Drum!255 September+2017

Gear Guide: New Sticks & Heads For 2017
P L AY B E T T E R FA ST E R
Stanton Moore Road Tested

A&F Royals Drums
Tribute To Toussaint Sabian Artisan
Sit Right Elite Cymbals
Carolina
The Ergonomics Drumworks
Of Drumming Gold Series
Snares
Chops
Workshop Shell Shock
Wood Species
Add Latin Rhythms Explained
To Your Pop
SEPTEMBER 2017
ISSUE 255
I N T R O D U C I N G
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Masterworks Modern Dry shown with a beautiful

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Listen to Modern Dry played by Will Kennedy of the
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COVER STORY
32 Ben Thatcher
In listening to How Did We Get So Dark?, the sophomore release
from bass-and-drums duo Royal Blood, the first question that
came to mind had nothing to do with illumination. Rather, we
had to ask how two people can sound so bloody huge. The
band’s young drummer explains.
  
ISSUE 255, VOL 26 ISSUE 9

SINGLE STROKES VIBE HAND DRUM PRACTICE PAD
12 Dave Simmons 29 Daxx Nielsen 57 Chris Dingman 73 How To Add Latin
Designer of the world’s first Cheap Trick’s rock star Meet one of the most celebrated To Your Pop
functional electronic drum kit. drummer is a completely vibraphonists of his generation. Spice up even the most basic
   different person at home.    backbeats by applying some
   time-tested traditions borrowed
12 What’s Your SOUNDLAB from Latin rhythms.
Drumming I.Q.? FEATURES   
18 2017 Sticks & 60 A&F Drum Co.
Todd Rundgren was notoriously
Heads Gear Guide Royals Kit
picky about his drummers. Do
If steam punk is your bag, this
78 Lessons
you know who they were? All the newest models to dress Glen Sobel ponders the
up your arsenal. definitely is your kit.
   possibilities of one hand and
     
two feet. Danny Gottlieb sings
14 New Blood the praises of Steve Forster’s
    42 Stanton Moore 64 Carolina paradiddle concepts. Gil Sharone
An all-star tribute to the late Drumworks Gold ornaments a reggae hi-hat
14 Money Matters Allen Toussaint featuring the Series Snare Drums
This page + cover: NEIL ZLOZOWER/ATLAS ICONS
pattern.
It’s never too early to begin cream of Crescent City’s crop. Precision and detail define these
   stave-shell beauties.
thinking about retirement.
      EVERYTHING ELSE
51 The Ergonomics 6 Perspective
16 Drum Care Of Drumming 68 Sabian Artist Elite 8 Feedback
Aren’t sure which wood species Either you can stave off future Cymbals 10 Notation Guide
will provide your dream drum health issues by adjusting your Bronze elegance personified in a
sound? Start here. setup today, or pay later. quartet of rides and hi-hats.
81 Meet Your Maker
          82 In Memoriam
4 DRUM! September
DRUM! September 2017
2017 DRUMmagazine.com
DRUMmagazine.com
WHEN WE SAY
BENNY WAS
INVOLVED IN
CREATING
THIS STICK,
WE MEAN IT.
The New
Benny Greb
Signature Stick
Feels like a 5B. Plays like a 5A.
To see Benny tell the story, and for more info

go to vicfirth.com/benny-greb
Photo by Gerhard Kühne

©2017 Vic Firth Company
Just Around The CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
EDITOR IN CHIEF Andy Doerschuk
Corner
MANAGING EDITOR Matt Gallagher
PRODUCTION MANAGER Hugh O'Connor
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ken Babal,
Donn Bennett, Wayne Blanchard, Brad Boynton,
David A. Brensilver, Matt Byrne, Glen Caruba,
I
Dave Constantin, Kurt Dahl, AJ Donahue, Patrick
t was 1981, and I was on tour with the Naughty Sweeties, an Flanary, Chris Fryar, Richie Gajate-Garcia,
L.A. new wave band that gave me my first tastes, both sweet Diane Gershuny, Daniel Glass, Danny Gottlieb,
and sour, of the professional music biz. Our latest album Garrett Haines, Terence Higgins, Taku Hirano,
had been released a couple months earlier and we were David Jarnstrom, Jonathan Joseph, Gregg Juke,
traversing the country in a beat-up green station wagon pulling a Eric Kamm, Robert Lewis, David Libman,
U-Haul trailer filled with our gear and progressively crusty stage Billy Martin, Chris Mattoon, Rob McKinley, P.C.
clothes. Muñoz, Anika Nilles, Andrew Nusca, John Nyman,
Our booking agents had planned the first half of the itinerary Chuck Parker, John Payne, Luga Podesta, j.poet,
perfectly, sending us through the southern states on a big Bobby Rock, Brad Schlueter, Wally Schnalle,
smiley-face sweep that culminated in two nights at the Peppermint Lounge in New Chad Smith, Mike Snyder, Glen Sobel,
York City. We were supposed to receive the itinerary for the second half — a northern Karen Stackpole, Norman Weinberg, David Weiss,
run through New England, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest — by the time we hit John Wicks, Jake Wood, and Andy Ziker
the East Coast. VIDEO CONTRIBUTORS Glen Caruba,
But after arriving in New York, we encountered a big problem. The two partners Giovanni Durst, Richie Gajate-Garcia,
who owned our booking agency had been too busy suing each other for embezzlement Libor Hadrava, “Tiger” Bill Meligari,
to book a single show for us beyond the Peppermint Lounge. It’s not as if we were Brad Schlueter, Marc Smith,
getting rich from our gigs, either. Each night’s pay covered barely enough gas and and Charlie Waymire
cheeseburgers to get us to the next stop. Most nights we sought out a compassionate
fan who’d let us crash on his floor. There was no slush fund. CREATIVE SERVICES
So there we were, stuck in New York with only two gigs on the schedule, almost no CREATIVE DIRECTOR Joey Lusterman
money in our pockets, and no way to get home. Meanwhile, back in L.A., our frantic PRODUCTION DESIGNER Doran Shelley
managers called every booking agent in town and begged them to book any gigs they CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
could for us, anywhere, any time, for any amount of money, just to keep us alive. Robert Downs, Paul Haggard, Rick Malkin,
And that started the craziest routing any band has ever seen. One night we were Eddie Malluk, Christopher T. Martin, Bryon Paul
in Chicago. The next night we were in Maine. Then it was back to Atlanta or Tampa McCartney, Lissa Wales, and Neil Zlozower
or Boston. At some point, as we zigzagged across the map, we wound up on top of a CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS
mountain somewhere, playing at some kind of ramshackle town hall for an audience of Juan Castillo, Rick Eberly
hill folk who didn’t seem to have any idea why we were there. Neither did we.
We eventually wound up in Toronto, camping in a brothel above a club where we SALES & MARKETING
were scheduled to play. We were at the end of our rope. Everything sucked. We decided PUBLISHER Phil Hood
to beg our families for enough money to make it back to L.A., and even began to discuss CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER Lyzy Lusterman
breaking up the band. SALES DIRECTOR Cindi Olwell
Then the phone rang. It was our manager who told us that if we could make ASSOCIATE SALES DIRECTOR Greg Sutton
it to Ypsilanti, Michigan, the next night, we could open for Tom Petty And The SALES MANAGERS Ref Sanchez,
Heartbreakers. “You’d have to blow off one of your Toronto gigs, though,” he said. Amy-Lynn Fischer
We didn’t have to think twice about it. MARKETING SERVICES MANAGER
Twenty-four hours later we were on stage in front tens of thousands of people. By Tanya Gonzalez
the end of our set, the entire Heartbreakers band was standing by the side of the MARKETING DESIGNER Tricia Baxter
stage, egging us on. When we finished our set, they asked us to open for them for the PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER Kelsey Holt
rest of the tour. And that was the beginning of one of the most memorable summers MAGAZINE MARKETING COORDINATOR
I’ve ever had. Lauren Boyd
So remember this story when you’re convinced you’ve hit rock bottom, and don’t SINGLE COPY SALES CONSULTANT
see even a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. It might be the perfect time to hold Tom Ferruggia
fast, dig deep, and summon some hope. Dreams can come true, even — or maybe Distributed to the music trade by American International
especially — when you least expect them. Distribution Corporation (AIDC)
PO Box 2211, Williston, VT 05495-2211

800-765-8737, [email protected].
Drum articles are indexed in The Music Index and

The Music Article Guide. Except as noted, all contents
Andy Doerschuk    ©2017 String Letter Publishing Inc., David A. Lusterman, Publisher.
No part of the contents may be reproduced, in print or
electronically, without prior written permission.
  
AIDC
6 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

SINCE 1977...
“…SONOR drums have remained my first and only choice as a

high quality instrument for the past 40 years. My sound is the
‘SONOR Sound’. I can’t imagine playing any other drum set.”
STEVE SMITH
u s . s o n o r. c o m
Beater Kits We Loved were much higher, so I spent half my time
trying to beef the kit up in various ways. This STRINGLETTER MEDIA
Editor’s Note In last month’s Perspective column, led firstly to the cultivation of ingenuity 501 Canal Boulevard, Suite J
I wrote about how learning to play on a funky (for example, I’m convinced I invented both Richmond, CA 94804
old drum set helped my drumming progress the memory lock and the sizzle chain long stringletter.com
quicker when I was a kid. This solicited a bunch of before the industry came up with them) and
responses from readers who described the beater subsequently to appreciating similar ingenuity PUBLISHER AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
kits they got started on. Feel free to join in. Here on the part of any manufacturer offering new David A. Lusterman
are some samples. solutions to the practical problems of drumming,
from the Vector pedal to Zildjian Dip sticks. FINANCE & OPERATIONS
I really enjoyed your piece in the August 2017 I’d certainly agree that starting out on a beater CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER Anita Evans
issue of Drum magazine, “Joy Of A New Toy.” I kit makes you develop workaround performance ACCOUNTING ASSOCIATE Raymund Baldoza
totally identified with your concept of motivation skills. In my experience, however, it can also BOOKKEEPER Geneva Thompson
on a new or newer kit. provide insights into how the kit actually works OFFICE ASSISTANT Vanessa Averbeck
My first kit was a used pawnshop Ludwig and keep players receptive to design innovations. General Inquiries [email protected]
Acrolite and a 16" Krut crash. I would bash away Your excellent coverage of the latter, such as the Customer Service DrumService@stringletter.
for hours to my favorite Kiss records (yes, vinyl) new hardware roundup in the same issue, is one com
on my snare and crash while playing all other of the many reasons I enjoy your magazine. Send email to individuals in this format:
parts in the air. I would stomp my foot on a piece Roger Thomas [email protected]
of cardboard laid flat on my carpeted floor to get Amersham, UK
a kick sound. When I could play a ride pattern on LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
my crash, nearly making the sound of a proper I remember two kits that were my starters. The We welcome letters to the editor, but due
beat, I was in heaven. first was a hodgepodge of drums of mixed make. to the volume of mail, we cannot answer
My fist real kit and a huge upgrade was a used It had a huge kick, perhaps 26", and three snares. each one nor guarantee that your letter will
wine-red CB 700. I finally had two toms and a The pedal was sluggish and nearly unusable. be printed. Along with your letter please
floor to place in the gaps for my epic air fills. A Ancient hardware. A woodblock and a cowbell include your name, address, and daytime
cheap set of hats completed the outfit I practiced were clamped to the kick hoop. If there were phone or email address. Letters will be edited
and performed on through junior high. In high cymbals, they were completely forgettable. I for clarity and space. Email: Editors.dr@
school, I would trade in this kit for a top-of-the- didn’t keep it more than a few months. I didn’t stringletter.com
line Pearl MLX maple double bass setup with know what I had at the time, but one of the
two concert toms and two massive 18" floors, snares was a brass piccolo with calfskin heads. EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS
all in shiny-new piano black. I’ll never forget It might have been a Slingerland. The drums Love to write? Know drums? If that sounds
the day it arrived at my house on a freight probably came from the ’30s. appealing, then request our writers’ guide.
truck. If only YouTube had been around for the My second kit was a Black Pearl Crest Deluxe. Address all inquiries to:
unboxing! My playing soared to new heights Hardware consisted of a snare stand and [email protected]. Please
as my left foot had a new drum to play. I had kick-mounted cymbal arm that held a brass note: publisher assumes no responsibility for
replaced my drumming hero Peter Criss with the cymbal-shaped object of indescribable sound. unsolicited manuscripts, photos, or artwork.
likes of Tommy Aldridge and Alex Van Halen. The kick pedal did okay, unless it was required
Off I went feverishly into double bass nirvana. to play more than a couple sixteenth-notes in a TO ADVERTISE
I have most of that Pearl kit today and still row. No hi-hat. The tom mount in the kick drum For print and digital advertising options
play it. I’ve had many other kits over the years shell was made of two pieces soldered together, contact [email protected].
and most recently purchased a Tama Bubinga and eventually the wings on the set screw came
Starclassic as my main kit. I’m still amazed loose. ADVERTISING COMPLAINTS is not
after all these years spent drumming at how I used a pair of pliers to tighten up the screw responsible for the content of advertisements.
my playing changes and improves when I play to keep the 13" tom from rotating in the mount, However, we take our commitment to readers
new gear, or how it suffers when playing on until I stripped the threads. But the 16" floor never seriously. If you have a complaint with an
poor backline gear. There’s nothing like the feel failed. I bought a Speed King pedal, Slingerland advertiser in , let us hear about it.
of finally playing on the kit you’ve dreamed of hi-hat stand (on which I mounted the school’s
owning. pair of orchestra cymbals), and an 18" Paiste 602, ONLINE
Kyle Denney which I used as a crash-ride, and still have. DRUMmagazine.com
Richardson, Texas Eventually the spurs broke through the facebook.com/DRUMmagazinerocks
shell and I had to reinforce the bass drum with twitter.com/DRUMmagrocks
Further to your Perspective piece on beater some metal pieces I found at a hardware store, youtube.com/DRUM
kits, mine was a Beverley Astra passed on repurposed from an electrical box.
to me by my father. This was a low-end kit That kit played through two years of pep Front Desk (510) 215-0010
made by a respected UK manufacturer (see band at football and basketball games, home and Customer Service (888) 378-6624
drumarchive.com for details) during the late away. It even did a couple of dances and went to General Fax (510) 231-5824
1950s and/or early 1960s. a jazz band competition in Reno, Nevada. Secure Fax (510) 231-8964
Unfortunately, I started playing in the 1970s, Glenn Hamilton
when the physical demands placed on drums Lexington, Ohio Printed in USA
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GUIDE TO DRUM NOTATION By Brad Schlueter
Drum Key
China Splash Cowbell Crash Choked Ride Ride Closed Open Tom Tom Snare Ghost Rim Snare Snare Tom Tom Tom Right Left Hi-Hat Hi-Hat
Crash Bell Hi-Hat Hi-Hat 1 2 Note Click Doubles Buzz 3 4 5 Bass Bass Pedal Splash
Music Staff, Clefs, Measures & Bar Lines Triplets

Music is written on a music staff, a vertical rectangle and is used with key, above. The staff is separated As we go from longer notes down the
which features five parallel horizontal nonpitched percussion instruments. into individual measures (or bars) of list to the shorter notes, the notes
lines. The first thing you’ll see Notes written on different spaces and music, with thin vertical lines, called and rests are halved in length. If you
written on the staff is the clef, which lines indicate that you play a specific bar lines. The number of beats in each want to divide a note into thirds, you’ll
determines the pitch of the notes. instrument: snare drum, bass drum, measure is determined by the need to use a triplet. A quarter-note
The drum/percussion clef looks like or cymbal, according to the drum time signature. naturally divides into two eighths, but
if you want to divide it into thirds, you
Measure Bar Line need to use an eighth-note triplet. An
Drum Time Signature eighth-note triplet is played 50 percent
Clef
faster than normal eighth-notes and
would be equivalent to a twelfth-note
(although there is no such note).
Staff
1 e & ah 2 e & ah 3 e & ah 4 e & ah 1 e & ah 2 e & ah 3 e & ah 4 e & ah An eighth-note triplet is written as
three eighth-notes beamed together
with a number three above them. Any
Accent of the three notes can be replaced with
3 an eighth rest or two sixteenths, or
any other division of an eighth-note
allowing for more notational flexibility.
Triplets are usually counted “1 & ah 2 &
1 e & ah 2 e & ah 3 e & ah 4 e & ah 1 e & ah 2 e & ah 3 & ah 4 e & ah ah 3 & ah 4 & ah.” You can also divide
a note into fifths (quintuplet), sixths
A double bar line (sextuplet), sevenths (septuplet),
Crescendo Decrescendo indicates the ending
(gradually louder) (gradually softer) and so on.
Time Signatures Dotted Notes & Rests

Time signatures are written like of one beat. For example, in the time music and wherever there is a meter Sometimes you’ll see a note or a rest
fractions. The top number tells you signature of 5/4, there are five beats change. Since most music is in 4/4, the with a small dot written next to it.
how many beats are in each measure. in each measure and the quarter-note time signature is often abbreviated with This indicates that the note will last 50
The bottom number indicates the size lasts for one beat. The time signature is a large letter C, indicating percent longer than, or 1.5 times, its
of the note that represents the duration written at the beginning of the piece of “common time.” normal length.
Note & Rest Values

Notes and rests come in different
lengths, which represent fractions.
For every size note, there is an
equivalent size rest. The note and rest Whole- Whole Half- Note Half Quarter- Quarter Eighth- Eighth Rest Sixteenth- Sixteenth Thirty- Thirty-
Note Rest Rest Note Rest Note Note Rest Second- Second
values include whole (1/1), half (1/2),
Note Rest
quarter (1/4), eighth (1/8), sixteenth
(1/16), and thirty-second (1/32). of one quarter, so eighth-notes are written by using combinations of different parts of a note: the note
These values represent the durations twice as fast as quarter-notes. These notes and rests, so it is important to head, stem, and flags or beams.
of the notes and rests. For example, relationships define the lengths (and memorize them to quickly identify Recognizing them will help you learn
two eighths fit in the space (or time) speeds) of the notes. Rhythms are and play rhythms. There are several to identify notes.
One-Bar Repeat Two-Bar Repeat Repeat everything

Counting Rhythms Repeat (repeat previous (repeat two previous since the previous
& Playing Repeats Sign measure) measures) repeat sign
The simplest way to figure out rhythms
is to count them with the smallest note
value you have to play. For most drum
music, that means counting sixteenth-
1 e & ah 2 e & ah 3 e & ah 4 e & ah
notes. In 4/4, sixteenth-notes are
counted “1 e & ah 2 e & ah 3 e & ah last for one count, an eighth-note or half-note/rest will last for eight, and a piece of music and minimize page turns.
4 e & ah.” Since you are counting rest will last for two counts, a quarter- whole-note/rest will last for sixteen. A few different types of repeat signs are
sixteenths, a sixteenth-note/rest will note/rest will last for four counts, a Repeat signs are used to abbreviate a shown in the example above.

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WHAT’S
WHAT’S YOUR
DRUMMING IQ?
IQ?
By Wayne Blanchard
ROCKING WITH RUNT

1. Todd Rundgren’s “Once
Burned” featured the
drummer from?
A. Booker T & The MG’s
B. The Band
C. Tin Machine
2. He delivered Who-like
drumming on Nazz Nazz’s
“Under The Ice.”
A. Keith Moon
B. Thom Mooney
C. Tim Mooney
3. Who drummed on the

first three sides of
Something/Anything?
A. N.D. Smart
B. Hal Blaine
C. Todd Rundgren
4. They drummed on the

fourth side of Rundgren’s
Something/Anything?
A. John Siomos
B. Hunt Sales
C. Billy Mundi
5. He played a motorcycle-
inspired drum kit in Utopia. IN THEIR OWN WORDS By AJ Donahue
Dave Simmons
A. John Wilcox
B. Willie Leacox
C. John Wilson
6. This drummer was behind

Todd in The New Cars kicking
up “Candy-O.”
A. David Robinson
B. Prairie Prince
C. John Wilcox
The Death & Rebirth
7. He is not drumming on the
Rundgren-produced hit
Of Simmons Drums
Bat Out of Hell.
A. Max Weinberg Dave Simmons essentially Center. We rang the English keyboard stuff, but there didn’t
B. Hal Blaine created the modern electronic innovator for a quick chat about seem to be anything happening
drum market. His iconic his brand’s history, what brought in drums at the time. So, I made
C. John Wilcox
hexagonal pads were a staple him back, and his goals for the the drummer in the band I was
on kits used by some of the newly relaunched Simmons playing with something that he
8. Rundgren and Frank Zappa
most recognizable pop and rock Drums. could hit to make some noise. It
produced this band and dug
drummers throughout the 1980s was a bit of an accident because
the drummer.
and early ’90s, and still have NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER I couldn’t play the drums then. I
A. The Tubes
a dedicated following today. OF INVENTION still can’t play the drums [laughs].
B. XTC Now, after a nearly 20-year I was working with ARP
C. Grand Funk Railroad hiatus, Simmons is returning to synthesizers and was very AND SO IT BEGINS
the world of e-drums as part of interested in electronics in music. I was working at a company
Turn to page 17 for the answers
an exclusive pairing with Guitar I was messing around with called Musicaid in the late

’70s, where I did the SDS III and SDS IV drum of our drums. The pros were using the SDX, of working together. Now we’ve got a
[synths]. It wasn’t until 1980 that I bolted which was a 16-bit, 16-channel, positional, development plan that I’m really excited about.
things together and made a real drum kit. That multisampled drum kit. We had names like
was the SDS V. Later, I did my first trade show Peter Van Hooke, Phil Collins, Danny Carey, NEW AMBITIONS
at the British Music Fair in London in 1981. I Roger Taylor, Alex Van Halen; the list goes I told them I’m not interested in getting
had three kits there: a heart-shaped kit, a bat- on and on. I actually gave Nick Mason SDX involved in this unless we can really do
shaped kit, and the hexagonal kit. The hexagon programming and sampling lessons when he something that’s designed well, functions well,
was the one that everybody said they would was first getting into his kit. But Bill Bruford was and does something different. Our goal is to
buy, so that’s what I kind of standardized. the best ambassador I think a lot of people know. create maximum control for the drummer. I
He took the drums further than anyone else in truly believe that in five years’ time, drummers
EARLY HURDLES terms of melody and composition. will look back at [today’s] electronic drum kits
At first, nobody in the musical instrument and say, “Do you mean that if I hit it with a
trade seemed to be interested. I don’t think CHANGING NEEDS stick and then I hit it with a beater, it makes
they saw it as a threat. They just weren’t By the mid-’90s, we found ourselves with the same sound?” It’s crazy that it does that.
interested in electronic instruments yet. In a very expensive electronic drum set. We I think the electronic drum should be able to
the end, it was demand from musicians that put keyboard samples in it, and made it a make all those different sounds, and I think as
got things moving. They wanted something complex workstation. But at that time, music the technology improves, it’s only a matter of
new, and then, when it got some publicity on was changing, and nobody wanted electronic time before we get there.
TV, things went wild. instruments anymore. That pretty much
killed us off. FAMILIAR FORM
THE TIPPING POINT The new drums are sort of softened hexagons
Everything really took off very quickly after THE RETURN because that’s the trademark, really. It’s going
that, but it almost didn’t happen because there After I stopped making electronic drums, to look like a Simmons kit. Beyond that, you’ll
was a musician’s union strike on in the UK. We I thought I never wanted to see another see tensionable mesh heads, because that
were quite famous for our strikes at that time. one in my life. But around 2006, a friend of was a brilliant shift in the design of electronic
The band Landscape had a hit called “Einstein mine called me and said, “Dave, you’ve got drums. The cymbal side of things is different.
A Go-Go,” and they were going to perform it a new drum set?” I told him no and that I We’re still working on the ideal surface for
on Top Of The Pops. I remember [Landscape didn’t know anything about it, so he pointed electronic cymbals, and we’re still worried
drummer] Richard Burgess phoning me up me to the Guitar Center kit that was being about the acoustic noise of striking a cymbal
and saying, “The program’s being threatened sold as Simmons. They were being pretty pad versus a metal cymbal.
to be canceled by the union.” Thankfully the naughty. I had to think long and hard about
program did end up going out, and we got what I would do about that. I suggested in NEW CHALLENGES
probably millions of dollars’ worth of free the nicest possible way that they should We’re working with a group of really talented
publicity on TV because for the next few have talked to me first. To give them their industrial designers, including Robin Slaton,
months the TV cameras would focus a lot on due, they apologized to me for it, and the and a team called Mimima Design. There’s
this strange looking drum kit. people who took my brand and made it a a guy called Tom Etheridge there who’s
badge have all left the company. That went a incredible. He’s doing all the solid works and
NOTABLE PLAYERS long way. There’s a guy over there called Jim modeling. We’re so lucky to find a guy like him.
The mid-’80s was the height of it. Pretty Norman who was the main driver in getting It’s my name on the equipment, but without
much every name drummer was using some us all around the table to talk about the idea this team of people, none of this is happening.
improve your sound,

protect your hoop and
strengthen your foundation.
• safely and securely attaches to the drum
• 6˝ of lateral pedal position adjustment
• recommended for single and double pedals
• available for 20˝ and 22˝ bass drums
heyward wood imboden ilejay
see the video.

SINGLE STROKES
NEW BLOOD By Waldo The Squid
Shirin Vaezi in drumming around age 20, and Tahnoon Murtza in diapers. That passion eventually
Age 30 immediately pursued lessons Age 13 led him to the drum set at age
equipment Premier drums; Meinl, with a local instructor in Tehran. equipment Yamaha drums, six, and to again cite his family’s
Paiste, and Sabian cymbals; Remo Though it wasn’t long before her Zildjian cymbals, Remo heads, account, “He hasn’t looked back
heads; Vic Firth sticks career as a civil engineer forced Ahead sticks since.” Murtza began lessons at
ContACt @shirin.vaezi and @ her to step away, the music ContACt @tahnoon_murtza on eight years old, and was sitting
atriaofficialpage on Instagram kept calling, and within a few Instagram in with local blues bands before
short years, Vaezi left her job to he reached his teens. Today, the
When the music calls, you answer; start working as a professional Tahnoon Murtza has music in his New Jersey native is anchoring
Shirin Vaezi did. The Iranian power musician. It didn’t take long to find blood. To hear his family tell it, he alternative metal band Firefight.
player first developed an interest her voice on the instrument again, was a fan of Beethoven while still The high-energy outfit has
as evidenced by the substantial already rocked some of the most
workload she’s carving out for notable venues in the Tri-State
herself. Vaezi is currently playing Area, including The Highline
with a number of female pop Ballroom and the Javits Center,
groups along with a VIP band that and they’re wrapping production
plays traditional music. And on their first album this year. Give
while she enjoys a variety of Murtza’s name a quick search on
genres, she’s a true metalhead YouTube to find several videos of
at heart. Check out Vaezi’s the 13-year-old deftly navigating
Instagram feed for a few clips her a range of rock tunes with a sense
slamming through some angular of pace and dynamics uncommon
djent tunes with her band AtriA. to players his age. This guy is
The beat is strong with this one. going places.
YOU CAN APPEAR IN NEW BLOOD. Email [email protected] or send a CD or DVD of your drumming, a bio with your age, equipment setup, contact information, and a hi-res photo to
Waldo The Squid, c/o New Blood, 75 Covington St., Asheville, NC 28806. No materials will be returned. Please indicate if you want your email contact published.
MONEY MATTERS By Erik Lindsey
What’s Your Time Horizon?

A large part of my practice involves major pitfalls into which so many others fall
providing financial advocacy for the victim.
entertainment and music community. I’ve With that being said, I’m going to attempt
found that these clients often wait too long over the next three articles to give you a basic
to start planning for their financial futures, level of knowledge about financial account/
which leads to tons of difficulties and even instrument choices that will help you take
hardships that take them away from what those first steps on your journey to financial
they love about the business. security.
Usually, just a lack of basic knowledge keeps To begin, we must divide these vehicles into
folks from taking those first, crucial steps categories that are easier to understand. It’s a
toward beginning the process of creating basic phrase called time horizon, which represents
financial plans. One of their earliest and biggest the length of time between the start date of
hurdles is in understanding the right type of your financial plan and when you intend to accounts most suited to each range and why
financial account or instrument in which to pull money or assets from the account. For they work best there.
invest. But these accounts are really just tools example, if you’re 40 and don’t plan to touch a I hope to accomplish two things by the
to accomplish a defined goal. Once you identify specific retirement account until age 60, end: 1) to give you a basic knowledge of the
the right tool for the job, your choices become your time horizon is 20 years. Time horizon typical financial instruments you will come
much clearer. will typically be a major factor in deciding across during your life, and 2) to give you some
Combining this information with some which tool or instrument is right for your confidence in this subject so you can take the
basic action will take you a good way toward particular job. important steps needed to start your own
meeting your goals. The last stretch is usually I often divide time horizons into three basic journey into planning for the future.
a bit more complicated, and may require some ranges: 0-2 years, 2-8 years, and 8 years and
professional guidance, but even if you just work beyond. Most financial accounts fall into one ERIK LINDSEY is the cofounder and
financial adviser of Clear Financial
on the basic plan, you’ll be leaps and bounds of these categories, sometimes two, but rarely
Strategies (cfsnashville.com).
beyond your peers, and will likely avoid the all three. In future columns, I’ll break down the

The Ancestor
Of
Dark Sound
SINGLE STROKES
DRUM CARE By Rhett Hendrix
Which Wood Is For You?

Wood possesses many characteristics weight, making its tonal pitch rise and its
that make it ideal for use in the construction of volume, projection, and cut increase. The
musical instruments. Perhaps most important inverse is also true: As wood gets softer, it
are the tiny channels in wood’s internal structure, becomes lighter, its pitch lowers, and it has
which once transferred nutrients throughout less volume, projection, and cut. Drum builders
the tree. After a tree is cut down and dried, regularly refer to the “Janka Hardness Scale” to
those channels become tiny echo chambers determine the hardness of a particular species.
that invest a beautiful and warm sounding tone As the number gets higher, the wood gets
into the material. harder, so, for instance, maple’s Janka rating
Since the internal structure of each type of is 1,450, cherry’s is 950, and bubinga’s is way
wood is unique to that species, it causes each up there at 2,410. a good amount of projection, making it an
to have its own specific tonal characteristic. Hard maple is a great all-around wood excellent wood for a big-sounding rock setting.
Maple is without a doubt the most popular with a medium density, and can be tuned So next time you’re in the market for a
wood species for drum building, although, and tweaked to fit into just about any musical new drum kit, do a quick Google search to
in recent years, many other wood species situation. Bubinga drums are known for being determine the Janka ratings of the woods
have become readily available on the market. very loud and able to cut through any mix. you’re interested in. You can use their hardness
Mahogany, walnut, bubinga, beech, oak, birch, Cherry drums are often used in their jazz to help determine which kit would best suit
cherry, and poplar are a few of the best known applications due to their warm, woody tone your musical style.
ones. So, as a player, the trick is to figure out and easily controlled volume. Mahogany sits
RHETT HENDRIX is the owner of Hendrix Drums,
which wood most suits your taste and sound. nicely between maple and cherry with a Janka a custom drum company in Dothan, Alabama,
As a general rule of thumb, as wood rating of 1,100, giving it superior low end when which specializes in solid stave snare drums
increases in hardness, it also increases in compared with maple, while still maintaining and kits.

WHAT’S YOUR
DRUMMING IQ?
ANSWERS
Continued from page 12
1. B. Levon Helm and bassist Rick Danko of
The Band, whom Rundgren produced (Stage
Fright), are on the Runt album’s “Once
Burned.” Hunt and Tony Sales, later of Tin
Machine, are on other tracks.
2. B. Thom Mooney was the drummer in

Rundgren’s late-’60s Brit-style rock band
The Nazz, and he is the one flailing with
Keith Moon-style flair on the superb rocker ™
“Under The Ice.”
CHICAGO DRUM...
BECAUSE HISTORY MATTERS ™
3. C. It was Rundgren. He played all the As former Slingerland® employees from 1955
instruments — guitars, bass, keys, sax,
percussion, drums, everything — on the DISCOVER TRUE VINTAGE ™ through 1986, we built some of the finest drums
for the best players in the world.
Now it’s time to experience our versions of a
first three sides including the hit “I Saw
The Light.”
Classic Styling • Legendary Sound timeless classic... from our skilled hands to yours.
Made in the USA We built them back in the day.
We’re building them again.™
4. A., B., C. All three — Siomos on www.chicagodrum.com
the hit “Hello It’s Me” (before success
with Frampton Comes Alive), future Tin
Machine basher Hunt Sales, and Zappa and
Rhinoceros groover Billy Mundi – covered Drum! Ad Perfect Storm 1-17.indd 1 1/14/17 11:33 AM
side four.
5. A. John “Willie” Wilcox’s super-cool

“motorcycle” kit — electronic pads set into
a streamlined cycle-like chassis — was a
one-of-a-kind. Sadly, it was destroyed in
a fire many years ago.
6. B. Though in on The Cars’ reunion, David

Robinson abstained from The New Cars.
That Rundgren-fronted unit featured Prairie
Prince’s drumming. Robinson, who painted
the checkered flag on the Cars’ Panorama
album cover, now operates an art gallery.
7. B. While Clive Davis and Sony were

dissing the Bat Out of Hell project, producer
Rundgren paid for its production, added
guitar (that motorbike roar is him), and with
Weinberg and Wilcox had no need for Mr.
Blaine.
8. C. Rundgren resurrected Grand Funk’s

career, producing We’re An American Band
and Shining On, while Zappa produced Good
Singing, Good Playing. They both really dug
Don Brewer’s drumming.
DRUMmagazine.com September 2017 DRUM! 17

GEAR
NEW GUIDE
Sticks&Heads
By AJ Donahue
F O R 2 0 1 7
ell, this is it folks:
W Our penultimate
Gear Guide. It’s my
last of 2017, as next
1 Ahead's MAXX 5A is designed to be a longer and stronger 5A, thanks to the company's new “Hyper-Form Engineering” process.
month I hand the reins to Drum
managing editor Matt Gallagher,
who will cover all manner of
electronics for drummers. But
for now, we’ll delve into this
year’s crop of new sticks and
heads, and there are a whole lot
of them. Grab an iced tea, put
your feet up, and join us on this 2 CooperGroove states that its GrooveGrip increases a drummer's grip while eliminating slips, drops, cramps, and fatigue.
journey through the world of
freshly hewn timber and hot-
stamped Mylar.
As always, the prices
listed in this article refer to
Manufacturer’s Suggested
Retail Pricing (MSRP) unless 3 Promark's new line of hickory FireGrain drumsticks offer increased durability, which results from the company’s new heat-
otherwise noted, but you’ll tempering process.
most likely find these
products at significantly
lower prices through your
preferred vendor. Onward!
4 Featuring nylon tips, Tama's 16.5" RedZone series drumsticks are tailor-made for power hitters.
STICK IT TO ’EM
Drumstick choice has a
tremendous effect on personal Black and Red GrooveGrip models that wood’s exterior. And the resulting scorched
sound, so we always encourage drummers include a light application of a water-based look is sure to turn some heads. FireGrain
to explore the wealth of available options. latex coating on the handle for an even strikers can be found in Classic 7A, 2B, 5A,
If you feel like you need something fresh, more secure hold. Multiple sizes and tip and 5B; Rebound 5A and 5B; and Forward
check out these new additions from our shapes are available with direct sale prices 5A and 5B models. One price fits all at
favorite (literally everybody we could find; landing at $21.95 for both colors. Looking $22.60.
we don’t play favs here) stick slingers. for something with a little more flash? Hitting shelves this August, the new
1 Offering a longer reach and increased The Blacklight Glow Grip might be exactly Warm-Up Stick from Regal Tip is an
durability over the company’s standard 5A, what you’re after. Using the same formula oversized, 17" by 0.7" hickory stick with
Ahead Drumsticks’ new MAXX 5A is perfect as CooperGroove’s regular GrooveGrip a large oval tip and a slow taper designed
for players who want primo power without models, the Glow Grips have a black light– to really get your fingers, hands, and
sacrificing agility. The 16.5" by 0.54" stick reactive dye that glows electric blue. wrists loose before a demanding session.
has a 0.035" thick wall (compared to the 3 How hot are your chops? If your Available in white or standard clear P.E.F.
5A’s 0.03") designed to deliver longer life regular sticks can’t stand the heat, it finishes, the Warm-Up workout companions
and just a bit more beef behind each note. might be time to check out Promark’s new have an MSRP of $18.
2 CooperGroove sticks feature crosscut FireGrain series. The company’s new heat 4 Tama drumsticks have returned in a
grooves around the handle to create a more treatment process increases the durability big way! In addition to a trio of signature
relaxed grip in hand with less slippage. of its standard hickory models, without models we’ll get to in just a minute, the
For 2017, the Cooper crew rolled out new affecting weight or feel, by hardening the legendary drum maker relaunched its

5 Vic Firth's MJC2 is slightly thinner than the 5A model and has an extra long taper.
stick division this year with four brand versatile, dynamic tools that can handle
new lines. First up, the Traditional series swing and a whole lot more.
comprises four all-oak sticks designed for First up, the MJC1 ($16.25) is a
durability, articulation, and classic comfort. 16.125" by 0.58" hickory dynamo
Sizes consist of an acorn-tipped 7A, an designed for comfort and
oval-tipped 5A, a combination acorn/oval- reach. Its 55A shaft is capped
tipped 5B, and an 8A with a small, squared with a medium taper and a
bead. MSRPs land at $17.70. Similarly, the long oval tip for broad, lively
Rhythm Mate line includes most of the same cymbal sounds. The hickory
sizes in hickory and maple, but swaps MJC2 ($16.25) comes in
the 8A out for an oval-tipped 2B. Hickory just under a 5A in diameter
Mates come with an MSRP of $11, while at 0.55", and features a
Maple Mates are $8.20. 16"-long build with an
Power players in search of something elongated arrow tip perfect
with even more staying power should for pulling complex tones
check out Tama’s all-oak RedZone series. out of thin pies. At 0.54"
All three 16.5" models lean on the heavy wide and 16.3125" long,
side, and come wearing a deep red finish. the hickory MJC3 ($16.25)
Nylon-tipped 5A and 5B editions come in at has some extra built-in
0.55" and 0.59" in diameter, offering plenty reach to go along with a
of power and projection. But if that’s not smooth taper for great
enough, the 5ARZK features an untapered, balance and quick response.
tipless, 0.55"-thick shape for maximum Drummers who prefer the
punch. Snag any for $22.20. And finally, the darker, mellower sound of
company’s new Rhythmic Fire line adds maple should look no further 7 Dunnett R-Class Res-O-Tone drumheads use Remo
films and are based on the Remo Ambassador model
a spicy touch to its all-oak 5A, 5B, and 7A than the MJC4 ($16.25). Its
blended with Dunnett's proprietary film combination.
sticks with an original tribal flame graphic 0.595" diameter, 16.375" length, and small
printed on the handle. Turn up the heat for barrel tip deliver warm sounds and loads
just $19.90. of dynamic range. And finally, the MJC5 6 Created in conjunction with the
5 For years, Vic Firth’s R&D team has ($16.75) measures 16" by 0.54" and sports a incomparable Eric Moore II, Aquarian
been hard at work on a series of artist- medium taper topped by a nylon tip that’s Drumheads’ new Reflector Series skins
inspired sticks designed to suit and ideal for players in search of brighter tones offer a potent combination of deep,
advance the sounds of cutting-edge jazz. and more clarity. controlled lows and clean, sweet highs.
The resulting Modern Jazz Collection, The 2-ply heads combine a 7mil Classic
crafted with the help of luminaries like HEAD GAMES Clear top with a 10mil Black bottom ply
Greg Hutchinson, Lewis Nash, Jeff Ballard, Lots of exciting new heads hit the market made of denser film. That stiffer bottom
and Joe McCarthy, consists of a quintet of this year, and we dug up the deets on them. layer adds some rigidity to build in added
punch and control, while the thinner clear
6 Aquarian's Reflector ply adds warmth and tone. In addition,
series of snare and the black base and clear top come
tom heads features
together to form a mirror-like visual that
a new 2-ply Hybrid
Film combination that
really pops. Reflector heads are available
enhances stick attack in 6" ($25.30) to 18" ($51.70) sizes, 16"
when played at higher ($88) to 28" ($121) bass drum models, and
volumes. 16" ($94.60) to 28" ($127.60) Super Kick II
editions.
And hot on the heels of the successful
Reflector Series, Aquarian also introduced
13" ($38.50) and 14" ($39.60) Texture
Coated versions of the heads for snare
drums. The TC models come equipped
with a slate grey coating that adds
warmth and focus. They’re also said to
speak with a low and round voice when
played softly, but stiffen up to offer
additional presence in the upper ranges
when played hard.
7 Ronn Dunnett done did it again. In an
effort to tackle every single square inch
of the drum, the percussion community’s
answer to Nikola Tesla went and spun up

NEW Sticks & Heads
the modern
jazz collection 8 Evans Drumheads'
UV1 series features the
You’re going to want company’s patented
UV-cured coating,
more than one. which is is designed to
provide durability and
consistency of texture.
UV1 series head sizes
range from 10" to 18".
his own line of drumheads. Developed in durability. The resulting UV1 series of snare
conjunction Remo, Dunnett’s new Res- and tom skins feature a 10mil base of new
O-Tone single-ply (10mil) and Res-O-Two film that produces a fuller, more controlled
2-ply (one 7mil ply plus one 10mil ply) sound than previous models, and have
heads utilize a proprietary film recipe that a UV-cured coating applied only to the
yields a tremendous combination of clarity, playing surface (the collars are untreated).
tuning range, and (expectedly) resonance. That unique application process creates
The unique film blend has a slick, hazy an incredibly even top that isn’t prone to
white look reminiscent of a timpani skin, flaking or chipping, even after many hours
and offers some of the clean attack of a of brush play. UV1 heads are on shelves
clear head balanced by the rounder finish in standard sizes from 10" to 18", with
of a coated model. Currently, Res-O-Tones MSRPs starting at $33.75 and topping out
can be purchased in 8" to 18" standard at $58.50.
sizes with MSRPs running
from $26.70 to $46.60,
and Powerstroke 3 bass
drumheads in standard
sizes ranging between 18"
($71.60) and 26" ($92.50).
Bass drum models are also
available with the new
Felt Tone internal tone-
control treatment ($91.90
to $117.70). Res-O-Two
editions can be found in
the same sizes with tom
head prices starting at
$28.25 and going up to
$48.93.
8 After years of
experimentation and
exploration in an attempt
to improve the lifespan of
standard coated finishes,
the R&D team at Evans
Drumheads developed a
new finishing process that
offers a remarkable blend 9 Remo's Diplomat Classic Fit Drumheads feature a slightly narrow flesh hoop
of tone, warmth, and and step design to address oversized drums made prior to the mid-1960s.

For 2017 When we say Benny
was involved in
creating this stick,
We wouldn’t
normally mention
a “practice pad" in
our new drumheads
we mean it.
guide, but the Black
Hole Practice Pad
System from RTOM Benny Greb
Signature Stick
(creators of Moon
Gel) had to make
the cut. Blending
a tunable mesh head with
11 Switch Kick introduced two new beaters: the Two-
a snap-locking rim, Black Holes can be
Feels like a 5B. Plays like a 5A.
Way Cowbell/Tambourine Kick (top) and Square Felt
Beater (bottom). installed right on top of your drums in
seconds to provide a playing surface that’s
9 For 2017, Remo is putting a fresh up to 80 percent quieter than untreated
spin on those old, oversized tubs with the drums, but still retains some tone. Thicker
introduction of new Classic Fit series skins. impact zones in the center offer clearer
The heads are available in Ambassador articulation and just enough projection
Photo by Gerhard Kühne ©2017 Vic Firth Company

Clear, Ambassador Coated, and Diplomat to make each stroke audible. Black Holes
Fiberskyn models with traditional thickness are available in 10" ($79.99) through 16"
and ply dimensions, but feature a narrower ($98.36) tom and snare drum sizes, along
flesh hoop to better accommodate the often with 18" ($118.99) through 24" ($142.33)
out-of-round or over-large drums produced bass drum models. Additionally, combo
in or before the 1960s. This results in packs are hitting shelves now with 12", 13",
faster seating, easier tuning, and fuller 14", 16", and 22"; or 10", 12", 14", 16", and
tone. All three lines are offered in 12", 13", 22" sizes (both $489).
14", 16", and 18" sizes with MSRPs ranging
from $33 to $60. Buyers can also pick up BEAT IT
an Ambassador Clear Snare Side head for Your feet need drumsticks too. That’s why
about $32. we have bass drum beaters. We love bass
Remo’s other major initiative this year drum beaters, so we scrounged up some
is a collaboration with Ronn Dunnett of info on the slickest new kickers landing
Dunnett Classic Drums. To capture the full, this year.
naturally gated sound of a felt strip–tamed 10 Denver-based custom shop Low
bass drum without the accompanying Boy Custom Beaters is making quite a
seating issues that inevitably come along splash with its growing array of beautifully
with installation, the two forces combined designed, handcrafted wood beaters. The
to create the new Felt Tone series of bass company rolled out its new Felt Daddy
drumheads. Available in standard sizes edition featuring a 1.5" diameter flat felt pad
from 18" to 26", Felt Tone heads come affixed to the larger striking face. All-maple
equipped with the Powerstroke internal Standard ($38) and Lightweight ($36) Felt
tone control ring that’s been modified to Daddys are currently available.
include a felt-lined strip from about the 11 Switch Kick’s popular quick-
2:00 o’clock to 5:00 o’clock positions on the release bass drum beater series is
head’s interior. The strip rests against
the head, but is free to flex away from the
playing surface before quickly returning
to place for a smoothly controlled sound.
Powerstroke P3 Hazy Felt Tone heads are
made using the same 10mil film found in
Dunnett’s Res-O-Tone skins (see previous
page), while Powerstroke P3 Fiberskyns
are cut from 7.5mil film with the company’s
propriety fiber treatment on top. MSRPs
run from $91 to $141.
10 Each Low Boy two-
Blending the worlds of visual and sonic
way bass drum beater
arts even further, Remo’s new ArtBEAT is built of hard maple
Artist Skyndeep Suede drumhead ($44.90) from American forests,
features a 10mil, single-ply head adorned fitted with a polished
with the stylish work of Incubus drummer stainless steel rod, and
José Pasillas. The head’s beautiful Candy laser engraved with
the company's logo.
Skull piece is a surefire way to set your
snare skins apart from the rest.

NEW Sticks & Heads
healthy 65 grams, and provides a sturdy,
punchy feel that maintains rebound.
12 In line with the release of his
signature Pearl snare drum, Eric
Singer is also slapping his name
on a pair of new signature snare
drumheads from Attack. The
2-ply coated batter ($38.25) is
medium in weight and comes
equipped with the Tone
Ridge, a two-tiered crimp
around much of the playing
surface that adds control and
fatness. Singer’s resonant-
side model ($35.95) is also cut
to a medium weight to boost
bottom end at all tunings. And
as an added security measure for
heavy hitters, both of The Catman’s
signature skins come equipped with a
black carbon steel flesh hoop that further
cy, great
“Offering balance, consisten
solidifies the company’s guarantee that
12 Marina Bozzio's Blast Beat snare side head gives any
ate du rab ilit y. My Vaters its heads will never pull out at the collar.
feel and ultim e of mind.
snare drum a darker sound than is typical of other types
bring me pure joy and peacfound my

of resonant snare heads. As an added bonus, all proceeds go to the
ve Cleveland Veterans Administration Hospital
My search is over... I ha welcoming a pair of new additions in in Cleveland, Ohio.
sticks!!!” the Square Felt and Two-Way Cowbell/ Marina Bozzio is making some serious
Abe Cunningham
Tambourine Kick models. The Square waves overseas with her band Aldious, and
Felt unit ($39.99) produces a firmer, more clearly living up to expectations as heir to
focused sound due to its increased striking the Bozzio throne. To help further define
DEFTONES surface area. Meanwhile, the Two-Way

beater ($59.99) utilizes a slim, clave-esque
shape with two different rubber faces of
her sound, Attack rolled out the new Marina
B. Drum Head System, a trio of snare heads
designed to deliver powerful tones and add
varying density to be used with either a new dimension to the relationship between
pedal-mounted cowbell or tambourine. snare wires and resonant heads. Bozzio’s
What’s more, all Switch Kick models are Coated Batter head ($38.25) is a heavy-duty
now being offered with the company’s topper made of 1,000-gauge Mylar S film for
adaptor shaft as an upgrade. increased durability and sonic punch. On the
Vic Firth has introduced a new member other side, her Blast Beat snare side head
of its popular VicKick family in the VKB4 ($39.75) is a thin skin with a coated strip
Cajon Beater ($28.25). The spherical foam where the wires lie, offering darker response.
rubber ball is designed to pull potent, low But if that’s not your speed, the Blast Beat+
tones out of cajons with just a bit of punch snare side head ($42.75) features an inverse
on top. You can also throw one in front of a setup with a fully coated surface broken
ABE CUNNINGHAM’S bass drum for a full, focused bump. only by an uncoated strip where the wires
COOL BREEZE SIGNATURE SWAG

meet the Mylar for a controlled sound and
enhanced wire response.
We promise — with all of our sincerest 13 Nashville-based Innovative Percussion
L 16 5/8” • 42.23cm intentions but no legal responsibility — that is introducing a pair of new signature stick
D .600” • 1.52cm VHABECW you’ll sound just like the drummers below
if you buy their signature gear. It’s just
models this year developed with the help
of James Gadson and Jimmy DeGrasso.
A perfect stick choice for when a 5B is too good science. Legendary stick-slinger James Gadson’s
light and a 2B/Rock model is too heavy. The Frank Zummo plays a lot of music. Groovesicle ($18.25) is a dynamic hickory
slightly enlarged diameter, heavier taper and Between Sum 41, Street Drum Corps, hitmaker that comes in just under a
little extra length make Abe’s model great Julien-K, Dead By Sunrise, and Krewella standard 5A in diameter at 0.560". Its deluxe
(phew!), our guy has a lot to handle. He 16.75" length provides plenty of extra
for harder hitting drummers but is also very
needs a stick that can handle all those reach, and its medium taper and acorn tip
suitable for laid back/solid groove playing. The
different styles too, so he linked up with offer comfort and clarity. Players looking
medium sized acorn tip delivers warm but Ahead to design his own signature model for something a little heftier should check
articulate tones from around the kit. ($36.49). The 0.595" model feels like a 5B out the Jimmy DeGrasso signature model
in the grip, but has a long taper stretched ($23.25). Its 0.595" 5B-sized diameter is
over its luxurious 16.63" frame. With stretched out over a 16.5" body, and a
a 0.035"-thick wall, the FZ weighs in at a strong acorn tip caps its medium-short
#SWITCHTOVATER
VATER.COM 22 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

For 2017
13 Innovative Percussion's hickory JG-1 James Gadson Groovesicle model is 16.75" long with a diameter of 560", a medium taper, and acorn bead.
taper. Finally, it features a rubber dipped The R&D team over at Regal Tip and cymbals, while the raw, unfinished
handle, which has a slightly tacky surface partnered with Grammy-winning Tye exterior provides a comfortable grip.
to ensure a secure and comfortable grip. Tribbett drummer Tre “TreWay” Lambert Gojira drummer Mario Duplantier’s new
14 Promark’s newest signature models to create the new TreWay Always ONDA1 monikered model ($22.20) is a 17" by 0.65"
were created with the help of two New signature model ($18). It’s a 16.25" by hickory behemoth with a rounded acorn
York-based icons known for playing just 0.56" hickory hitmaker with a full acorn tip that’s built for precision and projection.
about everything under the sun. The tip and a whitewashed finish that really Finally, Jeremy Colson, long-time drummer
Kimberly Thompson Signature Stick pops. Custom printed graphics of Lambert’s for Steve Vai, drew up another whopper of
($18.90) is a stretched 0.535" by 16.5" 7A brand logo complete the look. a signature stick ($22.20). His 16.6" by 0.65"
with a long taper and a small ball tip, all Partnering with three of today’s premier hickory namesake has a short taper and a
of which combine to form an exceptionally heavy hitters, Tama is coming in hot with squat acorn tip that delivers fat, full tones
balanced unit that can go from delicate a trio of plus-sized punchers. Recently and smooth balance in hand.
to dynamo with ease. Meanwhile, Anton announced new Megadeth drummer Dirk 15 Alt-rock icon and Deftones drummer
Fig’s updated ActiveGrip 595 ($21) features Verbeuren hammered out a 16" by 0.63" Abe Cunningham has a new signature stick
the same 0.595" by 16.75" dimensions as signature stick ($19.90) that’s definitely from the good folks at Vater Percussion.
his original model, but now sports a full ready for hard work. A broad ball tip His new Cool Breeze ($17.99) is an excellent
application of the heat-activated coating. pulls full, powerful sounds out of toms answer for those drummers in search of a
14 Kimberly Thompson teamed up with Promark to make a 7A drum stick measuring 0.535" in diameter with an extra half-inch in length for a little extra reach.
15 Abe Cunningham’s Cool Breeze stick from Vater is offered as an alternative when a 5B is too light and a 2B/Rock model is too heavy.
NEW Sticks & Heads
stick that rides the line between a 5B and Thankfully, though, the result is worth Additionally, the company is dropping
a 2B. At 16.625" by 0.6", the breezy hickory the weight. Greb’s new model features a a limited run of Buddy Rich and Carmine
model has a deluxe feel with a heavy 5B-style 0.595" shaft and a 16" reach, but Appice anniversary signature editions.
taper and an acorn tip for a comfortable is augmented with a medium taper and a Celebrating what would have been Rich’s
but power-packed feel. Educator Anthony slightly longer neck that ends in a small 100th birthday, the Buddy Rich LTD
Michelli’s AM 595 ($17.99) is a hickory teardrop tip. Those subtle shifts help Wood Tip ($18.50) and Nylon Tip ($19)
model designed for versatility and fluidity. create a stick with extraordinary balance, models come emblazoned with a special
Its 16" by 0.595" dimension tapers smoothly and uncommonly clear cymbal response logo and façade of the man himself.
for easy rebound, and culminates at an from the diminutive bead. Appice’s Limited Edition signature stick
acorn tip for clarity. Vic Firth’s Carter Beauford model stick ($18.50) marks 50 years in business for
Benny Greb’s drumming is globally ($18.50) is now available in a natural grip, the mustachioed legend, and is dipped in
recognized for its precision, feel, and and the Gavin Harrison signature striker black paint with a gold foil detail worthy
remarkable tone, so it should come as ($18.50) is being offered with a new matte of his inimitable style.
no surprise that the development of his blue paint handle that provides a completely With a diameter that lands right between
new SBG Signature Stick ($18.50) from Vic different feel in hand from other lacquers, a 5A and a 5B, Thomas Pridgen’s new Artist
Firth was an incredibly detailed process. paints, or even Firth’s own Vic Grip. Series stick ($17.25) from Zildjian is as
16 Headhunters' Fat Bastards Monster Hybrid is a small diameter bamboo

dowel bundled into five groups of 15. The O rings are positioned to form five
finger-like splays.
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versatile as he is. A short taper at the end a variety of raking sounds depending on kind of splits the difference between a
of its 16.125" hickory frame packs plenty of orientation. Headhunters also released brush and a bundle by grouping four or
power into every stroke, while a large oval black polypropylene versions of its popular five flat bamboo slats into mini-bundles
tip pulls wide, open tones from toms and Rhino and Dreamcatcher models in the that combine to form a larger bundle
cymbals. Built around a 0.59" shaft that’s Black Rhino ($58) and the Sandman ($58), like Voltron. A single o-ring is used to
just slightly thicker than a standard 5A, the respectively. adjust spread of the inner groups, and
new Artist Series model from Twenty-One Headhunters’ Finger Snaps ($45) use the an additional eight slats on the outside
Pilots drummer Josh Dun ($17.25) is an stacked combo of three flat flaps found in offer more dimension, giving players the
agile stick that can handle plenty of heavy the company’s Rap Slappers flat sticks, but option of playing each model as a firm,
play. Its 16.5" length and medium taper feature much smaller strips to offer tighter, tight bundle, or as a wide, fan-shaped
deliver easy balance and a comfortable finger-snapping sounds. Rap Slappers spread. HipSquares ($41) use four inner
fulcrum, while a heavy oval tip beefs up ($60) have also been upgraded to include groups of five slats, while HipSquares
response. Plus, its deep red finish pairs textured outer flaps that are more flexible Mini have four groups of four. As a further
nicely with the blood on your split knuckles and lighter to create an even wider array extension of the concept, HipSquares
from rocking so hard. of sample-inspired sounds. Cajon ($41) are built with four groups of
Mr. Rundle sure was busy this year. five slats surrounded by an extra 12 slats
BRUSHES, BUNDLES & BEYOND Brand new Blunts ($41) use the same outside the o-ring. Plus, the end of each
Alternative striking implements can open construction as the company’s Doobies, Cajon model is equipped with an Orb-X
up worlds of new sound, and they don’t but sheath the 0.4375" maple, double-cut mallet head for greater textural variety.
cost nearly as much as a new snare or dowel core with eight thin bamboo slats And finally, rounding out Headhunters’
cymbal. Expand your sonic portfolio with for a fatter, deeper sound. Similarly, Bing new selection is a trio of mash-ups designed
some of the sweet strikers detailed below. Bongs ($41) have the same specs, but swap to deliver broad, explosive sounds. Fat
16 Dave Rundle of Headhunters is really out those bamboo slats for alternating black Bastards ($55) are made up of 75 small
doing yeoman’s work in his Burlington, and white polypropylene rods. Tough Guys bamboo dowels that are bundled into five
Ontario shop, creating an incredible ($36) are built using concentric squares of “fingers” of 15, with o-rings on each finger
catalog of unorthodox striking implements. long, flat bamboo slats, and are stepped for spread control. Super Cubes ($55) are
Take this year’s selection of new brushes, down from the outside-in at the tip to create constructed in much the same way, but
for example. Using black polypropylene a full, punching response with plenty of feature seven groups of five bamboo slats for
bristles in a tight fan, Bear Claws ($50) built-in bounce. more articulate tones. And the new Sporran
treads new ground by incorporating a Yet another interesting new model from ($55) model adds some cutting presence to
90-degree bend in the brush spread for Headhunters, the HipSquares concept the classic broom concept by utilizing two
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NEW Sticks & Heads For 2017
17 Vater's Woody Wire Retractable Brush with a standard wire gauge

has a wood handle to lend the brush more of a drumstick feel.
bundles of sorghum straw material standard retractable brush, but comes with favorite
with a polypropylene rod bundle between the added bonus of a 0.605" wood handle among players
them. For extra presence, one rod in the poly for cross-sticking and a warmer take on in need of a dynamic
bundle is fitted with an adjustable nylon bead other handle-strike sounds. implement with a comfortable
to pull a more pointed sound out of cymbals And don’t miss Vic Firth’s new Cajon grip. The company is also introducing
and drums. Bru-llet ($54.95). Anchored by a 0.65" Classic 7A, 5A, and 5B sticks (all $18.90)
We were a little surprised to see the hickory handle, the Cajon Bru-llet (we with the heat-activated ActiveGrip
country’s oldest drum company crack into prefer to pronounce it like crème brûlée) application. Finally, new Select Balance
the stick and implement market this year, blends a 3.25" spread of stiff, red plastic Rebound 5A and 5B Long models (both
but it should come as no surprise that the bristles with a 1.5" XLPE foam mallet head. $16.80) come equipped with an extra
product looks pretty interesting. Noble 0.5" of length in the handle for more
& Cooley’s Twist Rods put a new spin on ODDS & ENDS comfortable reach.
the classic bundle by twisting the all-birch Okay, let’s put a bow on this sucker with Vater introduced its 5A, Power 5A,
dowels to create a stronger, firmer striker quick looks at the new additions to your and Power 5B models with acorn tips for
with increased rebound. Three models yield favorite drumstick lines. full and articulate sounds (all $15.99). And
a variety of sounds in the Jazz Twist with its Ahead is now offering Medium and Long to wrap it all up, Zildjian expanded its
19 thin dowels, the Jazz Lite Twist with its 14 Taper Covers in a slick silver finish with Gauge series to include a 0.563" diameter
thin dowels, and the Rock Twist with its an MSRP of $3.65. Promark is bringing 9 Gauge model ($15.50). The 16"-long stick
seven thick dowels. back its popular Classic Maple SD2 stick has a feel similar to a 5B, and features the
17 Vater’s new Woody Wire Retractable ($16.80). The all-maple unit’s thick 0.63" Fusion tip for clear, articulate response.
Brush ($49.95) offers the same feel as a handle and small bead tip made it a Whew! See you next year!
PLAY BETTER FASTER.

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Daxx
JUST ANOTHER DUDE
FROM ROCKFORD
Nielsen
By Bob Doerschuk
Photograph: TED ROSENTHAL/IZMADDY STUDIOS
A
nywhere on Earth except
for Rockford, Illinois, rock
and rollers envy the life
of Daxx Nielsen. After all,
he plays arena shows all over the
world with one of the greatest
bands ever. His dad is Rick Nielsen
of Cheap Trick — how cool is that?

Daxx Nielsen
But back home in Rockford? “People here
don’t care about any of that,” Nielsen says.
“Just last night, I hung out with some of the
guys I went to high school with. Yeah, I’ve
followed my passion and been successful
with it. But I don’t look at it like I’ve done
anything special. I mean, if walked around
town thinking I was better than anyone else
because I’m in a rock band, they’d probably
punch me in the stomach.”
Maybe every celebrity needs a Rockford,
a place where they can go to shake off the
gold dust of superstardom and remember
who they really are. Sadly, most aren’t so
lucky. “When I come home I’m changing
diapers on my son Iver, who’s one year
Photograph: EDWARD ROSENTHAL

old, and hanging around the house in my
pajamas,” Nielsen explains. “Then on Friday
I put on my rock star clothes and go back
to that world.”
In a way it was kind of inevitable. Self-
taught on drums, though with valuable
guidance from his father, he put a band
together with his brother Miles called
Harmony Riley. They played mainly local
gigs, plus occasional opening spots in
arenas for Cheap Trick. In 2001, when “IF IT WAS UP TO RICK, THERE’D BE A DRUM FILL
founding drummer Bun E. Carlos began
developing back pain before a show in
Phoenix, he persuaded Nielsen to sub for
EVERY TWO BARS. HE WANTS BOMBAST. HE WANTS
him on the encore five or six nights in
a row. When his discomfort worsened, KEITH MOON MEETS CHARLIE WATTS.”
Carlos asked Nielsen to sub for him
throughout the rest of the summer tour. he formed with singer/songwriter Alison maybe it feels like I’m not trying as much to
Each night, then, Nielsen would play 45 Sudol. Still, he knew that this opportunity be him.”
minutes with Harmony Riley, take a half- required some tact. Carlos’s style was He points to his fondness for ghost
hour break, and then charge into a intrinsic to Cheap Trick’s success, which notes as one difference in his and Carlos’
90-minute set with Cheap Trick. meant that Nielsen had to ease into his role, approaches. “That comes from playing
In 2010, when Carlos stopped performing, delivering what fans wanted while allowing with Alison,” he notes. “For me, it’s about
Nielsen got the call to take over the drum time for his own approach to evolve. the feel. Instead of going 1-2-3-4, I’m
chair full-time. He’d strengthened his “Bun E. had a signature feel and sound,” going 1-e-&-ah-2-e-&-ah. That helps
chops backing surf guitar icon Dick Dale he says. “So I didn’t completely change any when I’m playing a slow blues. Those
and expanded his range in working with of his parts. But it’s been seven years now ghost notes are how I keep in the pocket,
Brandi Carlisle and in A Fine Frenzy, a group and I’ve gotten so comfortable with it that even if you can’t hear them.”
QUICK LICKS Transcription by Andy Ziker

“You Got It Going On”
“You Got It Going On” q = 151
Daxx Nielsen has been a member of 0:16
y y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
ã 44 ‰ œj œ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ
Cheap Trick for more than seven years
now, so his inspiring performance on
their new record, We’re All Alright!,
may not come as much of a surprise.
Growing up with the band as guitarist y Yœ Y Yœ Y Yœ Y Yœ Yœ œ Yœ œ y y
Rick Nielsen’s son has allowed him to ãœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ‘
soak up Bun E. Carlos’ style, but Nielson
puts his own stamp on the 13-song
y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
ã œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ≈ œ œ }œ œ }
œ œ œ œ œ œ}
œ œ œ}
effort, which is strong from start to
finish. This excerpt from “You Got It œœœœœœœœœ
Going On” features call and response in
two-bar phrases and an adventurous
fill in the last two measures.

So in concerts and on the new Cheap Nashville’s Blackbird Studio. He asked the As they’ve been doing for more than 40
Trick album, We’re All Alright!, what you instrument rental company Drum Paradise years, Cheap Trick is supporting their new
get is 100 percent Daxx Nielsen. Most of to deliver a selection of kits, snares, and release with dates booked throughout the US,
the time, that means no nonsense, no frills, cymbals, from which he, the band, and their Canada, Mexico, and Europe into November.
just a mean and monstrous groove stripped coproducer Julian Raymond chose what to Somewhere beyond that, the road leads back
down to its high-impact essentials. That’s use on each cut. He’d play, they’d listen to Rockford, where Nielsen‘s life will settle
fine with Nielsen, although he also finds it from the booth, and together they’d make back into a more restorative routine. Maybe
kind of amusing that his dad is more open their decision. he’ll check in on Shear Renewal, a salon
to stretching out beyond the backbeat now For example, on the album’s one ballad where his wife Heather oversees day-to-day
and then. “If it was up to Rick, there’d be “Floating Down,” Nielsen reports how “we business. There’ll be more diapers to change,
a drum fill every two bars,” he says. “He chose a deeper, less taut snare. We tuned more beers to sip with high school friends
wants bombast. He wants Keith Moon meets the head down so it was like a tom feel with who’ve stayed behind.
Charlie Watts.” snares on it. It was like that old-school Jim “I really am living a dual life,” he admits.
The opening track, “You’ve Got It Going Keltner feel, so it wasn’t cracky or slappy, He thinks about that for a second before
On,” offers the clearest example of Nielsen but it bounced and swung.” adding, “And actually? It’s really great!”
taking a few liberties as he backs Robin
Zander’s vocals by himself. “We recorded
this one with the singing, so it was like,
‘Every time there’s a vocal break, go nuts!’
Hopefully I didn’t overstep the lyrics, but
that was definitely one spot where the LESSONS. GEAR. NEWS.
band felt it needed drums all over the place
rather than just keeping time.” DRUMMAGAZINE.COM
The fact is, Nielsen insists, “it’s harder
not to do a drum fill. To just sit there and
play a straight beat, it’s like, ‘I gotta do a
fill! I gotta do it.’ It made me realize that
it’s at least as difficult as playing as fast as
possible and doing as many fills as you can.
It took years of doing studio work to get
that I don’t need that extra kick pattern. I
don’t need to go the ride — just stay on the
hi-hat during that guitar solo. That actually
makes it more powerful.”
The simpler the part, the more important
the sound when cutting drum tracks.
This cued Nielsen to put a lot of work
into preproduction before tracking at
VITALS
 Cheap Trick
  We’re All Alright!
 daxxnielsen.com
 36
 Rockford, Illinois
 Ringo Starr, John Bonham,

Phil Rudd, Bun E. Carlos, Matt Abts,
Joe Morello
GEAR
 Ludwig
 Zildjian
 Promark
 Evans
 Ludwig

BEN THATCHER
So much for sophomore
slumps. The newest lo-fi duo
to grasp the imagination of
today’s indie rock lovers has
just delivered an even more
impressive follow-up to its
self-titled 2014 debut album,
which is nothing less than
the latest step as …
ROYAL
BLOOD
GOES
FOR THE
JUGULAR
By John Payne | Photography By Neil Zlozower/Atlas Icons
BEN THATCHER
B
ass and drums duo Royal Blood made a huge splash with Thatcher used to watch him play. “I’ve played drums most of my life,”
their eponymous 2014 debut album, which hit #1 in the UK he says. “Other instruments I didn’t really care for too much. Drums
charts and Top 20 in 12 countries, to date selling over a was always the thing I played and the only thing I really wanted to do.
million copies and copping several awards, including a BRIT I started around six months old, getting the pots and pans out and
for Best British Band in 2015. With an amazingly full-spectrum blast crawling ’round, banging.”
that’s supremely melodic and very, very heavy at the same time, the He got his first real drum kit (’80s Ludwig) from a family friend
band’s follow-up, How Did We Get So Dark?, now comes roaring out when he was six years old. Later, playing with a series of local bands
on Warner Bros. Records, again showcasing the tunefully thunderous led up to his and Kerr’s steady employment in wedding bands in the
sound of bassist-vocalist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher. Brighton area. “He used to play keys and I used to drum,” he says.
“We cut our teeth on that stuff, but it wasn’t what we wanted to do.”
TWO PEAS IN A POD Thatcher and Kerr’s decision to try the duo format came about for
Straight out of Brighton, which is about 50 minutes south of London, reasons both artistic and practical. “We had been in many bands with
Thatcher and Kerr first met and started playing together in school many different people, and when it came to writing original material
bands and wedding combos. “We met during college at a gig, started with Mike, we realized that Mike had this massive bass sound, and
making music together pretty much straight away,” Thatcher says. our energy together just complemented each other. So we said, ‘You
“We were together in various bands, experimenting with different know what? We don’t actually need anything else right now. This is
styles, and then created Royal Blood in about 2013. And it just took way more interesting and more fun if we just do it together.’ So we
off from there.” decided that that is what we were going to do.”
For his part, the self-taught, exclusively matched-grip Thatcher Somewhat augmented with Mike’s array of effects on his bass and
didn’t have much in the way of a musical clan (“Neither of my parents Ben’s small collection of triggers/samplers — though basically arising
were into music”), though his brother-in-law was a drummer and from the explosive dynamic the pair generate when up close to each
Ben Thatcher's
KIT
G
4 J
B D
A
E
J
2
3 1
J H
5
K F
DRUMS Gretsch USA Maple (Black Glass finish) CYMBALS Zildjian PERCUSSION LP
1. 24" x 16" Bass Drum A. 15" K Light Hi-Hats G. Cyclops Tambourine
2. 14" x 8" Full Range “Swamp Dawg” Snare Drum B. 18" K EFX H. Black Beauty Cowbell
C. 19" Kerope
Infographic: JUAN CASTILLO
3. 13" x 6" Hammered Chrome-Over-Brass Snare Drum

4. 13" x 9" Tom D. 22" K Ride ELECTRONICS Roland
5. 16" x 16" Floor Tom E. 20" Kerope I. SPD SX
6. 18" x 16" Floor Tom F. 20" Oriental Crash of Doom J. BT-1 Bar Trigger Bars
K. KT-10 Kick Trigger Pedal
Ben Thatcher also uses Promark 5B sticks, a Porter & Davies BC2 throne, and Evans heads (Toms: Coated G2 batter/Coated G2 resonant; Snare: Coated G2 batter/Hazy 300
resonant; Bass drum: EMAD 2 batter/Custom Printed Evans resonant).

FOR
ROYAL BLOOD,
other — the duo’s sound can take the casual listener quite aback.
It’s almost strangely fully fleshy-bodied. Their pairing was the first
time either of them had tried a duo format, and they hit a bloody
goldmine.
“It was the first time we ever did that,” says Thatcher. “But then,
IT’S THE
Royal Blood was the first band we decided to do for fun, really. We
had been in so many other bands, trying to make it, and then we kind BIG DRUMS,
of gave up on doing that and decided to just do what we wanted to
do, and that was when it all kind of happened for us.” BIG CYMBALS,
A NEW MUSICAL DEMOCRACY
The band’s decision to forego all instruments but two invariably
BIG SOUND.
presented some big advantages, plus a few minor drawbacks. For acquisition of playing skills above and beyond those needed in a
one thing, with a duo there’s a lot less personal and musical politics larger band. “We both have room for each other, we don’t have to
involved. complement anyone else, and with that freedom we can go into
“It has its ups and it has its downs, but the disadvantages are spontaneous riffs live and just work off each other instead of
actually our advantages as well,” says Thatcher. “Obviously, band trying to work off four other people or whatever. Things like that
practice was easier, because it was only getting the two of us are really good dynamically for us.”
together. But other things, like trying to write music, wasn’t as Unsurprisingly, as many of their live sets are built on what
simple. You know, we have less elements to use, but then that technically could be called spontaneous composition, Royal Blood
pushed us with our creativity: Well, we haven’t got a guitar, so we’re conceives much of their new material onstage. “Oh yeah, every show
not going to do a guitar solo here. What are we going to do, then? has something different that pops up,” says Thatcher. “The last ten
“We obviously only have two sets of hands and we can only do so minutes usually is anything kinda goes, and every single time it’s
much, though of course when it comes to recording you can do a lot different. There’ll be like little licks that we do to throw each other
of overdubbing and really go to town there that way. But our whole off, then we just play around with each other a bit. It’s a lot of fun
thing is playing live — that’s what we want to do primarily, and we throwing things at each other that we can both try and carve into a
want to project all our sounds playing live. So when it gets to the song. The things that are really good that we do improvisationally are
studio, there’s bits we need to think about: How we going to do that the things that we can then do again — ‘That was really cool when
live? What’s a way around that?” you did that, let’s do that again tonight’ — and then it becomes
As evidenced by the sheer hugeness of their live sound and the more of a fixed thing.”
glorious How Did We Get So Dark?, what these two guys manage Whether they’re playing live or in the studio, the duo’s limited
to pull off with merely a bass and drums must have required the instrumentation allows them to play a bit more busily than they
Mike Kerr
The Other Half Of The Story
M
ike Kerr and Ben Thatcher gigged together long before
either thought about forming Royal Blood. Their
bass-and-drum dynamic lay in the future. Initially, in
someone else’s band, Thatcher was the guitarist and Kerr
performed on keyboards.
”Then one day their bassist was unavailable, so they asked me if I
could play bass,” Kerr recalls. “At the time, I couldn’t. I mean, I really
couldn’t! But of course I said yeah. That show is a bit of a blur for me
now, but I do remember falling off the stage and landing on the back of
the bass, snapping its neck. I also remember feeling that night like I’d
found my true instrument.”
A while after that, Kerr left to spend some time in Australia. When he
returned, Thatcher met him at the airport. As they drove back to town bass players traditionally make. For Royal Blood, that meant balancing
they talked about starting a band. “It was never our intention to be just raw power and musical intricacy. As a result, while allowing themselves
a two-piece,” Kerr says. “But as we started rehearsing some songs some room to stretch out onstage, they spend much of their shows
I’d written, we found out quite quickly that we didn’t need anybody playing parts verbatim. And for Kerr, this means listening differently.
else. We could do better without the outside stresses of having other “I kind of slip in and out of paying attention to what Ben is doing,”
Photograph: CONNOR PANAYI
members. Besides, I have a ton of pedals and effects, so with a lot of he says. “Mainly I focus on what I have to do because the parts are
experimentation I stumbled across this sound that’s so full on its own so defined and I have a lot of work to do with the pedals. But because
that we didn’t need a guitarist. It was like a shining-light moment when Ben is always on the mark, that’s a real weight off my mind. The most
we realized that, okay, this could work.” important thing for us both is to just have fun, and with Ben there’s
Of course, this decision required some compromise. At the same never a dull moment. I’m incredibly lucky to be in a band and tour the
time, it challenged them to rewire the connections that drummers and world with my best friend.” —Bob Doerschuk

BEN THATCHER
might in a larger group, though they’ve learned to be judicious about above these giants was John Bonham, Thatcher’s favorite drummer
all that. “There’re definitely parts where I can do whatever I want of all time.
and play quite busy,” Thatcher says, “but there are also parts where “Bonham had the feel of both a rock and a jazz drummer,” he says.
I really like to play the most minimalistic thing I can think of, because “He could do the technical stuff, but then he’d come up with these,
sometimes that brings so much room and power to the songs.” like, triplet fills that just filled the whole room — it was so big. And
hearing him, I think it was the first time that, recordingwise, I really
SOUL STRETCHERS loved a drum sound. Early on, Bonham came up with this massive
With Kerr doing the lyric writing and both guys composing the backbeat, and it was something I could feel more than anything.”
music together, Royal Blood’s approach to songwriting is nearly The very essence of Bonham’s sound resides in Thatcher’s own
as elastic as their live performances. Inspiration can come from caveman-clubbing rhythmic architecture. It owes a lot to his favored
literally any direction. super-flat-toned drumhead tuning, which he finds is accommodated
“All of our songs come from very different places,” says Thatcher. well within the duo’s relatively airy double-dude orchestration. “I’ll
“For example, we’ve tried starting tracks from drums up, then use different drums depending on the band, as well,” he says. “For
sometimes it’s the lyric that might start something off. But how they Royal Blood I use quite big drums, which really suit the music, and
all come together is with Mike and I together in a room — we notice they’re tuned quite dead. I use Moongels on them to make them
if we both like what we’re hearing, and we’re both laughing or it’s really thumpy and thuddy, a really tubby kind of sound, so they’re
putting a smile on our faces.” all quite low in tuning. For Royal Blood, it’s the big drums, big
Thatcher’s super-badass, heavy-duty thwack derives from inspired cymbals, big sound.”
encounters with a wide array of drummers modern and fabled. “The
first drummer I really loved was Dave Grohl,” he says. “When I heard SOUND SURROUNDS
Nirvana, just the way he played, it was hard as nails. It was rock, On the road and in the studio, Thatcher’s big-sound kit of choice
you know? It was a big, big, thumping, out-there sound.” Eventually currently is a USA Custom Gretsch kit. “I used that kit on the
people like Jon Theodore, Chad Smith, and Taylor Hawkins made recording of the new album, and it just sounds fat and brilliant.
huge impacts on Thatcher, along with Darren King of Mutemath, Actually we were in a studio with so many drum kits and so many
whom he calls “an absolutely phenomenal drummer.” Yet towering snare drums to use; I tried a Ludwig Vistalite kit and various other
B E N T H AT C H E R
DISCOGRAPHY
2013
Out Of The Black
 
2014
Back To The Start
 
2014
Royal Blood
 
2017
How Did We Get
So Dark?
 

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BEN THATCHER
smaller drums, but for the Royal Blood sound that Gretsch USA used a few of the room mikes on some of the songs,” he says, “but
Custom was just perfect.” to be honest with you, what I wanted, to get my true sound, was
The bulk of How Did We Get So Dark? was recorded at a studio in with the closer mikes. And I found that close mikes, when you crank
Brussels with producer Jolyon Thomas, with some tracking done them up and get a real good tone on a drum, well, it’s as simple as
in Brighton, Los Angeles, and Nashville, and a couple of tracks laid that. Even so, we basically put on way too many mikes for what we
down in London with the band’s previous producer, Tom Dalgety, wanted, so we could pick and choose the sounds in the mix.”
who had produced their eponymous first full-length album in 2014. For just a couple of fellas slinging bass and wacking tubs, the Royal
Dalgety knew the sound Thatcher favored quite well, and did the Blood sound is freakishly expansive. That fully zoomed-out sound is
mixing for the entire new album. easily achieved in the studio with post-production effects and mixing.
“On this new record,” says Thatcher, “the drum sound is a lot more For their live sets, however, the pair has had to figure out how to
live and authentic. It took just one or two takes for me to get the re-create that colossal studio sound in real time. Kerr’s solution has
parts down — which doesn’t mean we worked fast, exactly. Actually, been to augment his bass with an array of digital effects to fill out the
it was quite a long process, just sorting out the mikes for the drum harmonic field, while Thatcher fattens the band’s sound by triggering
sound, setting the kit up in different places in the room, putting samples from behind his rig.
different mikes on; that was the grueling bit. But I let the engineer “When we come to play it live now, there are elements that Mike
and producer deal with that, and for the London sessions, Tom can’t do on his own,” he says. “We’re very strong with what we do
Dalgety knew exactly what to do.” live, and we don’t want to have any rules about what we do. So, live,
In Brussels, the sessions were recorded with Kerr and Thatcher we don’t play to prerecorded tracks — and on the records, too, you
playing together, albeit in separate, glassed-off rooms “because we can hear there’s a lot of vocal backing parts. I can’t personally do
wanted to get a really clean drum sound, with absolutely no spill a five-part harmony, so how do we do this? So I have four triggers:
from his bass. But we could see each other, and that was important.” one’s on my auxiliary snare drum, one is on my rack tom, and one’s
Thatcher’s boomtastic drum presence on the album must tip a on my floor tom, and then I have a foot pedal next to my hi-hat stand,
hat to the exacting microphone placement in the recording studio. which does the stuff that I can’t physically do with my hands.”
Eschewing ambient miking for the most part, the team favored a wide Their fully, authentically rocking live-band sound might be
selection of mikes jammed up close and personal on the drums. “We explained by the fact that Royal Blood refuses to play to a click; thus
Tom Dalgety
It’s In The Mix
B
ritish producer Tom Dalgety worked with Ben Thatcher on
some of the drummer’s pre–Royal Blood bands, and right
from the start he realized that he was dealing with a world-
class sticksman. “Ben was always annoyingly good,” Dalgety
says with a laugh. “He’d give me a proper performance even when I
was just getting mike sounds. It’s one of the things that appealed to
me about producing Royal Blood. When I heard Ben was involved, I
said, ‘Count me in.’”
Dalgety produced Royal Blood’s self-titled debut album, and he
returned to work with the guys on a couple of new songs after they
recorded the bulk of their follow-up, How Did We Get So Dark? with
Jolyon Thomas. With an eye toward expanding Thatcher’s drum sound
without changing it completely, Dalgety added subtle splashes of
electronic percussion, along with utilizing some drum loops that Ben
programmed on Logic. The song “She’s Creeping” features finger-snap Dalgety’s bass drum microphone setup consisted of a Neumann U47
samples triggered from the snare, and the kick is dispatching a big Roland FET just outside the front head and an Audix D6 placed halfway inside
TR-808 bass drum sample. “That made for more of a hip-hop sound the shell. His top snare mike was an Audix i5 and underneath he ran a
from an acoustic kit,” Dalgety notes. “Overall, we tried to inject a bit of Beyerdynamic M 201 TG. For toms, he used Audix D2s, and overhead
a synthetic approach while maintaining the sound of a real drum set.” he positioned a pair of Neumann KM84s in the “Glyn Johns formation”
Tracking sessions took place at London’s RAK Studios, where Dalgety (one microphone pointed down toward the snare, the other pointed
and the band recorded several songs for the debut album. While Thatcher down toward Thatcher’s right shoulder). “You can really make a lot
laid down his drum parts in the spacious live room, bassist-vocalist Mike of the kit’s width with this setup,” Dalgety says. “The snare is in the
Kerr thundered along in the control room. “They always had a clear line middle of the stereo image.” Two more KM84s were utilized, one as a
of sight between them for tracking,” Dalgety says, “although the hi-hat spot and the other close-miking the ride.
truth is, those two guys could play well together a mile apart.” Capping things off were a pair of Coles 4038 ribbon mikes for the
Photograph: CHRIS WADE
In the past, a good portion of Thatcher’s cymbals and select drum room, placed “not too close, but not too far,” Dalgety says. “I try not
fills were punched in, but this time the emphasis was on all-live takes to get full-on Zeppelin with them. Some guys take room miking to
played straight through. “Ben did a lot of great work in preproduction,” the extreme, but I try to go for a more accurate depiction of what I’m
Dalgety observes. “He had all of his parts written out, and he just hearing. And with Ben behind the kit, it always sounds great.”
blazed. There wasn’t any need to rethink what he was doing.” —Joe Bosso

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BEN THATCHER
the precision of their aural attack is all the more impressive, and, coupled
with Thatcher’s intricate triggering, is a bigger hassle than Thatcher and Kerr
have been credited with.
“Not playing with a click, it’s a bit of a task, really,” he says with a laugh. “If
you’re playing slowly or too fast, then you’re going to absolutely mess up, but
without that click, when you’re playing live to a lot of people, it’s like you get
that adrenaline rushing so you’ve really got to zone in on what you’re doing. And
audiences watching me play don’t really notice what my feet are doing a lot
of the time, so when you hear those vocal harmonies coming in you’re like,
what’s going on here? Well, it’s quite clever little tricks, is what it is.”
TRIGGERING MADE NOT SO EZ

Mastering emerging technology is pretty much a required skill for today’s
professional rock drummers. Thatcher feels that by embracing high-tech,
he has also significantly expanded his playing skills. “I’ve really had to
learn to play drums in a different way again — which has been a lot of fun.”
Meanwhile, his playing continues to evolve. When he feels he’s getting into a
rut, he turns to a number of remedies to pull himself out of it.
“I really try and force myself to learn new things and play things differently,
for one by using different techniques to do things, such as mastering the
acrobatics of playing and hitting triggers simultaneously. And I like to put
myself in a different musical headspace genre-wise: The music Royal Blood is
playing is rock music, but there are definitely some hip-hop groove elements
in it, and it is really fun to play both genres almost together — which is
kind of like Bonham with the swinging thing. And my music taste is very
schizophrenic. I’ve been listening to some rock bands, yeah, but I’m into
hip-hop and R&B, and I’m into old Nancy Sinatra, Jeff Buckley, a lot of
different stuff. I get inspiration from all angles.”
As Royal Blood’s tour schedule has been jam-packed since day one, and
doesn’t look to let up for at least another year, Thatcher doesn’t have a
practice regimen as such, and doesn’t feel he needs one. “I’m just focusing
on the shows and putting all my energies into doing that,” he says. “I’ll play
a little bit in sound check, but I want to have enough energy to hit the drums
hard and really put on a good performance for the shows. And I don’t have
a warmup routine; I just do a few stretching bits before I go on. I should
mention that my thumb at the moment has got three blisters on it. But the
more you play, the more your hands toughen up, and the more you get used
to it. But in the initial stages, yeah, you suffer sometimes.”
One thing this affable, easygoing drummer does not suffer gladly,
however, is a mediocre stage sound, for himself or his audiences. For
accuracy in his stage mix (and to extend the life of his hearing into a ripe
old age), he wears in-ear monitors and uses an electronic low-frequency
thumper in his drum throne, which aids his overall balance and timekeeping
by direct-injecting sub-bass tones. “Then I have my in-ears for everything
else. What’s really good with in-ears is that you hear everything very clearly.
It’s quite reliable — the sound is the same every show, wherever you play.”
On tour, with the help of the band’s ace monitor engineer, Thatcher relies
on a finely tuned sound mix to keep him on track. “It’s quite a neutral mix,
very balanced, with the drums a little bit higher in the mix,” he says. “And
I like it all panned correctly, so it’s just how I’d hear it if I was in the crowd. I
don’t actually like hearing the overheads, so I normally have them off. The
vocal mikes normally pick up a lot of the high end anyway, and I hit the
cymbals very, very hard, so I can hear that frequency quite easily.”
A ROYAL FEAST
If we haven’t yet made it clear enough, let us officially state that Ben
Thatcher is having the time of his life, and that’s something you’ll see
when you witness his joyful pummeling at a Royal Blood show, coming
soon to a town near you.
“It’s been a great experience, and a privilege,” says Thatcher, “and
something I don’t take for granted. When this band is performing, it’s a well-
oiled machine, and we and our crew have such a good time with each other.
We love playing music to any number of people, from small clubs to huge
arenas, and we love having people enjoy it with us and party with us.”

“Brotherhood Of The Snake”
GROOVE ANALYSIS By Andy Ziker
Crank It Up
"How Did
“How DidWe
WeGet
GetSoSo Dark"
Dark”
q = 134
j verse
A Notch 2 2
1:05
4 y Yyy yyyy y yyy yyyY
ã 4 œ y œ œy œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ « «
AFTER A RELATIVELY QUICK RISE in
Y œy y y y y y y œ œ œ œ œ œ y
ãy œ œ œ œ
popularity, Royal Blood could easily have
gone through the motions on their second œ y œ œ œ œ œ
release. Instead, singer/bassist Mike Kerr and
drummer Ben Thatcher upped their game
j tambourine > >
with a refined sound. On How Did We Get So
Y œy z y y œy Y Y œy z y y œy Y Y œy z y y œy y y y œy y y y œy Y
Dark?, Thatcher takes more liberties, but his
ability to play just what the songs needs is
ã‰ œ y œ œ œ y œ y œ œ œ y œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
the engine behind this power duo. A punchy
drum sound, syncopated hits, thematic
Y y z y y y
groove patterns, and articulate, meaningful
ã y œ œy œ œ œy Yœ ‘ ‘
Y Œ œ œ
fills mesh perfectly with Kerr’s distorted
y œ y
> > > > > > >
bass and Matt Belamy-esque (Muse) vocal
2
melodies.
pre-chorus
jy y y y y y y y y y y yj y
“How Did We Get So Dark”
Thatcher’s parts flow so well from section
ã‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ œ
œ «
to section in “How Did We Get So Dark”
that it was necessary to transcribe all the
> > > > > > > > > > > >
yy y y y y y y y y y yj y yy y y y y y y y y y
‰ j jœ
ã œ œ œœœœ œœ œœ œ ‰
œ œ œ œ œœœœ
way through the form (verse, prechorus,
chorus, and instrumental interlude). In the œ œœ œ œ œ œ
> > > > >
verse, off-beat open hi-hat bumps on the
(1) & and (4) & give the listener something
chorus
y y y y y œ y y y œœœ œœœ y
ã ‰ œj œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ jœ
to latch onto, an eighth/sixteenth fill down
y y y y y y y y y y y y y y œ y y y y y y y y y y y y y y œ y y y
the drums in measure eight smoothly leads
into an anticipation (hit on the & of 4), and a
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
> > > > > >
strategically placed tambourine on the & of
2 perks up our ears.
y y
ã ‰ œj œ œ œ œ œ jœ y y y y y y y œ y y y y y y y œ y y y y y y y œ
yyy yy yy y yy yy yyœyyy yy yyœ
Thatcher continues the bass drum pattern
in the prechorus (and the chorus for that œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
matter), but switches the right hand texture
y Yj y
to accented crash. A power flam played interlude
y y y
j y y j y y j y y
ã ‰ œ œ œœœœœœ œ ‰ œ œ œœ œœœ œ ‰ œ œ œœ œœœœœœ œ ‰ œ œœ œ ≈œœœœœ œ
every other measure on beat 4 is a nice
touch. In the chorus, Thatcher again changes
œ j
the texture and increases the intensity by
switching to two-handed sixteenths on
“Brotherhood Of The Snake”

closed hi-hat. Notice how the hi-hat accent
y y œ œ œ œ œ œ y ‰ j œy y œ œ œ œ œ y ‰ Y}œ œ œ œ œ}œ œ œ}œ
‰ j œ œ œ œ ≈ œ œ}œ
œ œ} œ œœœœœœœ
ã œ œ
placed on 1 and 3 creates a floating sensation.
In the interlude, Thatcher plays short, catchy œ œ œ œ œ y
fills while still keeping the groove going.
Finishing off this section is a two-measure
fill reminiscent of founding Cheap Trick "LightsOut”
“Lights Out"
drummer Bun E Carlos.
q = 92
“Lights Out” 0:04

4 y y œy yy y œy y y y œy yy y œy y y y y yy y œ
ã 4 œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œœ
Another example of his ability to compose
memorable but tasteful drum parts, in
“Lights Out” Thatcher uses a repetitive
John Bonham-ish pattern in the first eight
y y y y yy y y y y y yy y
œ Œ ‰. œ œ œ
bars. He then cuts that phrase in half in
the next six measures, while adding a cool ã œ œ œœ œœœœ œœ œœ œœ œœœœ œœ ‘ ‘ ‘
sixteenth-note lick on the & of 2. After a
refreshing stop, Thatcher plays a challenging,
y y j y y 2
œ œ œ y œy y y y œy y
syncopated combination right from a power
flam into off-beat crashes. œ
œ
j
≈
ã œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ œ ≈ ≈ œ
œ œœ œ «
ST ANTO N
MOOR E
Just try to keep up as this New Orleans mainstay
changes identity from jam band funk to thrash
metal to straight jazz in the blink of an eye, then
swerves off on an entirely new tangent with a
set of tunes featuring his trio, a few ringers, and
deep respect for a recently deceased legend.
TRIBUTE TO
TOUSSAINT
By Bob Doerschuk | Photography By Robert Downs

STANTON MOORE
D
uring a five-hour layover in the Delta Sky Lounge at JFK “That especially hit you whenever you saw him play live,” Moore
Airport, Stanton Moore had plenty of time to reflect on a continues. “You’d see him do a tune that he wrote maybe 40 years
project he and his trio had just completed — an album ago. Then he’d go into another tune and you’d say, ‘Wait a minute!
dedicated to Allen Toussaint, whose work and personal He wrote that one, too?’ Then he’d follow it up with another tune and
example touched countless lives in and beyond the hometown they you’d have the same reaction. He’d fill his set with songs that maybe
shared. he didn’t sing originally but he had a hand in producing or writing.
Toussaint’s contributions were deep, but more important was their “When you saw him live, that’s when you realized that he was
breadth. The greatest performers in New Orleans redefined the art involved in literally the majority of the New Orleans soundtrack.”
of performance on their instruments — Louis Armstrong with his
trumpet, Professor Longhair with his piano. Had he confined himself ELEGANCE & ORNAMENTATION
to playing piano, Toussaint would stand in that company. That he As for his personal history with Toussaint, Moore suggests, “It’s
excelled as well in songwriting, arranging, and production makes him impossible for me to recall when I first heard him. It was probably
unique even among these peers. in the canned music in the delivery room when I was born!”
“It was said that he literally wrote the soundtrack to New Orleans,” Sometime after that, their paths did cross a few times. They met
Moore muses. “He was involved with so much great music there around 1994 shortly after Moore’s band Galactic had begun work
from the mid ’60s to the late ’70s, everything from Lee Dorsey to The on its debut album, Coolin’ Off, in Toussaint’s Sea-Saint Studios.
Meters to Dr. John and, later, The Pointer Sisters. He even arranged Galactic’s rhythm section had just formed a separate group
horns for The Band on Rock Of Ages. The fact is, if you’re born in dedicated to performing instrumental versions of songs by The
New Orleans, you can’t grow up without hearing something that Allen Meters. As a nod toward the Ivanhoe Lounge on Bourbon Street,
helped create. He’s probably the most pervasive persona in New where The Meters played in their early days, they called themselves
Orleans history. The Ivanhoes.
C
B
3
F
STANTON ’S
SNAZZY
A 4
SET
1
DRUMS Gretsch USA Custom Ruby Red Pearl Finish

1. 18" x 14" Bass Drum
2. 14" x 4.5" Dunnett Stanton Moore Spirit Of New Orleans
Titanium or Solid Shell Birdseye Maple Snare
3. 12" x 8" Tom
4. 14" x 14" Floor Tom
CYMBALS Crescent
A. 15" Fat Hats
B. 20" Prototype Side Ride with three rivets
C. 22" Wide Ride
D. 20" Trash Crash with three rivets
Infographic: JUAN CASTILLO
PERCUSSION LP
E. 12" Stanton Moore Pandeiro
F. ES-7 Cowbell
Stanton Moore also uses DW hardware, a DW 7000 hi-hat, DW 9000 bass drum pedal, LP percussion, Vic Firth Stanton Moore signature sticks, and Remo drumheads (Snare:
Ambassador Coated batter/Ambassador Clear Snare Side; Toms: Ambassador Coated batter/Ambassador Clear resonant; Bass Drum: Powerstroke 3 batter/Fiberskyn resonant).

Pictured in the tracking room at The Parlor Recording Studio after a session for With You In Mind are, from left: Stanton Moore, Cyril Neville, Trombone Shorty, and David Torkanowsky.
After a while The Ivanhoes landed a steady gig at Benny’s Blues strengths or weaknesses of what he was hearing from the
Bar in the 13th Ward, where members of The Meters and the Neville ensemble. Each time we’d make a pass on the tune, he would add to
Brothers grew up. “One night,” Moore relates, “this character who the arrangement. He was never on autopilot or phoning anything in.”
had worked on and off with Allen through the years came up to us As for finding the right approach to locking in with Toussaint’s
there and said, ‘Man, I love what you’re doing! I want to introduce groove, Moore explains, “His thing was to sit on top. I don’t mean like
y’all to Allen Toussaint!’ He took us back to Sea-Saint, where we push or be on top of the beat. I mean he would play almost delicately
recorded a couple of Meters tunes.” on top of the music and allow the rhythm section to provide the
He also set up their first meeting with Toussaint, in his office on foundation for what was going on. I don’t want to say he played a
the studio’s second floor. Moore remembers his first impression of the decorative role; it was more that he ornamented what was going on.”
man. “Allen Toussaint had a way of commanding respect without In this respect, Toussaint stood out from the line of great
demanding it. When he walked into a room, the energy changed. New Orleans pianists who had preceded him, from Jelly Roll
Everybody paid attention. Everybody wanted to be around him or Morton and Champion Jack Dupree to the more modern lineage
talk to him. He didn’t need to come to you; he drew you in. You can of Professor Longhair, James Booker, and Dr. John. “Guys like
hear that same quality in his playing as well.” Fess [Professor Longhair] were the foundation. I was talking with
Their meeting turned out to be briefer than Moore had hoped. Johnny Vidacovich about playing with him. The way he put it was,
“He said he liked what he heard. He talked about the possibility of you either had to get on that train or get run over. A lot of the
working with us. We said, ‘Well, Mr. Toussaint, we actually came in pianos Fess played on a regular basis had a hole in the footboard
a few months ago and recorded an album of original material. Our where he’d kick the beat, like that hole Willie Nelson’s thumbnail
producer is going to start a label and put the record out.’ ‘Oh!’ he wore into his guitar right above the pick guard.
said. ‘Well, it sounds like you guys are on your way. It was nice to “That’s how it is when I play with [Meters guitarist] Leo
meet y’all.’ And that was that.” Nocentelli,” Moore adds. “He is the time. He is the band. As a
They stayed in touch, though. “He invited us to Dooky Chase’s, drummer, I’m there to ornament his time. If you’re not playing his
a famous soul food restaurant in Tremé, one of the only places time, then you’re wrong. You’d better be exactly in sync with Leo.
where African American people could have a nice meal in the days Otherwise his head will snap around and look right at you.”
of segregation,” Moore says. “Allen sat at the head of the table in Moore laughs. “Allen was different. He wasn’t going to kick any
a private room. His daughter Alison and his son Reggie were at his holes into the pedestal of the grand pianos he played. He’d let the
side, taking notes. He talked about the possibility of writing some rhythm section be the foundation. But at the same time, he usually
Galactic songs with us. We didn’t get the chance to work with him wrote out every note he wanted them to play. Talk with some of
as much as we wanted to, but a few years later we came up with the bass players from some of his sessions and they’ll tell you, ‘You
two songs with him, ‘Bacchus’ and ‘Muss The Hair.’” know those tasty little bass fills you loved on that record we did?
They had more opportunities to appear together onstage. He wrote every one of them out.’”
“We occasionally had him open for us on solo piano and then This brings a story to mind that Moore says is well known among
sit in with us,” Moore says. “He wouldn’t just spin out a rote New Orleans musicians. “Allen wrote out the drum part for [Lee
arrangement for us; he’d mold the arrangement based off the Dorsey’s 1970 recording of] ‘River Boat.’ He wrote it to sound like

STANTON MOORE
the mechanization of a riverboat, like the turning of a paddle wheel. The trio soon realized that for With You In Mind to truly reflect
It was kind of a linear concept. He called in a few drummers but Toussaint’s importance, they should ask some of the city’s other
nobody did it the way he wanted it done. So finally he called James luminaries to join them. That led first to idea of bringing in Cyril
Black. Now, James might be the baddest drummer ever to come out Neville. “He’s still the first-call guy,” Moore says. “He agreed to come
of New Orleans, but he wasn’t always the most reliable.” in on two tunes. He was so great on them that a few days later we
So what happened? Moore smiles. “James came in, laid it down in invited him to come in and do a couple more.”
one pass and said, ‘Got anything else?’” One of them was hardly a typical Cyril Neville vocal. “Tork had an
idea,” Moore remembers. “Allen wrote a book of poetry [Have Some:
POETIC GROOVES Poems By Allen Toussaint, The Southern Knight]. We got it, maybe
It seemed inevitable that Moore would channel his admiration for from his son Reggie, and started reading through it. A lot of it was
Toussaint into a thematic project of some sort. Sadly, that decision lyrics to songs, but we found this one that had a beat to it. So we
was made for him toward the end of 2015, as Moore’s trio with came up with something to play behind Cyril as he recited it.”
pianist David Torkanowsky and bassist James Singleton was getting This inspired another idea. “We did ‘Southern Nights’ with
ready to cut their next album. [trumpeter] Nicholas Payton one night. He asked if he could play
“We’d been rehearsing tunes and we had studio time booked,” organ as we laid it down. Tork kept saying, ‘That’s really cool, but,
he recalls. “But when we got word that Allen had passed, we knew uh …’ And Nicholas said, ‘Don’t worry, brah. I’m gonna play trumpet
we would be remiss if we did not pay some kind of a tribute to over it.’ Then Tork said, ‘You know, that spoken-word thing worked so
him. But what should we do? One tune? Two tunes? So we started well with Cyril. Why don’t we get [actor] Wendell Pierce to do spoken
thinking that maybe we should do an entire album.” word with the lyrics of ‘Southern Nights’ before the song starts?’”
Over the next few weeks, while gigging in Japan, they talked This time it was Moore’s turn to be doubtful. “I was like, ‘Brah,
about which songs to choose and how to arrange them. “We didn’t are you having a flashback from the ’70s or something?’ I wasn’t
want them to be overly obvious — or if they were obvious choices, skeptical about Wendell Pierce. I just wondered whether it was a
do them in a totally different way,” Moore says. “So I came up with good idea to speak the lyrics of such a well-known tune. But Tork
the idea of doing ‘Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky’ in five. Tork was was like, ‘Trust me, brah. It’s gonna be cool.’ I think he probably got
skeptical, like, ‘How’s that gonna work?’ So I was like …” the idea from seeing Allen do ‘Southern Nights’ live, when he would
Here Moore recites the lyric as breezily as if it were written to be sometimes tell a story at the top about all these characters he’d
in five. Case closed. So when Singleton proposed doing Toussaint’s encountered while growing up in the country. It turned out to be a
“Life” in seven, no one expressed any objection. great track to end the record.”
A S E L E C T E D S TA N T O N M O O R E D I S C O G R A P H Y
1996 1996 1997 1998 1998

Coolin’ Off Manichalfwitz The Big Kibosh Crazyhorse Mongoose All Kooked Out!
Galactic New OrleaNs Klezmer allstars New OrleaNs Klezmer allstars Galactic GaraGe Á trOis
2001 2002 2003 2003 2003

The Houseman Cometh Flyin’ The Koop Vintage Reserve Emphasizer Ruckus
theryl “hOusemaN” De’clOuet staNtON mOOre Galactic GaraGe Á trOis Galactic
2006 2006 2006 2007 2007

Coalition Of The Willing After The Rain III Bringing It Home It’s Life
BOBBy Previte irma thOmas staNtON mOOre BONerama GeOrGe POrter Jr.
2009 2010 2010 2011 2012

Power Patriot Ya-Ka-May Groove Alchemy Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil Carnivale Electricos
GaraGe Á trOis Galactic staNtON mOOre GaraGe Á trOis Galactic

”
I’m not afraid to take something “Southern Nights” intro. “I wanted to state a super simple rhythmic
you would never think to mix motif and build from there,” Moore says. “What I played was an
amalgamation of stuff I’d checked out with voodoo drumming,
with New Orleans but then play Haitian drumming, West African drumming, and Mardi Gras
Indian drumming. I tried to come up with something that wasn’t
it with a New Orleans beat. pretentious or overly thought-out, just going from the gut.
“That comes from years of shedding and exploring,” he continues.
“I threw in some stickings, right-right-left combinations, while
adding Swiss triplets like Dave Garibaldi would do to make it sound
The tempo Payton wanted for the body of the song was like multiple-layered textured rhythms. I call it ‘Garibaldizing.’ Then
extremely slow, so Moore felt he needed to lay down a slightly Mike Dillon added some percussion on top to make it sound like it’s
faster clip to accompany Pierce during the intro. He recorded more than just two guys.”
this part alone, using brushes and following a scratch track Moore drew again from multiple sources to create an intriguing
of Torkanowsky reading the lyrics. Without a song structure drum intro to “Here Come The Girls.” On top of a repeated kick drum
to reference, Moore concentrated on atmosphere rather than motif he laid down a scampering snare beat. The effect was to
groove. Later, when Pierce came to the studio, Moore listened evoke the percussion section of a New Orleans marching band. “I’m
in via speakerphone as the actor did his reading. It proved a playing a cross-stick with my left hand and then playing on top of
perfect fit, with voice and drums coincidentally hitting certain that stick with my right,” he says. “I picked that up from Herman
cadences together as if they were tracking live. Ernest III on [saxophonist] Maceo Parker’s version of The Meters’
“Really, it was mainly educated guesswork. You’ve got to trust ‘Keep On Marching’ on the record Southern Exposure. I’m not playing
your gut, use some imagination, try to create a vibe, and throw Herman’s rhythm, but that’s where I got that technique. I used it to
caution to the wind. But,” he adds with a smile, “if the verses don’t approximate a snare drum march intro. I didn’t want to just copy it,
line up, we can always move things around. Although I don’t like to so I used the stick-on-stick.
use Pro Tools too much, knowing we could still edit gave me some “I’m not afraid to take something you would never think to mix
courage.” with New Orleans but then play it with a New Orleans beat,” Moore
Moore followed a different approach on another recitation, for adds. “That’s how I keep coming up with new stuff. As long as the
“The Beat,” which he cut live with Cyril Neville in the studio. As accent structure lines up with either a backbeat or a clave, you can
the title suggests, groove was more important here than on the modify it and make it work.”
1998 2000 2000 2001 2001

Mysteryfunk EP Late For The Future Money Shot We Love ’Em Tonight: Live At Tipitina’s Made In Medina
     ’ 20    
2005 2005 2005 2006 2006

In The Arms Of God Outre Mer Super Heavy Organ Change In The Weather Live In New York
          
2007 2007 2008 2008 2008

Lumiere Dans Le Noir From The Corner To The Block Emphasis! (On Parenthesis) Blue Plate Special Take It To The Street
        (The Music)
 
2012 2014 2015 2015 2017

Black Eye Galaxy Conversations Into The Deep Fast Forward With You In Mind
        

STANTON MOORE
SWEET & SLOW Hamilton spent a good amount of time with Moore, culminating
For Moore, With You In Mind marks a major step ahead in an area in a two-kit brush duet on “A Night In Tunisia” at the Las Vegas
he hadn’t explored too deeply until now. “To be honest with you, Academy Of The Arts. Perhaps the most important lesson Moore
ballads scared the living daylights out of me in my formative years. learned was to switch his focus from filling to leaving spaces. “On
If you do two hits on hi-hat and one is louder than the next, which a funk thing I might listen to where I can play a fill or react to the
is easy to do, or if your brushes get caught on a rough spot on the soloist,” he points out. “With a ballad, I make sure I leave enough
head, it leaves you so exposed.” space for the singer to phrase and get the lyrics out. I don’t want
About seven years ago, after writing his method book Groove to just jump in because I feel like I want to be heard. It’s more
Alchemy, he decided to do something about it. “I started going about being invited into the conversation.”
through every brush book and every video I could find,” he says. As you can tell by his work on “All These Things,” “River Boat,”
“But I also sought out friends, acquaintances, peers, and older guys and “With You In Mind,” his efforts paid off. “I’m nowhere near where
who had devoted a lot of time to brushes.” I want to be. I’m hardly the world’s greatest ballad player — that’s Jeff
For example, while in Japan, Moore discovered that Steve Smith Hamilton. But I’m at a completely different level now. It’s not just
was staying in his hotel. “So I called him up, we met for coffee, about practicing and shedding. It’s not even about the notes.
and then went up to one of our rooms,” he says. “We pulled out I mean, Elvin [Jones] was a master of ballad playing. But if you
the ironing board and put our pads on it. So now I’ve got videos of write out what he played on a ballad and had some college kid
Steve Smith playing brushes on an ironing board!” play it note for note, it would sound bombastic. You can’t take
He spent time with John Riley, Russ Miller, Jason Sutter, Gil something really profound, like something the Dalai Lama says,
Sharone, and, eventually, the ballad drummer nonpareil, Jeff and have a teenager read it back; it’s not going to have the same
Hamilton. “When he’s at home, Jeff likes to open up a bottle of impact. It’s not about the words. It’s about who’s saying them
wine and watch the sun go down,” Moore says. “After that, I said, and how they say it.
‘Hey, Jeff, can I show you a couple of things I’m working on with “It’s also about seeking out information from the masters,”
the brushes?’ I sat at his drums, picked up his brushes, and started Moore continues. “Going through every single brush book and
playing. He’s sitting in his armchair, holding a glass of wine, just DVD is like reading only the introduction to War And Peace: It
grinning at me, like, ‘Uh-huh. I see you, young blood. That’s cool barely scratches the surface. But when you talk with, say, John
but why don’t you try getting more of a lift in your right hand and Riley, he’ll tell you, ‘Well, I saw Philly Jo [Jones] at the Vanguard
more snap in your left hand?’ So I stood up, handed the brushes to many, many times. This is how he did this.’ You piece all this
him, and said, ‘Well, why don’t you show me?’ He laughed and said, information together and your understanding will only get
‘Oh, it’s gonna be like that, huh?’ And I said, ‘It’s gonna be exactly deeper.”
like that!’” Sounds like something Allen Toussaint would say.
He’s available! Call Steve at 630-865-6849.
THE Worldwide Resource for

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Phone: 212-730-8138 Phone: 630-237-4997
www.maxwelldrums.com

GROOVE ANALYSIS By Andy Ziker
“Life”
Five-Tool
“Life”
q = 94 staccato
>. >. >. >. >. >. >. >. >.

rimshot buzz
slightly swung sixteenths
Drummer
0:00
7
ã 8 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ( œ œ) œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ ( œ) œ œ œz œz œz œz
j j j j
z z z z
œ œ œ œ
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BORROWING A BASEBALL > >. >. >. >. >. > >.
œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ }œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œz œz
œ ( œ) œœ
EXPRESSION, Stanton Moore is a five-tool j j
drummer: 1) He’s a drum historian, and ãœ œ œ œ œ
œ
œ œ œ
can tell you where just about every groove
and lick comes from. 2) He’s a profoundly
> >. >. >. >.
}
œ ( œ œ ) œ ( œœ ) œ œ ( œ) œœ œ ( œœ ) œ
gifted teacher, known not only as private
j j j j
ãœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
z z z z
œ œ œ œ
instructor, but also for teaching camps,
masterclasses, and clinics around the world.
œ
>. >. >. >. > >. >. >.
3) He’s an accomplished author. 4) He’s also
!œ œ œ œ ( œ œ) œ ( œ œ) œ }œ
great on camera. 5) As we mentioned in our
ãœ œ œ }œ œœ œ œ œœ œ œ ≈ œ œ
œ œ œœ
May 2014 issue, Moore is a top-ten drumming
chameleon. He performs and records with his œ œ œ y
own jazz trio, plays funk with Galactic, and >.
even metal with Corrosion Of Conformity. His
y y y }œ
œ œ œ }œ œ }œ
y y œ œy y y y œ y }œ
ãœ œ œ œ œ œ
most recent effort, With You In Mind, again
demonstrates his versatility, by showing us œ
>
how it’s done in a pop setting, as he pays
homage to one of his favorite songwriters,
Y y y y y }œ œ ( œ œ) Y }œy œ œy y œ y }œ y œ y }œ
ã œ }œy œ œ
New Orleans R&B icon Allen Toussaint.
œ œ y œ
“Life”
“Life,” a New Orleans second-line in seven,
Y }œy œ œy }œ y œ y }œ y œ ( œ œ) Yœ }œy Yœ y œ Yœ y y }
is a lesson in how dynamics/articulations
can really make your playing come to life:
Moore uses buzz strokes, power flams,
ãœ y y y œ y œ œ
> > >
accents, rimshots, drags, and ghosted notes.
The staccato buzzes found in the second
Y }œy }œ œ Y ( œ œ) y }œ œ œ y Y œy œy } œ y yœ œ œ œ }œ
ãœ y œ œ }y œ
measure (starting on the & of 5) are one of
his signature licks. Moore brings his sticks œ y œ œ œ
up high and then proceeds to bury the tips
into the head when making contact. The
result produces accented, short-duration
buzz strokes. Notice how Moore changes
“NightPeople”
“Night People”
texture from only snare/bass drum in the
q = 94
> > > > > > > >
introduction to adding closed and open slightly swung sixteenths
hi-hat in the verse. This creates a wider 0:00
ã 44 œ
frequency spread and shines a spotlight on y y y y y y y Y Y œ y y y y y y y y y y y œ œ
Cyril Neville’s exceptional vocals. œ œ œ y œ œ œ œ
“Night People” > > > > > > > > > >
y y y y y y y Y Y œ y y y y y y œ œ }œ œ œ y
y
Moore builds a hypnotic beat with four on
the floor and accents on the hi-hat and ãœ œ œ œ y œ œ œ œ
snare, which provide a three-dimensional
vibe. Each phrase is organized in 1.5 + 0.5
measures: in other words, six beats of
groove plus two beats of fill.
“Riverboat”
“River Boat”
q = 63
“River Boat”
Using a repeating five-note melody (bass 0:00 > > >
4 œ œ œ œz œ œ œ œz œ œ œ
œ œ œz œ œ œ œz œ œ
ã4 œ Y
drum, middle tom, high tom, middle tom,
snare buzz) and hi-hat foot splashes,
Moore mesmerizes us again. Each measure
Yœ Y Y œ Y Yœ Y œ Y
is divided into 6 + 6 + 4 (subdividing by
> >
sixteenths), giving it a polyrhythmic feel.
œ œ œ œz œ œ œ œz œ œ œ œ œ œz œ œ œ œz œ œ œ
ãœ Y Yœ Y Y œ Y Yœ Y œ Y

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S
DR
U IC
M M
SE O
T E RG O N
Set Up
Your Kit
For Comfort
And Efficiency By Rick Van Horn
T
oday’s technology has produced a number of terms that are adding some past experiences of my own to this mix, I’ve come
hybrids of words used in science, industry, academics, and to the inescapable conclusion that drummers need to be more
so on. Among those that I find most interesting is the word concerned with ergonomics than do any other instrumentalists.
“ergonomics.” Simply put, ergonomics is the relationship Let’s face it: The drum set is the most personal instrument in
of the human body to work. This includes the physics of motion, the musical pantheon. A keyboardist can sit down at any piano
mechanics, and the design of physical objects, like tools and and play it. Likewise a guitar player can pick up any six-string and
equipment. strum a chord. But a drum set must literally be constructed around
Over the years I’ve given a lot of thought to the relationship the person playing it. And if that construction isn’t a “perfect fit,” the
between a drummer’s body and his or her drum set. I’ve had result can be impaired playing ability, reduced comfort, and even
occasion to speak to some highly expert medical people on the physical injury. So let’s take a moment to evaluate the relationship of
subject. And I’ve received correspondence from drummers all over a drummer’s body to a drum kit, and examine a few points that you
the world describing physical problems that they were having. After might not have considered when creating your current setup.

DRUM SET ERGONOMICS
Physiology & Seat Height
Ergonomics are of the greatest importance to a drummer when it
comes to the question of seat height. Of course, “correct” seat height
is determined by many factors, all of which vary with the individual
player. For years drummers have argued over whether one achieves FIG.
more power by sitting high or low. Questions regarding speed and 1
control also become part of this issue. But there are certain physical
factors that should be taken into account when you’re in the process
of determining what seat height is best for you. (And even if you’ve
been playing for years, it’s a good idea to take a fresh look at this
critical element of your setup.)
In addition to the considerations mentioned above, think about
your body’s need for unrestricted circulation. The edge of a seat
positioned too high can cut into the undersides of the thighs,
pinching major blood vessels and causing numbness in the lower
limbs. A seat that is too high can also cause upper and middle back
strain (due to the legendary “drummer’s slouch” that it promotes),
while a seat that is too low can cause lower back problems from
putting most of the upper body’s weight on the lower spine. Finally,
a seat that’s too high or too low can cause the body to move in
unnatural ways in an attempt to remain balanced.
While I can’t recommend one specific height for everybody, I can
suggest an exercise that may help you to understand how seat height
relates to your playing. Sit on a standard dining-room chair. Pull your
feet back as far as possible under the seat, keeping them flat on the
floor. Now try to play an imaginary bass drum pedal. It’s virtually
impossible, right? This is an extreme example of the knee-ankle-foot FIG.
angles that are created when you sit very low. Next, put your feet out 2
in front of you as far as they’ll go — again keeping them flat on the
floor — and play your imaginary pedal. The extensive range of motion
you now have reflects the angles that are created when you sit higher.
With all of the above in mind, I suggest that you sit at your drum
kit and objectively evaluate whether you might benefit from a change
in seat height. Just remember to make any such changes in small
increments at a time, and mark your starting point so you can return
to it if you’re not happy with those changes.
Anatomy & Bass Drum Position

Next, let’s look at the relationship of a drummer’s body to the
position of his or her bass drum, which is usually the starting point
for any drum kit setup. We’ve all been brought up on photos of
drummers sitting proudly behind their kits, with their bass drums
facing straight forward so that the illustration on the front head
(be it a company logo, the drummer’s initials, or the band’s name)
is clearly visible. The drummers themselves are also faced directly
forward so we can see their smiling faces. What’s wrong with this
picture?
Most drummers see nothing wrong with it, and that’s the way they
set up: drums and drummer both facing straight ahead. But if the
bass drum is facing straight ahead, that means that the bass drum
FIG.
pedal is pointing straight back. This creates a need for what I believe
3
is an unnatural “turning in” of the bass drum foot.
The human body is designed to operate in a very limited number
of ways. It has remarkable flexibility within those parameters, but
cannot endure extended abuse without some reaction — usually in
the form of injury or impaired performance. And when it comes to
your thigh, knee, calf, ankle, and foot, they all work together best
in a straight line. Twists and turns cause problems (Fig. 1).
Illustrations: JUAN CASTILLO
Some drummers try to get around the nonaligned foot-to-pedal

situation by setting the bass drum facing straight forward, but letting
their foot angle naturally across the pedal plate instead of turning it
at the ankle to correspond to the pedal. While this may reduce the
risk of problems for their bodies, it likely will increase the risk of
damage to the hinges and linkages of their pedals, which were not
designed to withstand “sideways” stresses (Fig. 2).

Set Up Your Kit For Comfort And Efficiency
Take a moment to do another exercise: Sit in a reasonably high, relationship. The hi-hat should be positioned in the same manner
straight-backed chair (or on your drum stool if it’s handy). Close for the other foot.
your eyes, relax completely, and imagine that you have a snare
drum on a stand in front of you. Lift your legs so that your feet Gravity Versus Cymbals
are off the ground a couple of inches. Now, while remaining totally Here’s a simple but undeniable fact: You can’t fight gravity and win.
relaxed, let your feet drop to the floor. You should notice that your Not for long, anyway. The earth is a lot bigger and stronger than you
feet will land with the toes slightly turned out — usually at close to are, and consequently it can exert a lot more force than you can.
a 45-degree angle. The oldest principle of physics is that “what goes up must come
It’s my contention that in order to maximize strength, speed, down,” and any effort to contradict this principle is going to take a
and stamina (and to minimize potential injury to your knee, calf great deal of energy to accomplish. This principle applies to drum
muscles, and ankle), the angle of the bass drum pedal should kits primarily when it comes to the position of cymbals.
conform to the angle of the foot — not the other way around. This The higher and farther away your cymbals are from you, the
means that if you wish to face straight forward, the pedal should more energy it takes to overcome gravity in order to reach up and
angle slightly to the outside of your body (left or right, depending hit them. Conversely, the lower and closer your cymbals are, the
on which foot you use). The bass drum itself should be offset less energy it takes to play them.
accordingly. Just visualize how a bass drum would be placed in This equation is most important when it comes to ride cymbals
a double-bass setup, and you’ll get the picture (Fig. 3). and hi-hats (including remote hats). Sustaining a complicated or
Obviously, if your rack toms are mounted on your bass drum, fast ride pattern is hard enough without having to do it on a cymbal
offsetting that drum is going to move the toms over as well. But this that’s shoulder-high or higher. You should make every effort (no
needn’t be a problem. There’s an abundant variety of drum hardware pun intended) to keep your ride cymbal and/or hi-hat at a level that
available to help you put the toms exactly where you want them. For minimizes tension or strain in your arm. Under most circumstances,
example, assuming you have two toms, you could mount them on a the human arm works best for this purpose when held comfortably
double-tom floor stand directly in front of your snare. Or you could at the side of the body, with a more or less 90-degree bend at the
keep one on the bass drum and put the other on a snare stand, or elbow. I realize that the location of drums on the kit may make
fly it off of a cymbal stand. Or you could splurge and keep both of this precise position impossible, but the closer you can come to
the toms where they were on the bass drum, and add a third tom in it, the more endurance you will have. This, in turn, will help you
front of you. You have plenty of options that will allow you to play the maintain solid time and a better groove over the course of a long
toms and your bass drum comfortably. performance. (By the way, this applies to the height of your snare
If you still want the bass drum to face straight forward (perhaps drum as well as your ride cymbal.)
for visual reasons), you should consider angling your body slightly In addition to height, cymbal angle is also important. Ideally,
to one side or the other in order to maintain a natural foot-to-pedal your drumstick should be able to strike the cymbal from as close
PLAY BETTER FASTER.

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DRUM SET ERGONOMICS
to a parallel plane as possible. That means that if the
cymbal is absolutely horizontal, you should be able to
"SWEET SPOT"
comfortably hold the stick horizontally above it. If the
POINT OF OPTIMUM
cymbal is angled, you should be able to angle the stick to
IMPACT POWER
the same degree just as comfortably.
Crash cymbals aren’t played as often as rides and hi-
hats, but they generally must be struck with more force.
So it’s very important to keep them within a comfortable
reach. They should also be angled in such a way that
your wrist doesn’t have to go into unnatural contortions
to connect the shoulder of the stick with the edge of the
cymbal. Acute angles are generally good only if you want
to minimize stick impact (such as on a very soft jazz gig),
since it becomes almost impossible to do anything but
glance off the cymbal with a stick tip.
The Snow Globe Concept

With all of the foregoing in mind, there’s an easy way
to determine the optimum placement of drums and
cymbals on your kit. I call it the “snow globe” concept.
Start by sitting on your drum stool in an open space.
Put your arms out straight to your sides, and then raise
and lower them until you’ve outlined a circle. Next, spin
around on your stool, doing the same thing over and
over again.
Now you’ve created an imaginary “sphere” around FIG.
you — as if you were sitting on the inside of a giant snow 4
globe. It’s my contention that everything on your kit
should be positioned as though it were on the surface
of this imaginary sphere. In that way, you should never
have to lean or stretch to reach anything.
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Set Up Your Kit For Comfort And Efficiency
When it comes to rack tom placement, there are both musical
and physical factors to consider. Let’s start with the physical
factors. In sports like baseball, tennis, and golf, there’s something
called a “sweet spot.” This is the point in every player’s swing
where the bat, racket, or club impacts the ball with the most FIG.
power. Hit the ball before that spot and that power isn’t fully 5
developed; hit it after that spot and the power is already
diminished.
There’s also a sweet spot in every drummer’s stroke. It’s pretty
easy to find; just “air drum” with a stick in your hand and you
can usually feel exactly where you’re generating the most impact
force. Ideally that’s the point at which you want the tip of your
stick to connect with the drumhead (Fig. 4).
Now let’s combine that with an important musical factor, which
is that a drumhead responds best when it’s struck at 90 degrees to
its surface. That is, straight down into the head, as opposed to a
glancing blow (Fig. 5).
To achieve this striking angle, the drumstick should approach
the head as parallel as possible to its surface. This allows the tip
of the stick to come straight down into the head. As with a ride
cymbal, if the drum is flat, the stick should be flat above it; if the
drum is tilted, the stick should match that tilt (Fig. 6).
So, putting this all together, here’s how to determine the
optimum placement for your rack toms: Sit behind your snare DRUMHEAD RESPONDS BEST WHEN
and bass drum. Holding your sticks as you normally do, raise STRUCK AT 90˚TO SURFACE HEAD
your arms up and forward naturally. Note the height and angle
of your sticks as you reach a point where the sweet spot of your
stroke puts the tips of your sticks where they can strike a tom at
90 degrees to the head. That’s the height and angle at which the
rack toms should be positioned. FIG.
To position your crash cymbals, simply continue raising your 6
arms up (still holding your sticks), and extend them out a bit
to either side of the kit. This gives you an idea of the optimum
height and angle for your crashes, as well as any other items that
you might want to place on your kit.
The Snow Globe concept is especially useful on large setups,
where there might be a temptation to place things out of optimum
reach just to get them on the kit. But the concept is every bit as
applicable to smaller kits. The idea is to achieve optimum playing
efficiency and comfort, which should be your goal no matter what
size kit you play.
Conclusion
The object of raising all of these points is not to try to tell you
how you should set up your drum kit, or why you should change
your concept to suit mine. The truth is, there is no right or wrong
way to set up a kit.
Consider the setups of great drummers like Billy Cobham,
Simon Phillips, and Carter Beauford, who play open-handed to
avoid crossing their hands to play hi-hat patterns, and who put
their rides on the left side as well. Then there’s Mike Mangini’s
mirror-image tom arrangement, which serves physical as well as
musical purposes for him. And finally there’s Bill Bruford, who
uses a symmetrical setup with toms on his left and right and his
hi-hat directly in front of him in the middle of his kit!
While these “alternative” setups certainly do address some
ergonomic issues, I’d only recommend exploring them after
you’ve gotten used to the traditional approach, and you feel the
Illustrations: JUAN CASTILLO
need to refine your setup a bit more.

My hope is that the suggestions presented in this article
will get you thinking about the critical relationship that exists
between your body and your instrument — and the work that
the two do together that ultimately comes out as “drumming.” An
awareness of the ergonomics of drumming should help you keep
that relationship harmonious for many years to come.

Chris Dingman
Heed
The Call
Of The
Mallets
By Bob Doerschuk | Photography By Zachary Maxwell Stertz
A
side from small rodents and pesky siblings, anything you hit some huge beast breathing rather than as it did at the top, like a
with a mallet is a percussion instrument, right? That means migraine coming on.
vibraphones indisputably fit into this category. Yet More recently, on the album Sounds From The Deep Field by Bryan
for many reasons, “percussive” doesn’t always reflect And The Aardvarks, he found a less abstract application for that tremolo
the instrument’s true nature or how its chief practitioners see it. to add dimension to the chords that kick off “Soon I’ll Be Leaving This
“I’ve talked about this a lot with other vibraphone players,” says World.” Another track, “Tiny Skull Sized Kingdom,” utilizes the vibes
Chris Dingman. “Is it like a piano? Is it more like a guitar? People think for an ostinato within a work that veers between 7/8 and 8/8, with
of it as a substitute for those things with maybe a different color. Will Dingman’s nuanced sustain mixing pointed articulation and background
anyone ever say someday, ‘I want a vibraphone to accompany me texture. And on two tracks from The Endless Field’s self-titled debut,
because it does things those other ones can’t do?’ released June 23, he recedes into the duo’s dreamy, new-agey sound,
“I guess,” he concludes, “I’m trying to find ways it can just be itself.” glistening atop melodies like sunlight on dew.
He’s well on his way to doing just that, judging from his catalog Despite these fascinations, Dingman did take his first musical steps
as leader and sideman. In 2011, his debut album as a leader, Waking toward the nonmelodic, harmonically indifferent world of drums.
Dreams, focused on his composing, with the vibes generally playing That’s what he played throughout high school in San Jose, California,
parts and sharing improvisational space with the other instruments. with groups whose specialties stretched from ska to jazz. He even
Four years later, he dug more into the instrument’s resources on The kicked double bass with a metal band. At the same time, though, he
Subliminal And The Sublime; the opening track, “Tectonic Plates,” enjoyed listening to his parents’ records, with an emphasis on opera,
begins with a deep, slow tremolo, whose glassy, vibrato-free throb classical, and jazz, and took piano lessons. Rhythm and tonality played
eventually takes on an organic quality. By the end, it feels more like equal, parallel roles as he absorbed and personalized what he heard.

Still, Dingman’s first encounter with a “Miles, Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Wayne so important to Bobby,” Dingman continues.
vibraphone wasn’t a life-changing event. Shorter, Herbie Hancock — I remember listening “He played so beautifully and lyrically. And, of
“One day when I was playing percussion in to things they played and realizing that I could course, Lionel Hampton was the grandfather.
high school band someone wheeled out this play those specific harmonic progressions I was So those are the big three.”
really rickety vibraphone. The frame was learning. It made a little bit more sense than the He tuned in to more contemporary players
totally homemade. The pedal was a piece experiences I’d had as a drummer. So I was like, too. “I heard Dave Holland’s band with the
of wood attached to two strings; it worked ‘Well, this is how I relate to music in general. vibraphonist Steve Nelson. Between that and
backwards from the way most vibraphones This is how I think. Maybe I should be going with some Gary Burton records, those were the first
do. I didn’t get too deep into it. It was just a my strengths.’” times I heard the vibes explored in terms of
side thing, something I didn’t ever think I could Dingman didn’t so much plunge as ease into chordal playing. Gary, of course, is probably the
do seriously.” that world. There was one moment, though, most prodigious vibraphonist of all. He came
That changed once he began his freshman where a personal misfortune persuaded him to up with all kinds of techniques to get around
year at Wesleyan University in Middletown, make the transition. “A good childhood friend the instrument’s limitations and do things like a
Connecticut. Although enrolled in the College of mine passed when I was in my sophomore piano player or a guitar player would.”
Of Social Studies, with a curriculum based on year,” he recalls. “I was in South India, studying After graduating from Wesleyan, Dingman
classical Western social theory, economics, mridangam, when I heard about it. That was was accepted at the University Of Southern
philosophy, and history, Dingman wanted to the moment when I knew I had to stop messing California’s Thelonious Monk Institute. “That’s
play jazz too. When his faculty adviser heard around and do what I really want to do with my where I really began studying composition,”
this, he sent the young student to meet with life. I want to play vibes.” he notes. “My teacher was Vince Mendoza,
jazz vibraphonist and Wesleyan professor of With hindsight, Dingman is pretty clear who writes a lot of large-ensemble music. I
music Jay Hoggard. about what lured him to vibraphone. “First also studied a lot with [trumpeter] Terence
“Jay asked me, ‘Did you ever play vibes?’” of all, there’s that general thing of being able Blanchard. That was more philosophical: He
Dingman recalls. “I was like, ‘Well, I played a to play melodic lines but with a percussive tries to find exercises to help you tap into the
little bit in high school.’ And he looked at me technique,” he notes. “That matched my skill compositional voice you already have inside of
and said, ‘You’re … gonna … play … vibes!’” set. Sonically, there’s some mystery about it. you. A lot of that was to determine what my
With that, Dingman’s odyssey began. In There are otherworldly aspects to the sound, motive was for wanting to compose at all.”
addition to working with Hoggard, he studied which to me are very attractive. Even as Dingman was mainly writing jazz tunes
at Wesleyan with drummer Pheeroan akLaff a budding vibraphonist, I realized that this when he went to USC. But thanks to Mendoza
and multi-reed visionary Anthony Braxton. seemed like unexplored territory. I mean, lots and Blanchard, and to his investigations into
Lessons with saxophonist/composer Steve of great vibraphonists came before me and Steve Reich’s minimalist works, the free-
Lehman helped expand his grasp of post-bop explored a lot. But it’s a fairly young instrument floating rhythm of Morton Feldman, and other
improvisational structure as well. and a lot can still be done with it in terms of contemporary compositions, he decided to set
“Pheeroan was a big influence,” he says. sustain and sound.” his self-imposed limitations aside.
“Once I started switching from drums to vibes, He knew this well, having listened carefully “That’s when it became more global for me,”
I’d just play vibes with him playing drums in our to what his predecessors had achieved. “In he explains. “I was like, I don’t have to just
lessons. A lot of it involved getting performance terms of having a real voice on the vibraphone, write jazz tunes. I can write my own music and
experience and developing different ideas for Bobby Hutcherson has always been my biggest it can be influenced by anything. I was listening
improvisation. Pheeroan thinks in terms of influence,” he says. “His music always spoke to then to African music, Indian music, electronic
color and shapes; he hipped me to a lot of stuff me really deeply. He channeled himself through music, contemporary hip-hop, DJs — all kinds
like that. With Braxton, I was mainly taking the instrument. That especially blew me away of things. It all became music for me, not just
classes and playing in his large ensemble.” once I saw him play live. It made me think of genre. That was kind of a revelation. I was
Soon, Dingman began reconsidering whether him like, ‘Wow! He’s a wizard!’ Milt Jackson being refreshed and invigorated by these other
drums really were his instrument of destiny. was also important to me because he was systems of music that I’d never heard before.
A SELEC TED CHRIS DINGMAN DISCOGR APHY
2004 2007 2008 2008 2009

ArtificialLight On Meaning Thought Forms Prelude To Cora Canada Day
steve lehman steve lehman Quintet GO: OrGaniC OrChestra ambrOse akinmusire harris eisenstadt
2009 2009 2011 2014 2015

Travail, Transformation Bossa Beleza Waking Dreams Mise en Abîme The Subliminal And
And Flow Gabriela anders Chris dinGman steve lehman OCtet The Sublime
steve lehman OCtet Chris dinGman

Chris Dingman
It was like living your whole life in a small says. “I didn’t set out to do that on purpose; Dingman didn’t have the budget for that.
town. Then all of a sudden you move to some that’s just when I could find the time to write. “So I started with just one vibraphone and one
other place where there are way more things But without even thinking about it I tapped guitar. I also used a lot of bass bows and rolling
you could do. Up to that point I had thought into the spirit of being there on that train mallets on the vibes, doubled with the guitar
of Western music as it and everything else with all these other people, going over the playing really ambient chords. The bows give
was a foreign language. I came to realize that Manhattan Bridge. It was like, ‘Whoa, there’s you a chance to vary the attack, so it sounds
something going more like breath.”
on here.’” It takes imagination, then, to overcome
To explore the limitations of the instrument. “I guess at
the idea further, times I feel like that is a boundary,” Dingman
Dingman applied admits. “But as a composer I can always
for and received a draw on a variety of instruments. Even
grant that paid for though I don’t write music in quarter-tones,
a trip out into the I can convey that influence to a saxophone
Pinnacles National or trumpet player so they can have it in their
Park in California, head while they’re interpreting something I
with the aim wrote.”
of tapping the Besides, who’s to say Dingman won’t
spirit of its caves, try some different tunings? In fact, when
volcanic rock performing with the Steve Williams Octet, he
formations, and attaches a set of bars to his vibes that include
vistas into his three notes within each octave pitched a
process. This in quarter-tone sharp. And when trumpeter Amir
turn moved him to ElSaffar called him for some gigs, he supplied
pursue the same Dingman with bars tuned to specific Iraqi
goal on other maqam scales.
expeditions, one of However, he adds, “A lot of what draws
which led directly me in the music I’m listening to now involves
to that compelling, different layers of rhythm and how they
everything out there can be a part of what organic opening on “Tectonic Plates.” overlap but vary slightly. In terms of concept
I do. It’s all equally valid. It all feeds into the “That came from a hike in Massachusetts,” and how I approach the instrument, I used to
work I do.” he remembers. “I was looking over this try to forget that percussive aspect and think
Post-academia, Dingman has formed a landscape, all the its ripples and hills. For in terms of the melodic sounds I’m creating.
conviction that the external world can and millions of years, these things have been But I’m not doing that as much anymore, I
should play a role in his work. The notion moving, very slowly. It’s hard to wrap your suppose because I enjoy exploring the raw
came to him almost inadvertently as he was head around that scale and size, but out of that groove aspect of the vibes. Yeah, it’s like
working on “Manhattan Bridge,” which he I wrote this chorale with a feeling of massive playing a drum with a lot of sounds. Every
would include on his first album. “I wrote it movement.” bar is a drum.”
entirely on the subway as I was commuting But how could he most directly translate that Ah. Chris Dingman is a percussionist at heart
to and from a day job I had in New York,” he impression into sound? Maybe with a choir, but after all.

SOMETHING OLD
IS NEW AGAIN
A&F Drum
Company Royals
By Brad Schlueter
R
amy Antoun is a design element as minimalist as finish A&F uses. It’s too bad Drum adds wood hoops and engraved
successful touring and possible. didn’t specify my preference for a logos on all the drums.
studio drummer who A&F bills itself as a “luxury" 30-year-old Bruichladdich before A&F doesn’t offer hardware, so
wanted to re-create drum brand, so its drums aren’t we set up this review. their kits come a la carte. There’s
the look, sound, and aesthetic for bargain hunters. If you’ve no rack tom mount, so you’ll need
of vintage drums he’d collected heard of the brand, you may be DESIGN & a second snare stand. Other than
over the years. Working with local acquainted with its wide range CONFIGURATION floor tom legs and bass drum
craftsman Steve Furcinitti, Antoun of peculiar snare drums. These My review kit was from A&F’s spurs, we received no additional
created a limited-edition raw include very shallow Pancake premier Royals line. The most hardware for our kit.
brass snare drum that captured drums that are just 1.5" deep and remarkable thing about this series
all the qualities he envisioned. have a crisp “white noise" sound. is that the entire kit has brass FINISH & FEATURES
Ever since then, he’s been More unique still is their Gun Shot shells. Yes, all brass. This company is a marketer’s
committed to crafting drums snare, which is 18" x 4" (that’s For this kit, Antoun worked dream. A&F Drums are meant to
that were out of the ordinary. not a typo), has wood hoops, and with A&F’s Tabber Millard and stand apart from the competition
A&F is different from other four floor tom legs and brackets Nikki Spencer, experimenting and look different. Every aspect
boutique drum makers. Rather attached to support it. with different brass thicknesses of the drums contributes to the
than developing cutting-edge A&F’s drum lines offer some and welding methods, trying brand’s steam punk aesthetic.
drums that seem to bring the unique options. There are more to achieve the ideal balance of My review kit had a raw brass
future into the present, it has traditional ones, like having your sound, weight, and durability. finish that will likely change over
taken the opposite approach, hoops or metal shells engraved by My kit included a shallow time. Random variations in the
building drums with design the master artist John Aldridge. 22" x 12" bass drum, 14" x 6.5" metal almost make them look
elements that could be from the Then there are more esoteric snare, a 13" x 8" rack tom, and rusty, but don’t worry — you
turn of the century. And I don’t options, like those found on their a 16" x 14" Snom. No, that’s not a won’t need a tetanus booster.
mean the most recent one. Whiskey Maple line, which gives typo. I’ll get to what a Snom Those rusty-looking patches are
It’s almost as if scientists buyers the choice of blending is in a few paragraphs, but in the result of an acid wash, used
discovered drum builders from scotch, bourbon, or other the meantime, just think of it to create an oxidized, antique
the 1800s frozen in a block of whiskies into the finish. You’ll find as a floor tom. All shells are look. Brass hoops match the shell
ice, and reanimated them just a video on the company’s site that undersized by about 0.25". My finish, while the patinas of the
so they could get back to work. shows the chief craftsman adding bass drum came with walnut clips, center mount brass lug,
A&F’s approach seems to eschew two fingers worth of a 12-year- hoops. You can also upgrade to and threaded rods are slightly
modernity while making every old Macallan to the dark oil rub the pricier Royal Elite kit, which different from the shells.

Welded seams Unique brass and
leather badges
Flip down Butt plate with

14" x 6.5" snare Rolled flange-less
vintage style fine-tuning mechanism brass hoops
throw-off 13" x 8" tom
14" x 16" Snom

with snares Remo heads
Single
center mount
brass lugs
20-strand
chrome snares
45-degree
bearing edges
Small rim clips
Direct
contact
wing
screws Thin 100-percent
brass shells
Sanded and oxidized

pre-aged brass patina
on shells and hardware
22" x 12"
bass drum
CONTACT
anfdrumco.com Walnut bass drum hoops
[email protected] DIRECT SALE PRICE: $5,750
Bass drum spikes
Each drum shell is made from unlikely that they can do much on manufacturing problems. The It includes indents to hold your
thin 0.036" brass, which is more than file burrs from their company quickly offered to repair tension, but doesn’t turn as
about 1mm thick. Unlike many edges. That slim design makes any problems I found. smoothly as many newer high-
metal snares that bend the top these drums feel much lighter The drums arrived with coated tech designs, so I might not
and bottom edges of the shell than many wood ones. Remo Ambassador heads over tweak it in the middle of a song.
inward to create bearing edges, Flanged hoops evolved to clear resonant Ambassadors, My drum’s wires are chromed
A&F shells are straight thin brass strengthen and add rigidity to the though my bass drum has a and look downright modern
sheets rolled into a cylinder and rim. Our rolled brass hoops don’t clear Powerstroke 3 batter head compared to the rest of the drum.
welded, without a formed bearing have flanges, and are held in and a coated, ported Ambassador Rather than using a typical
edge. The welds are sanded to place using small clips with metal resonant head. badge, A&F cuts its logo through
remove rough edges, but are washers underneath. My snare A&F snare drums employ thin pieces of brass and sets them
still slightly raised and visible. I drum’s top brass hoop isn’t a humble lever to engage or on slightly larger oval pieces of
presume this extra material adds perfectly round, and instead is disengage the snare wires. It leather. These are screwed into
strength at the seams. about 0.125" wider at the seam couldn’t be simpler, but seems the shells, which gives the badge
A&F claims that its drums have than it is midway to the opposite sturdy and operates smoothly a 3D quality.
45-degree bearing edges, but side. I don’t know whether and quietly. A mechanism with While most drum makers
since the metal shells are so thin this was a shipping or quality the fine-tuning knob is on the print their logo on the front bass
(like rubbing your finger along the control issue, but fortunately, opposite side of the drum, where drumhead, A&F instead screws its
blade of a butter knife) it seems A&F offers a lifetime warranty most drums have a butt plate. brass-and-leather badge through

the film. Washers on the inside the sound of this drum for most
of the head receive the nuts and typical applications.
keep them from pulling through These toms also sound great.
or damaging the film. Our bass Both the mounted tom and
drum includes a dog-bone floor tom have defined pitches,
shaped muffling pillow, which I ample warmth, and good attack.
removed, since the logo badge Like the snare, they require no
seems to dampen the resonant muffling, dying out with just
head all on its own. the right amount of decay. I like
Nothing is high-tech on them more every time I hit them,
these drums. No clever throw- and, contrary to what you might
offs, triple-flanged or die-cast expect, their sound isn’t metallic.
hoops, suspension tom mounts, These are simply articulate toms
retractable bass drum spurs, that speak deeply.
and so on. Bass drum spurs are Remember earlier in the review
simply metal spikes bent 90 when I wrote that you could think
degrees and fit into brackets of the 16" x 14" drum as a floor tom?
on the shell. While these spikes Well, that’s essentially what it is;
work on my carpet, they won’t however, my kit came with A&F’s
prevent your kit from sliding novel Snom feature, which lets
or damaging tile or hardwood buyers order any tom with a snare
flooring. There are no markings or bed, snare strainer, and fine-tuning
indents for angles, so you’ll just mechanism. Snare + tom = Snom.
have to eyeball the spurs during The sound is something akin
set up. Antiqued wing screws to playing a Colonial era drum
pass through the brackets and with gut snares (even though our
press directly against the spike, drum has coiled wires). This effect
as drums of yesteryear did. sound could be cool in a recording
This kit is so unadorned it session. It’s deep and tubby, and
could have been designed for playing a solo like “The 3 Camps"
Amish drummers. Air vents are certainly gave my chops a good
just holes drilled in the shell, workout. I couldn’t get a crisp
and aren’t made fancier with a snare sound on the floor tom,
functionless grommet. Instead because the wires continued to
of rubber gaskets between the rattle after I dropped the lever if
brass hardware and shells, A&F they were too tight.
uses small leather disks. Bass The bass drum has good
drum claws are unlined. The sole attack and snap, and a slightly
indication that this kit isn’t an muted low end. It helped when
antique from the Smithsonian I removed the pillow for more
Institute is the presence of air- bottom, but generally, shallow
cushioned rubber feet on the 12"-deep bass drums have
floor tom legs. trouble producing the low end
I typically want, so I’d opt for
SOUND the deeper 14" model.
I was a little surprised by the A&F describes its drums as
sound of my brass kit. Overall, being very “microphone friendly,"
it has a rich, warm sound that and I’d agree, since they need no
tunes up easily and, somewhat muffling or tweaking to produce a
surprisingly, doesn’t ring very studio-ready sound.
much.
The snare is quite nice and VERDICT
can take a variety of tunings. It A&F Drums made a unique kit that
has a rich tone, with controlled eschews modern conveniences
rimshots and clear rim-clicks. for a warm retro sound and
The ring isn’t excessive, so the vintage appearance. They also say
drum needs no muffling, even something about the drummers
if you pound rimshots all night. who play them, much like an
It probably wouldn’t be my first antique car does about its driver.
choice for reggae, where you A&F Royals aren’t for everyone,
want a thinner, brighter tone, but but if you’re well heeled and have
A&F makes several other drums a love of vintage drums, these
that fit that bill. Otherwise, I love drums have it all.

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NEWSLETTER
A NEW GOLD
Carolina
STANDARD
Drumworks Gold Series Snare Drums

By AJ Donahue
C
arolina Drumworks is are offered with a selection of the results speak for themselves. what I’m used to hearing in
a one-man operation standard features that can be Let’s break it down starting with conventional stave builds.
specializing in finely adjusted or changed outright if the staves.
crafted solid and plywood preferred. Those default details CRACKING BUBINGA
drums. Working directly with include a 45-degree inside STAVE SPECS Bubinga is a very hard tonewood
each customer, owner-operator bearing edge cut with a truncated Unlike many other barrel-type known for its rare combination of
Jeff Hankin makes most of those roundover on the batter-side, bangers, these stave shells are both enhanced highs and lows. I
drums to order, so there aren’t a a single 45-degree cut with a only 0.25" thick through most admit that I normally find bubinga
lot of stock models or even repeat 1mm outside countercut on the of the vertical space. They’re drums to be overly harsh from the
builds in the Carolina catalog. resonant side, a glossy polished built with reinforcement rings player’s perspective. Out front,
The Blue Ridge Mountains-based polyurethane-over-oil-blend for structural strength, but those they sound excellent, but when
crafter does offer a couple exterior finish, and an oil blend rings aren’t separate pieces of my ears are right on top of one,
different lines, however, in the sealer on the inside. Evans wood. Instead, each stave is that boosted high-end crack can
Gold (solid wood) and Silver heads, Puresound wires, Trick milled to include an additional sometimes make me wince.
(plywood) series. throw-offs, die-cast hoops, 0.25"-thick section on top and Thankfully, that isn’t the case
The Gold Series previously laser-engraved brass badges, and bottom to create fully integrated with Carolina’s model. The 14" x
comprised mostly steam-bent proprietary tube lugs with brass rings all the way around. I think 5.5" drum turned out to be a
single-ply drums, but the big or stainless steel components that design makes a big impact real surprise sonically, but I’d be
news for this year (and a little round out the picture. There’s on the range and resonance of remiss if I didn’t first mention
bit of last year) is the addition of no shortage of options here, but these drums. how pretty it is. The staves are
house-made stave shells. Hankin there is a particular aesthetic at Stave drums can, in many bookmatched beautifully — so
cuts and crafts every drum by the heart of every Carolina drum. cases, have lower fundamental much so that they don’t look like
hand, and uses a variety of Small appointments also add pitches than single and multi- separate pieces unless you’re
wood types based on buyer value. Gaskets under each lug ply alternatives, because there’s very close. The proprietary gloss
request and board availability. post offer improved isolation and no standing stress on the wood finish adds a lot of depth, and
I took a quick drive up to protect the wood, while stacked fibers. Here, the thinner shell the bubinga’s dark brown hue is
Carolina headquarters and metal and synthetic washers help wall really helps bring up those exaggerated further by almost
picked out three Gold Series snare maintain rod tension. On both inherent lows. Both of these stave entirely black-plated shell
drums for review. Here’s what I the throw-off and butt-plate, snares are also exceptionally hardware. The included die-cast
discovered once I got home. grosgrain ribbon makes secure resonant, which I have to assume hoops, rods, throw-off, butt-
wire tensioning a breeze. After is because there’s just less mass plate, and lug tubes are all finished
COMMON THREADS a thorough inspection, it’s clear than in those drums cut to a in a beautiful shiny black, and
Even though most Carolina snare that every aspect of these drums uniform (usually 0.5") thickness. classed up with brass posts. It’s a
drums are custom built, they is thoughtfully considered, and This is a different sound than real looker.

Die-cast
chrome hoops
14" x 5.5" steam-bent

cherry snare drum, $975
0.25" single-ply
cherry shell with 0.25"
walnut reinforcement rings
Stainless steel
tube lugs with
brass posts
45-degree inner bearing edge cut with a

Chrome Trick throw-off
truncated roundover on the batter-side
and butt combo
Evans Coated G1 batter and Die-cast

Snare Side 300 resonant heads black nickel
hoops
14" x 5.5" stave

bubinga snare drum, $900
Black Trick throw-off

and butt combo
14" x 6.5" stave birdseye 20 0.25"-thick staves

maple snare drum, $855 with 0.25" integrated Single 45-degree with 1mm
reinforcement rings outside countercut on
Black nickel tube lugs
with brass posts resonant-side bearing edge
20 strand
Puresound wires
2.3mm triple-flanged steel hoops
20 0.25"-thick staves
with 0.25" integrated
reinforcement rings
Stainless steel tube lugs
Outer polyurethane
gloss over oil blend sealer
natural finish, interior
oil blend sealer finish
ALL PRICES DIRECT SALE
Chrome Trick CONTACT

throw-off 301-471-8364
and butt [email protected]
combo carolinadrumworks.com

14" x 5.5" steam-bent cherry snare drum 14" x 5.5" stave bubinga snare drum 14" x 6.5" stave birdseye maple snare drum
Like most other bubinga snare and focused with a throaty bottom The one issue I’ve run into with heard on a lot of modern jazz
drums I’ve played, this one has and surprisingly present attack. this drum is that it kind of flattens records. The response is broad
a lot of attack up front. Even the Really, it kind of hits the whole out when you really lay into and resonating with a controlled
softest ghost notes kind of pop spectrum at once. The 6.5" depth it. It doesn’t totally choke, but overtone set that I’m sure is
off the head. It reminds me a little helps keep the low-end present, some of that resonant low-end influenced by the increased head
bit of an aluminum snare with the while those 45-degree interior disappears. It’s still a big note, but contact of the batter-side bearing
added benefit of a woody bottom. edges maintain a cutting presence just not as big as the sound I hear edge and the darkness of those
I wouldn’t call it the fattest sound up top. And I think a big part of under less forceful hits. walnut rings.
in the world, but there’s definitely the woody, resonant fundamental Down low, the cherry snare
some midrange meat there, and note comes from that thin-wall VERSATILE CHERRY lets out a great, long doom that’s
rimshot-supported backbeats stave construction. There’s real As mentioned above, single-ply, augmented by a surprisingly
really bang. It’s incredibly tone at every volume level. It’s steam-bent shells have long been sharp splack on top. It’s just
articulate at all levels, and I was just a gorgeous, wonderfully a cornerstone of the Carolina enough to keep the drum
never able to choke the drum, well-rounded instrument. The brand, so I wanted to make sure sounding fat and gushy without
no matter how hard I hit it. figuring on the birdseye maple is we included one in this review. sacrificing too much presence,
Tuned up high, it tiptoes into out-of-control beautiful, and the The piece I picked up is a 14" x especially with a gel muffler
the pingy range, but not enough all-chrome appointments keep 5.5" cherry unit with a 0.25" near the edges. Surprisingly
to be obnoxious. It cranks out the grain in focus. shell and 0.25" single-ply walnut though, the cherry tub retains
a quick, biting sound that sits Bringing the drum up high reinforcement rings. The natural a ton of tone when cranked up
on top of an even, woody bed. pulls out more of that woody reddish, light-brown color of the high. It’s cracking and cutting,
It struggles a bit down low, but sweetness, especially when it’s cherry is balanced beautifully but balanced by a sweet center
still puts out a long, satisfying played around the edges. The by stainless steel tube lugs with that adds a lot of dimension.
doo note with some good punch sound is crisp and sensitive with brass posts. A hand-installed This is a great go-anywhere,
up top. It’s surprisingly resonant lots of snappy wire response inlay around the center of the do-anything snare for players
even with the head barely above right under the attack, which is exterior makes this one a real that like the low warmth of
wrinkle-loose. boosted by the snare’s 2.3mm showstopper. vintage drums, but don’t want
I liked the bubinga drum triple-flanged steel hoops. Sonically, the drum is a to sacrifice attack.
enough at home, but it really Despite that openness, though, delight. I don’t have a ton of
shined at a band rehearsal. With the drum is rarely burdened by experience with cherry, but in VERDICT
the surrounding noise of other excessive overtones. this instance, it has a slightly The three Gold Series snares
instruments swallowing some of Finally, as comfortable as the softer-than-maple sound with Carolina Drumworks submitted
those juiced-up highs, I was able birdseye snare is at medium and a fat middle and upper low-end for this review are, simply put,
to hear a lot of the wood’s built- high tensions, it loves to live presence — maybe somewhere incredible instruments. The
in bottom. Plus, I think those down low. At a half-turn past between maple and mahogany. build quality is exceptional
integrated reinforcement rings finger-tight, it lets out a super- Because it’s a single-ply shell, it across the board. Shells are
added some control around the fat boof that’s right in line with has a healthy crack in the upper almost clinically round, edges
edges to further focus the attack. the modern Nashville sound. I range that combines with the and beds are flawlessly cut, and
This would be an excellent main brought it to a rangy country/ hefty middle and strong bottom every joint is perfectly smooth.
drum for funk, pop, or jazz, but I rock gig with it tuned pretty to produce a kind of warm splat While each drum has particular
wouldn’t limit it to those genres. low, and I was blown away by when struck dead center. strengths sonically, I think they’re
There’s a lot of range in this one. how consistently full that gushy The drum has a very woody all versatile enough to handle
splat was at every volume. From character at all volume levels, whatever you throw at them.
MULTIFACETED MAPLE light taps in the center to heavy and is incredibly tone-rich. Tuned And with direct sale prices
This 14" x 6.5" birdseye maple rimshots, it always gave me what medium-high, it reminds me coming in under $1,000, there’s
stave snare is simultaneously full I wanted. of the softened, organic crack some real value here.

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DARKLY ELITE
Sabian
TRAGIC MAGIC
Artisan Elite Rides & Hi-Hats

By John Nyman
A
bout a decade ago, keeps the stick attack floating, ARTISAN ELITE 20" I’d say they hand-make a Turkish
Sabian won much like a bobbing cork on water, In the morning I flailed, jazz-like, style cymbal with a small bell
acclaim for the complex above the complex wash. But at the Artisan Elite 20", and my and a low profile and then bury
and beauteous tone the Elite is quite dark, very dry, predicament compounded. The it for, say, three or four decades.
of their Artisan line of rides and and the waters of its resonance 20" is quite a bit brighter than the The aged cymbal, blackened with
crashes. The pies were also very are not clear but muddy and 22", but still full of complex lows, patina, is then lightly lathed, the
expensive, and to that end, they oily. There was a collection, a still with a dry, crisply articulated blade or laser or ray gun revealing
were each hand-signed by the chorus of undertones that sang ping that doesn’t suffer lazy clean, shiny bronze as it makes
cymbalsmith and wrapped in along with my beat in the night. listeners. I liked it even more than its wobbly circles. Somewhere in
a fancy padded bag. This year Even under the bundled rods, the 22", and thought it would those decades some maniac goes
brought out the Artisan Elite this cymbal had tremendous be more useful to me. It has a at each cymbal with a hammer
series, just a few so far, with nuance and sensitivity. It sang reasonable crash, though rather and beats the tar out of it. Then
only two rides (20" and 22") and danced. Most cymbals only short and dry. I could envision the maker signs each cymbal and
and two pairs of hi-hats (14" and squeak out a portion of their this cymbal on my kit, on my puts it in a fancy fleeced bag,
16"). They are a further trip into sound under bundled rods. This gigs. From its dirty appearance which is what fancy shizzle like
cymbal craft and artistry, with was gold. Nighttime be damned, to its voice it is a thing of beauty, this deserves.
dark, complex tones and a dry I went for the sticks! a worn-handled sable brush of
voice that threatens to put them With regular drumsticks, artistic nuance. But no one has ARTISAN ELITE 14"
at odds with modern music, like The Elite 22" is a roar of low asked me for nuance for a couple HI-HATS
a fine Steinway piano on Jimi frequencies, a beautifully trashed of years now. Economic salvation came with
Hendrix Karaoke Night. They’re bed of dark undertones. The bell, I play in a local big band, the Elite 14s. See, it’s hard to
very beautiful. You may want to noticeably small, maintained the and the main tool for keeping come up with money for more
quit JH Karaoke. same volume with a crisper voice. 15 semi-retired people in line is gear I don’t need, and good
I found consistent sensitivity on a loud, pingy ride. Sometimes I arguments for purchase are
ARTISAN ELITE 22" the entire face of the cymbal do gigs with a neo-swing band, hard-won. The Sabian Elite
It was late when I opened the from the center out to the nothing more than a three-piece 14" hi-hats sound classic to
UPS box and the 22" Artisan Elite last half inch of its diameter. rockabilly band with big amps, me. I believe you could play
was the first out. I put it right up, Different bead types produced and an added array of horn anything on these. They sound
anxious to hear it, even though noticeable changes in presence players when we can afford to me like crisp, classic Turkish
nighttime drumming in the house and liveliness, but the darkness them. No nuance there, either, hi-hats from the ’70s, with
is usually a no-no for me. To remained. I struck a crashing just old guys drinking whiskey just enough hours on them to
mitigate, I picked up some bundled blow to it and it answered with and revisiting the past. Could real have a mellowness underfoot
rods. I own all the bundled rods. a stodgy pushback of lows, an life handle the artistic overload and a familiar pocket with each
They are the tool and the torture echoing door slam from a distant of this artsy cymbal? Or maybe I closing. They are crisp but not
of low-volume gigs. Braced for room. Not a useful crash but a should just keep it at home as a crunchy, meaty but not stodgy.
torture I struck the cymbal with the beautiful sound nonetheless. Two semi-religious talisman? They are neither dark nor dry
bundle and received redemption. thoughts crowded my mind: 1) I Maybe I could put these on my as the Elite rides, and they
It sounded wonderful. must have this cymbal. 2) What wall. After all, they look cool as have, atop a complex tone, a
Like its cousin the Artisan Vault the heck am I going to do with it? hell. I don’t know how they make brightness of timbre that hi-
medium 22", the Artisan Elite 22" them, but based on appearances hats require. Terrific hats, really

20" ride, $839
Unlathed surfaces reveal

tin oxide and other imperfections
Flat low-profile bell
Unique lathing interrupted

by unlathed patches
22" ride, $978
PRICES ARE MSRP
CONTACT
800-817-2242
Sabian.com

14" hi-hats, $1,020
Extensive multi-peen
and high-density hammering
16" hi-hats, $1,228
terrific. Anyone could justify these as classic VERDICT rehearsals. Once things got loud and drunk,
tools of the trade. Goodness gracious, these are beautiful I wished for a bigger, crisper hammer. The 22",
instruments, and they thrive in lower-volume, so dark and dry, sounded weird to me on the big
ARTISAN ELITE 16" HI-HATS acoustic musical environs. The 14" hi-hats are band. But it’s a community band, and I’m not the
The 16" Elites are big, really big, and thin, really versatile, and performed handily everywhere only drummer, so I listened from out front and
thin. Their pitch was surprisingly high — then I I took them. The 16" hi-hats are supple and that low, dry tone came through just fine. I prefer
realized it was pitch-bend induced by my foot! strong, but the softened foot chick was too timid a higher ping, but I’m pushy that way. Granted, if
These are so responsive that foot pressure on (shock!) for big band night. The rides are each I’m just pounding out a hundred dollars worth of
the hi-hat easily changes their pitch. Foot- dark, woody, complex, and dry, with the brighter covers at someone’s wedding, these may be too
chick is large, wide, and soft. I usually think tone of the 20" capturing my ear a bit more than fancy, too artistic. But on the quiet gigs, these
of giant hi-hat cymbals as a more aggressive the oh-so-dark 22". The 20", under bundled Sabian Artisan Elite cymbals can connect me
tool, but these Elites are surprisingly mellow. rods, easily pushed the neo-swing beat during to real art. And there’s no price tag on that.
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GET TO KNOW THE MUSIC, MUSICIANS,
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A&F Royals Drums
Tribute To Toussaint Sabian Artisan
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The Ergonomics Carolina
DRUMMING FOR FANATICS

Drumworks
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Add Latin Rhythms
CINDY
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To Your Pop
EVOLUTION
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ROAD TESTED
Workshop Wood Species
Shell Shock
Chops
S A F R E T T E B YA L P
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The Ergonomics Drumworks
WORKSHOP
BEYOND THE BACKBEAT
HOW TO ADD LATIN
TO YOUR POP
By Andy Ziker
O
ne of the perks of teaching young upon African tribal music. This term is in no way However, the versatility of the drum kit allows
students is that I get to stay abreast of meant to be culturally insensitive. one musician to reproduce these disparate
current radio pop. Though not necessarily Pop music tends to cycle through grooves parts, but often fails to capture the organic vibe
my favorite genre to listen to, it’s hard to (such as the twist beat immortalized in the late of people working together. Therefore, keep in
question the production quality and songwriting ’50s and early ’60s). A songwriter/composer mind that the following examples under each
acumen of many of these songs. Pop, a genre takes an innovative approach to an existing category have at least one degree of separation
always desperately searching for that fresh pattern, the beat enthralls fans (and in the from their authentic-sounding neighbors
sound, has recently seen an influx in Latin past became associated with a dance craze), (except for the songo), and won’t necessarily
rhythms. If you’ve heard any Justin Bieber, Katy and then it turns into an established formula fit in an authentic Latin setting. Each pattern
Perry, Pink, Taylor Swift, One Direction, Coldplay, happily replicated by savvy artists and record reflects what has been played in the past, but
Maroon 5, and Foo Fighters lately, instead of rock companies. Throughout the years, people have will hopefully provide you with new ways to
and hip-hop beats dominating the rhythmic gravitated towards cycles of Latin-influenced add Latin to your pop.
backbone, artists are now leaning towards Latin. pop, including music by Xavier Cugat, Duke As you begin to master these exercises, take
This has not only affected drum parts, but Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Bo Diddley, it one step further and make them your own.
also the rhythms used by harmonic and melodic Antônio Carlos Jobim, Carlos Santana, Paul This is always an important piece in the creative
instruments (including vocals). In some case, Simon, Steely Dan, The Grateful Dead, Talking puzzle. Also, to get the most out of these
the once almighty backbeat (snare on beats Heads, and many others. grooves — and the unique feels associated with
2 and 4) has completely disappeared, replaced Latin rhythms are inherently infectious, lift each — do a little research: Enter the category
by assorted Latin syncopation. While this our mood, and make us want to get up and titles into a Google search, read corresponding
might seem contrary to the idea of giving the dance. You can layer these rhythms on top of Wikipedia articles, and follow up with YouTube
masses an easily felt pulse to make them snap each other and they always seem to sound visits.
their fingers, clave is just as easy for listeners great in any combination. Latin jazz drumming It’s time to dig in. Clear away some time each
to digest, as it has now become completely giant Danis Prieto backs this up in his book A day. You might find some of these patterns to be
entrenched into our culture. Skeptical? Find a World Of Rhythmic Possibilities, when he talks challenging, but don’t get frustrated. Use your
nearby three-year-old, play them a 3:2 clave, about students accidentally layering the clave metronome to determine baseline tempos, and
and have them clap it back. You’ll discover on the wrong side of the cascara: “This didn’t gradually speed them up. String short groupings
that clave will be easier for them for them to sound as jarring as I would have imagined. In of notes together — or even one note at a
comprehend than 2 and 4. fact, I can even say that is started sounding time — until you have the whole pattern down.
Please note that in this article, the term Latin very interesting to my ears.” Remember, when you practice something for
is an ambiguous, catch-all expression reflecting Traditional Latin music is often played by the first time, it rarely sounds like a finished
a number of rich musical traditions, including groups of percussionists playing a variety of product. And when you someday use one of
Spanish and Portuguese-speaking areas of the instruments. Each member of these ensembles these ideas to create a big radio hit, remember
world — also including Caribbean — drawing takes a critical role in producing a full sound. the little people!

3:2 SON CLAVE Ex.
Ex. 11
Ex.1
4 y }œ y }œ
œyy }
Ex. 1
1 y y œy y y y œyy y œy y œ y œ y
yy } œyy }œ yy }œ ..
ã 44
Ex.
When it comes to clave, 3:2 refers to three
œyy yy œ œyy œyy yy œyy œœy yy }œ œyy }œ yy œ œyy } } œy œœy }œ y }œ .
notes (the three side) emphasized in the front
ãã 44 œœ œœ œ œœ œœ œœœ }œ œœ }œ œœ œ œœ }
œ
œ }œœ œœy œœœ }œ }œ ..
half of the measure and two (the two side) 3 side
3 side 2 side
2 side
in the last half (Exs. 1 and 4). It can also be 3 side
3 side
2 side
2 side
conceived as a two-bar phrase: three notes 3 side
3 side 2 side
2 side
in the first measure and two in the second Ex.
Ex. 2
Ex. 22 3 side 2 side
y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y
3 side 2 side
ã 444 ..
measure (Exs. 2 and 3). Son alludes to the exact Ex.
Ex. 22
œyy yœy yœy œyy yœy yœy œy yœy yœy yœy œy yœy œy yœy yœy yœy
ãã 444 œœy œœy ...
position of these notes: In an eighth-note flow y
over two bars the son rhythm is 1, (2) &, 4, 2, 3. œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ
In Ex. 1, the clave is played by the bass
Ex. 33 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
drum in a funk context. The bass drum and Ex. 33 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
4 y }œ yy yy }œ3 yy œyy }œ3 yy yy }œ3 yy yy }œ3 yy yy }œ y œyy }œ y y }œ33 y .

yy yy }œ yy ..
33 3 3 3 3 3 3
ã 44
snare overlap on beat 4, an example of how Ex.
Ex. 3
Ex. 33 3 3
Latin rhythms allow for easy layering. In Ex. 2,
4
ãã 44
œyy }œœ y y }
} }
}œœ œy œœy } œ }œ y y }œ y œy
œœ y œœy }œ }œ }
}œœ
yy œy }
}œœ }œ ..
the snare plays the clave, the bass drum fills œœ œœ œœ œœœ
in the remaining eighths, and the ride plays
Ex.
Ex. 44
4 œ œœ ..
continuously. The bass drum again plays the
Ex.
Ex. 4
ã 44
4
œœ œ œœœ œ œœ œ œœœ œ œœ œ y œœœ œ œœ œ œœœ
œœ œ ...
son clave in Ex. 3, but this time as part of a Ex. 4
ãã 44 y
œœœyy œœ yy œœœœ œœy œœœ œœy œœy œœ œœœy œœ œœœœ œœyyy œœœ œœyy œœœy
half-time shuffle. In Ex. 4, the left foot plays
the clave underneath a driving tribal groove. y yy yy œœyy yy yy y œyy
It’s important to note that clave patterns are
reversible. In other words, grooves using clave
can start on the two or three side with equal Ex. 55
4
Ex.
Ex.5
y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y .
ããã 4444
Ex. 5
yœy yy yy yœy yy yy yœy yy yy yœy yy yy yy yy yyœ yy yy yyœ yy yy yyœ yy yyœ yy yy yy ...
effectiveness. (3:2 then becomes 2:3.) Since
œ œ œ œ œ œ
œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ
Ex. 5
..
each of the styles used in this article are based
in some way on clave, experiment with flipping
ã4 œœy y y œœy œ y y œœy y y œœy y œ y y y œœy y y œœy œ y y œœy y œ œœy y œ y y œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
>
>>
these around (start in the second measure or
Ex. 66
Ex.
>œœ
second half of the first measure) and find out
4 y yy y }œœ yyy
œ ) yy } y yy y œ ) yy }}œ yy ( œ .
≈≈≈ œœœ œœ yyy (((œœœ yy (((œœœ
Ex.
Ex.66
‰ œ)
ããã 444 yœy œœ)) yy } ‰‰
yyœ œœ yy ≈≈≈ œœœ œœ œœ )) yy }
œœ yy (( œœ œœ)) œœ ...
how it feels/sounds to you. Ex. 6
œœ yy œ œ
3:2 RUMBA CLAVE ã4 œœy
œ
œ
œ ≈ œ œœ ( œ œ ) }œ y œ ‰ œœy
œ
œ ≈ œ œ
œ œ
y (œ œ ) }œ ( œ œ) œ
œ ..
The only difference between son and rumba is
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Ex. 77 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
4
Ex.
y }œ yy yy }œœ } } }œœ yyy yyy }}œ yy yœy } }œœ yyy } œ yy .
where the third note on the three side of the
y œyy œ yy yy } œ yy y y
ããã 444
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
yy } } } } }œœ yy ... 10
Ex.
Ex.77
yy yy yy
œœœy } œ y y } œœyy }
œ}œ yy yy } œœ œœyyœ }œ y œœyœ }œœ yy œœœyyœ } }
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
clave is positioned. A short pause or stutter Ex. 7
}œœ y y œ
}œ œœœy }œ y }œ }
œ
} y y }œ .. 10
ã4 œ œ œ œ œ œ
(one eighth-note, if the clave is notated over
œ œ œ
> >> > >> >> > > > > >
two measures) produces a surprising impact.
> >> >>Y y >> y y >> y >>Y >>Y
10 10
Ex. 8 > > >Y >Y ! !! ! !!
Ex. 5 is an alternating sixteenth-note funk beat Ex. 8
488 >YY } œ yy >œ yy >œœ >Y >Y ! >YY } } y > y y > y >Y >YY œœœ!!! œœœ!! ...
Ex. 8
} y y
Ex.4 yœy yy œœ YYœœœ YYœœœ œœœ!! œœœ!!
with the rumba clave played by the bass drum.
ããã 444 YYœœœ }œ}œyy yy œœ yy œYœ }œœœy yy œœœ yy œœ œyyœ œœœ yy œœ YYœœ
Ex.
œ œ ...
A closed hi-hat plays the clave in Ex. 6, while
œ œ Yœœœ
three levels of snare dynamics give the groove
ã 4 œ œyy œ œœ œœy œ y œ œ œ œ œ œ }œyy œ œ œ œ œ œ
some shape. Ex. 6 is similar to Ex. 3, while in œ œ œ œ y œ œ œ œ œ
Ex. 7 the clave is orchestrated over a number
of sound sources: open hi-hat/bass drum,
y y y y y œ y y! y! y! y!
snare accent, and open hi-hat/snare. Ex.
Ex.99
4 y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y œ y Y ..
ã4}
Ex. 9
œy y y œy y ! ! ! ! œy y y œy y y y y y y y Y
yy yy yy yy yy œœ yy yy! yy! yy! yy!
HOLES IN THE CLAVE
4
Ex. 9
4 .
..
ã4 } y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y œœ y Y
ã
Clave is a skeletal outline that helps musicians
œy œœ
after
œœ œœ
}
œ 1st time
Ex. 10 y
play parts together. Is it acceptable to take
after
ã 4410
y y y œy y Y y y y y y y Y œ y y y œy y œy y y .
away a note or two of that clave, but keep after
1st time
œY y y y œ y y œy .
1st time
the remainder the same? Yes, because our Ex. 10
10 œ
Ex. œ œ
4 yy yy yy œœyy yy YY œœy yy yy yy œœyy yy œœyy yy yy ..
Ex.
yy
ãã 44 œœ
imaginations are able to compensate for
Y y y œœ y y y
any missing notes. Exs. 9–11 use either son
or rumba clave. See if you can discover the œœ yy œœ œœ yy œœ .
Ex. 11
y Y œy Y œy Y œy
ã 4411 ..
locations of the missing notes.
y y œy Y œ Y œy y œy
11 œ
11 œ œ œ œ yy YYœ œyy YYœ œyy YYœ œyy
Ex.
ãã 444 œœœy y œœy YY œœy YY œœyy yy œœyy .

Ex.
y y y
..
THE THREE SIDE Ex.
œœ yy œœ yy œœ œyy
œ œ
Each of following examples uses the three side
of the son clave over and over again. In Ex. 12,
œœ yy œœ yy œ 10
10
the bass drum performs the clave, the snare 10
hits beat 2, and ghosted snares provide patches 10
y. y.
Ex. 12
ã 44 œ ( œ œ) œ œ
of sixteenth flow. Swiss triplets are played as Ex. 12
y y y }œ }œ y ( œ œ) œy y }œ ..
œ. œ œ.
consecutive sixteenth-notes between high and
floor tom, while the bass drum and hi-hat chick œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
74 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.comEx. 13 L
>R R L L
>R R L L
>R >R L R L L
>R R L L
>R L
>R R L L
>R R L L
>R >R L R L
>
L R
4 œ
j
œ œj œ œj œ
j
œ œj œ œj œ
j
œ œj œ œj œ
j
œ œj œ .
y. y Addy Latiny .To Your
Ex. 12
ã 44 œy ( œ œ) œ œy œ œy .. œ y }œ œ }œ œy ( œ œ) œ œy œ œy .. œ y œ }œ ..
y y y y Pop
Ex. 12
Ex. 4
ã 44 œy R( œ R œL) œ Rœy R Lœ R œy . R R œL y R}œR œL }œ R œy ( œR œR) Lœ œyR R œL Rœy . R œR Ly œR }œ ..
12
13 œ >(
ã 413 œ œ) œ >œ œ > œ > œ >}œ œ }œ > œ ( œ> œ) œ œ> œ >œ > œ }
œ> œ ..
. .
L L L L L L L L L L L
pound out four on the floor (Ex. 13). The bass Ex.
Ex.
Ex. 4
jR R L jR R L jR jR R L jR R L jR jR R L jR R L jR jR R L jR
ã 413 j >œœRy œR L j >œR œœRy L j >œR j >œœRy Rœ L j >Rœ Rœœy L j >Rœ j >Rœœy Rœ L j >Rœ Rœœy L j >Rœ j >Rœœy Rœ L œ œj >Rœy ..
drum fills between three-side accents played Lœ œœ L œœ œ L œœ L œœ œ L œœ œœ œ L œ L L L L L
Ex. 413 œ > > > > > > > > > >
ã 44 œj œœy œ œ œj œ œœy œ œj œ œj œœy œ œ œj œ œœy œ œj œ œj œœy œ œ œj œ œœy œ œj œ œj œœy œ œ œ œj >œy ..
by hi-hat and snare (Ex. 14). In Ex. 15, the bell L
œœ L
œœ œ L
œœ L
œœ œ
L
œœ œœ œ L
œ L L L L L
ã 414 > œœy œ > œ œœy > œ> œœy œ > œ œœy> œ> œœy œ> œ >œœy >œ œœy œ > œ œ œy ..
of the ride plays the three side, until we break
away from the pattern starting on 3 of the
Ex.
ã 441414 >>œy œ œy >>œ y œ >>œy œ >>œy œ œy >>œ y œ >>œy œ >>œy œ œy >>œ y œ >>œy œ >>œy œ œy œ >>œy œ œy œ ..
second measure. Next, try creating some beats
using the three side of the rumba clave. y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y
Ex.
Ex. 4
Ex.
ã 44 œy œ œy œ y œ œy œ œy œ œy œ y œ œy œ œy œ œy œ y œ œy œ œy œ œy œ œy œ œy œ ..
14
ã 415 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ..
BRAZILIAN CLAVE
The term Brazilian clave is a bit of a misnomer, Ex.
ã 4415 œyt y t œœy yt œyt y t œœy yt œyt y t œœy yt œy œ yt t œœy t y ..

since Brazilian percussionists don’t really t t t t t t t t t t t t
consider this rhythm as all-encompassing, but Ex.
Ex.4
ã 4415 œyt y t œœy ty œyt y t œœy ty œty y t œœy ty œy œ ty t œœy t y ..
rather just one of the many patterns in their Ex. 15
ã 4 œy y œœy y œy y œœy y œy y œœy y œy œ y œœy y ..

toolkit. Similar to a son clave with the last note
(the fifth note) pushed over one spot, it has
become the most recognizable clave in the
world, having spread from Rio all the way to
India.
In Ex. 16, the right hand follows the Brazilian Ex. 16
ã 44 œœ ..
Ex. 16
clave and creates a melody using high, middle, Ex. 16 œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ
œœ
ã 4416 œ œœy œœy œœy œœy ..
and floor toms, while the remaining notes are Ex. 16
œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ
Ex. 4 œ œ œ œ œ ..
filled in by the left hand on the snare. Ex. 17 is
ã 417 œ œ œ œœy
œ œ œ œœ œ œ œœy œ œ œœ œ œ œœy œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœy œ œ œ
ã 441717 œyz
a reggae pattern with the clave superimposed
Ex. œ œ œy œ œœyy œ œ œœy œ œy œ œœyy œ œy œ œ œy œ œœyy œ œ œœy œ œ œœyy œy œ ..
Ex. 4
over it, which can be played with swung or
œyz œy œy œyz œ ..
ã 417 y y yz yz y
straight eighths. Using a LRR sticking between Ex.
œy œy
ã 4417 yzz ..
the snare and ride cymbal and trailing bass Ex. y y
yz y yz y y y yz y yz y y
Ex. 4 y yzy œy y yz y y y yz y œy yz y y ..
ã 418 y
drum (the bass drum hits immediately after
Ex. 4
œy œy
y yzy y y y y y y y yz y y ..
the snare) gives this groove a New Orleans
second-line feel, and can also be played
ã 418 œz
Ex. 4
y y y y y yœ y y yz y y y y yz y y yœ y y y œ œy y ..
straight, swung, or slightly swung (Ex. 18). In ã 41818 y
Ex. 4
œy œ œy œ œy y œ œy y œ œy œ œy œ œy œ œy y œ œy y œy
ã 418 œœy
Ex. y œ yy œ y œ œ y œy y œ y œ y œ œ œyy .. 10
Ex. 4
Ex. 19, the right hand moves from ride cymbal
to floor tom, the left hand plays the clave on
ã4
œy
œy
y œ œyy
œy œ œy yy
œy y
y œ œy yy
œy y œ œy
œy
y œy œy
œy
y œ œyy
œy
y œ œy yy
œy y
y œ œy yy
œy y œœ œy
œy .. 10
ã 4419 œyyz .
Ex. 19 y y y y y y y y y œ œy
... 10
rim-click, and the bass drum plays a typical
œ œ œy œ œ œy œ œyz y œ œ yœy œ œ œy œ œœ y œ œ yy œ
ã 419 œy zœ z z
samba ostinato.
Ex.
Ex. 4 œ œ œy œ œ œ
MAKE UP YOUR OWN ã 4419 œyzz
y z
œœ
yz yz
œœ z y ..
ã 419 œy
Ex. y œz œœ yyz œ œy yz œ
œœ z yy œ ..
y œz œ œy œ œ
ã 44 œz
For a piece of music to have a Latin feel, you Ex.
don’t necessarily have to stick with authentic
œœ
yz yz
œœ z y ..
patterns that have evolved over centuries. After y œ y œ œ y œ y œ
all, rules are made to be broken, aren’t they?
By changing things up a little bit, you can come
up with some fascinating creations. The bass
Ex. 20
ã 444 œy ..
drum in Ex. 20 plays a combination of rumba
y y œy y y y œyy yy y œ y œy y y y œy y œ
Ex. 20
Ex. 20
and Brazilian clave. Ex. 21 is most easily played
y œ œy y œ y œy œ œœ œy œ y œ œy y œ y œœ œy œy œœ y œ ..
ã 44 œy
open-handed with the left hand on the hi-hat Ex. 20
y œ œy y œ y œy œy œ y œy œ y œ œy y œ y œ œy œy œ y œ ..
ã4 œ
and right hand traveling between the toms and
the snare. Starting on the & of 1, this series Ex. 21
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
Ex. 4 ..
Ex. 21 y œy y y y y y œy y œy y œy y y y y
of on- and off-beat hits produces a nicely
ã 4421 œy œy œy y œœœy y œy œy œy œy œy œy œy y œœy y
..
21
balanced clave. The snare accent pattern
ã 44 œy
Ex.
œy œy y œœy œy œy œy œy œœy y
y œy œy œy y ..
in Ex. 22 is displaced by one sixteenth and
ã4 œ œ œ œ œ> >œ >
œœ
>œ >
outlines three-note groupings, except the
> > > > >
>
œ œœ >œ œ œ >œœ œ œ œ >>œœ œ œ >œ œ œ >œ œ
four-note grouping starting on beat 2. Ex. 22
Ex. 4 >œ œ œ >œ œ œ œ >œœ >œ œ œ >œ .. 10
ã 42222 œœœ œœ
22
CASCARA Ex. 4 >œ œ œ >œœy œ œ œ >œ >œ œœy œ >œ œ œœ œ œ œ >œy >œ œœy œ >œ œ ..
ã4 œ œœ œœœ œœ œ
Ex.
ã 44 œœ œ œ œ œœœy œ œ œ œœ œ œœœy œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ
Spanish for “shell, husk,” cascara refers to the
œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œy œ œœy œ œ œ .. 10
syncopated rhythm played by timbale players
y œ y œ œy œ œy 10
on the side of the drum shell. This rhythm — a
big part of salsa music — is designed to meld 10
perfectly with son or rumba clave. In Ex. 23, the
cascara is played on a cowbell, although any Ex. 23
ã 44 œy
t t t œ t t t t œt t t t t t œ t t t t œt t t ..
Ex. 23
sound source would do, while the rest of the
kit plays straightforward rock/funk. The hi-hat
plays the cascara in Ex. 24, while the snare and y œy y œy œ y œ y œ y œ
Ex. 24 DRUMmagazine.com September 2017 DRUM! 75
4 y }œ y y œ y }œ y y }œ y }œ y y }œ y y }œ y y œ y }œ y y }œ y }œ y y }œ y .
.
ã4
Ex. 23
Ex. 23
4 t t t œ t t t t œt t t t t t œ t t t t œt t t ..
ã 4 œy y œy y œy œ y œ y œ y œ
Ex.
Ex. 24
24
4
Ex. 24
bass drum complete the sixteenth flow. Ex. 25
y}y y y y y y y y y y}y y y y y y y y y
is a variation on the cascara, fashioned as a
ã4 œœ œ }œ œ œ }œ }œ }œ œ œ œ œ œ }œ œ œ }œ œ }œ œ }œ œ ..
linear funk groove.
BO DIDDLEY BEAT Ex. 25

Ex. 25
y y œ y y y œ y y .
ã 44 œ
Ex. 25
Ironically, this groove is credited to the
y y œ y y y y œ y y
guitarist Bo Diddley and not a drummer
œ œ œ œ œ œ .
(check the self-titled song from 1955). The
groove is really a 3:2 son clave, but most
> > > > > > > > > >
probably was an extension of the hambone
>>œ œ œ >>œ œ œ >>œ œ œ œ >>œ œ >>œ œ

Ex. 26
>>œ œ >>œ œœ œ >>œ œ œœ œ >>œ œ >>œœ œ œ œ
ã 444
œ œ ..
tradition from the 19th century. Slaves from Ex. 26
Ex. 26
Ex. 26
the Kingdom Of Kongo came up with the
ãã 4 œœ œ
œœyy œœ œœ œœ œœyy œœ œœ œœ œœyy œœ œœ œœ œœyy œœ œœ œ œy œ œœ œ œy œ œœ œ œy œ œœ œ œœy œœ ..
dance — which uses stomping, clapping, and
œœ œœ
y œ y œ y œ y œœ œ œyy œ œœ œ œyy œ œœ œ œyy œ œœ œ yy .
Ex. 27 > > > > > > > >
patting — after traditional African percussion
27 > >>œ œ >> œ œ >> œ >> j >> œ >>œ œ >> œ œ >> œ >>
instruments were banned due to fear of slaves
27 >
ã 444 œœœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ >œ œj œ œœ œœ œy œœ œ œœ œœy œœ œ œœ œœy œœ >œœ œ œ .
Ex.
œ
œœy œœ ...
hiding secret codes in the drumming. This is a Ex. 27
Ex.
œœ
ãã 4 œœ œœyy œ œœ œ œœœyy œ œœ œ œœœyy œ œœœ œœj œœy
reminder about how African music has had an
impact on so much of the musical traditions of
y œy œy œ yy œœœ œœyy œœ œœœyy œœ œœœyy œœœ yy .
today, including Latin.
Similar to the beat played on the original Bo Ex. 28
ã 444 œyy yy yy œœœ yy yy œyy yy yy yy œyy yy YYœ YY œœœy yy œyy yy yy œœœ yy yy œyy yy yy yy YYœ YY œœœy yy yy ....
Diddley hit, accented sixteenths delineate the Ex. 28
Ex. 28
Ex. 28
y y y y y y y y y y y YY y y y y y y y y y y YY y y
ãã 4 .
clave in Ex. 26, as off-beat hi-hat chicks create
nice contrast. In Ex. 27, the accent pattern œœ œ œœ œœ œœ yy œœ œ œœ œœ œyy
is fortified with bass drum, and a power flam is
added on beat 4 in the first measure. (Check
out “Desire” by U2.) The pattern is then re-
Ex. 29
ã 44
Y œ }œ y y Y y œ }œ y y }œ Y œ }œ y y Y y œy Y y ..
Ex. 29
y œ
œyy }
orchestrated to hi-hat and snare in Ex. 28. Ex. 29
Y œ œ }œ y œ œy Y œy œ }œ y œ œy }œ Y œ œ }œ y œ œy Y œy œy Y œy ..
œy }
Ex. 29
ã4
Ex. 29 œ
} YY œ œy }œ yy œ œyy YY y œyy œ }œ yy œ œyy }œ YY œ œy }œ yy œ œyy YY y œyy œyy YY y œyy ...
ãã 44 œœ œœ
} œœ œœyy }œ œœ œœ y œ œ }œ œ œ }œ œ œy }œ œ œ y œ œ y œ
SAMBA
An authentic samba such as “Acontece Que Eu
y> yy œ œ> œ œ œ >œyy œ œ yy œ yy œ .
Sou Baiano” by Dorival Caymmi inspires both Ex. 30
> > > >
ã 44
y œ œ >>YYœ yy œ yy œ yy œ >>œyy œ yy œ œ >>YYœ yy œ yy œ yy œ œjj >>œœ .
Ex. 30
...
Ex. 30
relaxation and excitement. The flow of the Ex. 30 œ y
ã4
Ex. 30 œ œ œ Yœ y œ y œ y œ œy y œ y œ œ Yœ y œ y œ y œ œj >œœ y
yy ...
eighths or sixteenths has a unique sounding
lope that can be acquired only though listening
ãã 44 œœ œœ œ Yœ y œœ y œœ y œ œy y œœ y œœ œ Yœ y œœ y œœ y œ œj œœ y
œ œ .
or experience (look on YouTube for “Caixa œ œ yy œ œ yy œ œ yy >œ œ> yy
Y œy Y y œ Y œy Y y œ Y >œ y >>œ Y >
Ex. 31
ã 44
Patterns On Samba”). By learning more about
y Y œy Y y ..
Ex. 31
how the individual parts/instruments fit
œyy œ Y œ œy Y œ œy Y œ œy Y œ œy œ Y œ œy Y œ œy œ Y >œ œy >œ Y œ .
....
Ex. 31
ã4 œ
YY œœ œœyy YY œœ œœyy YY œœ œœyy YY œœ œœyy œœ YY œœ œœyy YY œœ œœyy œœ YY œœ œœyy œœ YY œœ
Ex. 31
Ex. 31
together in a samba percussion section you
ãã 44 œ
can be better prepared to fuse these feelings œœy œœ œ œyy œ œ œ œyy œ œ œ œyy œ œ œ œyy œ .
into pop. In Ex. 29, the open and closed hi-hat
Ex. 32
ã 44 ..
Ex. 32
and ghosted snare simulate the feeling of
œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ
Ex. 32 œœ œ œy œœ œ œ œœy œ œœœ œœ œ
..
ã4 œœy œ œ œœy œ
the small, handheld drums with jingles, the
....
Ex. 32
œœ œœ œy œœ œ œœ œy œ œœ
ãã 44 œœœœyy œ œ œœœy œ
pandeiro, and the Brazilian snare, the caixa. Ex. 32
The typical samba bass pattern shown here is œœœœ y œ œ
œy œ œ
y œ œ
œy œ œœ
y œ œ œyy œ
a simplification of what the surdo plays. Ex.
30 uses a variation on the surdo pattern and
borrows aspects of the partido alto style.
R
>LL RR3 LL RR LL3
L R L R R
R >
R L R L R R L R L R
> y3 >L Ry3 L RY
(For more on that style, check out “Roda de
Ex. 33 R
Ex. 33 L3 R L 3
3
R
R L R 3
R L R 3
ã 44 }œyy œœ y œœ y y œœ y œœ y œœ œ œy œœ y œœ y y œœ y œœ Y ..
Samba — Na Palma da Mão DVD — Partido Ex. 33 y 3
y y
3
y y 3
y 3
y y
3
y
..
Alto” on YouTube.) Ex. 31 combines samba
with a half-funk feel, while in Ex. 32, the floor ã 4 }œy œ œ
tom and high tom play the partido alto. after 1st time
after 1st time
NANIGO R L
>LL RR3 LL RR LL3 LL RR LL3 RR LL RR3 RR >LL RR3 LL RR LL3 LL
R L R R
> œ3
Ex. 34 R
>œ œ3 œ œ œ3 œ .
L R L R R
4
3 3
Also known as Afro-Cuban 6/8 or 12/8, Ex. 34
œ œœy œ œ œœœy œ œ œœy œ œ œœy œ œ œœy œ œ ...

Ex. 34
ã 4 œœy œ œ œy œ œ œy
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
3 3 3 3 3
the nanigo is expressed easily on the drum
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
kit through a basic rudiment: the double ã 4 œy œy œy y y y y y
paradiddle. By distributing the rudiment on
two surfaces, the groove comes to life. In Ex.
33, the right hand is placed on the ride and the
y. y. œ œ œy .
Ex. 35
ã 44 œ .
Ex. 35
œ y œ y œ y y œ œ œ œ œ œ .. 10
left on the snare. An open hi-hat on beat 4 10
œ œ. œ
.
gives the groove a refreshing pause every two
bars. The double paradiddle is played between œ œ œ œ œ 10
10

Ex. 36 > > > >>> > >
4 y y y y y y œy y y y y y y y œ y y y y y y y œy y œ œ y y .
y. y. œ œ y.
Ex. 35
ã 44 œ . œ y œ y œ ..
œ y œ Latin
œ Add y œToœ Your
œ œ œ Pop
œ œ. œ œ. œ œ œ
Ex. 36 > > > >>> > >

ã 44 œ
Ex. 36
floor tom/high tom and snare in Ex. 34, while
y y y y y y œ œ y y œy y y œ y
y y y y y y y y y œy y œ y y .
four-on-the-floor bass drum stomps quarters.
œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ .
> > > > > >
The cross rhythms between the hands and feet R/L R L R R L R L R R L R R L R R/L R L R R L R L R R L R R L R
accentuate a 3:2 polyrhythm.
>1 1 > 1 1 1 1 1 > 1 1 1
Ex. 37R/L R L R R L R L R R L R R L R
>1 1 > 1 1 1 1 1 >œ 1 1 1
R/L R L R R L R L R R L R R L R
Ex. 4 œ1œ 1 œ 1 1 œ 1œ œ 1œ 1 1 1 œ 1 ..
CALYPSO
ã 43737 1œœ 1 œ 1 1 œ 1 œ 1 1 œ 1 1 œ 1œ
Ex.
ã 44 œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ..
An Afro-Caribbean music originating in
Trinidad and Tobago, calypso is designed
to get audiences to move. Ex. 35 includes
>R R >L R R L R L R R >L R R L R >L R >L R L R L R L R >L R

simultaneous hi-hat and bass quarters, but
>1 R1 >L R1 R1 L R1 L R1 R1 >L R1 R1 L R1 >L R1 >L R L R1 >L R L R1 >L R

hi-hat eighths or sixteenths are also commonly Ex. 38 R
Ex. 38
Ex. 4 œ œ ..
ã 4 Yœ1 1 œ Y1 1 œ 1 Yœ 1 1 œ Y1 1 œ 1 Yœœ 1 œ Yœ œ 1 >Yœ œ œ Y1
played. In Ex. 36, the bass drum hits 1, (1) ah,
38 œ
ã 44 Yœœ
3, and (3) ah, hi-hat accenting produces a
multi-dimensional effect, and the addition of œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ ..
toms at the end of measure two spices things Y Y Y Yœ Y Y Y rimshot
R.
rimshot
. L R
up. Notice that the three side of the clave is R R L R R L R L R R L R R L R R L R L R R L
Ex. 39 R R L R R L R L R R L R R L R R L R L
44 œ . œœ zz œœ œœ zz œœ œœ œ œ œœ œ . œœzz zz œœ œœ zz œœ œœ œ œœ œœ ...
stressed throughout. Ex. 39
Ex. 39
ãã 44 œy .. yy œ œ œyy .. yy œ
GADD MOZAMBIQUE y. yy yy . yy yy
Steve Gadd took the bell pattern from the New
York-style mozambique (not to be confused Ex. 40
Ex. 40
ãã 4444 Yœœ œœ yy œœ œœy

Ex. 40
Y y y yy y
œœy yy y y
œœy œœ œœy œœ YY œœ yy y
œœy yy y
œœy yy yy yy ..
with the Cuban variety), and created his
œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ .
yy œ
own infectious groove, which he used on
Ex. 41 y > >
>>œ >>œ
Paul Simon’s “Late In The Evening.” The two
Ex.4 ..
Ex. 41 y y œ Y y
ã 4441 yy œœ œœ œ œ
grooves in Exs. 37 and 38 are transcribed
Ex. 41
ãã 4 œ yy œœ œ œ YY œœyy œ yy œœ œ œ ...
from a Gadd drum clinic. Look up “Steve
Gadd — Mozambique — Clinic Los Angeles” œ œ œœ œœ œ œœ œœ œ
on YouTube to check it out. y
Ex. 42
ã 444 œyy (( œœœ œœœ)) œ œœœyy œ œœœ yy (( œœœ œœœ)) œ œœœyy œ œœœ œyy (( œœœ œœœ)) œ œœœyy œ œœœ yy (( œœœ œœœ)) œ œœœyy œ (( œœœ œœœ)) .... 10
MERENGUE Ex.
Ex.
42
42
Ex. 42 y y y y y y y y
ãã 4 œœ ( ) œœ ( ) œœ œœ œœ ( ) œœ ( ) œœ œœ ( ) .
The merengue immediately catches our
attention because of the prominent four- œœ œœ
note (five notes if you count the beat 1 of the
Ex. 43
ã 444 œœy œœ œœ œ œœœy œœ œœ œy œœœ œ œ œœœy ... œœ œy œœœ œ œ œœœy œœ œœ ...

following measure) sixteenth-note lick that Ex. 43
occurs on beat 4. Ex. 39 is a more traditional
Ex. 43
Ex. 43 œ œ œy œœœ œ œ œœœy œ œ œœœ
sounding merengue, while in Ex. 40 the
ãã 4 œy œ œœ œœyy œ œœyy œœ œœ œœyy .. œ œœyy œœ œœ œœyy œœ œœ œœyy œœ œœ œœyy œ œ ..
rhythmic skeleton is fused with funk. Ex. 44 y .
ã 44 yzz y yzz œy œyzz y œyzz œy .... 10
Ex. 44 y y y y yz y yz y y y y y y y y y
yz y œyz y yzz y yzz œy
Ex. 44
ã4
SONGO
Songo was invented by Los Van Van in the œ œ œ œ œ œ
1970s, and was the first Cuban style to 10
Ex. 45
Ex. 45
ã 44
incorporate funk along with the drum kit. Ex. 45 t y t y t y t y t y t y t y t y
œt y œt œy œt y œt y œt y œ œt œy œt œy œt y ..
..
Because it’s mostly played in a linear fashion,
songo is especially suited for re-orchestrations
ã4 œœy œy œR œy œœy œœy œ
œRR yyL œR œy œL œy œœ
around the kit and composites with other types
Ex. 46 R
y RR yL . yL L yR L y R yR yR R
! L R.
of grooves. The open hi-hat in the second
ã 444 œœyœ ... œœ! yzz
Ex. 46 R RR
œ zL zL œR zL œœR . RR œ!! Lz R R
z œRœ
L œ
R
..
. œ œœy
Ex. 46
measure of Ex. 41 results in a slight variation
ã 4 œy .. œ yz z yœ z œœy . œ yz z y œ ..
from the more common pattern found in the
first measure. Ex. 42 combines a songo vibe
y y y y .. y œ œœy y
Ex. 47
y. y.
with backbeat funk, while Ex. 43 uses a songo
ã 44
y y œyy y y œyy y y y œyy y y y œyy
Ex.47
.. 10
Ex. 47
œyy ... œyy ...
pattern to generate a tribal groove using toms.
y y y y œy y y y y y ..
10
CHA-CHA-CHA ã4 œy .. y
y
œ y
y
yœ
y œ œy .. y
y
œ y
y
y
y
œ
The cha-cha-cha is one of those patterns
that sounds the best with the full compliment RUMBA (DANCE VERSION) and rimshots), while in Ex. 47 the lead hand
of Afro-Cuban percussion instruments, but Not to be confused with the more complex, moves to the ride cymbal.
nevertheless influenced the four-on-the- syncopated Cuban rumba, this pattern first
snare Motown beat of the ’60s as well as came into prominence in the 1920s big band WAIT, THERE’S MORE?
grooves played by Santana, Chicago, and scene, and from then on became a big part of The material in this article barely scratches the
many more. The patterns in Exs. 44 and 45 the ballroom dancing phenomena. Recently surface of what is possible when applying Latin
are approximations of the full rhythm section this groove has found a home in blues and concepts to pop music. There are thousands of
sound, but are still valuable when it comes to Americana music. In Ex. 46, most of the action other possible patterns to choose from. Enjoy
laying it down on the kit. takes place on the snare (diddles, rim-clicks, the process of discovery.

JAZZ
Steve Forster’s Rhythmic
Masterpiece
 Danny Gottlieb
IF YOU LOOK AT THE RECENT

reissue of George Lawrence Ex. 11
Ex.
Stone’s classic text Accents
And Rebounds, you’ll notice
4
/4œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™™
contributions written by John Riley, Dom Ex. 1
Famularo, myself, and Steve Forster. We all
/4œ
Ex. 2
4R œ L R
œ R
œ L
œ R
œ L
œ L
œ
were students of the legendary drummer
™™
Joe Morello, and Steve studied with and was Ex. 1
around Joe longer than any of us. I consider / 4 ™™ Rœœ œ L
œ
œ œ Rœ œ Rœ œ
œ œ L
œ
œ œ Rœ œ
œ L
œ
œ œ Lœ
œ
œ
Steve to be the most knowledgeable expert in
/ 224
Ex.
Ex.
™™
Ex. 1 R L R R L R L L R L R R R L R R
the world concerning Joe Morello’s teaching
approach. And as Joe himself studied with
/ 4 ™™ Rœœ œ Lœ œ Rœ œ Rœ œ
œ œ œ Lœ œ Rœ œ
œ œ Lœ œ Lœ
œ œ
œ
Mr. Stone, we are all connected to Mr. Stone’s
/ 24œ œ
Ex.
œR œR œL œR œL œL œR œL œR œR œR œL œR œR
™™
approach and methodology.
/ ™ Rœ Lœ œ œ Rœ œ Rœ œ œ œ Rœ œ œ œ Lœ œ
™™
/ ™R L L L
Four textbooks are considered the bibles of Ex. 2 L R L
technical development: Stone’s Stick Control / 3 œ™™ Rœ œ Lœ
Ex. œ R Lœ R Rœ L Lœ R Rœ L Rœ L L
œ R Rœ L Lœ R Lœ R L
œ R Rœ L Lœ R L
œR ™™
and Accents And Rebounds; and Joe Morello’s / ™œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
Master Studies and Master Studies II. I am / Lœ™ Rœ L
œ œ œ œ œ œL R Lœ
œ R Lœ R Rœ L Lœ R Rœ L Rœ L L
™™
proud to announce that we now can add a fifth /3 R L
Ex.
œR œL œR œR ™™
R R R R L L L
text to this special group. Steve recently self-
/ 4 Lœ™™ œ Rœ
Ex. Lœ L Rœ L Rœ R Lœ R Lœ L Lœ R LLœ L ™
published his own workbook called 143 Binary œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™™™
Algorhythms Applied To Paradiddles, and it Ex.
/ 33 ™ œ œ
Ex.
/ ™™ Rœ œ œ Rœ œ Rœ œ
R L
œ œ Lœ œ L
œ œ œ œ
is a welcome addition to this special group of
/ 4 L™ R
Ex. L
œ L R
œ L Rœ R L
œ R L
œ L œL R LLœ L
™™
texts. Ex. 3 R L R
Steve’s book is basically 143 exercise ideas
/ ™™™™ Rœœ œ œ œ RRœ Lœ RRœ Rœ
R
R R L
Lœ œ Lœ œ
R R R L
Lœ œ Lœ
R R
œ
that can be applied to any group of hand- / 4œ œ
Ex. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™
to-hand eighth-notes. Steve uses paradiddle / ™ Rœ Lœ œR œR œR œL œR œR œR œL œR œR œR œL œR œ R ™™™
sticking (RLRR) as the basis for his book, but / ™R œ œ Rœ œ Rœ œ
R L
œ œ Lœ œ L
œ œ Lœ œ
this method, pioneered by Joe, can be applied Ex. 44 L R L
to any group of eighth-notes. Joe would teach
Ex.
/ œ™™ Rœ œ Lœ œ R Lœ R Lœ R Rœ L Lœ R Lœ R L
œ R Rœ L Lœ R L
œ R ™™
the first three pages of Stick Control and say, / œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
for example, “For every R play a triplet, and for L R L
œ R Lœ R Lœ R Rœ L Lœ R Lœ R L
œ R Rœ L Lœ R L
every L play a double paradiddle,” instead of / œR œL œ R ™™
writing out pages and pages of exercises. All
L R L L L R L L L
are variations for developing control using R
/ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Rœ Lœ Lœ Lœ Rœ Lœ Lœ ™™
and L strokes as the catalyst. Steve’s book
contains 143 amazing variations inspired by L R L L L R L L L R L L L R L L
Joe and Steve’s own incredible creativity.
One of my favorite variations, which I use
regularly with my students at the University This is a great exercise for developing your as I play the drums. Congratulations, Steve,
Of North Florida, is to play a paradiddle on each jazz ride cymbal beat. Every right paradiddle, on creating an epic workbook that I feel will
beat. For every R play a right paradiddle and especially when you work it up to speed, is a stand as one of the most important texts for
for every L play a left paradiddle. right-hand cymbal beat. I use this exercise all drummers.
Ex. 1 begins with alternating paradiddles. Ex. the time. And as Steve illustrates in his book, You can find it on Amazon, and I recommend
2 illustrates Steve’s variation (#13 in his book), you can add all types of variations, including it for every drummer!
where you play a right paradiddle for every R, accents, different drum movements and limb
DANNY GOTTLIEB has performed with Pat Metheny, John
and left paradiddle for every L in Ex. 1. Ex. 3 choices, and more.
McLaughlin, and Gil Evans, and is currently the drummer with
changes to four rights and four lefts, and Ex. 4 The four established textbooks and Steve’s Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band. He has won four Grammy
then assigns a right paradiddle for each R, and new addition are the only technique books Awards and is a Professor of Jazz Studies at the University Of
a left paradiddle for every L in Ex. 3. I will ever use, and I’ll use them for as long North Florida in Jacksonville.

HARD ROCK
 Glen Sobel
One Up, Two Down
AN EXTREMELY COMMON and Ex.
Ex. 11 3 3 3 3
Ex. 1 3
important building block of
/ 4 œœ œ3
Ex. 1 4 œ 33 œ 33 œ 33 ™™
double bass drumming is the Ex. 1
// 44 œ œ3 œ œœ œœ3 œ œœ œœ3 œ œœ œœ3 œ ™™
hand/foot combination of œ œœ œ œ œ
œ œ3 6 œ œ œ3 œ œ œ3 6 œ
4 ™
playing one note with the hand, followed by Ex.
/ 214 œ œ3 6 œ œ œ6 œ œ œ
™™
two notes with the feet. Or, as I like to call it, Ex.
Ex. 221 œ
“one up, two down” (Ex. 1). Let’s explore
Ex. 2 ™™ œ
/
4
4
3
œ œ œ 66œ œ 3 66œ œœ 3 66œ œ 3 66œ ™™
some different and unconventional ideas Ex. ™ œ
// 24 ™™ œœ œ œ 6œœ œ œ œœ œœ œ 6œ œ œ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ œ 6œ œ œ ™™
œœ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œœ œ œ œœ 6œ œœ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œœ
™ œ œ
involving this pattern.
™
3 ™ œ œ œ 6œ
œ œ
Ex. 2 œ œ œ œ 6œ œ œ œ œ œ 6œ œ œ œ œ 6œ œ œ
Ex./ ™™
The right hand can play between the floor Ex. 2 3 X Xœ 6 Xœ 6
tom and snare to create a heavy, swinging beat
/ 33 ™™™ œXX œ œ 6œ 6
Ex.
X
Ex. œ œ XœX œ œ œœ œ œ œXXœ œ œ œœ œ œ XœX œ œ œœ œ œ
™™
(Ex. 2). In Ex. 3, the left hand plays quarter- Ex./ 3 ™™™ œœ œ œ œœ ™™
notes on a left-side crash while the right hand / ™X œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™™
œ œ Xœ œ œ6 œ œ X œ œ6 œ œ Xœ œ œ6 œ œ
plays eighth-notes between floor and snare. / 3 ™ œ œ œ66 œ
Ex. œ œ X œ œ6 œ œ œ œX œ œ6 œ œ œ X œ œ6 œ œ œ
™™
How about a Latin influence? In Ex. 4, the Ex. 3 X
/ 4 ™™ œX œ œ66 œ œ 6 6 œ 6
left hand plays a version of clave on splash or Ex.
œ¿ œ ‰Xœ™ œ œ6 œœ œ ¿rrœ œXœ‰ œ œ6 œœ¿jj œ œ Xœ¿ œ œ6 œœ œ œ
™™
Ex. 4 ™™ ¿™
stacked cymbals while the right hand maintains Ex./ 4 ™™ œ¿™ œ¿™ œœ œœ œ
œ œ ‰œ™ œ œ r ‰œ œ œœ œ
™™
œ¿¿ œœ ‰œ™ œ œœ6 œœ œ ¿¿rœœ ‰œœ œ œ6œ ¿œ¿œjj œ œœ ¿¿œ œ œœ6 œœ œ œœ
/ ™™
the floor/snare pattern.
The pattern in Ex. 5 can be phrased as groups
Ex.
Ex.// 44 ™™ œœ¿™ œ œ66 œœ
™
œœ¿ œ ‰œ™ œœ œ 6 œ œœ ¿ œ ‰œ œœ 6œ œ¿ œœ œ œ¿ œœ œ6 œ œœ œ
™™
of nine per beat, with the left hand hammering
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™
Ex. 4 ™™ œ œ 6 œ œ¿ œ ‰™ œ œ 66œ œ ¿rr œ ‰œ œ œ66 œ¿j œ œ ¿ œ œ66 œ œ œ
/ ™™
out quarter-notes on a crash. Try phrasing this Ex. 5 4 ¿™ œ6
œ™ 6 j œ 6
/ 5 ™™ Xœ œ œ66 œ œœ¿ œ ‰œ œ œœ6œœ œ ¿ œ XœX ‰œœ œ œ6 œ¿œ œœ œ ¿œ œ œœ6 œœ œ œ
6
pattern over sixteenth-notes while playing a Ex.
Ex.
5 ™
™ ¿™
œ
X ™™
consistent quarter-note on the ride bell (Ex. 6).
Ex.
// 5 ™™ Xœ œœ œ œœ œœ œœœ œ œœ œœœ œ œ œXœ œœ œœ œœ œœœ œœ œœ œœ œ œœ
™™
™™
Practice all examples using a metronome set / ™™ œX œœ 6 œœ œ œ œœ œ6 œ œœ X œ 6œœ œ œ œœ œ6 œ œœ ™
to a variety of tempos. See ya next time! Ex.
Ex. / 55 ™ œ œ 6 œ œ 99œ œ œ6 œ œ œ œ 6œ œ 99œ œ œ6 œ œ ™™
Ex. 5 X X
GLEN SOBEL plays with Alice Cooper. Other credits include Ex. / 6 ™™™ œX O œ œ œ 99œ œ œ œ œ œXœ œ œ œ 99œ œ œ œ œ ™™
Paul Gilbert, Sixx: A.M., Richie Sambora, Orianthi, Tony Ex.
Ex. / 66 ™™3œ œO œ œ œ œ œœ œO œ œ œ œ œ œO œ œ œ œ œ œ ™™
MacAlpine, Cypress Hill, and Vivian Campbell. When in L.A.,
/ 6 ™™™43 œO œ O O ™™
Glen plays sessions, teaches at Musician’s Institute, and does Ex. // ™443 œO œ œ 9 œœ œœO œ œœ œœ œO 9 œœ œœ œ ™™
œœ 9 œ œ9 œ
clinics for DW Drums, Sabian, and Regal Tip. œ œ œO œ œ œ œO œ œ œ
3 ™
Ex. / 6 ™™4 œ œ œ œ œ œO œ œ
™™
Ex.66 3 O œ
Ex.
/ ™™43 œO œ œ œ OO œ œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œO œ œ œ
™ ™™
/ ™4 ™™
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
REGGAE
 Gil Sharone
Reggae Hi-Hat Variation
IN THIS COLUMN, I want
Ex.
Ex. 11 > > > >
to introduce a versatile 4 ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ œ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ œ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿
hi-hat variation that adds /4œ ™™
œ
thirty-second-notes within
the sixteenth-note pattern to create some
extra motion without breaking up the flow of
a reggae groove. This variation works within a throughout the bar as you feel them. You can Although he currently plays with Marilyn Manson and Stolen
one drop, steppers, or rockers pattern at any hear recordings of Carlton Barrett using this Babies, and has performed with Dillinger Escape Plan and
tempo. variation in a slow one drop, as well as Bud Puscifer, GIL SHARONE has had a lifelong love of Jamaican
For this example, I placed the added Gaugh from Sublime using it in an up-tempo styles, reflected in his past work with Fishbone and Dave
thirty-second-notes on the hi-hat on beat 3, rockers pattern. Wakeling, as well as on his DVD Wicked Beats, which covers
but you can place the thirty-second-notes Remember to keep the groove strong! Jamaican ska, rocksteady, and reggae drumming.

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MEET YOUR MAKER

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The family firm specializes in “customizing stave and
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It’s a craft they’ve fine-tuned since the company’s inception
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With snare drum prices ranging from $475 to just about
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CONTACT: hollomancustomdrums.com
—AJ DONAHUE
The Art & Craft
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2017
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HARDWARE
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Vater, vater.com ....................................................................................22, 50
Vic Firth, vicfirth.com ....................................................................... 5, 20, 21

PERCUSSION
DRUMmagazine.com September 2017 DRUM! 81 GEAR GUIDE
In Memoriam
John Blackwell, Jr.

September 9, 1973–July 4, 2017
PHOTO: RICK MALKIN
PERIODICAL - Drum (ISSN – 1097-0614, USPS - 23586) is published monthly by String Letter Publishing, Inc., 501 Canal Blvd., Suite J, Richmond, CA 94804. Periodical postage paid at Richmond, CA 94804 and additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA.
Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Imex Global Solutions, PO Box 32229, Hartford, CT 06150-2229. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Drum, PO Box 92227, Long Beach, CA 90809-2227.

©2017 DRUM WORKSHOP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
WE DIDN’T INVENT THE BASS DRUM PEDAL, WE JUST PERFECTED IT.
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Gear Guide: New Sticks & Heads For 2017

Stanton Moore Road Tested

Masterworks Modern Dry shown with a beautiful

ISSUE 255, VOL 26 ISSUE 9

To see Benny tell the story, and for more info

Photo by Gerhard Kühne

PO Box 2211, Williston, VT 05495-2211

Drum articles are indexed in The Music Index and

6 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

“…SONOR drums have remained my first and only choice as a

8 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

Music Staff, Clefs, Measures & Bar Lines Triplets

Time Signatures Dotted Notes & Rests

Note & Rest Values

One-Bar Repeat Two-Bar Repeat Repeat everything

10 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

BLACK STRATA PEARL (VA)

WHITE MARINE (VW) VINTAGE SPARKLE (VS) BLACK PEARL (VN)

CLASSIC LOOKS, MODERN SOUND

ROCKING WITH RUNT

3. Who drummed on the

4. They drummed on the

6. This drummer was behind

12 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

improve your sound,

heyward wood imboden ilejay

see the video.

MONEY MATTERS By Erik Lindsey

What’s Your Time Horizon?

14 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

Which Wood Is For You?

16 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

2. B. Thom Mooney was the drummer in

5. A. John “Willie” Wilcox’s super-cool

6. B. Though in on The Cars’ reunion, David

7. B. While Clive Davis and Sony were

8. C. Rundgren resurrected Grand Funk’s

DRUMmagazine.com September 2017 DRUM! 17

ell, this is it folks:

18 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

DRUMmagazine.com September 2017 DRUM! 19

©2017 Vic Firth Company

20 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

Photo by Gerhard Kühne ©2017 Vic Firth Company

DRUMmagazine.com September 2017 DRUM! 21

bring me pure joy and peacfound my

DEFTONES surface area. Meanwhile, the Two-Way

COOL BREEZE SIGNATURE SWAG

VATER.COM 22 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

16 Headhunters' Fat Bastards Monster Hybrid is a small diameter bamboo

ONLINE CALL CENTER SUPERSTORE

24 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com

Southern California’s New Drumming Destination

DRUMmagazine.com September 2017 DRUM! 25

17 Vater's Woody Wire Retractable Brush with a standard wire gauge

PLAY BETTER FASTER.

Gear Guide: New Sticks & Heads For 2017

Gear Guide: New Ha

Stanton Moore Road Tested

26 DRUM! September 2017 DRUMmagazine.com