Collingwood Cymbals

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Collingwood Cymbals in Bristol where I had the opportunity to create my own ride cymbal under the guidance of Dave Collingwood himself.

I’ve been hammering and lathing my own pandeiro platinelas for quite a few years now, but have always wanted to try my hand at a full sized cymbal.  As expected, it turned out to be an entirely different beast all together.  Dave gave me the option of watching more or doing more.  For me, it was more about the process.  I wanted to be as hands on as possible even if that meant getting a subpar cymbal.  Either by luck, Dave’s great teaching, or a combination thereof, I got the best of both worlds.  I’d say I did a good 75% of the hammering and lathing myself, and still came out with a great cymbal that I’ve been gigging non-stop already.

Here are a few pictures and videos from the day.  If you’re based in the UK, or plan to visit, I’d highly recommend this experience.

 

 

Groove Transcription - Carlton Barrett, "Three Little Birds"

The next tune in the medley I mentioned the other day was Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds".  The groove here is known as a "one drop".  In fact, the drummer on this track, Carlton Barrett, is one of the drummers credited with creating the one drop beat.  The groove is pretty consistent, so I didn't bother writing out the whole tune, but there is a lot of subtlety going on with each bar varying ever so slightly, particularly with regards to how many notes he's playing on the hi-hat.  So, I went through and jotted down some of the different ways he phrases the groove.  In the case of the this sheet, parentheses aren't ghost notes, but rather are optional.  For example, the first bar on the sheet appears many times in the recording, but sometimes you'll hear 1e&a, while other times only 1&a.  As the tune goes on there is a bit more variation and density.

Among other things, I noticed that the 16th notes don't swing as much as one might think they do.  The tambourine adds a lot of the bouncy swing, and if you're playing without a percussionist perhaps you should take this into consideration, but you don't necessarily have to put as much shuffle on it may seem.

There are NO crashes.  None.  And I think this is an important part of the sound.  The fills lead straight back to the groove with no cymbal punctuation.  Resist the urge to play them.  Use open hi-hats instead.

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Groove Transcription - Drummie Zeb, "Silly Games"

I recently played as part of the house band for the BBC's "Make a Difference Awards" in their historic Radio Theatre.  This was the second year in a row I've done this gig.  It's always a treat to play in such iconic venues with a crew who are doing everything to a very high standard.

This year, we were asked to support two singers doing a reggae medley.  While I do listen to some reggae and dub casually, and have played a few of the hits with cover bands, I had to do a bit of homework for this one.

The opening number of the medley was "Silly Games", by Janet Lee.  Janet and the drummer on the track, Drummie Zeb, like many reggae musicians, were born right here in London, the first children born of parents that came to the UK as part of the Windrush generation.

I don't know if this specific groove has a name like some of the other reggae grooves, such as the "one drop", "steppers", and "rockers", but the tune is part of the "Lover's rock" style of reggae which tends to be more female-led, and focus on more romantic subjects than other styles.  There's little to no variation in the groove, so I just wrote it once, with the fills to go along with it.

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Full PDF catalog now available for download!

If you've been reading the blog for a while you'll know that the resources I post here have always been JPGs, which are not exactly conducive to printing.  Until now I've always asked you to e-mail me for a PDF.  Many of you have, and it's been great to connect with some of you and see which posts you are most interested in.

I still hope you'll e-mail with any questions, but I've decided to streamline the process for a few reasons:

1. Instant access! You can now download any of the PDFs you'd like immediately.  No more waiting for a response from me.

2. Growing the site. Full disclosure: I'm starting a mailing list.  I've got some bigger projects in the works, and subscribers will be the first to find out and get special offers.

The blog has always been free and always will.  I'm committed to sharing knowledge with anyone and everyone who wants it.  So, I hope you'll feel that's a fair deal for your e-mail address.  It will help me share these new projects with you and grow the community even further.

If you're interested, click the link below to sign up, get access to the entire back catalog, and download any of the resources you might find useful in your own practice and/or teaching.  The library will be updated with each new blog post, so check back often.

https://www.adamosmianski.com/freepdfs

And please do still get in touch!  I love hearing from you.

-Adam

Single stroke / Herta exercises

A few of the drumline exercises we looked at recently can easily be tweaked to work single strokes.

 

First, "The Grid".  Go through it with doubles as the variable, but instead of a double stroke, play it as two single strokes, or a "herta", if you will.

 

 

Next, do the same thing with Triplet Rolls.  This one works really nicely as it will end on the opposite hand that you start with, so you can just go around again on the other side.

 

 

 

Finally, this is another piece from the drumline "songbook", called "Pantera".  I have no idea who wrote it, and it seems like no one else does either.  It just appears to be like a folk tune with an unknown composer.

 

 

With all of these, keep your heights consistent; full, but not pounding, and don't add any accents. 

Triplet Rolls

Here's another classic of the marching arts repertoire.  It's simply called "Triplet Rolls", and that's exactly what it is, a roll exercise based in triplets.  You could wor /these skills just as easily by "diddling" The Grid, but still everyone knows this one, so it's something you can play with other people easily.

 

Just like a jazz standard, there are a few slightly different versions of it, but what I think of as the most common version looks like this:

 

Notice the lack of accents.  Everything should be at one even height.  It will vary depending on the speed, but in general it should be a medium height; nice and relaxed and beefy - not so high to where you're really having to push it, but not so low that you don't get any sound or power.  Try to keep the singles and doubles both at a consistent height and volume.

16th note grid

While less common for some reason, the same grid concept that we looked at last week can be applied to 16th notes.  Again, just vary each partial of the beat four times once, then two times twice, and once four times.  With the extra partial in each beat it makes for a longer exercise, but also means we have a little bit more room for whackier combinations to try out.  Here are some of the same options we looked at last time, but with 16th notes.

 

  

 

 

 

 

Also remember that we can add another layer of complexity by adding static elements and secondary elements, like:

Play a diddle on every first partial, but then move through the accent grid, leaving you with accented didles and drags

Grid flams, but always play a diddle after each flam 

Again, the possibilities are pretty much only limited to your imagination.  Don't forget to move your feet and/or count out loud.

Jim Chapin - "Modern Jazz Drumming with Rhythm Backgrounds for Home Participation"

Maybe this is old news, but I had no idea this existed.

I've owned Jim Chapin's Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer for years, but never spent much time with it, and it definitely didn't come with a CD.  Lately I've been digging in to it, and enjoying it a lot.  Curious about a few questions I had about the material I jumped online and ended up stumbling upon this....

Though the book was first published in 1948, it looks like the record wasn't released until 1970.  But in it, Chapin goes through the entire book, playing every exercise alone, and some with a bass player.  It answers pretty much every question I've seen on various forums about the interpretation of the book.  So, it, like me, you are working through this book and find yourself wondering what Chapin intended then be sure to check out the playlist above.  It's all there.