The Paradiddler

Off-Set Double Pedal – Haiku Contest Winners

Omar — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:00:41 +0000

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”:

As my days got dark
I was digging holes so deep
There was no bottom

As my hopes lost sight
I would watch the weeks go by
Numb to everything

There was no bright light
There was nothing shining through
The dark empty room

But as I was weak
Unable to keep afloat
Feet upon the edge

There, came down a rope
A shimmering light of hope
That gave me reason

It lifted me up
Told me, "Keep pushing forward!"
It saved all of me

Gave me hope again
Told me, "You will be just fine."
"Chin up, and just try"

It revived in me
Everything I thought was lost
Hope I thought was gone

Kept me from sinking
Told me to keep believing
To embrace myself

Everything I was
All the failures and triumphs
What I could become

Music gave to me
So I want to give it back
As much as I can

With all that I am
To those wanting to listen
To those who need it

My amp pushed to ten
My drumsticks gripped so tightly
I'm calm and ready

To start ambition
To do something amazing
To fashion a rope

For someone to use
To grab, grip, and hold on to
To pull themselves up

Music saved my life
Gave me hope, removed my strife
It could save yours too

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!

Van Halen Is Back

Omar — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:05:06 +0000

From the late 70’s to the mid 80’s, Van Halen was one of the most dynamic acts in Rock. After Sammy Hagar took over lead vocals for David Lee Roth in 1985, Van Halen continued to soar in popularity. No one can deny the heavy influence that Eddie Van Halen has exerted on the guitar community. And Alex Van Halen provided a solid drumming foundation with seemingly limitless energy.
I look at Van Halen as having two main eras, as probably most people do: the David Lee Roth era, and the Sammy Hagar era. Both eras feature some great music. The David Lee Roth era is where Eddie made his mark, and where I think was his most dynamic and creative playing.

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:

Tora! Tora!
Loss of Control
D.O.A.
On Fire
Atomic Punk
Panama
Hear About It Later
Spanish Fly
Little Guitars (intro)
Little Guitars
Dance the Night Away
Drop Dead Legs
So This Is Love?
Unchained
Hot for Teacher
House of Pain
Eruption
You Really Got Me
Hang ‘em High
Girl Gone Bad
Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love
Everybody Wants Some!!
1984
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’!

Leave That Snare Alone!

Omar — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:01:03 +0000

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.

Dunnett Classic Stainless Steel 6.5x14" Snare Drum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX2C3RiTyPI

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"

HD Radio – FM Radio’s Savior?

Omar — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:41:57 +0000

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:

I hear the song
The drumming catches my ear, for any number of reasons

incredible groove
superb technicality
finesse
nuance
speed
power

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)
After going gaga over the song, I feel moved to try and figure out how the drummer played those drum parts (the inspiration)
I study the song (the education):

listening to the song (radio, mp3, Pandora, etc.)
watching the drummer play it (YouTube, DVD, etc.)
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).

How to Record a Drum Cover When the First Note Is a Drum Beat

Omar — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 00:34:22 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4eyDFWaZZM

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!

Pandora Killed the Radio Star (again)

Omar — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 02:56:49 +0000

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.

Enter Pandora

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).

Interview – Guitar Luthier Mitchel Weissman

Omar — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:51:58 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHu5ogpzLco

Audio only of interview with Mitchel Weissman

Right-click here to download the interview to your mp3 player

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!

Interview – Guitar Enthusiast Chris Alvarado

Omar — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:34:54 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2_A_pxjrKQ

Audio only of interview with Chris Alvarado

Right-click here to download the interview to your mp3 player

Sometimes, you think you know someone. Other times, you’ve known someone all your life, yet there’s still much to learn about them.

Such is the case with my older brother, Chris Alvarado. Although we grew up together, there were aspects to his interest in music, and guitars in general, that I didn’t know, nor did I get around to asking. I know he started off playing saxophone while in middle school, but when did he change over to guitar, and why?

In addition, over the years his guitar collection has grown quite a bit (almost 30 now). And it seemed like every time I’d visit him in sunny Florida, he’d have a new one, with some sort of crazy story behind it. Well now I said, ‘Enough’s enough! Let’s document this crazy collection!’

TheParadiddler.com has always been about the drums, even when not directly talking about them (check out, for example, “Not Just About the Drums” and “Cheering Them On”). However, I saw this as an opportunity not only to talk about another great instrument (the guitar), but also to record my first ever videocast.

So one day I got the crazy idea of sitting down with my guitar enthusiast/collector brother and have him explain his guitar collection. I ran this by him and he thought it was a great idea (good!). So I flew down to Florida, we sat in his living room, turned on the camcorder, and we had a little guitar chat. Amazing what happens when you chat with someone you’ve known all your life: you find out things you didn’t know before! I really didn’t know how much a philosophy of guitars my brother had developed over the years – quite refreshing. Not only that, but he’s become a pretty good guitar player (finally! ).

As we chatted, in my mind I was realizing that you don’t have to be a professional or famous musician to provide a good story or impart some practical knowledge. Everyone has something interesting to say, and Chris certainly has a few:

The drummer’s role in allowing the guitarist to play better
Details on his amplification gear
How to get the guitar sound of your favorite artists on the cheap
Why having a ‘luthier’ for an acquaintance is a good idea
…and much more!

Of course, then there’s the guitar collection. There a few flashes of his guitars in the video, and I’ve also included a pic of some of them below, with a brief description. Pics of his entire collection are posted on The Paradiddler Facebook page. If you have any questions on any of his guitars, you can contact him at calvaradosr@gmail.com.

By the way, this is the first in a new series of articles I’m calling “Not Just About Drums”. We’ll see how far we go with that, but in the meantime, hopefully you'll enjoy this interview. There’ll be more to come!

1996 Gibson Les Paul Classic

EVH Wolfgang Special

Agile - Gibson Les Paul copy, maple neck, EMG 85/89

Agile Cool Cat, Bigsby & GFS pickups

Fender Deluxe Players Stratocaster, EMG pickups

1996 Fender Stratocaster, 50th Anniversary

Fender Squire Telecaster Custom, GFS pickups

Agile - PRS copy, EMG pickups

Breedlove Passport Plus, acoustic/electric

Interview – Mike Michalkow

Omar — Thu, 26 May 2011 06:37:10 +0000

Click the play button above to hear part one of the interview, or
right-click here to download it to your mp3 player

Click the play button above to hear part two of the interview, or
right-click here to download it to your mp3 player

“For the hobbyist, I always keep an open mind. Although I’m a ‘technique geek’, I find it pointless to keep a new drummer on a practice pad for a full year, then move to the kit – yawn! Drums are meant to be fun!” Well I want a teacher like that!

Those words were uttered by drum instructor Mike Michalkow in an interview with Drums Etc. magazine back in the Fall of 2007. Although he takes his drumming very seriously, he’s just as serious in teaching his students to ‘always have fun’. That is a very refreshing view to take to the drums, and is part of what makes Mike’s approach to the drums and his drumming style so appealing.

I became familiar with Mike back in 2009 with the release of his flagship DVD instruction course, the “Drumming System”. At the time, I was looking for a drumming course where I could learn at my own pace, just focusing on what I wanted to focus on, when I wanted to. The “Drumming System” fit the bill nicely. But even more impressive than the course itself, was its instructor. Mike’s a very friendly guy, who never talks down to you and is always encouraging. This endearing quality prompted me to want to talk to the man himself, and he was kind enough to grant The Paradiddler some of his time.

In speaking with Mike I saw why he has so many raving fans: his enthusiasm for drumming is infectious. You can’t help but get inspired by his story, and he definitely has a story to tell. He truly is a drumming success story, and he holds nothing back. Some of the things Mike talks about include:

How his persistence in increasing his drumming skills led to some very interesting jobs
Why you should regularly check and refine your playing technique
Why he saw the need to create the various instructional DVD’s that he’s produced, and why you want them in your library
Tips for teachers on how to address the needs of the student
How to land that gig, and how to get better ones (this is key)
How and why (and when!) you should address your drumming weaknesses
The proper attitude to have to continue pursuing your passion of drumming
And so much more!

The interview is over an hour, and it is chock full of gems that drummers of all levels can grab from. For convenience, the interview is divided into two parts, so the listener can easily set aside time for each. Plus, this format makes it easier on the ears.^*

Will learning from Mike Michalkow make you the best drummer in the world? Well, that’s a tall order for any teacher. Can he help you be the best drummer you can be? Now we’re talking! Enjoy listening to a drum teaching great, check out his drum instruction courses, and prepare to up your drumming game.

Mike Michalkow web site

Mike Michalkow on Facebook

Moeller Method Secrets

Jazz Drumming System

Latin Drumming System

Drum Tuning System

Drum Gear Buyers Guide

- review

The Total Rock Drummer

The Drumming System

- review
______
^*A note on the sound quality: ‘The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry’ – such is technology. I had a hard time ensuring the sound quality on both sides of the conversation was as high as possible, so you may notice some feedback at times, and the interviewee sounded like he was speaking from a cell phone. For that, TheParadiddler.com apologizes profusely! But not to worry – it is listenable. The content does not suffer. Something similar happened to Dream Theater’s “The Spirit Carries On – Part 2” video when they auditioned Derek Roddy, the second of seven drummers seeking to replace Mike Portnoy. Due to technical difficulties, only the camera mics picked up his drumming, but it was killer drumming nonetheless. So enjoy the interview, don’t forget to leave your comments, and let others know!

Drum Clinic – Jason Bittner

Omar — Wed, 18 May 2011 22:45:54 +0000

There are so many great drummers out there these days that it’s hard to keep up with them.

We of course have our main influences, the drummers we’ll always like and will always be our favorites, no matter what. But it’s always a good idea to ‘broaden our horizons’, if you will, to check out the unique skills that so many up and coming drummers bring to the table. This becomes great fodder for inspiration.

In my case, I favor the classic rock drummers such as Neil Peart and Phil Collins, plus guys like Steve Smith, Alan White, and the like. It’s a style that’s very ‘composition’ like, and I find that it’s not always necessary to be ‘blasting’ beats throughout entire songs, be it with your hands or your feet.

However, one day I was driving around and changing stations at random on the radio, and I hit upon a college station playing death metal, or something like that. Mind you, I am not a fan of this type of music, because the themes at display and the constant screaming at the top of your lungs or sounding like you’re hawking all the time – that style just doesn’t appeal to me. But the drumming – I had never heard anything that fast before. Lots of single strokes, for sure, but they sounded clean, both from the hands and feet. I couldn’t stop listening. I pretty much focused on the drummer (I don’t know what song or what band it was). That was my epiphany moment regarding drummers in that genre.

I gained a lot of respect for drummers that can play that fast for any length of time, let alone a whole song! I didn’t necessarily go looking for that kind of music to listen to even still, but if ever I did hear it, I would always pay attention to the drumming.

Flash forward a bit, and now I’m watching the Modern Drummer Festival 2006 DVD, and one of the drummers featured was Brann Dailor of Mastodon. Here’s what I said back then in the review of the DVD:

“I’m not into heavy metal or death metal or whatever it’s called these days, but I really liked Brann Dailor’s presentation. I’m accustomed to seeing huge-o drum sets for this style of music, but Brann showed you don’t need that many drums to play in this style. Again, very fluid and precise.”

Once again, an eye-opener for me as far as the ability and skill of these drummers. Now I really had to pay attention.

Fast forward a bit more, and Drum! magazine back in February of this year offered participants in their forum a chance to ask Jason Bittner any question they wanted (well, ok, the questions needed to be drumming related, and he had to feel impelled to answer them!). Just before this forum event I had been in the market for a digital recorder. I came across the Zoom recorders and one of the audio demos featured at ZoomH2.net was a drum solo of Jason Bittner recorded with the Zoom H2. Not only was the sound great, but the solo was phenomenal. I was convinced right there that that was the recorder I wanted.

Since Jason would be answering questions in the forum, I decided to ask him about the settings that he used on his H2 when he recorded the above-mentioned drum solo, and he was gracious enough to set me straight on some of the settings he used. He also set me straight on something else, which you can see for yourself in the thread.

By this time I was now familiar with who Jason was, I’d heard and seen a couple of his solos, and now I knew he was someone to pay attention to. So when Ken Stanton Music of Marietta, GA announced that he was going to be performing a drum clinic on May 10^th (2011), I knew I had to be there.

The Venue

As usual, I arrived about an hour and a half early to get a ‘lay of the land’, as far as the seating arrangement, which part of the store the drum set would be set up, my possible camera angles, etc. Jason was already setting things up, making adjustments to the kit and the audio equipment he’d use to play the music he’d be drumming to. He was also coordinating with the sound engineer located at the back end of the audience.

I decided to walk up to the kit, and when I noticed a pause in the setup activity, I decided to start a little small talk with Jason. He mentioned that he had flown a lot that day, with very little sleep, but that of course, the show would go on! Since that was the case, after confirming that it was ok to take pictures, I let him continue his setup process.

During the sound check he played to a song, and it actually was a great performance, although to Jason it sounded bad, which made him play bad (at least to him). He got a round of applause from the audience, because at least to them it was great! But Jason refused the applause, explaining that it was just sound check! Just a testament to his professionalism.

The Kit

The kit Jason played on was a beautiful Tama Starclassic Bubinga 5pc kit with what I believe is the garnet red glitter finish. The snare was the Starclassic 5.5”x14” Antique Maple snare, rounding off the 6pc kit. The cymbals were Zildjian, of which Jason became a recent endorser (he used to use Meinl):

3(!) hi-hats
2 chinas
2 splashes
3 crashes
2 rides

He also had a Latin Percussion micro snare and jam block (the latter next to his left-side hi-hat).

The Clinic

After a few words from the Zildjian representative, who was very glad to welcome Jason to the Zildjian family, Jason came out to thunderous applause. After a brief introduction as to the content of the clinic, Jason rips in the first song. (Note: since I was not familiar with Shadows Fall or the other projects that Jason was and is involved in, I didn’t catch some of the song names. My apologies!). Watching this first performance, right off the bat, convinced me why it’s such a great idea to go to as many drum clinics as possible. You learn so much from the different styles of play. Jason played with a lot of power, but his movements are extremely efficient. From my perspective, he wastes no energy. He’s not flailing away all over the place just for a showy display. To play the style of music that he plays, you have to conserve your movement, and he’s a master at it. Contrast that with, say, Thomas Pridgen, who plays all over the place!

Oh and by the way, this clinic was loud – the loudest I’ve been to. My head was pounding on the way home. I’m not complaining, though!

During this song, it seemed like there were some audio problems. You could see in Jason’s face that he was very frustrated, but that turned out better for the audience because he played with anger and ever more power. It was very impressive. Since he had a ride cymbal on each side, he often switched between them, riding the right cymbal as is typical when playing right-handed, and also riding the left cymbal, playing ‘open-handed’.

Jason continued through a few more songs, including Shadows Fall’s “Thoughts Without Words”. He displayed some serious blast beat drumming. I was really liking his use of the two ride cymbals. Having one on each side makes it easy to incorporate 32^nd note playing on the rides, which is a very colorful way to fill in the musical space. I also continued to be very impressed with how much control and efficiency of movement Jason played with. If you didn’t know who was drumming on these songs and you listened to them for the first time, you’d think he’d be flailing his head all over the place just for show. His control was admirable.

Next Jason put on a drum solo where he put on an incredible display of independence. The first part of the solo he dedicated to the late Joe Morello, playing a little traditional grip. But after that, it was on! Jason has very fast hands and feet, of course; but not only that, he really showed his independence skills during the solo. He was playing these double bass patterns while also alternating strokes with the hi-hat and jam block (all feet). Each stroke was cleanly articulated.

During the solo Jason displayed a couple of other jaw-dropping independence patterns. He was playing a pattern with the two hi-hats that he controlled with the pedals while playing some other pattern with his hands. On another occasion he played a constant pattern with the bass drum, while seemingly playing different meters with the sticks. Each time he changed the time signature with his hands, it still matched what he was playing with his feet. Don’t ask me what the time signatures were, because I don’t know them.

He then ended the solo with a little swing pattern, which morphed into blast beats, then ending with another swing pattern.

Q&A

Next was a questions and answers session. Here are some of the interesting answers that came out from questions from the audience:

Jason uses DW pedals “because they rule!” They are what work best for him. He tried the Tama Iron Cobras, but he just didn’t like the feel. The DW 9000 pedals, adjusted at medium tension, are what give Jason the best response. Any tighter and his legs start to hurt. He emphasized that that is what worked for him. Each drummer needs to test different models and settings and determine what works for them
It was around 2005 during Ozzfest where Jason got the idea of using two ride cymbals on each side of the kit. He wanted to spice up some songs that he played a lot, and this was a way to do it. It stuck with his kit ever since
He tries to execute patterns however it’s easiest to play it at the moment. This teaches dexterity as it allows for multiple ways to play the same pattern.
He leads with his left foot when playing double bass patterns. He didn’t realize this until drummer Dom Famularo pointed it out to him!
His favorite drummer of all time is Neil Peart. His favorite ‘modern day’ drummer is Steve Smith (hey, those are my two favorite drummers!)
One day he showed Steve Smith a certain pattern on the bass drum (1-2 1-2-3 1-2), which is a pattern that can be played in a jazz setting. Next thing Jason knew Steve was already playing the pattern like the next day live. At least Jason had the satisfaction that he taught Steve something!
The first drummer to inspire Jason to play drums was Keith Moon
Jason had high praise for Mastadon drummer Brann Dailor (who was actually present at the clinic): “He’s like a baker – he has rolls for days”

Down to Business

Next Jason went into the ‘clinic’ part of the clinic, if you will, where he handed out sheets that had many bass drum exercises. He explained that the right foot lead is beginner level, whereas left foot lead is intermediate. Some of the exercises he went over included:

single strokes
double strokes
8^th note triplets
16^th note
32^nd note (very fast!)

Jason emphasized that it’s a very good idea to alternate and reverse footing on each exercise which will expand dexterity and independence.

A tendency beginning drummers, and even intermediate drummers have is when they’re not double-bassing their hi-hat foot does nothing. Jason emphasized that it’s important to learn how to keep time with the hi-hat. “You have four limbs – use them!”

What does polka have to do with blast beats? They have the same time signature (1-2)! Jason displayed this by playing a basic polka beat, and then speeding it up super fast – it morphed into blast beats. I’ll never look at polka the same.

Jason went on to play a song from another project he’s involved in (Hellspeak) where he incorporated a lot of the double bass techniques he had discussed.

More Q&A

Jason went on to answer more questions from the audience:

Some of Jason’s weaknesses in his playing include:
- His right hand. He has had some physical issues with his right shoulder and elbow, so he always has to work really hard to keep his right hand up to speed
- Double bass! Although he’s known for his exceptional double bass skills, he feels he always has to work very hard at playing them cleanly; it doesn’t always occur naturally
- Jazz, swing, odd time signatures
- Traditional grip – he uses it when he plays Jazz and Latin, but that’s not often
Always play for the song. There’s no need to overdo blast beats just because you can. If it fits, play it – if not, don’t. Everything he practices he thinks of how they can be incorporated into songs
As far as how often Jason practices – always! After a tour he may take a five-day break, but any more than that and he feels he starts to lose something. So if he’s not touring or in the studio, he’s practicing
Some projects Jason’s working on is Hellspeak (he had played a song from that band earlier), and is working on a fusion project with Megadeth guitarist great Marty Friedman. This latter project is ‘way out of the box’ for Jason, but it’s another way for him to express his creativity and to show that he’s not just a metal drummer

Next up was a discussion of the multi-pedal exercises on the lesson sheet. It’s basically like playing double bass, except that you’re moving your feet to the other pedals. It may sound simple, but it takes practice to execute it smoothly. He demonstrated how to play a paradiddle with the feet using the different pedals (which, by the way, were bass drum, hi-hat, and jam block). He had to try it a couple of times, but when he got it, it was downright musical.

Before he played his last song, Jason went on to talk about one of his experiences at Berklee. He took a Jazz Independence class, and to teach Jason a ‘lesson’ he asked him to play a swing pattern, which he did. The teacher then told him to play four on the bass with the swing pattern. Then he was told to play heel down. Jason is a heel up player, so that took some getting used to. Then the teacher told him to walk the hi-hat. That set him back about three weeks (Jason demonstrated what walking the hi-hat is)! [Editor's note: Mr. Bittner later confirmed with me that he said 'rock' the hi-hat, not 'walk' the hi-hat. Thanks for the clarification, Jason!] Then the teacher told him to play in ‘unison’, which if I remember is throwing in the snare. Well once he did that he lost his swing on the ride, so he had to go and get that back. All happy now Jason showed the teacher, but now the kicker: the teacher now told Jason to sing “A Hard Day’s Night” while playing! So after all that, when Jason finally got that down, the teacher told him, “I just taught you 5-way independence”. That was a beautiful lesson.

To sum it all up, Jason said that to him these are the most important things:

Independence
Dexterity
Slow and steady
Have fun!

He then proceeded to thank Ken Stanton Music for putting on these clinics. He loves doing them and feels there aren’t enough of them. I agree!

To yet more applause, Jason plays one more song. This time, I put the camera and notepad away, and just enjoyed the performance with the rest of the audience.

In Conclusion

Seeing the type of drummer Jason Bittner is in a live setting confirmed for me one thing: there are great drummers in all genres of music. Not only that, but it’s very likely that a lot of these drummers are good at other genres of music as well, not just in the one of their profession. Jason is one such drummer. He’s mainly known as a metal drummer, but he showed that he is a very well schooled drummer, very versatile, and his colorful drum solo and displays in Jazz and Swing really displayed his creative and technical side. And let’s not forget: Jason is an awesome metal drummer. Very fast, and also plays with plenty of power. Definitely a world-class drummer. A Jason Bittner clinic is not one to miss, and I’m glad I didn’t miss this one.