats a minute, peaking at 190, levels comparable to other top athletes"

What a geek!

He burned 400 to 600 calories in an hour concert.. Now I can see how my first year of playing 240 shows touring with Hawk Nelson took about 15-20 lb off me.

Here's the BBC video on it.

Tommy Igoe

and THE VIC FIRTH PODCAST

If you have iTunes and have not subscribed to the vic firth podcast, you should consider it. I find interest in the different interviews from the drummers in their vast line up.

There was a contflict of interest as I was a young maturing drummer. I seem to come across arguements of crossing drum corp and rudiment elements to drum set technique, and trying to contrast all the great drummers I listened to over the years hit wall for me.

As a young player, there were rock drummers like Chad Sexton (311) who took marching techniques quite literally in there drumset playing, and then there were guys like Brad Wilk (Rage) whom I also enjoyed aspect of their playing even though they are looser in feel.

I could go on with other examples, but I'm sure I'll have more in blogs to come...

I'll embrace one more thought...

In marching band, I'd always watch great snare players get on a kit and trash the concept of groove. I'd then see an incredible jazz set player grab a pair of Ralph Hardimon signature marching stick (treetrunks to the laimen) and listen to him fumble his way through an rudiment exercise like it was his first day as a toddler trying to walk on two feet.

The truth is, you just can't expect to be trained in marching band and then go over to a drum set and be able to run autopilot with magical finess.

So instead of going on a rant, I'll let you click this link and hear some good thoughts from Tommy Igoe addressing the matter. Don't worry, he's got a sense of humor.

And if you're interested in checking out the Vic Firth Video Podcast, they've got a drumset, marching percussion, and concert percussion podcast for each.

My 24 inch Kick Drum Got A New Head

I've been waiting for this head ever since I originally ordered the kick drum. It's 24" wide and 19" in depth, thanks to OCDP shaving off an inch of a 20" long shell.

Most stores don't always have a ton of 24" drum heads in stock, especially coated heads. So I ordered a Remo Powerstroke 3. Which sounds awesome. It added some great warmth to the sound of the drum and still kept enough punch so a sound man can expose the attack he's looking for.



I've played plenty of clear heads live in the past, but when it comes to a well-rounded attack, especially in the studio, coated has been the way to go..

Stay the course of drumming

This is my drum awareness site.

To keep the rhythm world explicit.

Welcome.

-Aaron