Disclosure: TheParadiddler.com received this product free of charge for review purposes. However, TheParadiddler.com is not compensated in any way for sales of said product. We recommend that you do your own independent research before purchasing anything. Of course, since my business rests completely on my reputation, I can't afford to recommend anything that isn't fantastic quality. - Omar Alvarado, The Paradiddler

Of all the shells on a drummer’s kit, none evoke more passion than the snare drum.  The sound is as unique as the drummer playing it, and you can perform an entire solo on it and still wow an audience (a la Buddy Rich).  Can't really say that about any other drum in the kit!

Being that the case, there are not only drum companies that make entire kits, but also those that specialize just in snare drums.  TheParadiddler.com has focused a little bit on drummers’ fascination with the snare.  The article “Leave That Snare Alone!” expounded on the uniqueness of the drum and why some companies dedicate all their energy to the snare.

Because of the aforementioned uniqueness, drummers are presented with a plethora of choices for snare sound.  Of course, there’s the stock snare that comes with a typical kit, but sometimes it’s just not enough.  It may be that the stock snare is not ‘sensitive’ enough, or lacks ‘attack’, or is too sensitive to drum buzz from another drum in the kit, or is difficult to tune, etc.  Over time a drummer tends to gravitate to a specific sound they like, perhaps first being influenced by their drum heroes, and then later by experimenting themselves.

Although it’s recommended that the rest of the kit be of the same material and brand to maintain a consistent ‘timbre’ throughout, the same does not necessarily apply to the snare, since its sound and purpose is so pronounced and distinct.  It is very common for a drummer to have one or two kits, but have several different snare drums, of varying sizes and material.

In my case, I currently am using two snares:  a DW Pacific FS 14x5 birch (most of the time), and a 13x5 metal snare (also by DW Pacific).  These for sure are not the top of the line, since I find them a little difficult to tune, and they are very sensitive to snare buzz (especially from the 10” tom).  I even replaced the snares on the birch snare with Puresound snare wire.  I do find the drum sounding slightly better and a little bit more responsive, but it still remains a little difficult to tune, and the drum buzz also remains.

As many drummers are wont to do, I find myself perusing the snares at the local music store, and online.  I'm always looking for something different - not radically, but enough to draw attention to it (such as the Off-Set double bass pedal).  I saw an ad for the SuperDrum12, and I was immediately drawn to it.  Twelve lugs (on each side, actually) - really?  Is all that necessary?  Well, Bernard Purdie is a SuperDrum12 fan, so that automatically makes this company worth at least some consideration.  So I contacted the head man at SuperDrum12, Dave "Bedrock" Bedrosian, to see if he could send me a drum to review. What I got is a masterpiece of a drum - the SuperDrum12 14x8 chrome snare.

The company makes several models, made of chrome, maple, and brass.  The 14x8 chrome snare is one of the newer models.  Unboxing this snare revealed a shiny (and heavy!) drum that screamed "Hit me!  Hit me!"  I was only too happy to oblige.  I was eager to try a different sound to mesh with the rest of my birch kit, besides my obvious birch snare.  Every one of my drum covers up to this point were played with my birch snare (except my cover of Yes' "Future Times/Rejoice" (long ago), where I also use the 13x5 metal snare).  This monster was a complete departure from what I had.

All I wanted to do was just put the drum in place, and start playing.  I'm really not into all the technical details - does it sound good?  Does it feel responsive?  Good enough for me!  However, for those who like technical details, here are some:

•       gleaming chrome finish
•      45 degree bearing edge
•      12 heavy duty lugs top and bottom with rubber shock gaskets (24 total)
•      2.3 mm triple chromed hoop
•      steel tension rods and teflon washers
•      smooth, fast and quiet snare throw off
•      20 wire snares standard
•      all lugs doubly secured and washer reinforced
•      unsurpassed clarity, articulation and response
•      capable of extreme dynamic levels-very loud to very soft with superior aural image

Right out of the box, without any tuning, the drum was extremely responsive, and very easy to play.  It just seemed like the sticks bounced easily off the head, probably due to the more even tuning of 12 lugs.  I also noticed that it plays very loud, and very soft - lots of dynamic range.  And of course, the sound was incredible.

And there's the rub, really - it sounds incredible.  Remember that snares are as individual as the drummers who play them?  To me, this drum has character.  It projects well beyond the kit due to its size and solid construction.  Because of said construction, the sound is very detailed and articulate - it does what you want it to do.  And ultimately, for any part of the kit, be it the shells, heads, cymbals, gear, whatever - in the end, it's about how it all feels.  And this snare feels great.

I got to discussing this snare a bit with a fellow drummer and they quipped that it would take forever to tune 12 lugs (actually, 24 lugs).  At first I thought that they may have a case, so I actually went ahead and removed both heads from the shell - hoops, tension rods and all - to start from scratch.  I then proceeded to put everything back together until I got all the tension rods finger tight.  I predetermined which rods I would cross-tighten, so-to-speak, using the following pattern:

I always try to determine a base, or starting point tuning, and then adjust from there.  I really like what Bob Gatzen mentions in the video Bob Gatzen - Snare Drum Tuning, where he tunes the resonant side head to a pitch of 'A' and the batter side to a pitch of 'C' (or 'C sharp').  This leaves the drum at somewhat of a 'default' setting, if you will, and you can always adjust from there to your liking.  Now, you would think that a drum with this many lugs would take a long time to tune and to get to the desired pitch, but in fact the opposite was true.  As I followed my predetermined pattern for tuning, I noticed that tapping near each lug after each go-around produced a very uniform pitch, with very little deviation if any.  This allowed me to quickly get to the pitch I was looking for, and when I got there, there was very little adjustment left to do.  It actually took me less time to tune the drum to the desired pitch than my other two snares, which have less lugs.

I credit the ease in tuning to the high level of construction of the drum.  Everything is very tight and well-reinforced, so once you get to your preferred pitch, it stays there.  I also really like the snare throw-off.  It's very smooth and opens all the way down (180 degrees) - those snares are not touching that resonant head.  I also was very pleased to discover that there was virtually no drum buzz when I played on the 10" tom - that was music to my ears!

Of course, now I had to record the drum in action, so the last two drum covers that I performed (as of this review) featured the SuperDrum12 14x8 chrome snare.  I took a couple of slightly different approaches regarding tuning for each cover.  For "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight/The Musical Box", I pretty much left the tuning as mentioned above, while adding one Moongel to reduce some of the overtones of the drum.  I'm not always a fan of overtones, and many times I'll use two or three Moongels.  But this drum sounded so good that I didn't want to drown out its character, so one was enough.  This allowed the drum to shine through the many dynamic changes that went on in the medley, and it sounded as good as any snare I've ever played on.

For "Parasite", I lowered the tuning of the batter head a little (about a quarter turn at each lug) to slightly fatten the sound, since it would suit the pure Rock feel of the song.  Even tuned down just a bit, the response from the head was still very high, so even though the sound was a little 'fatter', the rebound action off the head still felt 'fast'.  And if you compare the aforementioned videos to my cover of "The Analog Kid", you may notice that the snare is a little 'muddier' than the SuperDrum12, somewhat less articulate.

In conclusion, I think this snare drum is an absolute winner.  It tunes very easily, and the feel is outstanding.  It has incredible dynamic range, and I think would sit very comfortably in many drumming genres.  And at just $299, this might be the steal of the snare world.  I love snares so much that I may give ten out of ten paradiddles to more of them than I should, but there's definitely no doubt about this one - it's on that list.

SuperDrum12 official web site

SuperDrum12 on Facebook

I must’ve been seven or eight.

I was in the bathroom, brushing my teeth.  As I was brushing, I started to sing “Parasite”, by Kiss.  By that time Kiss Alive I had been out a couple of years, and I, as well as my other three brothers (how convenient), were well into Kiss.  I couldn’t help myself, so I spent over three minutes brushing and singing.

When I got out of the bathroom, the whole family was there waiting for me, and they burst out laughing.  They all knew what I was doing, and could only imagine what I looked like, blathering lyrics and toothpaste all over the place.  I was embarrassed to say the least, but I had fun anyway.

Years went by, and soon I discovered another band that would change forever my perception of what good music is, that band being Rush, and that drummer being Neil Peart.  So I forgot Kiss for a long while.

Fast forward many years later (to, like, now), and I’m perusing YouTube and I come across some videos of Kiss.  The memories came flooding back to me from my childhood.  I loved Kiss.  They definitely were a sight to behold, but looking back, their live performances were absolutely stunning.  For the type of music they played (i.e., straight ahead in-your-face rock), they were awesome.  Ace Frehley was such a phenomenal lead guitarist, and to this day remains one of my all-time favorites.  Musically, the roles were clearly defined:  Peter, drums; Gene, bass; Paul, rhythm guitar; Ace, lead guitar – that was it.  And they made it look easy, too.

So now I’m going through all these videos, and I come across a couple of live performances of “Parasite”.  Besides the embarrassing episode mentioned earlier, I marveled at how awesome this song really is.  Great riffs, pure straight-ahead rock, and just 3 ½ minutes long – a neat little package of Rock greatness.  There were some great songs from that era of Kiss, but this was the one I wanted to cover.

I decided that I wanted to cover the live version off of Kiss Alive I instead of the studio version (Hotter Than Hell).  The studio version was very raw and too slow for my taste.  It seemed like Kiss got the song the way they wanted by the time the ‘Dressed to Kill’ tour came along, and has pretty much remained unchanged since.

The aforementioned YouTube perusing had me come across a fantastic live version of the song, titled ‘Kiss – Parasite – Cobo Hall 1976’.  I really liked the speed of the song, which I think made it sound to me as one of the best live versions I’ve heard.  But I also wanted to play to an officially released version, a la from Kiss Alive I.  However, this version is a little slower than the Cobo Hall performance.  So I cheated. 

I imported the Kiss Alive I version into the Audacity audio editing program.  I then increased the tempo of the song without raising the pitch.  This allowed me to play at the speed I thought the song sounded the coolest (as played at Cobo Hall), while still playing to the released version.

As far as the video production of this cover goes, I’m going to reserve the details for the upcoming ‘using just your camcorder and Windows Movie Maker’ course.  Several techniques are implemented such as effects, animations, multiple camera angles, etc., that will be explained in great detail then.  You can make very good drum cover videos with very little – I think this cover is an example of that.

So enjoy my tribute to Peter Criss, leave your comments, and I hope you’re inspired to produce great drum covers of your own!

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2012/03/16/drum-cover-kiss-parasite/feed/ 2 http://theparadiddler.com/2012/02/10/drum-cover-genesis-dancing-with-the-moonlit-knight-the-musical-box-medley/ http://theparadiddler.com/2012/02/10/drum-cover-genesis-dancing-with-the-moonlit-knight-the-musical-box-medley/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:26:36 +0000 Omar http://theparadiddler.com/?p=2448

My infatuation with classic Genesis is a recent event.

For many years, I had heard of the so-called ‘classic Genesis’, but I never bothered to find out more.  The Genesis I knew was from Abacab on, and only a few songs from before that (“Follow You Follow Me”, “Misunderstanding”, “Turn It On Again”).  I thought that Phil Collins was a good drummer (he was at least the best singing drummer), but I was way into Neil Peart to notice.

Rush and Yes filled my progressive rock needs quite nicely, until Pandora opened my eyes (ears, actually) to what I was missing.  Once I heard “The Fountain of Salmacis” for the first time, I thought, “What’s this?”  The music was so creative, imaginative, and complex, that I was immediately drawn in.  I started checking all of the band’s music from 1971-1977 (an era I call the “Steve Hackett Era”), and I now had another band who I thought was on the same plane as Rush and Yes (at least by my reckoning).

My biggest revelation was the drumming of Phil Collins.  He was great –  definitely one of the best progressive rock drummers of all time, in my opinion.  His playing was so intricate, and always just right for the song.  He wasn’t just playing drums, but it seemed like the drum parts were as complex as the guitars and keyboards – they filled a lot of space.  And not only that, but if you watched him play, he played so effortlessly.  It seemed so easy for him to play with such complexity.  No wonder Neil Peart reveals in the "Rush - 2112/Moving Pictures Classic Albums" DVD, that hearing drummers like Phil Collins made him think that that was the level of playing he had to achieve.  I agree!

Eventually I decided that I wanted to cover Phil Collins from the “Steve Hackett Era” of Genesis.  There was so much to choose from, and all very difficult.  One day, however, I was perusing some Genesis-related videos on YouTube, and found an audio clip from a 1978 show, a medley of “Dancing With the Moonlit Knight” and “The Musical Box”.  Both of these are monstrous songs, and this live version was just some of the best music I’ve ever heard, period.  It was so majestic and epic, with a hard edge, very fast, and showcased Genesis at possibly their musical peak.  There was no turning back now – this is what I was going to cover (gads).

I knew that I was going to play to the studio version of “Dancing…” off of Selling England by the Pound, and I also knew that I would include the middle instrumental part of “The Musical Box”, till its end.  What I didn’t know was which version of “The Musical Box” I would use.  In the end, though, after much listening, I ended up choosing the following parts:

1. “Dancing With the Moonlit Knight”, from Selling England by the Pound
2. “The Musical Box” middle instrumental part from Nursery Cryme
3. “The Musical Box” finale from Seconds Out

I used the Audacity audio editing program to put the three sections together to make the transitions seamless.  “Dancing…” has a quicker tempo than does “The Musical Box”, so I used Audacity to speed up the instrumental section to approximately the same speed as “Dancing…”, without raising the pitch.  Since the finale of “The Musical Box” is a slower piece anyway and a complete change in ‘atmosphere’ and mood, I didn’t have to tinker with that at all.

The drumming to these songs is very difficult (for me, anyway), so much so that I actually gave up on it for a time.  I recorded myself playing to it, but there were so many mistakes that I thought that maybe this was beyond me.  I spent the next couple of months letting the drumming fester in my mind.  When I approached it again from a fresh perspective, it seemed to make more sense, so I tried it again.

I opted to use one camera angle instead of multiple angles, and I also recorded the drumming with the Zoom H2 Handy Recorder.  I had few ideas in my mind as to how the end result was going to look, so this project was a little too much for Windows Movie Maker.

CyberLink PowerDirector allowed me to set up multiple tracks, and easily slide the different takes into the proper position so both audio and video transitioned smoothly.  Adding additional audio tracks allowed me to perfectly align the audio from the Zoom H2 with the video of the drumming.  I then muted the audio from the video recordings so only the H2 drumming was heard.  That’s the technical stuff (summed up).

After the drumming and recording was done as best as possible (that is the most important part), I started thinking in artistic terms.  How could I make this just a little different from the typical drum cover?  It’s so obvious – I would sing!  I decided to sing the first two lines (of which I removed from the song to accommodate, well, me).  Crazy?  Of course!  ‘No guts, no glory’, as they say.

“The Musical Box” has been sung by both Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins.  When Peter sang it, we remember the desperate old man he portrayed lusting over his love.  But when Phil sang it, it felt more like a longing for a lost love.  The latter is what I tried to capture with my interpretation of someone longing for a lost love.  Of course, the finale is one of the best endings in all of rock.

As difficult as it is to try to play anywhere near the greatness that is Phil Collins, it is equally as rewarding when you see the final result, and it’s actually not bad!  So in your case, for your drum cover, feel free to embellish your video anyway you like, because, in the end, it’s about you, your interpretation, your take.  Take some risks.  But always have fun.  And remember:  it’s about the drumming ultimately, so once you have that down, you’re free to take your drum cover wherever you like.

If you have any questions at all on any aspect of the video, leave it as a comment below, so all can benefit from the dialog.  Well, you can leave kudos too. 

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2012/02/10/drum-cover-genesis-dancing-with-the-moonlit-knight-the-musical-box-medley/feed/ 10 http://theparadiddler.com/2012/01/27/off-set-double-pedal-%e2%80%93-haiku-contest-winners/ http://theparadiddler.com/2012/01/27/off-set-double-pedal-%e2%80%93-haiku-contest-winners/#comments Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:00:41 +0000 Omar http://theparadiddler.com/?p=2433

A brass band masta
Jam on my pedal blasta
Would be so nasta

Congratulations to Charlie Campagna of Hockessin, Delaware!  He’s the winner of the Off-Set double bass pedal.

It was very difficult to establish criteria for the winner of this contest, since it is somewhat subjective.  I decided right from the beginning that the poem would have to immediately impact me in some way:  with humor, fancy rhyming, or just plain ridiculousness.  The moment I read the poem above, it made me laugh right away, and the rhyming was very clever.  Of course, some word trickery had to be performed for it to work, but creativity was the idea, and it worked out quite nicely.  So congratulations Charlie!

After the contest was over, subscribers to The Paradiddler newsletter were informed that many entries were received, and that it would be very difficult to select a winner (which, in fact, it was).  I ran this by Charles Fisher, owner of the Off-Set Bass Pedal Company, and he came up with a brilliant idea:  ‘Why not have two winners then?’  Fantastic!  But the subscribers of the newsletter should have known…

The January 24^th newsletter said the following:  “Don't forget to visit The Paradiddler this Friday, 8:00pm, for the winners of the Off-Set pedal.”  So now I had to decide on the second winner.

Another criteria for haiku greatness is if the poem moved me in some way, an inspiration.  The second winner did just that.  It was not a haiku poem, but a haiku poem of haiku poems, all strung together, to tell a story - a biography, of sorts.  It even has a title:  “To Keep Me From Sinking”:

Congratulations also to Chad De Soto of Guam – you are the second winner of the Off-Set pedal.

I want thank Charles Fisher once again for making such a great product to help us play drums better, and to make it available to subscribers of this site.

But mostly, I want to thank you, the subscribers and visitors of this site, which would not be possible without you.  So until the next contest, keep on drumming, and Charlie and Chad:  let us know how it goes with your new pedal!

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2012/01/27/off-set-double-pedal-%e2%80%93-haiku-contest-winners/feed/ 0 http://theparadiddler.com/2012/01/20/van-halen-is-back/ http://theparadiddler.com/2012/01/20/van-halen-is-back/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:05:06 +0000 Omar http://theparadiddler.com/?p=2409

I always thought Alex was a great drummer right from the start, but he took his drumming to another level for 1984. This to me was his best record, both for his playing and his drum sound. The drums sounded incredible (especially the bass drum) - leaps and bounds better than all previous records. He was for sure one of my favorite drummers during this time, and is one of my all-time favorite drummers (you can see my drum cover tribute to Alex Van Halen, “Girl Gone Bad”. Just cut me a little slack – it was a while ago ).

My favorite era was the David Lee Roth era. It was very difficult during high school not to hear “Everybody Wants Some!!” blasting in the back of the bus, every day. Since that was my favorite era, I decided to put together yet another ideal set list.

What you see above was my foray into the ‘Discussions’ feature on Facebook a little while back (actually, I did something similar with another band before the Van Halen discussion, but in this case, ‘the last became the first’).  I had a chance to see the band way back in 1984, but those plans fell through.  I did years later see them during the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge tour, with front man Sammy Hagar.  It was a great show.  Although Sammy Hagar has never been a favorite artist of mine, he did steal the show – he had it that night.  I really went to see Alex Van Halen, one of my favorite drummers, and he didn’t disappoint.  But that was a while ago, so I’m really sketchy on the details.

I happened to also see David Lee Roth live when he toured on his own, during the Skyscraper tour.  I actually didn’t know what I was watching:  Steve Vai on guitar, Billy Sheehan on bass, and Gregg Bissonette on drums (whoa, what a lineup).  The concert was very entertaining, and thinking back it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.  And oh yeah, Poison was the opening act!  Quite a wild night of music and showmanship.

But in my heart, I always longed to see the original lineup again.  Sammy Hagar just didn’t do it for me, nor did any of the band’s other iterations.  They did get back together again a couple of years ago, but again, I missed it.  But my brother didn’t, and surprisingly he wasn’t that thrilled with the show.

But here they are again, back in the spotlight with a new album, A Different Kind of Truth.  Time will tell if this new Van Halen is somewhat of a rehash of the old, or foray into the new, or some combination of both.  From watching their new video and single “Tattoo”, looks like Mr. Roth hasn't changed much as far as entertainment value goes (that’s probably a good thing, though).  In my estimation former bass player Michael Anthony only had a few shining moments (“Hang ‘em High” and “Girl Gone Bad” come to mind, maybe a few more), so Wolfgang Van Halen should continue to fill in adequately.  And uncle Alex and Dad Eddie?  It truly is awe-inspiring to watch them play – I’m up to it!

Back to the beginning.  Since I missed that show way back in 1984 (and from a couple of years ago), I decided to come up with a dream set list if these guys would ever get back together again.  I don’t think the guys would need any coaching from me in that regard (of course, if they contact me, I’ll answer!  ).  The criteria for the format of the set list is described below.

Will you agree with my list? Well, let’s find out! Here are the criteria that we must abide by:

• All songs must be during the David Lee Roth era (Van Halen I to 1984)
• All songs must fit on one CD

That’s it! So here’s what I would have liked to see, if I saw Van Halen on their 1984 tour, in the order I would have liked to see it:

1. Tora! Tora!
2. Loss of Control
3. D.O.A.
4. On Fire
5. Atomic Punk
6. Panama
7. Hear About It Later
8. Spanish Fly
9. Little Guitars (intro)
10. Little Guitars
11. Dance the Night Away
12. Drop Dead Legs
13. So This Is Love?
14. Unchained
15. Hot for Teacher
16. House of Pain
17. Eruption
18. You Really Got Me
19. Hang ‘em High
20. Girl Gone Bad
21. Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love
22. Everybody Wants Some!!
23. 1984
24. Jump

With the tour coming up, which songs would you replace?  From the new release, or from old?  Leave your comments, let me know if I’m right, or wrong, or crazy (“Spanish Fly”, really? – hey, it’s my list!  ).

Go ahead and ‘jump’!

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2012/01/20/van-halen-is-back/feed/ 0 http://theparadiddler.com/2012/01/07/leave-that-snare-alone/ http://theparadiddler.com/2012/01/07/leave-that-snare-alone/#comments Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:01:03 +0000 Omar http://theparadiddler.com/?p=2394

Editors note: This article was originally written a couple of years ago and contributed to a web site that is now defunct. I felt it a good time to re-post, with a few updates. Enjoy this primer on why the snare drum is so special to drummers.

When we think of the drum kit, we may conclude that all the drums are of the same brand and type.  A drummer wants to make sure their drums have the same ‘timbre’ throughout, so that even though the sizes differ, the drums tonally match regardless which size is struck.

A similar case can be made for speakers.  You could buy two different brands of speakers, similar in size, with identical specifications as far as watts per channel, impedance, sensitivity, etc.  But when you set them up as a left and right speaker in a stereo setting, they sound different.  Likewise if you mix and match brands of speakers in a surround sound environment, the sound difference can be quite pronounced between speakers.  This has a lot to do with the design of the drivers within the cabinets, the placement of the drivers within the cabinets, the construction quality of the drivers and cabinets, and so on.

The same can be said about drums.  If you have a 10” tom from brand A, say, Ludwig, and then another 10” tom from Tama, even if they have the same type of head and tuned similarly, they would tend to sound different.  Sometimes even if they’re made of the same material, such as maple or birch, they may sound different due to the different manufacturing process of each, thickness of the shell, etc.

So due to the above, for good reasons, drummers tend to stay with one brand of drums for the whole kit.  This doesn’t necessarily include specialty drums, however, such as mini timbales, Roto toms, or Tama’s famous Octobans.  These have special sound properties (usually higher pitched) that give more options and melodic possibilities for drummers who want that flexibility.  However, there’s one particular drum in the kit that, well, most drummers in the know would rather you ‘leave it alone’.^*

That drum would be the snare drum.  Most drummers after they’ve played for a while may gravitate towards a particular sounding snare, and actually may never part with it.  Others hold on to their first snare drum because they got used to that sound.  The rest of the kit could come and go, but the snare stays.

For the longest time, Neil Peart of Rush used one of his original snares, the brand being Slingerland, way up until the Counterparts tour (circa 1993).  He affectionately calls it his “Number One”.  He went through some kit changes through the years, both configuration and brand.   He went from Slingerland to Tama, then to Ludwig, and then for the last 15 years or so he’s been using Drum Workshop.  But his ‘Number One’ he had been using up until the last brand with all the others prior.

The thing about the snare is that it is as individual as the drummers themselves.  For those that can only afford one snare, they try to make it sound as much to their liking as possible, and stick with it.  If they ever buy or trade their drum kit, sometimes they’ll think twice about parting with their snare.

Many times, though, drummers will have multiple snares for different types of music, or even for different room acoustics, and these they may keep no matter what brand kit they have.  Because once you have the sound you want, you want to keep it with you.

This is why many drum companies not only will have kits with snare drum included, but will also have their own line of specialty snares to cater to the individuality of their customers.  You can go to the web sites of Tama, Drum Workshop, and Pearl, for example, to see their extensive line of specialty snares to cater to those who are looking for specific features and sounds in a snare, that they may not be getting from the brand of kit they’re currently using.

Such is the specialty of snares that there are drum companies that make only snares.  Two examples are Dunnett Classic Drums, and Longo Drums.  As you examine the product line of these drum companies, you’ll notice the various materials used to make the snares,  be it metals (titanium, brass, bronze, copper, and more) or woods (walnut, maple, cherry, oak, and more).  There is such an assortment of sound from the abundance and availability of the snare drum that you’re bound to find one (or several!) that you’ll absolutely love, and never want to part with.

As an example of one of these snares, Drum Center of Portsmouth, NH has a video on YouTube demonstrating the sound of one of the Dunnett Classic snares, the Stainless Steel 6.5x14”.  It would be a great exercise to listen to the different sounds of as many snares as possible, from as many companies as possible, to discover how versatile and varied this very important drum can sound.

I personally own two snare drums currently.  I have a DW Pacific FS Series 5x14” birch snare (which is part of my 5pc kit of the same make and model), natural to charcoal finish.  I also have a DW Pacific metal snare, 5x13”.  The FS Series snare is adequate and sounds pretty good, but I’ve heard better sounding snares that I would rather have; I’m not that attached to it.  My metal snare is my ‘Number One’, a gift from the Mrs.  It has a higher pitch than the FS snare, which I like because it sounds somewhat like a piccolo snare.  Please check out my cover of the Yes classic “Future Times/Rejoice”, where I use the 13” metal snare on my left for the higher pitched sections of the song, and the main FS snare the rest of the time.  See if you notice the difference!

So as you can see, us drummers are very attached to our snares, so much so that there are drum companies dedicated to just that drum.  As mentioned, taking a field trip to a music store, or a drum store if you’re lucky to have one close by, is a great idea so as to play around with all the different snares to get a feel for what sounds best to you.  Eventually, you also will become so attached to your snare that you also will be saying, “leave that snare alone!”⁺
__________
^*The title of this article, “Leave That Snare Alone!”, is actually a play on words from an instrumental by Canadian rock power trio Rush called “Leave That Thing Alone!”

⁺For yet more coverage on our favorite drum, please read "Great Snares of Rock"

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2012/01/07/leave-that-snare-alone/feed/ 3 http://theparadiddler.com/2011/10/27/hd-radio-fm-radios-savior/ http://theparadiddler.com/2011/10/27/hd-radio-fm-radios-savior/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:41:57 +0000 Omar http://theparadiddler.com/?p=2369

People listen to music for all sorts of reasons, which could be summed up under these three main motives:

• emotion
• inspiration
• education

You could go crazy under each one of the above and break down even further what turns people on musically.  Many times though, it’s a combination of the three.

From this drummer’s perspective (meaning me), I always have my ear out for music that makes me want to play it on the drums.  So here’s how it happens:

1. I hear the song
2. The drumming catches my ear, for any number of reasons
1. incredible groove
2. superb technicality
3. finesse
4. nuance
5. speed
6. power
3. The playing is so good that my hands are tapping, and when the song’s over I’m moved to express, “Wow, what a great song!” (the emotion)
4. After going gaga over the song, I feel moved to try and figure out how the drummer played those drum parts (the inspiration)
5. I study the song (the education):
1. listening to the song (radio, mp3, Pandora, etc.)
2. watching the drummer play it (YouTube, DVD, etc.)
3. watching other drummers play the song (drum covers)

As far as the educational aspect goes, you may notice something missing from the list:  sheet music.  There’s no question that sheet music is an important tool in learning to play a song, and I by no means am diminishing its importance.  Fortunately though, it’s not the only way to learn how to play.  In my case, I depend on my eyes and ears.

I’ve learned to play the drums by eye and ear.  Over the years, you learn how to listen to nuance, and then watch the drummer play the song, which will then tell you that you were right, or you had that drum part completely wrong (the latter happens mostly ).  Making those adjustments, and then playing the song somewhat close, brings me a lot of satisfaction and joy.  It’s sort of like reaching a goal:  if you plan your work, then work your plan, eventually you’ll reach the end point, in this case, a decent sounding version of the original song.

But, to be able to eventually play the song reasonably close to the original, you have to be a good listener (and a good observer).  I believe that some are better at those things than others, but I also believe that everyone can be a good listener – you may just have to work at it more.  Since it’s all about sound, it behooves us all to strive to be great listeners, each and every day.

If we want to be able to hear all the details, however, what we listen to needs to be of high quality.  If we’re hearing our music on AM radio, we can forget about hearing the details – it’s just not there.  Of course, these days, in our digital world, most of our sound sources are of pretty good quality, even if a lot of it is compressed – our ears can’t always tell the difference (lossy vs. lossless, and the like).

But here’s where I want to start driving the point home about audio quality:  what’s important to you?  What do you want to hear in a recording?  As for me, for example, I always want the best audio equipment (as much as I can afford!), so I can hear everything.  If I want to play a drum cover, I want to hear and know all the details.  If a drummer is playing double strokes on the bass drum, I want to hear it clearly and cleanly.  If he (or she!) is feathering the bass drum, I want to hear that too.  I don’t want to miss anything.  So when someone sees my drum cover, hopefully they’ll ‘notice the nuance’, because they know it’s there too.

For example, as I was preparing to record my drum cover of Rush’s “The Analog Kid”, I noticed that at the 9^th bar, when Neil Peart goes to the hi-hat for the first time in the song, he plays it with fast 8^th notes (before this he was playing quarter notes on the ride).  Then for the rest of the song, he plays quarter notes, both on the hi-hat and ride.  I listened very closely to pick that up, but it was because of the quality of the audio source (CD) and some good headphones that this was possible.  If the audio quality is not that good, then those hi-hats at the 9^th bar may sound like quarter notes, like the rest of the song.

On another occasion, my Progressive Rock station in Pandora played Genesis’ “Dancing With the Moonlit Knight”.  Before this the only Genesis I knew of was mainly from the Abacab record forward.  This was a major revelation to me as far as musicality and musicianship.  Genesis immediately became one of my top favorite bands, next to Rush and Yes.  “Dancing With the Moonlit Knight” is a great song, so much so that I decided that one day, when I’m daring, I’ll cover it (hasn’t happened yet, but it will [hopefully]!).  I decided to buy the song so I could hear it whenever I liked.

When I heard this high quality version of the song, I was blown away.  Phil Collins was a technical animal!  There’s so much ghost-noting going on, very fast single stroke rolls, incredible use of dynamics, confusing time signature changes, and on and on.  If I want to cover this song, I have a lot of work to do!  But again, because of the high quality of the audio that I downloaded, and listening on good speakers, I was able to pick up on all those nuances, which I did not hear with Pandora (which, by the way, I mostly listen to with my smartphone and earphones).

The bottom line is, to enjoy our music to the fullest, and especially if you’re going to cover any of these songs, it’s best to hear them as closely as possible to the audio quality of the original.  Then you can decide either to play note-for-note as best you can, or change it up.  But those will be decisions based on knowledge of the song, not ignorance of it.  And it’s best to hear these songs with the highest quality sources and players that we can get our hands on.

I was already convinced of this, but the point was further driven home to me when I recently upgraded the radio in my car to a JVC HD Radio.  The factory radio had a cassette player(!), and the right channel was blown out.  So there was no way I was going to hear anything of high quality in my car.  Plus the factory speakers don’t sound very good either.

Being that the radio had no CD player, I was relegated to hear whatever was on AM/FM.  In the article “Pandora Killed the Radio Star (again)”, I go into great detail as to my falling out of love with FM radio.  The gist of the article pointed out that FM radio music stations (particularly Rock stations) tend to play the same songs over and over again.  This bored me out of my mind, so I was done with it.  Enter Pandora, where songs are played based on my specific tastes, and it was over for FM (at least for me).

There’s another strike against FM, particularly for audio enthusiasts.  For high quality music, FM was never a great choice to begin with either.  Because a lot of FM music is heard in the car, with competing road noise and what not, a form of volume normalizing is used to ensure all the music is heard.  So for low passages, the ‘volume’ is raised, and for high passages, the volume is lowered.  Because of this, the dynamics of the original song cannot be appreciated.  FM’s frequency response is also significantly less than its digital counterparts (40-15,000Hz for FM vs. 5-20,000Hz for CD typically).  This is not a good source to play a drum cover to.

But hold on!  It seems that all is not lost for FM.  Even though the aforementioned FM stations suffer from the “top tracks” mentality (thank you Donna Halper for explaining that concept to me!), many listeners love hearing those songs (they do request them).  And even though FM is not necessarily a good source recording to play a drum cover to, a new technology is giving it new life:  HD Radio.  I won’t go into all of the details regarding how HD Radio works, but I’ll mention what matters most from the listening perspective, and how FM may have found its savior:

20-20,000Hz frequency response – FM stations transmitting in HD Radio now have CD-quality sound.  There’s somewhat of a romanticism about hearing a song you like played by someone else, and hearing it played on FM, and the song playing in CD quality – you just may fall in love all over again.

HD2/HD3 channels – Adjacent to the main station are one or two other digitally transmitted ‘channels’ which provide more content, be it a different genre of music or talk radio.  So with your HD Radio, you’re actually getting more stations, which means more variety – all in digital sound.  In my listening area one of the adjacent channels is a Classic Hip-Hop station.  Run D.M.C, Salt-N-Pepa, and LL Cool J are back!

iTunes^® Tagging – You iTunes freaks are going to like this.  If you like a song you’re hearing that you may want to purchase later via iTunes, you simply ‘tag’ the song.  In your iTunes personal account, a list of your ‘Tagged Songs’ will be listed.

AM sounds like FM – If there are stations in AM that you still listen to, they’ll sound like FM.

Oh, and did I mention HD Radio is free?  It’s not subscription-based, like Sirius satellite radio.  However, you do need an HD Radio.  Fortunately, they are pretty much the same price as any other radio you may buy, so if you’re going to upgrade, you may consider an HD Radio.

I feel that HD Radio has the potential to save FM.  I don’t know why it doesn’t get more press, but it should.  For several reasons that are beyond the scope of this article, HD Radio has not been fully adapted by radio stations, but it looks like the list is growing.  It is also most likely that not all of the FM (and AM) stations in your listening area have adopted the HD Radio technology yet, but I’m certain that enough have already for you to justify getting a radio that has the HD Radio feature.

HD Radio sounds great, and more stations will be available on your digital dial than with a normal radio.  The sense of community could be recaptured with the addition of the extra channels.  Whereas the main station can continue to keep their ‘top track’ mentality, they can use the other channels they have available to play those other great songs that they wouldn’t normally play (for example, they could play Jimi Hendrix’s “If 6 Was 9” instead of the staple “Foxy Lady”).  There’s no question in my mind that the listening audience would appreciate hearing such songs.

So coming back full circle, for those who play drums (or any other instrument for that matter), HD Radio (that is, glorified FM) can be used as yet another source for inspiration.  Or emotion.  Or education.  Because the music you like hearing on the radio sounds better, that may inspire you to play them.  Or you may hear nuances that you may have missed before.  Or you may hear songs that you haven’t heard in forever, and they sound great, and now you may want to play them.

I’m all for any source that inspires me to try new things, to play better, and to expand my listening tastes.  Just like Pandora did that for me, HD Radio is breathing new life into FM, and now I’m finding it interesting again.  So I’ll gladly use it as ‘source material’, to inspire me to play even more songs, and play them well (I’ll still hear talk radio though ).

So Ms. Halper, there’s hope for FM radio!  Hopefully the bigwigs in Radio-dom can see the potential in HD Radio technology, and maximize it.  In the meantime, I’ll enjoy my FM radio (again).

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2011/10/27/hd-radio-fm-radios-savior/feed/ 0 http://theparadiddler.com/2011/09/24/how-to-record-a-drum-cover-when-the-first-note-is-a-drum-beat/ http://theparadiddler.com/2011/09/24/how-to-record-a-drum-cover-when-the-first-note-is-a-drum-beat/#comments Sun, 25 Sep 2011 00:34:22 +0000 Omar http://theparadiddler.com/?p=2354

A little while back, I started writing a series of articles relating to recording drum covers with what probably most amateur drummers have:  their camcorder, and Windows Movie Maker.  The first article in the series was “Record Yourself Playing Drums” (which I encourage you to read, of course, if you haven’t already, in addition to the three follow-up articles).

Most of the aforementioned drummers can’t afford extra microphones, video editing software, studio space, etc.  But they need love and attention too!    So this series is aimed at them, but for anyone who wants to produce something in a pinch, beauty can be found in simplicity.

The video presented here is Lesson One in the “How to Record Drum Covers With Just Your Camcorder and Windows Movie Maker” series, called “The Lead-In Click Track”.  I for one always had a problem with ensuring I would start drumming in sync with the first note of a song, when said song’s first note was a drum beat.  This lesson is a preview, if you will, of the type of practical tips the whole course will contain.  Of course, there are many other aspects of drum cover recording that will be covered, but for now, there’s no excuse for starting out-of-sync. 

Many more details will be revealed regarding the rest of the course, so I encourage you to subscribe to the free newsletter, if you haven’t already, so you can be privy to what’s coming next and when (amongst other great drumming topics).  My goal is to inspire those who have always wanted to publish to YouTube a video of their playing that is somewhat respectable – something that they can be proud of.  Even if you play ‘bad’, at least it will look and sound good!

But really, if you’re having fun playing the drums, that’s all that matters.  Make your mistakes, document your progress, post your videos for all to see.  Accept constructive criticism in stride, and watch how your skills grow over time, while you play to your favorite songs.

Let the journey begin!

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2011/09/24/how-to-record-a-drum-cover-when-the-first-note-is-a-drum-beat/feed/ 0 http://theparadiddler.com/2011/07/28/pandora-killed-the-radio-star-again/ http://theparadiddler.com/2011/07/28/pandora-killed-the-radio-star-again/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 02:56:49 +0000 Omar http://theparadiddler.com/?p=2326

Just a few short years ago, I moved to the western suburbs (or boonies, actually) of Atlanta.  I then started to scan the FM stations looking for who was playing the music of my choice (mostly of the ‘classic rock’ genre).  Since my job required commuting, I wanted to be listening to music that would keep me somewhat sane during the long drives.

I found three stations that were close to what I was looking for.  One station played a lot of the classic ‘pop rock’ songs that were so commonly played mostly during the 70’s.  The other had a more hard rock modern edge.  Both stations were on the fringes of what I could stand listening to – when I was in the mood for it.

The third station was the one Goldilocks may have liked (‘just right!’).  It played more of the songs from the bands I enjoyed growing up, such as Yes, Rush, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, The Who, etc.  Since this listening experience was new to me in my new area of residence, I felt compelled to call the evening DJ and compliment them on their song selection.  He was very friendly, and we spent a few minutes talking about our similar tastes and why he liked working for that station.  He mentioned that this station was more flexible in their repertoire, not like some other stations whose song selection was more limited due to ‘management decisions’ and what not.  I concurred.

I’m not sure what it is about hearing a song you like on the radio that makes you want to listen, even though you have the CD (or mp3) and you can play it any time you like.  My theory is that when a radio station selects a song you like, you know that potentially thousands upon thousands of other listeners are sharing that song with you, sort of like saying to all those other listeners, “Yup, that’s right, they’re playing my song!”  It gives some sort of satisfaction knowing that someone else is playing your song, and everyone else has to listen to it!

Anyway, since this station catered to my musical sensibilities, I on occasion would call in a request, like many listeners do.  My favorite band is Rush, so I decided to request a song that I knew was released as a hit from their latest recording.  I believe Vapor Trails was Rush’s latest release at the time, so I requested what I knew was released as a single (per the news outlets, web sites in the know, etc.).  I requested “One Little Victory” or “Ceiling Unlimited” (I don’t remember which, but they were released to radio stations).  As I was then listening to the station for when my request would be played, I’d hear a song like “Tom Sawyer” (from Moving Pictures, 1981).  Yes, it’s a great song, but that’s not what I requested!

I didn’t think much of it at the time.  The next time I felt like calling in a request, I selected a song that I knew was a release from Rush’s latest CD again (by this time it was Snakes & Arrows [2007]), “Far Cry”.  When my Rush song came up, it was not what I requested, but “Subdivisions” from their Signals record (1982).  Ok, really, what’s going on here?

At this point I decided to try a little test.  I would hear the station as much as I could, and see what Rush songs would be played over time.  After doing this for a while, I discovered that the same songs were played over and over again, and nothing played after the aforementioned Signals record.  Not only that, but for all the bands I liked, it was the same songs over and over again.  After I confirmed this tendency, I decided to try something else.

I requested Rush songs that were not too new, but were singles released from their records.  For example, I requested “Force Ten” from Hold Your Fire (1987), “The Big Money” from Power Windows (1985), and “Distant Early Warning” from Grace Under Pressure (1984) – all songs I knew were released for radio at the time of the record’s release.  Frustratingly, every time I made such a request, the typical Rush song would be played – nothing later than 1982, and always those same songs.  At least I never heard them play anything else.

I had somewhat of an epiphany at this time.  I’m sure many knew that that’s how radio stations play their songs, but it didn’t hit me until this moment.  Radio stations don’t necessarily play what you want to hear, but they’ll play songs they know you like, so you’ll at least hear the commercials.  I don’t blame any business for trying to attract customers, but as for me, I became a non-fan of radio right then and there.  I wasn’t playing that game anymore.

But still, the allure of having someone else play music you like was still very appealing to me.  How nice of someone to play my type of music!  But as much as I love Rush, I can’t hear the same songs over and over again.  Why can’t a station play songs like “The Analog Kid”, “Double Agent”, or “Driven”?  (Admittedly, these songs may not have been ‘released’ for radio play, but even the ones that were, were not being played!  Also admittedly, I’m not privy to the criteria or regulations that radio stations need to abide by to play certain songs over the airwaves.)  You the reader (or listener) have your favorite bands as well.  I’m sure you would love to hear a song played on the radio that would make you exclaim with glee, “I’ve never heard them play that song before!”  Alas, that was not going to happen on the radio.

At this time I was now searching for a way to listen to the music I wanted to hear, when I wanted to hear it.  Of course, iPod’s abounded, but to me, that was just too much work!  Going through all my music on CD, ripping the songs from them to create mp3’s, setting up playlists, copying to the iPod (or any mp3 player, for that matter), was just too much hassle.  I had found, some time before the above-mentioned experiment, RushRadio.org, which plays all music that Rush has produced throughout their entire career, including their solo projects.  But it was just Rush music, and I wanted variety.  Eventually, however, I stumbled upon Pandora – what a revelation!

Pandora is the best of both worlds – songs you like, played for you by someone else!  For those of you not in the know, here’s the gist of how Pandora works:

Pandora allows you to set up ‘stations’ where you can have them play only the type of music you like, from the artists you like (and some artists and songs you may have never heard before!).  For example, my favorite genre of music is ‘progressive rock’.  You set up the new station by selecting either the band you like (in my case I selected Rush), or a particular song you like in that genre.  From that point forward, Pandora selects, from a vast database of music, songs that are similar to the song or band you set up initially.  So instead of playing the same songs from your favorite band over and over again, it will play many more songs from that band that are not played on the radio, plus all sorts of other songs in the same genre.  Pandora bases its choices on your choices^*, instead of some executive’s choices who’s only worrying about their bottom line (again, nothing wrong with that, but that results in music you get tired of hearing).  What is the result of hearing music this way?

A whole new world of music opens up to you!  You are exposed to songs you’ve never heard before, great songs, making you wonder where you’ve been all your life.    In my case, I’ve always known that there was a ‘classic’ Genesis, but I never really had the desire to expand my taste in progressive rock past Rush and Yes, at least as far as an investment in time.  Of course I’d heard songs from many other bands of that genre:  King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Jethro Tull, Kansas, etc., but not to the point where I would spend time and money listening to their entire catalog.  However, one day listening to my Progressive Rock station Pandora selected Genesis’ “The Fountain of Salmacis” from their record Nursery Cryme (1971), and I was blown away. This was fantastic music!  Why hadn’t I heard this before?  Because radio would never play something like that.  The music wasn’t ‘radio friendly’, so you’d never hear it.

And there’s the rub, as they say.  I think radio stations are very much afraid of straying from the ‘mainstream’ of music.  If they play something they perceive to be too ‘out there’, they will not play it, hence negatively affecting their listening audience numbers, and by extension their revenue.  That may or may not be true – I’m not savvy in that market.  But I know this for sure:  if radio stations played songs like “The Fountain of Salmacis”, I’d be listening to them right now.

Pandora has other features that make it even more of a pleasurable listening experience.  If you don’t like the song selected, you can just click the ‘thumbs down’ icon, and that song will never be played again.  However, if you really, really, really like the song selected, you can click the ‘thumbs up’ icon, and not only will it be more likely that you’ll hear that song again, but Pandora continues to tailor your station to your likes.  Be careful with the ‘thumbs down’, though.  If you thumb down the same artist twice, you’ll not hear that artist again.  However, if you just don’t want to hear the song currently selected, you can ‘skip forward’ to the next song.  The free version of Pandora allows six skips per hour and up to 25 stations (and includes commercials, but they are few and far enough between not to bother much; and they’re short).  The paid version ($36/yr) permits unlimited skips, no commercials, higher quality audio, and more.

As far as music goes, I see Pandora as a better service than, say, SiriusXM^TM, because even though SiriusXM has many music stations that are genre specific and they’ll play more songs not typically played on traditional radio, their playlist is still selected by someone else.  Pandora will over time tailor the music it plays for you based on your choices.  Plus the fact that you can play your Pandora stations on a slew of home devices and on the go, well, it’s really one of the best ways to listen to your music, bar none.

Pandora opens ‘musical doors’, if you will, in another way.  If you’re an amateur musician, such as one who likes to record drum covers, Pandora can give you a whole host of ideas on musical direction that you might not have been exposed to before.  I’ve created a list of songs I’d like to cover that most likely I would never have heard if not for Pandora.  If you tend to play by ear especially, you’ll hear songs you’ll never hear on the radio, and it just may inspire you to try out music from other musicians that are just as good, or even better, than the ones you’ve been accustomed to hearing.

Now, I don’t want this article to sound like an advertisement for Pandora – it actually is not. Pandora just happens to be an extremely useful tool that I’ve found for discovering great music that otherwise would not be found via traditional streams of music.  Don’t just check out Pandora though – do a Google search on, say, ‘Pandora alternative’, and see what other services there are similar to Pandora that may be right for you.  Spotify may be one service that you might want to check out.

For those who remember, MTV’s maiden voyage video way back in August of 1981 was “Video Killed the Radio Star”, by The Buggles.  Many thought that video would indeed spell the end of songs being played on the radio, but obviously that was overreaching a bit.  Radio stuck around, and it does to this day.  But video did kill the radio star in this sense:  we no longer needed to depend on radio to play for us the music we wanted – other sources were available, and even more interesting and engaging at that!

But you can’t drive and watch video (well, you can, but you shouldn’t), so at least as far that goes, maybe video didn’t kill the radio star, just injured it.  Ah, but now we have the likes of Pandora, where you can hear the music you want to hear wherever you are:  at work, at home, and in the car, on a plethora of devices including your cell/smartphone – and that you can take with you anywhere.

Once in a while, just for kicks, I go back to FM radio, to the station mentioned in this article, to see if I hear anything different.  I kid you not, every time it’s a song I’ve heard a million times already.  I try to give it the benefit of the doubt (no really, I do!), but that tired and worn out radio set list borders on insulting to my intelligence.  Radio stations:  stop sitting on the sidelines – get up and dance!  Instead of playing Genesis’ “Land of Confusion”, play “Dance on a Volcano”!  Or instead of playing Rush’s “Closer to the Heart”, play “Nocturne”!  Those will surely get your audience’s attention.

So, ‘video killed the radio star’, and Pandora killed the radio star (again).  What’s the use of FM radio then?  I almost dismissed FM radio entirely, until the local news and talk AM radio station started transmitting their programming on FM.  So I’ll be using my FM radio for now, but not for music.  Will Pandora or similar services begin transmitting local news stations too?  If that happens, FM radio’s days indeed are numbered.

__________
^*For a little more background as to how this process is set up, see The Music Genome Project, the seed of Pandora).

]]> http://theparadiddler.com/2011/07/28/pandora-killed-the-radio-star-again/feed/ 1 http://theparadiddler.com/2011/06/30/interview-guitar-luthier-mitchel-weissman/ http://theparadiddler.com/2011/06/30/interview-guitar-luthier-mitchel-weissman/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:51:58 +0000 Omar http://theparadiddler.com/?p=2295

Audio only of interview with Mitchel Weissman

Sometimes, you never know who you’re going to meet.

I was down in southern Florida at the end of May, and I wanted to take the opportunity to document my brother’s guitar collection, which is extensive.  Instead of just taking pictures, I decided to get his thoughts as well on his collection, his approach to guitars (both collecting and playing) and so on, in an interview format.  Fortunately he agreed.  If you haven’t seen it already, here’s a link to the interview.

My brother mentioned to me that he had a luthier work on his guitars, Mitchel Weissman.  I was in the area anyway, and I thought it would be a good chance to add yet more ‘dimension’ to TheParadiddler.com by including even more content from other sources of music.  So Mitchel was kind enough to grant me an interview discussing his side of the guitar equation.  What I got was an education.

Mitchel is very knowledgeable in his craft.  He’s so good, in fact, that he’s had the privilege of working on some of the world’s most famous guitars, including the late Bo Diddley’s rectangular guitar.  You’ll hear all about that and much more in the interview, including:

• the dynamics of drumming vs. playing guitar, and their surprising similarity
• why ‘feel’ can be more important than timing
• what separates good musicians from great ones
• the nuances of guitar construction
• how removing ‘snob appeal’ will get you a world-class sounding guitar, for a lot less money
• famous guitars you’ve seen that he’s worked on
• …and so much more!

If you’ve ever wanted to know how to have that guitar of yours sound like the pros do, you need to hear Mitchel’s story.  And if you have any questions for him at all, you can go to his Facebook page and he’ll be happy to answer them.

This is the second installment in the “Not Just About Drums” series.  We’ll see how far this goes!  In the meantime, enjoy the interview, and please, let us know via your comments what you think!