Drum Related

After hosting four consecutive annual festivals on the company’s own premises in Gutenstetten, Germany, the Meinl Drum Festival is now going international and will be held at the Palace of Youth in Moscow on 6 June.

“Our idea is to host the festival in an international metropolis one year, and then go back to Gutenstetten again the year after,” explains Meinl’s festival coordinator Norbert Saemann.

“This year we will debut the international Meinl Drum Festival in Moscow, Russia. Drummers all over the world have followed the previous festival on the internet and have watched the videos we produced. We have had an especially strong demand from Russian drummers to host a Meinl Drum Festival in 
Moscow.”

The festival line-up includes

-    Mike Terrana, USA (Tarjia)

-    Wolfgang Haffner, Germany (Nils Landgren, Till Broenner)

-    Snake, Russia (Agata Kristy, Naive)

-    Benny Greb, Germany (Jerobeam)

-    Thomas Lang, Austria

This week I had to break down this track for one of my students, and on hearing it I figured it’d be good for this weeks track of the week! It’s got 2 handed 16ths running pretty much the whole way through which makes it tough to play in itself, but couple that together with the speed at which it’s played and for a lot of people it becomes a matter of endurance!

Here’s there breakdown.

Section            Bars

Intro            12

1st Verse        16

Break            2 (just hats+ lil fill)

Chorus            16

Bridge            8

2nd Verse        16

Break            2 (just hats+ lil fill)

Chorus            16

Inst    16 (bass drums on “3  +       +” with bass guitar and snare’s on the “2” only)

Solo            16 (snares back to “2” and “4” and bass back to the “1”)

Mid Section        16 (8ths on h/h and snare on ¼’s)

Break            2 (just hats + lil fill)

Chorus            16

Chorus            16 (8ths on h/h and snare on ¼’s)

Outro            12 to fade….    (8ths on h/h and snare on ¼’s)

Notes: Groove is 2handed 16ths, “2” and “4” on snare and the “1” on the bass. There are sporadic fills which are pretty much just “4e+a” or “3e+a4e+a” (basically just move the hands off the h/h and onto the kit somewhere and keep them going and you’ll be fine!). The bass drum does change but it’s not overly tricky. There is also a lift on the h/h in most bars, it does change in some parts of the track so listen and see if you can pick it out.

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People very very rarely count when playing, however, I’d advise it! As the sub-divisions get higher so the count gets harder. For sextuplets there are a few counts we could use:

1 T L 2 T L 3 T L 4 T L – this is best for if you’re playing fast as you simply apply to count to the leading hand and double up with the other.

1 + T + L + 2 + T + L + 3 + T + L + 4 + T + L + - this is best to use when you are playing an 8th note triplet hi hat and want to play a sextuplet bass drum (as an example).

1 t l + t l 2 t l + t l 3 t l + t l 4 t l + t l – this is good for if you’re mixing sub-divisions as it has the 8th note count running through it.

1 2 3+ 5 6 2 2 3 + 5 6 3 2 3 + 5 6 4 2 3 + 5 6 – despite being a bit of an odd one (and the most tricky to count!) this is good for if you have an 8th note hi hat and are trying to play a sextuplet bass drum.

I’d say, if you wanna be a GOOD drummer you should learn them all and learn WHERE they work to help you. Guessing only works SOME of the time!

So now you’ve seen me play it here’s me explaining how you can play it for yourself. Again, apologies for the poor sound quality!

As you guys should know by now I like to give you little exercises to try out! Well this time I’ve decided to film it and show you. So here is a clip of me PLAYING the exercise and next time I’ll give you the clip of me explaining how you can do it yourself.
I do apologise in advance for the poor sound quality!

This weeks “Track of the week” is Walk Away by Christina Aguilera, it’s a super slow, real gentle yet powerful track. It’s in triplets (or 12/8 depending on how you want to look at it!). It’s a pretty tough track to nail because of the stops and the bars of 2/4 (6/8).
Really try to exaggerate the peaks and troughs (highs and lows) in this track to add extra effect and feel free to experiment a little with fills and what not. Chorus’ and the Mid Section are peaks and all else are troughs. When “stabbing” or “breaking” do try to make it sound sharp for the best sound.

Section     no. of Bars

Intro 4

1st Verse 8 (stop on “3” of 8th bar and build from the “4”)

Chorus 4.5 (four bars of 4/4 and a bar of 2/4) (stop on the “3” of the 4th bar and count)

Bridge 4 (Stop on the “3” of the 4th bar)

2nd Verse 8 (build from the “3” of the 8th bar)

Chorus 8.5 (eight bars of 4/4 and a bar of 2/4) (stop on the “3” of the 4th bar and count)

Bridge 2

Mid Section 6 (“stabs” or “breaks” on the “3” and “4” of the 2nd, 4th and 6th bars)

3rd Verse 4 (build from the “3” of the 4th bar)

Chorus 12.5 (twelve bars of 4/4 and….. well, you get the idea!) (stop on the “3” of the 4th bar and count)

Outro 12 (stop on the “let of 4” on the 12th bar)

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Neil Peart ‘terrified’ before Buddy Rich Memorial concert
Rush drummer Neil Peart took part in the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert on October 18 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City along with the likes of Nick Rich (The Buddy Rich Band), John Blackwell, Terry Bozzio, Chad Smith, Jeff Berlin, Will Lee and Tommy Igoe.

After the event Peart summed his emotions on the night on his website: “In my time, I have climbed some serious mountains, from hiking to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and bicycling over the Simplon Pass in the Alps, to facing down the uphill battles that life throws up in all our paths. However, one of the hardest climbs I ever had to make was just four steps — up to the stage of the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, on the night of October 18, 2008.

“In forty-three years of playing drums, I have walked onto thousands of stages, of course, and I am always tense and anxious — tense with determination to play well, and anxious about not playing well. But this stage, this performance, was, as my teacher Freddie Gruber would say, ‘a whole other thing.’ Earlier that day, friends asked me how I was doing, and I shrugged and said, ‘Terrified!’ They laughed, but that was a pretty accurate confession.

“I felt I had a lot to live up to on that stage — the weight of expectations, my own and the audience’s, and of course, the peerless drumming deity under whose name we were performing: Buddy Rich. I wanted to do my best — better than my best! — and I would only have one chance: right now. The house was full of great musicians, in the band and in the crowd, and, oh yes — the show was not only being recorded and filmed, it was streaming live on the Drum Channel website, all over the world.”

You can read more over at neilpeart.com.

(Courtesy of rhythmmag.co.uk)

This weeks “Track of the week” is “Excuse me Mr. by No Doubt. It’s a real tough cookie to crack! Also, I saw that so far I haven’t broken down a track that begins with an “E” so saw the perfect opportunity! This track is super quick (I’m talking 250+) and is therefore not for the beginners or even most intermediates out there. It’s simple in terms of WHAT I played, but as it is so fast it’s real hard to keep it smooth, constant and most importantly, in time! Keep it ¼’s on the hi hat, “2” and “4” on the snare and pretty much just “1” and “3” on the bass to start with. Leave out fills and any fancy stuff until you’re real confident with it. Good luck!

Section   No. of Bars

Intro   8 (no drum bars 1-4. bars 5-8 build up with ¼’s on snare.)

1st Verse  16

Bridge   20

Chorus   16

Inst    4 (build up with ¼’s on snare)

2nd Verse  16

Bridge   20

Chorus   16

Mid section  32 (8ths on snare with a slight accent on the “2” and “4”)

Breakdown  16 (bars 1-12 either leave or ad-lib toms and crashes. Then bars 13-16 build with 8ths on snare)

Chorus 16

Chorus 16

Chorus 16 (8th note snare fill on 15th and 16th bar with a crash to stop on “1” of 17th) then flourish finish is you wish!