Drums

Drums like any other instruments has a story behind it.
Since i dream of being a drummer, i guess one day i will have to know
Y drums are what they are now.

Of course i won't want to bore myself with prehistoric caveman drumming on their logs.

I will Start with a man who has great influence on the development of modern drums.

Gene Krupa (1909 - 1973):




Gene Krupa was born in Chicago, Illinois.
Gene started out playing sax in grade school but took up drums at age 11 since they were the cheapest item in the music store where he and his brother worked. "I used to look in their wholesale catalog for a musical instrument - piano, trombone, cornet - I didn't care what it was as long as it was an instrument. The cheapest item was the drums, 16 beans, I think, for a set of Japanese drums; a great high, wide bass drum, with a brass cymbal on it, a wood block and a snare drum." - drummerworld.com

" Gene is considered the father of the modern drumset since he convinced H.H. Slingerland, to make tuneable tom-toms. Tom-toms up to that point had "tacked" heads, which left little ability to change the sound. The new drum design was introduced in 1936 and was termed "Seperate Tension Tunable Tom-Toms." Krupa was called on by Avedis Zildjian to help with developing the modern hi-hat cymbals. The original hi-hat was called a "low-boy" which was a floor level cymbal setup which was played with the foot. This arrangement made it nearly impossible for stick playing. Gene's first recording session was a historical one. It occured in December of 1927 when he is noted to be the first drummer to record with a bass drum." - drummerworld.com

Gene's classic performance on "Sing Sing Sing" has been heralded as the first extended drum solo in jazz.


Drum Boogie:

The "boogie" represented everything that Krupa was as a soloist, technician, melodist, drummer-for-dancers, dramatist and crowd pleaser. It begins with the familiar Krupa "dotted- quarter" note pattern of ringing rim shots on the snare drum,
progresssed to triplets on the snare and later tom tom accents almost as if he were going to introduce listerners to every technique one by one, buids in volume and complexity to a fever pitch, suddenly drop down to an incredibly soft volume while still continuing the triplet pattern, and finally build up to a shattering climax of 32nd note, single stroke roll, replete with more tom-toms and cymbal crashings. All the while the bass drum beat '1-2-3-4'. - World of Gene Krupa by Bruce H. Klauber.

Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich Drum Battle


I know i can't cover all the drummers, but i would like to show a few more drummers worth noting. Maybe i might go into all the legendary drummers one by one when i am that free. Hahaha!

Anyway to me, Gene Krupa has got this power in his playing and his prominent so called "Gene Krupa style" of ringing rimshots and buzz rolls are worth noting.

Buddy rich(1917-1987):
He is an American Jazz drummer well known for his virtuoso technique and fast hands.
Said to be the best Drummer that ever lived. Very famous for the stick tricks he does, and very much evolved to virtuosic stick tricks done by Jo Jo Mayer.



The left hand technique is something intriguing. Wonderous actually, of how he is able to do such kind of articulated fast roll with one hand and incorporate accents using right hand. At this moment, i am going to take on this challenge to get it...

Lonely

I am sure someone on earth has ever felt the same as i do.

So many things happened in the day, and all i need is someone physical
to talk to and share my feelings.

That someone will be my blog. Seriously, i am thinking who on earth will wanna hear me rant on and on about all my ideas, yet on the other hand, I myself will really want to hear what ideas i once had in my life. It will be a real waste not to journal it down.

A gradual flood of lonelines. As years pass, i gradually draw really far from everyone else. Even the closest friends. My handphone can be left untouched for years only to realise miss call from mummy.. must be the usual question, "coming home to eat?" sms, will be for projects and work. Except for Wee Siang who ask me out for a buddy lunch or maybe just meeting up.

Y?

Cuz i am rather passive. A flat battery. Sorrow... Sob.. sob... talk to me pls.

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Anyway, my deprived social life aside.

I am starting to miss band. The feeling of being part of a whole. A small triangle *plink* in the mdist of flutist. A loud "BOOM!!" out of the deafening silence. A groove in the song. A idleist(someone who idle around) among the business (busy-ness).

Well today, alot of rhythms fell onto my head. I was thinking about them all the way to school. And interestingly i can't remember any now.
While i was on my way home. This idea came to me.
To really play any rhythm i hear, i must first categorise it.

1) Linear rhythm - where the beats talk without interupting each other.
2) Polyrhythm - where beats interact with each other.

And what is the use of Linear rhythm?

They are clean. Understandable. They are even used to speed up a polyrhythm groove by abstracting it down. Just imagine, in primary school when each student pick one sentence of the whole story to read. We can hear the whole story and at the same time feel different expression by each unique pupil. Or even better example... Passing baton in a 800m race.

Polyrhythm?

Of course to convey a feeling with the interaction of fast and slow beats. A constant fast beat over a constant slow thud will makes us feel rush or paniky. Busy rhythm(not necessary fast) over a constant throbbing bass will makes us dancy. Crashing first 2 notes of a Triplet over a quaver will be a like an unexpected heart attack! Fast Unison constant beat is like taking a deep breath before jumping down a Majestic cliff. African drummers are much better at these polyrhythms and i must say some of theirs are breathtaking! So excited that you can't scream!

I was thinking of adding rhythmic modulation after a groove. But the thing is i can't do it alone without affecting the flow of the big part of the music, unless everyone modulates together, it will be as good as drumming out of beat.

But Y modulate? I have no idea too. I was thinking, Rhythms are arranged so strictly in time that to hasten it, the smallest jump will be 32th of a chrochet beat, if it is in 4/4. Unless, they put accel. and we hasten at our own pleasure. Hahaha! To be evil, time modulation can allow composers to hasten his/her music without using accel. but producing Strict timming of hastening according to the tempo!
This i am sure is already in use by really... perfectionist composers.. i guess. Especially composers who are pianist.

Talking about time, every thing that we play are in sync with time flow. Time always go forward. Tomorrow cannot be today. Neither can today be yesterday. There is only one way in human history to time travel and play something of the past. Play it through mp3! HAhaha! Let me be lame for a while la. Hahaha!

Anyway, i once heard rhythm will be the last thing in your brain to go off when your harddisk crash! It is something related with your brain storage of rhythm, and also it is one of the most early part to develop.

So if one day my head crash into something, i do hope i still can play drum even though i may forget my name.

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Back to my day,

I miss my sticks so much today and i was brimming with an urge to bang out those things in my head that i alighted at douby ghaut(NEL) instead of hougang(NEL). So i went PS yamaha. There are so many sticks... and most important of all, there is a nice practice pad, the shop was nice and quiet too. So i picked up the All sorts of sticks to try.

The "new technology" of anti vibration in stick is not really obvious to the feel, but i can say it is comfortable when you bang it using wrist. But if you play fast runs with free strokes, i can say, no difference. Cuz i was thinking, may be the stick catch all the rebound for the free stroke, there won't be any energy left to vibrate.

And after today i came up with a few realisations of stick feel.

Round tip - easier bounce very strong rebound.
flat tip - fairly strong vibration, and you can be very lyrical with this.
no tip/Hard Rock - The vibrations reaches your bones! weak rebound. Mainly for POWER!

Thin neck - feels lightning fast, tendency to forget that your hand exist.

Heavy sticks - good control over dynamics.
Light sticks - fast but less control over the dynamics no Power.

Rubber padding - Feels good, won't affect much.

So i was in Yamaha for 1 hour 45 minutes trying the sticks, helping to put the poor misplaced sticks back to their own kind. Well no one stop me. I tot i have to be there for the sticks. Haha! Crazy i am. But, I felt responsible for once!

But there is another reason i am there for so long! I don't want to be squeezed in the 6pm MRT crowd. So i wait till 8pm to take train.

So i practiced my strokes. As usual, i will not miss out my triplet integrated into paradiddle. Tats my own cocktail of rhythm. haha! And then i work on it. Then i try the moller technique, something i still havn't gotten after practicing 1 year. I think something's wrong, just donno what. Then my swiss army triplet, a nostalgic JC1 discovery when i felt so slack and just wanna let my hands bounce.. Then TADA, Swiss Army triplet! Then 5 stroke roll, 6 stroke roll. And Swiss roll! Haha! Tats a cake.

A secret for increasing speed. Use heavy sticks, to play single stroke roll. Then light sticks.

A secret for control, use your arm and wrist and finger simultaneously at the right time. If got time i should write a book on this cuz i didn't realise till very late, only if i knew eariler. Tats y it is always good to have a teacher. I need one too.

And then, i heard this guy doing a double bass groove. Then a Thomas lang blast beat!
I was trying to catch all the beats of the groove, only to realise i can't. All i knew was, it is a linear pattern, until blast beat, a simple polyrhythm done very fast. I caught blast beat but i can't do it as fast.. Ah i practice maybe i can. All the time i had for drums is to think of it, seldom play it. So i hear well, i play lousily.

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I hope to be there again next friday to practice my strokes.
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God, tell me my calling. Help me to be nice and true to people. I am lonely, let me hear you again lest i get lost in my own drum world.