Drummer Talk

Drummer Talk 02/03/2010 – Winter NAMM Gear Review (Part II)

Dave — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:35:21 +0000

Part II of our look at all the crazy gear coming out at this year’s Winter NAMM in Los Angeles (Anaheim!!). Travis Barker is the drummer of the week, we talk about Tommy Igoe’s new DVD, and no one laughs at Carter’s jokes. Show Notes

Drummer Talk 01/28/2010 – Winter NAMM Gear Review (Part I)

Dave — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:04:34 +0000

We look at all the crazy gear coming out at this year’s Winter NAMM in Anaheim and Adrian Young is the drummer of the week! Show Notes

Drummer Talk 01/21/2010 – PASIC 2009 Recap (Part II)

Dave — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:41:37 +0000

Today Dave flies solo as we finally finish part 2 of our PASIC 2009 recap and we pay tribute to the late, and very great, Ed Thigpen. Show Notes

Ed Thigpen Dies at 79

Dave — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:53:52 +0000

Sad news that Ed Thigpen, father of modern brush technique, has passed away.

From The Chicago Tribune:

Jazz lovers called him “Mr. Taste,” and the nickname couldn’t have been more fitting.

Always fashionably dressed — and sounding as impeccable as he looked — Ed Thigpen conveyed elegance in every aspect of his life and art.

At the same time, his ability to generate propulsive, hard-hitting swing rhythm made him a driving force in pianist Oscar Peterson’s great trio of the late 1950s and ’60s, which also included bassist Ray Brown.

This high-profile spot established Mr. Thigpen, born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, as an international figure. It also made him a featured player at Chicago’s long-gone London House, where Peterson’s trio enjoyed extended residencies.

Mr. Thigpen, 79, died Wednesday, Jan. 13, in Copenhagen, said his daughter, Denise. The drummer, who had moved to Denmark in 1972, performed regularly through October. He was hospitalized in the last two weeks with “weak lungs and weak heart,” said his daughter, speaking from Copenhagen.

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Drummer Talk 01/14/2010 – All About Stands

Dave — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:08:02 +0000

We are back from our Christmas break with a show all about stands! Mike tells us all about the drummer of the week, Ed Shaughnessy, we talk about Ramon Samson, the Guitar Center Drum Off Winner, and Carter is late! Show Notes

Drummer Talk 12/17/2009 – Gear You Should Wish For for Christmas!

Dave — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:31:18 +0000

It’s full blown end of the year madness here, so in Dave’s stead, Carter and Mike run things in this final episode of Drummer Talk for 2009. This week’s topic: Gear you shold wish for for Christmas! See everyone in 2010! Show Notes

Todd Sucherman: Methods & Mechanics for Useful Musical Drumming

JABB — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:14:33 +0000

I’ve been excited to see this one for a while. I was waiting for the promised Blu-Ray version to come out so I could see if the instructional experience is that much better in HD. Alas, my patience expired when I saw it available on Netflix. I saw the preview for this DVD and thought “that guy sounds like a more progressive version of Steve Smith… and I like that.” As it turns out Todd Sucherman: drummer for Styx, session drummer, and clinician, is a big fan of Steve Smith. In fact Todd actually tells a touching personal story about his relationship with Steve Smith which is one of the nice little touches in this DVD that make it so great, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Content

The meat of actual drum instruction is dedicated to fills in some way or another. He approaches them from an impressive number of angles I must say; Rudimental fills, Fills from songs, double bass fills, and even tribute fills if you look in the bonus section on disk 2. Every time he teaches a new concept on the drum set he almost always plays an example in the form of a fill. This is not a knock on this video; I’m just saying that you won’t get many groove oriented examples. So if you’re a huge Styx fan and you’re looking to see a bunch of Stxy grooves broken down… sorry.

A short list of the topics he covers includes: hand technique, rudiments, odd times, swing time, and double bass. However he has a ton of other little lessons scattered though out the dvd too. These can vary from tips about how to keep your drums in tune to reminders to be nice to your fans. Most of the topics he covers are only discussed briefly but he’s very good at communicating his points and doesn’t need much time. He spends more time on some topics than others but always enough info so that you don’t feel short changed. He even defers to other drummers and learning materials when he knows he doesn’t have enough time or that he isn’t the right person to go in depth about that topic. In fact, on his hand technique section he says to get Jojo Mayer’s DVD because it’s 3 hours of hand technique and a better resource. One of the most useful things an instructional video can do is recommend other materials for further study. I wish more instructional videos would do the same.

There are pdfs for you to print out but I wish there were more. It’s pretty much the sheet music for all the rudiments he talked about in the beginning of the DVD. I just wish they transcribed some of the fills in this DVD. I can find rudiment transcriptions everywhere, not so with the fills.

Presentation

Now, this was shot in HD and is/was scheduled to be released as a Blu-Ray I don’t know what happened to it. As of this writing I can’t find details on when and if the Blu-Ray will drop. I will do an update of some sort when I learn anything about its production status.

Now then, It’s still a very nice looking DVD in terms of clarity of picture but there were some issues I had with the DVD. There were minor issues with the lighting and volume every now and again. Those were forgivable but the one that was actually a problem was with some of the menus. Not all the menus, mind you just some of them. Some of the menus were very intuitive and easy to use, and some could have you selecting the wrong thing over and over.

Ok so there’s some rough edges on the production… what about Todd as a host? He’s excellent. He comes off as the teacher who tries to really get the students to like him but is still a great educator. Survive some of the jokes and he’s got a ton of wisdom for you. He’s a clear and concise teacher and he also knows his limits so he never talks past where he can effectively teach. Carrying on in the tradition of Neil Peart, he has entire sections of the video dedicated to him just talking about whatever he’s trying to teach, as opposed to demonstrating it on the kit. I’ve found that some of the best info on the DVD has come out of these thought sections. The best thing about them is that they even have him drumming in the background under the commentary to keep it interesting. A trick I hope other instructional DVDs pick up.

Extras.

Lots and lots of bonus footage here to keep keep satisfied. Song commentaries, gear tour, and even a blooper reel. Suffice it to say, if I’m happy about the amount of extras you probably will be too.

All in all. This is a must watch and definitely worth a spot in your collection or at least your Netflix queue.

NO show this week

JABB — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:15:18 +0000

Exams are bearing down at visible school and the crew can’t make it this week. We apologize and will be back in full force next week.

The Drummertalk Team

Victor Wooten & Carter Beauford: Making Music

JABB — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:03:48 +0000

This review might be a little nontraditional but you’ll have to forgive me because this DVD is quite nontraditional. It’s one of those most rare of animals, the drum and bass instructional video. Carter Beauford, (drummer for DMB) and Victor Wooten, (bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones), decided to turn the recording session for Victor’s album Yin-Yang into the foundation for an entire drum/bass instructional DVD. This isn’t two separate instructional DVDs that Hudson Music decided to sell as a package. It doesn’t try to teach everything you need to know to play either instrument. Rather, it focuses on the music on the Yin-Yang album and examines the give-and-take between Carter and Victor when they play. This is an instructional that demands you pay attention to what they play and analyze it for yourself.

Content

According to wikipedia, Carter only did session work for Victor on two songs for the entire album. In the video you only really see them working on the track “Zenergy” so you’ll hear that song over and over and over and over. There is a lot of interviews and a few bass and drum duets to space out the studio footage. The idea, it seems, was to demonstrate whatever concept by playing together and then talking about it afterwards. After watching some of them I felt like I saw what they were getting at when they played. Some of the others not so much. One thing I noted is that because Carter Beauford’s style is so unique that it could be difficult taking his ideas and applying them to your playing. Then again if you’re watching this video then you probably already know that. Victor actually proved to be very articulate and the main educator of the video. Listening to what he had to say about music in a more philisophical kind of context along with his thoughts when he’s producing music is good for all musicians.

Presentation

This is one of the lower quality Hudson Music DVD’s but then it is one of their oldest. It’s in Full Screen and some of the back grounds for the interviews are bad. Whatever, I’ve seen many times worse then that in my time reviewing these things. Camera work and pacing are same old Hudson Music quality. The real thing that annoyed me was hearing that “Zenergy” song a million times while watching it Then again that’s probably what it’s like in the studio. You gotta listen to the same thing over and over again so you can figure out what can make the song better. I’ll just say it’s very realistic in that department and will leave it at that.

Carter gets his points across well enough but Wooten is the clinician of the two and better at communicating. I usually found that I liked Victors take on most of the things they discussed together. Between the pair of them, they were able to clearly explain whatever concept they were talking about. Once again they didn’t go into details about stickings or give transcriptions or whatever. Lots of broad concepts to be found here.

In short, presentation wise, this DVD came out as well as it could given the technology available to them at that time.

Extras

The bonus footage is the only real thing worth paying attention to in this DVD… of which there happens to be a ton. It contains highlights from a Victor Wooten bass clinic and a long form interview with Carter Beauford. The Beauford Interview is interesting and has some song groove examples. The Wooten clinic is a great watch for any kind of musician and the information is still relevant today. It’s the same stuff he talks about on his brand new Hudson Music DVD so that’s good. The extra content is just as good as the main feature when you put them together so definitely watch it if you get a chance.

I happen to be a Bassist/Drummer so I thought maybe I’d be the only one who’d really benefit to watching this DVD. Nope. You should definitely rent this at least once.

Drummer Talk 11/19/2009 – PASIC 2009 Recap (Part I)

Dave — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:04:47 +0000

Today, we go over the first day and a half of PASIC 2009. Clinics include Maria Martinez, Chris Pennie, Sergio Belotti, Tobias Ralph, Felix Pollard, Steve Fidyk, and Benny Greb.

Drummer Talk

Drummer Talk 02/03/2010 – Winter NAMM Gear Review (Part II)

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Ed Thigpen Dies at 79

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NO show this week

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