Wow.. it's been awhile.

So, some people have told me that if I write a Blog that they will perhaps read a blog... So I guess I'm going to start it and see how far it goes.

In the wee hours of the morning, I got out of my bed. Too many late nights with Sarah H and her sister and Nikki Stango, and the crew.

My new obsession seems to be for Blues music and Bouncing Souls.

Certain video's/dvd's are bad starts for any beginning drummer. I was taking lessons for 3 years before I bought one but the one I bought I want to complain about so that other's won't share in any wasted money or potential.

Dave Wreckl's "Back to the Basics"

This video is bad news. Being that it is aimed at beginning players, this type of video should exclude any personal bias towards on how to play, while offering the wide spectrum of different techniques. This video does neither. I actually think that this video confuse the most important issues any beginning drum player must know: steady tempo and doing what feels natural.

This video is separated into different sections, each seemingly with their own problems. I will try to recall the sections and explain the largest errors.

1. Hand control: Although some of his techniques are helpful, Wreckl completely neglects to inform about the German grip, the grip that I and many many other's prefer using (Buddy Rich for example). Also, there is to much emphasis on finger control and not enough on controlling anything else. What about the hand and arm?

2. Foot control: He has a personal bias against heel down, once again a technique used by many (including Buddy Rich), and ONLY SHOWS YOU how to play with heel up. Every player should know how to do both, but a beginning player needs to understand the concept of weight balance between is butt and two feet and having one foot up isn't the best start. Heel down is known for offering more control and more balance.

3. Cymbal Placement: There is no overhead camera on the cymbals and you can only see the drum set and cymbals on profile; not the easiest way to learn. Also, the kit design that he decided to use confuses the issue because of the vast amount of cymbals he uses. Simply, a beginner needs to know how to place ONE ride and ONE crash.

4. The SOLOs: I hate, I mean really dispose what he has done here. Right after cymbal placement he says that he will play a "straight-ahead" beat--- and then he goes into the most unmelodious, ridiculous solo ever. No, not a beat, just a crazy solo. Nobody understands it... especially not a beginner... and some simple single beat or single measure solo's actually teach us something but what is this? Another show-off solo?

Oh... and another thing: his solo's are completely and utterly WITHOUT TEMPO! The first job a drummer has is keep tempo. What is he teaching us? No beginner can do an impromptu solo... can we get something with a time and a structure?

Overall, just a waste of time really. Not the worst and I wouldn't be so hard if I could just stop myself from thinking about all the crap that a beginning student would have to unlearn after watching this video. I wouldn't have wrote this review if it wasn't for them.

Hi-Hats

Around the 1920's, the pupose of the left foot in the modern drum kit is given its purpose with the invention of the "snowshoe" pedal, which copied the mechanics of hand sock cymbals. Now, by pressing down on a foot board with the left foot, two small cymbals hovering near the ground connected. This mechanism was completely crude and offered little control over the sustain or movement since the snowshoe was connected to the foot by a strap-- hence the name. Accordingly, the "low boy" was invented, standing some 10 inches off the ground, with a spring-loaded direct pull mechanism that caused the top cymbal to independently rise. Though "Mr. Hi-hat," Papa Joe Jones of the Count Basie orchestra, declares himself the inventor, no one is quite sure of how the hi-hat "grew" out of the low boy. While the drum company Leedy offered the low boy and hi-hat models in its 1924 catalog, it was not until the 1930's that hi-hats became the standard. Now drummers could play cymbals with either by hand or foot. This invention incorporated syncopation in all limbs. Now the drummer could play three instruments at a time.

A site that gives a great overview on the history of the hi-hats is wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-hat

Bass Drum Pedal


The first invention leading to this development incorporated the use of the right foot to activate sound from the bass drum, which was called the Turkish drum until the nineteenth century. In the 1890's, the bass drum pedal enabled one drummer to play two instruments. These early pedals were suspended from the bass drum's rim and tied to the musician's foot and later a footboard was added. William and Theobald Ludwig created the first modern bass pedal in 1909 when they created a spring pedal that allowed the beater to return from the drum on its own. This design, a spring attached to the beater's axis on an uplifted mound that is connected to the pedal, is used on today's bass pedals. These pedals also had a small device that would follow the movement of the pedal and strike a small cymbal attached to the lower right side of the bass drum. This cymbal was called a "clanger" and whenever the pedal was used the clanger and the bass drum would sound. The monotonous noise produced by the bass drum and clanger soon annoyed many percussionists. So the clanger was dropped but the urge to play a cymbal with the foot was not.

A fun site with a general overview is http://www.playmusic.org/percussion/index.html

The Need

Until the late nineteenth century, the role of percussion was literally in the hands of a number of musicians, each assigned to a specific instrument, be it either snare drum, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, etc., and each musician had to be proficient in all to be considered a qualified musician. These early percussionists were directed by a conductor to accompany the orchestra at scattered moments within the piece. They were used sparingly and were not the tempo keepers. In an already crowded pit this system required at least three percussion players, meaning at least three extra salaries. At the turn of the century, silent movies needed the percussionist to create a multitude of sounds. However, they could not pay three musicians. Thus, the invention of the modern drum kit began with need to syncopate all four limbs.

For more on drum history, especially ancient it seems, check out this site: www.drumtopia.com/topics/History_of_Drum.html

It has everything about drumming, alphabetically organized, from the origins of African Drumming to the modern japaneese company Yamaha Drums.