On this week's workout, we focus on hand speed and dexterity, and discuss applying paradiddles around the kit. For more information, please click here.
The Wednesday Throwdown is live on Twitch every Wednesday at 4pm eastern on our Twitch channel.
Incorporating Electronic Instruments into Your Percussion Setup
We’re not “just” drummers, we are musicians first. That is what I preach every week. Focusing on creativity during the pandemic has given us a bit of an opportunity to incorporate new sounds and new approaches into our playing that we might not have thought of before.
Lately I have been working on incorporating a couple of electronic elements into my set up, and the initial results have been very interesting. Here I used a Roland Handsonic and a Boss RC1 looping pedal to create a live loop that I could improvise over. By creating the loop live, I can build in some space so that the loop does not feel metronomically rigid. More of this kind of experimentation to come. (Best experienced with some good headphones!)
Wednesday Throwdown - Even More Brushes
The Wednesday Throwdown is back this week, with a look at the finer points of brush playing.
Wednesday Throwdown - an introduction to brushes
Basscamp Recap
Last night we were joined by guest instructor Rob Swanson, who is one of the region’s first call bass players (in any genre). Rob is a consummate professional with decades of experience and last night’s session was loaded with practical advice and real world playing tips.
Rob is an incredibly versatile player, and it is rare to find a bassist who is equally adept playing electric and upright bass. This provided our percussionists an opportunity to cover a wide variety of musical genres: rock, blues, Motown, jazz and latin.
This is the tip of the iceberg in terms of expanded programming at the studio and I look forward to sharing those new programs with you after New Years.
Wednesday Sermon: Why Are We Doing All This?
It is helpful to consider the question of why practice everyday, and why work so hard on technique and hand speed and dexterity? The answer is pretty simple. When the performance arrives, as a drumset artist you do not want to spend energy or time or concentration on how your hands and feet are going to work together. All those practice hours train your hands what to do.
All that training gives the performer freedom to simply be creative on the drumset and have a more effective communication with the audience. Any time spent thinking about how your hands work during a show is robbing the audience of something potential magical, which is the connection between performer and audience.