Drum Related

People always ask me how to “juggle sticks”, “twirl sticks” or “spin sticks” when you’re playing. They see me do it and wonder how it’s done. At this point I should tell you I’m RUBBISH at stick spinning!! And I always tell people that. I’ve never learned properly how to do it, so I don’t even try to tell people how it’s done. But I found this guy, Chip Ritter (American of course!), he seems to know how it’s done. And he brings new meaning to the word “stick tricks”! If you wanna learn how to do some cool tricks then check this out. And in my opinion, it IS pretty cool to hit guitar players with drum sticks!

Ok, let’s take three types of notes, ¼’s, 8ths and 16ths.

Right stick = Floor tom
Left stick = Snare (I’d flick the snares off as they can get quite annoying!)
Right foot = Bass drum

What you’re gonna do is the following:

A) Right = 16th’s   Left = 8th’s   Foot = ¼’s

B) Right = ¼’s   Left = 16th’s     Foot = 8th’s  

C) Right = 8th’s  Left = ¼’s   Foot = 16th’s

D) Right = ¼’s   Left = 8th’s   Foot = 16th’s

E) Right = 16th’s   Left = ¼’s   Foot = 8th’s

F) Right = 8th’s  Left = 16th’s   Foot = ¼’s

Each time I’d recommend starting with the 16ths as you may well start too fast otherwise. Once you have the 16ths with a good strong count bring in the 8ths, then the ¼’s.
Once you have the hang of a certain one get it as fast as you can….. ACURATELY!!

Then if you find it easy try keeping one thing a constant (e.g. Figure A… Foot = ¼’s) and play a bar of
Right = 16ths, Left = 8ths then swap over so that the Right = 8ths and the Left = 16ths. But swap in an instant without affecting the foot. Then continue along these lines. It’s actually quite tricky!

Then if you find THAT easy try swapping all 3 on a rotation basis…. smart arse!

This week I’ve been focusing on coordination with the guys who I teach, and they hate me for it! All except Ric who, like me, is a bit odd and likes that kinda thing! Personally I LOVE the challenge of some tough coordination exercises, but for most people there’s nothing more annoying (except maybe for old people suddenly stopping in front of you in the high street!)

Coordination, as you may well know, is all done in the mind. It has NOTHING to do with your limbs! The amount of times I’ve heard people shouting at their extremities for not doing their job properly is unreal! To be able to coordinate you simply have to be able to think CLEARLY about what it is you wish to do. You should think first and play later. In fact, when I was at college I never really touched the kit much except in lessons. But I’d practice in my mind on the way to and from the college. While sitting on the tube or bus I’d go through the actions in my head, visualising the movements I wanted to make. I didn’t even have to touch a kit to be able to play them. Then, if I did get on a kit, I was able to play them right away as I’d sorted them out in my head.

The key to coordination is finding the constant/s. If every limb was playing something that was ever changing all the time it’d be impossible for any human to play as the mind simply can’t process that quickly. However, if you find the constant/s things get easier. What you should do is GET the constant and once you’ve got the hang of it and no longer have to focus all of your attention on it you should FORGET about it (but keep playing it obviously!). So Get it and FORGET about it. Your mind is then free to focus on the variable/s. Depending on how hard tricky the constants and variables the mind can usually focus on between one and two at a time.

You may remember a while back I wrote my top 3 fundamentals, Coordination, Control and Knowledge. Well if you work on some coordination exercises your playing will automatically improve as you’re training your mind to process faster and more accurately. Doing this also helps with general intellectual skills such as concentration and multi tasking.

Tomorrow I’ll give you some simple exercises to try. Just make sure you THINK first, play later.  

Below is a breakdown of Beat It by Fall Out Boy, it shows the section name and number of bars 

Section                    No. of Bars

Guitar pick up

Intro                        8 (Stop on “1” of next section)

Guitar inst.             4 (DON’T PLAY! Pick up on the “4” of the 4th bar)

1st Verse                8

2nd Verse              8

Chorus                  12

3rd Verse              8

4th Verse              8

Chorus                  12

Bridge                   8

Middle 8               8 (Stabs on 7th and 8th bar are: “   +  2     3      + /  1    2          “

Guitar Solo 4 then 8 ……….First 4 bars are half time. Next 8 are normal time. (This effectively takes up the time of 16bars) Stop on the “+ of 4” of the 8th  (16th) bar.  

Chorus                 8 (Don’t Play 1st two bars)

Chorus                 8

Chorus                 8 

Chorus                 8 to fade….

Rather like Alien Ant Farm did with Smooth Criminal, Fall Out Boy (Feat. John Mayer) have taken a legendary track and made it their own. I’m really liking this cover at the moment. Completely recognisable but completely original at the same time! The thing to watch out for when playing along to this track is the half time bit for the solo in the middle. This is made all the more tricky by the break before going in to it! And this, my pedigree chums is where counting comes into its own!! If you haven’t heard this track yet it’s a must listen! Go and get it and give it a try. Fair enough it’s more for the seasoned players, but even so, give it a try if you feel confident and like a challenge!

Name: Roger Meddows-Taylor

D.O.B: July 26th 1949

Place of birth: Norfolk, UK

Started playing: 12yrs old

General info:

Roger Taylor is best known as the drummer from the rock band “Queen”. But did you know he’s also played alongside stars such as Eric Clapton, Roger Waters, Roger Daltrey, Phil Collins, Genesis, Jimmy Nail, Elton John, Gary Numan, Shakin’ Stevens, Foo Fighters, Al Stewart, Steve Vai, Yoshiki Hayashi and Bon Jovi??
Did you also know he plays guitar, bass and the keyboard as well as sing AND compose??
I didn’t know this, but it turns out he composed at least one track on each of Queen’s albums. Tracks such as “Radio Ga Ga” and “It’s a Kind of Magic” were his creation.

Originally, although very musical, he wanted to be a dentist! (What a good job he didn’t follow that career path, otherwise we may have all been denied their legendary music!)

After a lot of chance meetings and band re-shuffling and what not (as per usual in this business) in 1971 “Queen” were born. (On a non drummer note, did you know Freddie Mercury’s real name was “Farrokh Bulsara”??!!)

When listening to Roger play you can’t help but notice one of his most renowned of trademarks, the slight (and apparently involuntary) opening of the hi hat on the “2” and the “4” of the bar. I had to cover one of their tracks, “Hammer to Fall”, the other day and I made sure I added that in intentionally to give the “authentic” feel! He’s also known for having a very BIG sound and using a big set up to produce it. Along with his normal kit he likes to include quite a lot of percussion instruments and is known for playing timpani solos during live shows. He was also one of the first drummers to use electronic trigger pads alongside his acoustic set up, something which is now done the world over.

He used to play the guitar a little in Queen, and also used to do a lot of backing vocals, but this just wasn’t enough for his creative genius, he wanted more! As one of Queen’s three vocalists, Taylor’s voice is notable for its “raspiness”, which has been compared to Rod Stewart’s. He is famous within the Queen fandom for his ability to reach very high notes (e.g. the high B-flat at the end of “Bohemian Rhapsody”’s operatic section, and the high falsetto notes (highest at A) in ‘39). His solo career demonstrates he was very good at the low range as well; for instance, in his cover of “I Wanna Testify,” he sang all four choir parts (soprano, alto, tenor and bass). In some Queen tracks he recorded his voice in octaves, and in “I’m in Love with My Car” he arranged and sang all the cascading harmonies. Another fine example of his vocal talents is in the music hall-esque ‘Seaside Rendezvous’ where he and Freddie Mercury imitate tubas, clarinets and kazoos through mere voice manipulation. One of Taylor’s other talents was his ability to play fairly complicated drum parts while singing, as can be seen in numerous Queen performances.
He actually had his own band, “The Cross”, at the same time as he was in Queen as he liked to play a lot of his own instruments and sing. He’s had many solo albums, but none reaching the heights of fame that came with playing with Queen.
The kit Taylor used on the latest Queen + Paul Rodgers tour is mainly a Ludwig kit (classic maple shells), with a Sleishman bass drum. He uses Vic Firth Extreme 5B wooden tipped sticks (like tree trunks!). His hardware comprises of all new Ludwig, with a DW 9002 double bass drum pedal.
Kit
• 24″ x 18″ bass drum by sleishman
• 10″ x 9″ hanging tom Ludwig
• 14″ x 13″ hanging tom Ludwig
• 15″ x 15″ hanging tom Ludwig
• 16″ x 16″ floor tom Ludwig
• 18″ x 16″ floor tom Ludwig
• 14″ x 6.5″ or 14″x8″ (depending on the venue) maple snare drum
• 12″, 14″ & 16″ Remo Rototoms
• LP Double Row Studio Wind chimes
• Ludwig Cowbell size 6,7/8
• Ludwig Tambourine
Drum Heads
• Remo Powerstroke 3 head on the bass drum
• Remo Coated Emperor head on the hanging toms
• Remo Ambassador head on the floor toms
• Remo Powerstroke 3 head on the snare drum
 Cymbals
The cymbals are all by Zildjian.
• 15″ A zildjian New Beat Hi-Hats
• 17″ K zildjian Dark Crash Medium Thin in Brilliant Finish
• 19″ K zildjian Dark Crash Medium Thin
• 20″ K zildjian Crash/Ride
• 22″ A custom Ping ride Ride
• 20″ oriental Oriental China Trash in Brilliant Finish

Roger Taylor may not be the most technical drummer of all time, but he certainly has a great following, and being in one of the greatest bands of all time (Bohemian Rhapsody being voted by the British public as the greatest song of all time!) he deserves a solid 9/10.

Last night I did a gig for some of the guys from my old rock covers band, which was a cracking good laugh. All in all we performed really well…. except the intro to “Jonny B Goode” went horribly wrong! The guitarist made a little mistake on his part before anything else kicked in. Because of this he tried to make up for it and went a little bit quite too. Now, because we didn’t have any monitors I couldn’t hear what he’d done/what he was now doing, and therefore couldn’t come in at the right place. Thus the intro was nasty (the rest of the track went well though!).
When you have something rather intricate you tend to play a little quieter than usual, and if you can’t hear much in the first place, things can get a bit shaky! The importance of having a good monitoring system for the guys on stage cannot be stressed enough.
The most important person in a monitoring situation is the drummer (of course!). They’re pretty much always at the back behind everyone else, their amps and the P.A speakers. At least the people in front can hear the drummer and their own amps. Drums on stage are, most of the time, acoustic, so we have the addition of our own sound hitting us before other peoples. If a drummer has a monitor it can make the whole thing run a lot more smoothly, trust me!
So if there’s only one monitor available and the singer maintains that they’re the important ones, tell them where to go! At least they stand in front of the rest of the band so the sound can go past them before it heads out to the audience. We’re at the back, we get nothing! And if all the other guys are facing the other way we can’t even lip or finger read!
So, monitoring systems when at a gig, VERY IMPORTANT!

Just to give you a little update as to my progress, or lack there of, on my WFD practice/plans. Basically, due to not really practicing, and not being very well over this past year, I’m not going to be entering any WFD competitions for the foreseeable future. I knew this already, but it turns out it actually has a MUCH bigger impact then you’d think, but cardio (cardiovascular – breathing) ability has a lot to do with the WFD performance. See, as I’ve mentioned before in one of my posts I’ve got bad lungs, and so playing for a minute flat out is actually a lot more difficult for me than most other people (unless you’re an 80yr old who has been smoking all their life in which case we’re probably on an even playing field!). You really need to deliver lots of oxygen to those tiny muscles in the arms to get them to work for the entire minute at full pace, and right now I’m hitting the 30sec mark and simply ceasing up. Breathing is such an important part of putting in a good performance and for these past 9 months or so my lung function has been getting increasingly worse. To this end I’m actually gonna be spending 10days in hospital getting drugged up to the eyeballs and getting lots of rest to try and get them performing a bit better again (until next time!). So this is my OFFICIAL excuse as to why I’m now pretty cr*p at speed drumming! Having said that, you haven’t heard the last of me…. I’ll be back. Just give me a while!

Craig is rapidly becoming known as one of the best session drummers and clinicians in the UK
Craig has stamped his mark as one of the most in demand session drummers and International drum clinicians in modern day drumming. His list of commercial credits is rapidly expanding and he is now one of Mapex, Roland and Paiste’s foremost clinicians. His clinic style, performances and level of entertainment have received rave reviews in the media all over the globe and have put him ‘out there’ with some of the best clinicians and educators in the world.

Craig will be in the Wembley Drum Centre all day on Sat 31st May demonstrating Roland V Drums and other related products

Checkout his new website here www.craigblundell.net

Checkout the Wembley Drum Centre site www.wembleydrumcentre.com

Here is the bass drum breakdown for MMMBop, I’ve written out the actual groove and a simpler suggested groove. Give it a try and let me know how you get on.

Click on the link below to open in PDF format.

MMMBop Groove