THE B

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PAGE

JULY 2008

WORKING DRUMMER’S

BOOTCAMPTHE BLACK PAGE

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Sean Mitchell PublisherJill Schettler Editor In ChiefJayson Brinkworth WriterRyan Carver Writer

Rich Redmond: Page 3

Tone, Touch & Feel: Page 13

by Jayson Brinkworth

Paradiddle Grooves Hand/Foot Combi-nations Part One:

Page 17by Ryan Carver

The Final Word: Page 18

Featuring chris sutherland

Designed to get every drummer in shape to face any freelancing challenge. The Bootcamp is a complete run through of almost anything you might encounter in the music business. Live skills, studio skills, networking skills and getting every possible aspect of your drumming ready for any-thing. It’s a tough business, learn how a pro stays impossibly busy.

Kim Mitchell, Squeek, Deric Ruttan, Saga, Doc Walker, Amanda Falk

Click on the image aboveto visit chris on the web

Rich Redmond

Not since Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings has Nashville witnessed the emergence of a more colorful charac-ter. Connecticut born Rich Redmond has entered the city limits of Music City USA much like a Brama bull might en-ter a china shop.

Flailing arms, phat groove, twirling sticks, and a twenty-six inch...errr...kick drum, Rich is among the select few who will go down in music history as a drummer who has broken new ground in country music. His power, groove and inspiration keep him at the top of his game as one of Nashville’s busiest sidemen and studio players.

Redmond is no one-trick pony. When you listen to Rich’s tracks, you become painfully aware of how much more work you need to do. His freakish ability and understanding of playing styles is sec-ond to none. The precision and level at which Rich plays are shared by only a very few players on this planet. Add to this entire mix a guy who is so humble and passionate about drumming that he does all his own tech work.

I have always encouraged people to seek enlightenment. As you read this interview, you will enter Rich’s world embraced by passion, energy, rows of semi’s, sound gear, and a tackle box full of spare drum parts. There you will find a person (never mind player) we should all aspire to be.

Photos courtesy of Fotos By Folletts

Rich, how is the tour going and what are the highlights so far?

Sean, everything is fantastic! We have been touring non-stop since early 2005. We spent the first year playing every club, college, and honky-tonk in the United States. The second year, we branched out to large theatres and outdoor amphitheatres, and began our two-year run as an opening act with Rascal Flatts. It was a real thrill to play for fifteen to twenty-five thousand people a night. In January of this year we began Jason’s first headlining tour, play-ing larger theatres and civic cen-ters. It’s been amazing to see the response from the fans who pay their hard, earned money to pur-chase a hard ticket to our shows. Most of the venues are one-thou-sand to twelve-hundred seaters, and they are sold out every night. I am also very proud to announce that we will be the opening act on Tim McGraw’s summer tour. We will play thirty-two amphitheatres between May 9th and July 6th.

How did you get hooked up with Jason Aldean?

I met Jason Aldean in 2000 through my good friend Tully Kennedy. I met Tully through our good friend Kurt Allison. Kurt rec-ommended me to Tully for one of Jason’s showcases. This be-gan Jason’s five-year “overnight” success story. Between 2000 and 2005, we showcased for ev-

ery major label in Nashville four times, literally. We jumped into minivans, took it to the people, and started to develop a “band sound.”

You are one of Nashville’s busiest session players. What does it take to be an in demand session cat like yourself?

I play everything with a tremen-dous amount of passion and at-titude. I think that helps. I treat myself like a character actor and approach each song as a role I have to play. Whatever style the song is in, I want it to sound like that is the only style of music I play. I’m there to light a fire under the band, serve the music, and make the artists so happy that they continue to call me time and time again. People skills are 99% of the gig. Obviously, you have to be a solid player, but you have to be pleasant to be around. I also know that positive energy makes it to tape, so I am always positive. It takes twice as much energy to create a negative thought as it does a positive thought, so why not be positive all of the time?

Who do you have left to add to the “bands I want to play with” list?

I’m what you’d call a ‘blue-collar drummer’, a journeyman, a hired gun. I enjoy every situation I per-form in, whether it be live or in the studio. To me, there are only two kinds of music, good and bad,

VISIT RICH ONLINEWWW.RICHREDMOND.COM

and I like both. The craftsman in me realizes that even if the music is bad, I still get to play drums. Ha! Drums and percussion are the instruments to make or break a live band or the quality of a record-ing. A great drummer can make a mediocre band sound amazing. It’s a fact. I think we all have fanta-sies about playing music with our heroes and peo-ple we admire. My list includes: John Mellencamp, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Sheryl Crow, Pink, Aimee Mann, Radney Foster, Rodney Crowell, Rod Stewart, Kelly Willis, Cindy Lauper, Joan Jett, Ron-nie James Dio, John Eddie, John Fogerty, Kathleen Edwards and Keith Richards, among many others.

That’s a pretty eclectic list. The beautiful thing is that many of these artists are Nashville based or come through Nashville to write or record. A relationship with these artists is a handshake away. I also have friends that currently perform with these artists, so I’m “on the list” if they ever decide to leave. A recent thrill for me was being one of ten drummers from across the country to be asked to audition for Peter Frampton, and yet another very connected friend recommended me for the drum chair with Matchbox 20.

Thus far, what has been your biggest moment on stage?

Every night is an absolute thrill for me whether I am playing an arena or a small club, with a major artist or a nervous upstart. I revel in my support role as the musical drummer, the cheerleader. Most of the people I play with allow me to step out on a ledge

with my own style, feel, and showmanship. I am very fortunate. Many events over the years come to mind. When I was at The University of North Texas, The One O’ Clock Lab Band did a performance in Portugal that featured jazz music from 1917-1994. I was responsible for recreating the sound, feel, and musical concepts of nearly a century of big band music. That felt good. Another moment that comes to mind was when my last band, Rushlow, performed for the world’s greatest fighter pilots on the deck of the U.S.S. Kennedy. Of course, hearing the roaring approval of 20,000 fans for Jason Aldean and our band during the Flatts tour didn’t feel bad either. It’s

a testament to the hard work we have put into this thing for years. This is a business that requires a massive amount of determination and persistence. I’m proud that I have always surrounded myself with positive people that shared a common vision for their futures. Just recently, I played on some demos for the boys from the band Lit. It was an amazing time. I was always a big fan of that band and to fi-nally make music with the Popoff (Jeremy and AJ) brothers was a thrill. That was the ‘law of attraction’ in action!

What does a typical day entail for you?

When I am on the road, I like to get up as early as I can so I can be productive. It really depends on what I did the night before. I have to make sure I am well rested. I usually get up, eat a healthy breakfast, watch a little news, gossip with my band mates, and drink some coffee while I check emails. Our road

manager lines up a gym for us, and I try to knock that out early. I’m usually good for ninety min-utes of weights and cardio. On our headline shows, our sound check is from 2-4 pm everyday. On big tours like The Flatts or Tim McGraw, our sound check will be scheduled for later in the day. I also try to setup private lessons or master classes at the local drum shop with the help of my publicist, Ashley. I can usually fit up to four one-hour lessons in before show time. If I have no students in a particular market, I will use the time to do “business” (make phone calls, return emails, book sessions, advance cartage details, learn songs for upcoming showcases, etc.). I may even jump in on a dressing room songwriting session with my band mates. On top of all this, I have no drum tech on the road, so I do all my own setups, tear downs, head changes and maintenance. The local crew is always fantastic about getting my gear to and from the stage. I have my setups down to roughly an hour. This includes head changes, cleaning and tun-ing. Of course, my teardowns go much faster because I have hands to shake and things to do. You have to understand that country artists have a tendency to travel only four days a week. We get on the bus on Wednesday at midnight and we come back to Nashville on Sunday morning. This leaves Monday to Wednes-day to do recording sessions, industry showcases, production projects, and select local gigs. I love the balance of live and ses-sion playing. My studio precision helps my live playing, and my live energy and attitude seeps into my session work. My schedule

in Nashville is more pampered. Drum Paradise (famed cartage and rental company) does all of my session setups, head chang-es and maintenance on my Nash-ville kits. They have everything marked and can get me in and out of a session or showcases in no time flat. My in-town schedule is a mixed bag of stuff. Sessions in Nashville are divided into three-hour blocks of time scheduled at 10 am, 2 pm and 6 pm. I try to book myself as much as possible, so a typical day could be a 10 am publishing demo session, an af-ternoon showcase rehearsal, a 6 pm industry showcase with an up-and-coming artist, and then a 10 pm gig with me backing up several songwriters on percus-sion. An artist may book me for an entire day to work on their re-cord and then I may be off on the following day. Those are the days that I knock out “business” stuff, practice, or just smell the roses. I’d like everyone to know that I do teach in Nashville at my favorite drum shop, Fork’s Drum Closet. I also make “house calls” for les-sons. I prefer teaching intermedi-ate to professional players who want to sharpen their skills.

What led you to Nashville?

I attended the University of North Texas from ’92-’95. After I gradu-ated, I moved into the Dallas Me-troplex and began freelancing and teaching. I was playing in one of Dallas’ most popular Top 40/party bands called Random Axis. We were playing five nights a week. Around that, I played with the area big bands and jazz/fu-zak bands, taught privately, and did lots of custom recordings and jingles.

My graduating class included amazing players like Keith Car-lock (Sting, Blues Brothers), Blair Sinta (Alanis Morissette), Craig Pilo (Franki Valli) and Adam Gust (LA Studio). All these guys were making their moves to the coasts, and I knew I had to make mine. A friend of mine, Dan Nelson, came to see me play one night and told me that a gal named Trisha Year-wood (top Nashville recording art-ist) was looking for a new drum-mer. I had my sights set on LA, but I sent a cassette tape (yes…this was 1997) demo to Trisha’s bandleader, and he told me to get on a plane to Nashville and have a go at the cattle call. There were fifteen very established cats au-ditioning and one unknown, me. I went in very prepared and had a great time playing with the band, but the gig went to another cat named Shawn Ficter. A couple of cats in the band were impressed enough with me to recommend me for an audition with Barbara Mandrell. Barbara’s gig was more like a Vegas revue and had lots of cues for lighting and costume changes. They wanted all the drummers to play verbatim what the previous drummer (Shawn Ficter) played. So I transcribed his playing from the board tape and got busy memorizing it. I had a blast at that one, but another cat (Mark Nemer) got the gig. Again, one of the musicians from Barbara’s band recommended me for an audition with Deanna Carter. Deanna was exploding on the scene with her song “Straw-berry Wine.” My audition was even included as part of an epi-sode of “Access Hollywood!” The bandleader had to make a deci-sion between me and another cat named Angello Collura, who

already lived in Nashville. I still had my life in Dallas and the tour was starting the very next week. Angello got the gig. All of these auditions happened within a three-week period, so I was flying back and forth be-tween Dallas and Nashville. There is a moral to the story. The bandleaders all told me that I was playing at a high level that equaled many established cats, but I needed to live in Nashville. I was not discour-aged but rather inspired and excited about pursuing my new leads. I gave two weeks notice to my band in Dallas, packed up my drums and my cat, and was living in Nashville one month later. Sometimes you just have to make a leap of faith. On a funny note, eight years after Deanna’s massive success, I end-ed up doing a string of dates with her right before Jason started taking off. Needless to say, I keep in touch with all of the musicians that helped me along the way, and we recommend each other for gigs to this day. Time sure does fly because I have been in Nashville for eleven years.

I recently read that years ago drummers were forbidden on the Grand Ole Opry. Is this true? And is it true they used dark plexi-glass for a while?

Yeah, crazy! I believe Bob Wills and His Texas Play-boys were the first group to “sneak” drums onto the stage through the back door of the Ryman Audito-rium. When I moved to Nashville in ’97, they were still using a drum screen that was heavily tinted. Ri-diculous! Things have really changed on the Opry. Carrie Underwood is a huge pop crossover artist, and they just announced that she will be inducted. The Opry is scrambling to bump up their “hip factor” so the institution can survive. The first time I saw the Opry, I fell asleep, literally. Four years after that, I was a mainstay on the Opry with Pam Tillis and even played on the show when she was inducted as an official member.

Historically, the country drummer is a “boom chick” kind of player. Why has the industry gravitated towards a groovier, rock influenced sound?

Sounds and styles can be deceiving. Traditional country music has its own distinctive feel and pock-et. Getting a great two-beat feel, a grooving “train beat,” or a soulful shuffle separates the men from the

boys. These are styles that I wasn’t completely fa-miliar with when I moved to Nashville. I was trained in rock, pop, jazz, fusion, and classical. I went to a used record store called The Great Escape in Nashville and bought all of the legendary perform-ers greatest hits on cassette, and I went to work absorbing the styles. I think a great drummer can play any style with conviction and authority. Every style is a dialect that has to be learned. You have to learn the vocabulary. You have to learn the rules before you can break them. Artists have been combining country and rock sounds since the 60’s and 70’s. Every ten years or so, the sound shifts in Nashville. When I first got to Nashville in ‘97, we were playing shuffles and train beats with a beefed-up rock drum sound. Slowly but surely, the drums were getting hotter and hotter in the mix. Now we play straight up 70’s and 80’s style rock grooves. Cymbals shimmer, hi-hats bark, rim shots crank and bass drums shake like Godzilla trampling Tokyo. Things have really changed. I have to admit that some of it is really bad. I think Tom

Petty said that the music coming out of Nashville now is like “really bad 70’s rock with a fiddle.” There is some truth to that. Thank God I work with produc-ers like Justin Niebank and Michael Knox. Jason’s records are pretty stripped down and raw. We add fiddle and steel to “countrify” the sound for radio, but we are a strict guitar, bass and drum band on the road. Less instruments equals more space in the mix, which results in a bigger, clearer sound. Justin makes very organic-sounding records with a classic sound. The new Doc Walker record that I played on called Beautiful Life is very classic sounding. It hit stores April 29th in Canada and the new single is the fastest rising single on Canadian radio right now. If someone wanted to know how I approach tradi-tional country, alt. country, pop country and coun-try rock, I would point them towards that record. I’m very proud of it. I also lead a production company with Kurt Allison and Tully Kennedy called Three Kings Entertain-ment. We will be working towards achieving the next phase of fresh new sounds coming out of Nashville. We have a killer pop artist named David Fanning, and a country guy named Brandon LePere. We are very excited about this.

Rich say the first thing that comes to mind when I mention the following drummers: DJ Fontana: Elvis’ original drummer. He was able to bridge the gap between swung eights and the new “rock and roll” feel. I appreciate his tenacity and love for the instrument. He is still recording and touring. I want to die playing the drums.

Ronnie Tutt: He took Fontana’s lead and added a more muscular edge to the music with his multi-tom setups, deep groove, and arena-friendly style. Anyone that can keep up with Elvis’ energy has my vote. I think he actually studied martial arts to enhance his abil-ity to anticipate Elvis’ moves. I met Ronnie at an RMA (Recording Musicians Association) meeting in Nashville. He is a gentleman.

Larrie Londin:Chet Atkins called him “the greatest drummer in the world.” He could play any style with conviction and taste. He died after giving a clinic at The University

of North Texas. This was right before I started my Master’s program there. I know my pal Jim Riley (Rascal Flatts/Nashville Sessions) was so inspired by his performance that he moved to Nashville soon after. From Journey to Diana Ross to Vince Gill, what a resume. I aspire to that level of greatness.

Eddie Bayers:Wow! Eddie won The Academy of Country Music’s “Drummer of the Year” Award thirteen times in row. The Academy ended up changing the rules so that no one drummer could win it more than two times in a row. That says so much. His musicianship speaks for itself. The average lifespan of a session drummer is five years. Eddie has been on top of the heap for twenty-five. Amazing! You can tell af-ter two bars that it is an Eddie Bayers track. His feel, the sound of his kit, and his signature “Bayers” drum fills, the guy knows how to play and shape a song perfectly. When I auditioned for Trisha, I had to study all of his parts. I had to learn five of Trisha’s songs but ended up buying five of her albums and transcribed every song. I learned so much from do-ing that. I see Eddie’s drums parked next to mine at the Drum Paradise warehouse, and it reminds me what I have to aspire to. Eddie was also very helpful and encouraging to me when I moved to Nashville. Eddie listened to my demo, welcomed me to town, encouraged me to dive head first into the scene, and to keep in touch. Lonnie Wilson was also very helpful. Lonnie has a style similar to Eddie’s but is a little busier with more flamboyance (lots of cym-bal crashes, china cymbals, cracking snare drums). He hooked me up with some showcase work and a road gig. Time, patience, determination, and a fo-cused mind will always lead to success. Thank you, Eddie and Lonnie, for believing in me early on.

Buddy Harmon:He played with Patsy Cline, the first “suicide girl” of country music. He claims to have played on eigh-teen-thousand sessions, and I believe it. It makes me want to backtrack and start counting the num-ber I have done (Again something to really aspire to). His daughter, Summer, used to work at Jason’s record label, Broken Bow. Nashville is a very small town. I see him from time to time at The Opry and at The Musician’s Union Hall.

Mark Herndon:The longtime drummer for Alabama. His band sold seventy-three million records. They set the bench-mark for combining countrified harmonies and song-writing with arena-sized showmanship. I can relate to Mark because he’s a Yankee (like me). Jason is a huge Alabama fan, and we do a cool medley of their tunes for our encore. Jason’s fans dig it, and we are helping to bring Alabama’s music to a new generation of music lovers. I just did a showcase for a cat named Brad Long, who is being produced by Alabama’s Teddy Gentry. Once again, the world continues to get smaller, so I will probably meet Mark in the near future. I am influenced by everyone in the Nashville scene, and I would encourage other drummers to check out Greg Morrow, Shannon Forrest, Chad Crom-well, Chris McHugh, Eric Darken, Steve Brewster, Jerry Kroon, Tommy Wells, and others. Read those liner notes and do your homework.

What are Nashville producers looking for in a drummer?

I think producers from all musical genres are look-ing for roughly the same thing. I think people want to be surrounded by creative souls with big hearts that can get the job done quickly and efficiently. You have to have amazing people skills and be able to take and give direction. You have to speak the language of music and all of its dialects. I encour-age everyone to have a broad palette of musical influences and knowledge to pull from. You have to have amazing sounding gear. Give people options. I bring my wonderful Sonor drums to every ses-sion with a large selection of snare drums, cymbals, percussion, and electronics. It’s all there to choose from. Producers are creatures of habit. If they expe-rience a string of success using one group of guys, they will continue to use those guys. “Don’t fix it, if it isn’t broken” has never had more relevance than in the Nashville studio scene. You have to get on as many call lists as possible as a player. The call for a session may come from artists, songwriters, session leaders, players on the session, engineers,

or studio owners. You really have to have a large group of people championing you to work on a reg-ular basis.

What’s the secret to your success in the stu-dio? ?I never take any of it for granted. Even though I have laid a tremendous amount of groundwork and have many people requesting me for my services, it can all go away. It’s a very fickle business. That’s why someone like Eddie Bayers is the exception to the rule. I also don’t limit myself. I know that my live work creates studio work for myself and vice versa. If I enjoy working with an artist, I want to be working with them in all capacities. I loved playing on the new Doc Walker record. They have some showcas-es coming up that I can’t make due to scheduling conflicts. I’m actually upset that I won’t be able to perform those songs live in front of an audience. I try to always be creative. I am positive all of the time. I try to inspire the musicians to play their best. I can provide options. If an artist isn’t digging the direction the drum track or the entire band’s perfor-mance is heading, I can make suggestions to take it where it needs to be. You have to be able to play a musical and groovy drum track with or without a click. You have to be able to play or program loops and then play on top of it very precisely. I can also play my own percussion tracks right on the spot. Other cats can get lazy about this. My philosophy is that my tracks aren’t finished until there is some nice subdivision “icing” layered on the cake (shak-ers, tambourines, hand drums). I maintain my own

high standards for quality control. If someone asks, “Who played on that track?” and my names comes up, it has to be happening. I always tell guys just getting into the recording environment to play at the top of their game at all times. You can never just go through the motion and “mail it in.” Jason’s top-five single “Johnny Cash” was actually recorded as a publishing demo in 2002. I got it in a take or two. The label remixed it, put it on Jason’s second record and released it as a single. The next thing you know, I was in the desert outside of Las Vegas shooting the video, and we were playing it on all sorts of award shows.Doing the percussion thing well has lead to other work avenues. Guys like Eddie (Bayers), Lonnie (Wilson), and Greg (Morrow) are so busy running from one tracking session to the next that I am called in to layer percussion on top of their drum tracks. I love it! I get to hear their approaches to music, and how they play with and around the click.

You have been touted as having the ability to learn tunes, record, and overdub in record time. How are you able to accomplish this without sacrificing the quality of your work? I think lots of the cats in Nashville have this abil-ity. It’s survival. Having these skills is required to be welcomed into “The Club.” When I was in college, I probably read three thousand drum charts, liter-ally. There are only so many ways to write the same rhythms over and over, so you get good at sight reading. This is a skill that is way more important in NYC and LA where Broadway shows and movie soundtracks are recorded everyday. When I was at UNT, we read big band charts that were ten pages long and draped over three music stands. You had to practice turning the pages while playing at warp speeds. Ha! (I usually just asked the percussionist to flip the page for me). All of that training led to me developing my own way of creating “cheat charts” for recording sessions, showcases, and gigs. I have been doing this since ‘93. My first call in Nashville involved learning sixty songs for a Top 40 circuit band in two days. I scribbled out some charts on 4 x 6 index cards, notated the beats per minute, and put them in alphabetical order. This is a surefire way of impressing bandleaders and getting more work. In my journey, I have become comfortable reading chord charts and number charts.

The quality of the work can’t suffer. A demo ses-sion in Nashville is a three- hour block of time where the writer/artist tries to get five songs recorded. That leaves exactly thirty-two minutes per song. The writer will play the song on the guitar or will play a recording (usually cut on Garage Band) off of their laptop or on a CD player. The bandleader prepares Number Charts ahead of time, and I get the bpm (beats per minute) by tapping the tempo on my Tama Rhythm Watch. I read the chart down and make “drumistic” markings (signature beats, phrase markings, scribble out figures, circle repeat signs, etc.). Then we are off to the races. I program the tempo into my drum machine or laptop. I may choose a loop from Stylus RMX or Reason to play over. It has been very common these days to have the engineer generate one of the stock click sounds from Pro Tools. I always prefer to run it myself if the session doesn’t have to be on the grid, which is another pet peeve of mine but helps with digital editing later. I then choose the appropriate snare drum for the song (deep dish, muffled, open, picco-lo) and then maybe change out a ride cymbal (dry, wet, rivets, etc.). The first run through is to deter-mine if the tempo feels the best and if the general arrangement is working. We all make suggestions together with the bandleader and the writer, and we will maybe rehearse those spots in question. The next run through should be my “keeper” drum track. After that, the individual band members ask to do any fixes or punches which is very easy to do now with Pro Tools. Then the guitarists will do additional “color” of “fattening” passes. During those passes, I will knock out a tambourine or shaker part. I usually determine which one is more important. If I think it needs both, I will stay after the session to make sure it makes it to tape. This process is a tried and true working method in Nashville. Of course, on Master Sessions—which are the records you can buy in Wal-Mart or Target—you get to take your time. It is not uncommon to record one song every three hours on this type of session. What a luxury!

What do you have coming up in 2008?

I am so excited about continuing to help Jason Al-dean’s star rise and working like a beast to have my name move up the Nashville recording scene lad-der. I am also very interested in adding clinics and master classes into the equation. I have the support

of all my sponsors. I want to share my knowledge of the music business and the skills necessary to succeed in this crazy industry. I will strive to have my clin-ics be educational, motiva-tional, and highly entertain-ing. The subject matter can be custom tailored to each student or group. My clinics usually have a theme, such as “Chart Reading,” “Music Business Survival Skills,” “Playing in a Band,” “Rudi-ments and Reading,” “The Nashville Number System,” “Studio Drumming,” “Incor-porating Percussion into the Drum set,” etc. I will usually hit on many of these sub-jects and will let each group of students dictate where we go. I will pay along to tracks I have recorded and discuss how I came up with my parts. I have lots of stories to tell, and I think students will get a kick out of it and learn a lot. I have a new production com-pany (Three Kings Entertain-ment) with my bandmates Kurt Allison and Tully Ken-nedy called “The DT” (Dream Team). Our first client is a very talented and marketable pop/rock artist named David Fanning (myspace.com/da-vidfanning). Our goal is to fin-ish a record on him and get him signed. We also have a country artist we are working with and the goal is the same. Our goal is to be ‘’the guys” in Nashville to produce fresh up-and-coming music. l

Rich Redmond Select DiscographyJason Aldean“Jason Aldean” (Broken Bow) 2005 Drums/Perc. Jason Aldean“Relentless” (Broken Bow) 2007 Drums/Perc. Doc Walker“Beautiful Life” (RGK) 2007 Drums/Perc. Rushlow“Right Now” (Lyric Street) 2003 Drums/Perc. The Roadhammers“Blood, Sweat and Steel” (Montage) 2007 Drums/Perc. Steve Azar “Steve Azar” (Ride)) 2008 Drums/Perc. Bluefield“Bluefield” (Country Thunder) 2008 Drums/Perc. Scott Getlin“Just The Right Amount of Wrong” 2006 Perc. Pam Tillis“Rhinestoned” (Stellar Cat ) 2007 Perc. Pam Tillis“It’s All Relative” (Lucky Dog) 2002 Perc. Jedd Hughes“Transcontinental” (MCA) 2004 Perc. Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives“Country Music” (Columbia) 2004 Perc. Lila McCann (Featuring Jim Brickman) SINGLE-“I’m Amazed” (Broken Bow) 2005 Drums/Perc. Jon Roniger“Charmed Life” (Roniger Music) 2007 Drums/Perc. Jenna Von Oy“Breathing Room” (Little Ladybug) 2007 Drums/Perc. Front Row For The Meltdown“All The Wrong Things” (Five Finger) 2004 Drums/Perc. Jon Christopher Davis“Lone Star Attitude” (Jon Davis Music) 2003 Drums/Perc.

“I would venture to say that al-most any drummer could become the hottest player on the plan-et if he got into his tone enough. Because when you get there it leads to being more musical, and being more musical leads to more people enjoying playing with you, and that leads to more and more gigs.”

~Billy Ward

This quote from my friend Billy Ward totally floored me when I first read it years ago. It makes so much sense and made me feel better about my obsessive-compulsive behavior of tuning and kit setup.

For years I have been asked over and over about tuning drums. I have had students bring their full kit into a lesson to get them tuned up. I will try and put together an upcoming ar-ticle on this very personal subject. But for now, I want to share with you my thoughts on being the most musical drummer we can be.

TONEHave you ever really thought about how the sound of a drum

is produced? Why can one person play a drum and have it sound a certain way, and another play the exact same drum and it sound totally different? There are many factors involved in this: where the drum was hit, if we played into or off of the drum, how loose or tight we are holding the stick, or the type of stick and tip. This goes on and on, but I have found that a lot of drummers aren’t even aware of, or couldn’t be bothered to understand, what happens when they play a drum.

Once we strike a drum, we move air and cause sound waves to vibrate. These sound waves travel back and forth between the shell and the batter which resonate heads on the drum. Depending how these heads are tuned, the pitch or note that is produced can differentiate. This is our tone. But how does one get the most musical tone from their drums? Is it technique? Is it the type of drum we are playing? Is it luck?

A certain amount of technique definitely helps us pull a mu-sical tone out of the drum. The type of drum (shell material, etc.) affects this as well. My thoughts are that we should sound like ourselves on any drum. It should all be in our hands. I have heard drummers that don’t have great tone all of the time; there

Tone, Touch

and FeelThe Musicality of Drumming

might be a little luck involved here. Maybe they were more relaxed on a certain gig. Maybe their setup is more comfortable one way than another. However, there should be no luck in-volved in this, and consistency is the key.

I feel that we need to take this subject very seriously, for the reasons that Billy Ward men-tioned above. I am going to discuss my ap-proach to developing a good tone on the drums, but this is a very personal subject. You can find many ways to make your drums sing, and it is up to you to put the time and effort into it.

GET A GRIPThe way we hold the sticks and how tightly

we squeeze them is a big factor in the tone of our drums. Whether we play matched or tradi-tional grip, we need to be as loose as possible to have everything resonate together. Here is an easy way to find out if we squeeze our stick too tightly: hold both sticks as you normally would, now play your right stick onto your left, click-ing them together. Does it sound choked? Can you hear a pitch from the wood? You should be able to hear both sticks resonate and almost produce a note.

As far as grip goes, this is a whole other article in itself. We need to have the fulcrum relaxed (the grip between the thumb and the index finger for matched grip). Think of what would happen if the middle joint on a teeter-totter was too tight. Not a very fun ride. Also, our back fingers need to be in contact with the stick. Don’t let that pinky slide out! Having this contact allows us to switch gears and pull the tone out of the larger drums.

I use Power Grip sticks made by Trueline. These sticks are fantastic,! They have a hump on the back side of the stick, right where your fingers are. What this does is allow us to be very relaxed and not have the stick fly out of our hands. I can honestly say that my own per-sonal tone improved after I started using these sticks five years ago.

Do some research on grip and watch videos of players like Billy who are very relaxed in their technique and grip, thus having great tone on the drums.

Click here to order your copy

If you have your drums set up in

front of your TV in the living room

you might be a drumgeek

HAVE A BALLOkay, here I go with another one of my whacky

ideas, but this one works!Take a tennis ball and hold it in your right or left

hand. Sit at your drums as you would to play and bounce the ball off of your snare drum. There are a few things we need to observe here: did the ball bounce back to us? How tightly were we holding the ball before we threw it down to the drum? What sound did the drum make when the ball hit?

Of course the ball will bounce back, but was our drum at such an extreme angle that it didn’t bounce

back into our hand. If so, the stick will react in that same way, and we need to change this as it is not a comfortable or relaxed way to play.

When we throw the ball down, just like we throw the stick down, we should be holding it loosely. Hold the ball again just like you are going to throw it down. How is your hand shaped? Are you gripping right around the ball or is your hand loose and your fingers fanned back? Our fingers should be fanned back, and we should be holding the ball very loose. Keep your hand in said position, then take the ball out and replace it with your stick. This is your grip! When we throw that stick down, let it come back just like the ball and keep your fingers and wrist re-laxed.

From here we can go into the Moeller method, finger exercises, the free stroke, and other technical stuff. The bottom line is that we throw the stick into the drum, let it react just like a ball, and let the drum-head, sticks and our hand resonate all together. We can bounce the tennis ball off of our toms as well. Really listen to the sound of the drums, and pay at-tention to the detail of how our hand feels in this process.

TOUCHOur ability to develop touch takes years of prac-

tice and playing. Listen to players like Steve Gadd, Steve Jordan, Roy Haynes, Joe Morello, Levon Helm and many other experienced players. They have spent countless hours on the kit, and their touch keeps getting better and better.

The idea of touch is how we go about drawing the tone out of the drum. One thing that I always mention to students is that we want to play off of the drum and not into the drum, again letting ev-erything resonate. One of my first memories of this goes back to seeing Jeff Porcaro play and wonder-ing how he pulled a huge sound out of his drums when he barely moved. He would set his stick down on the snare, and it would rip your head off. This is what got me started thinking about tone and how I touched the kit to make it sound good.

As I said, this is a technique that takes years of experience to develop. The first step is becoming aware and working towards what sound you want to produce on the drums.

Here are a few examples of drum tracks with in-credible touch and tone:

Steve Gadd: 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover – Paul SimonManu Katché: Somewhere Down The Crazy River – Robbie RobertsonSteve Jordan: Belief – John Mayer (the whole album is touch and tone)Billy Ward: Out The Door – Billy Ward TrioBernard Purdie: Babylon Sisters – Steely DanJoe Morello: Take Five – Dave BrubeckJeff Porcaro: I’ll Be Over You – Toto

FEELThis is another very personal subject, and it can

be hard to write about. Our feel is developed through the music we listen to, the music we practice along with, and many other factors. I believe in exposing my students to many different styles of music, as this opens their minds to different styles and feels.

Our feel goes hand-in-hand with the tone we pro-duce and our touch on the drums. When we play music, the bottom line is we need it to feel relaxed, comfortable, and very groovy. Even if it is not tech-nically perfect, it can feel fantastic. Listen to Ringo Starr, Levon Helm, Charlie Watts, and others for an example of feel outweighing technical prowess. Mu-sic will always be this way, and playing with great feel should be our mission.

Don’t get me wrong, we need a certain amount of technique to be expressive on the drums. What we don’t want is to have technique rule our playing (there is no scoreboard on a gig or session).

Our feel is also affected by our setup. If we don’t feel comfortable playing our drums, how can we make the music feel comfortable for others to lis-ten or move to? We need to be aware of the angle of our toms and snare, the height and angle of our cymbals, and our seat height. Again these are sub-jects that can be written about all on their own, but we need to discover what feels comfortable when we play. Don’t be afraid to experiment with setup options other than the ones offered by your favorite players or in magazine ads.

Billy Ward’s DVD Big Time is a wonderful re-source on this exact subject. His explanation is so logical and practical that our minds will be open to new options.

BEING MUSICAL

As I have stated in past articles, my personal ob-jective in playing is to be the most musical drummer I can be.

When I am asked by students or fellow musicians what I have been practicing, sometimes I find it hard to answer. I do practice technical exercises, but I am mostly practicing being as aware and musical as possible in any music setting.

In my pursuit for this goal, these are areas that I work on:

1. Consistency in everything (groove, tone, ideas)2. Being aware of song form and arrangement3. Understanding what the other instruments are playing4. Saying more with less notes5. Being very aware of dynamics

Tone, touch, and feel will always be at the top of this list as these are the elements of music that make great songs, whether we know it or not.

Next time you sit down to practice, think about playing music. Play through a song that you know, without even having the actual song on. Do you know the form? Are you playing dynamically? Does it sound like you are playing a song on the drums?

This might seem odd at first, but you will be a bet-ter musician for this type of practice, I promise.

Jayson Brinkworth is an accomplished drummer, percussionist, vocal-ist, educator and writer. Click on his image to link to his website.

In the following exercises the paradiddle will be played as 16th notes between the bass drum and the floor tom, starting with the bass drum. The remaining hand plays various hi-hat patterns with a 2&4 backbeat on the snare drum. Re-member to start slow, count 16th notes, & practice each groove until it flows.

PARADIDDLE GROOVES HAND/FOOT COMBINATIONS PART ONE

by Ryan Carver

Ryan Carver is a member of the Academy of Drums faculty, the Vic Firth education team and the Percussive Arts Society. Click either link below to visit him on the web.

www.carverdrums.com www.myspace.com/ryancarver

THE FINAL WORD“I’ve never done

anything in my life to make money. I just always ask, ‘Is it going to be fun?’”

Richard Branson