Have you heard a Zeibekiko groove before? I hadn’t… until this morning when I received this email from one of my readers in France:
————————————————————————————————————————————-
Hello Ryan!
First I do appreciate your blog, it’s fun to read, well written (even if, being a french reader, I’m not the best judge…), with nice loops… My drumming moment of the day (I’m not a drummer).
I would like to share a rhythm that fascinates me. No reason for that, but it does… Some years ago, a greek friend of mine lent me some greek music : pop singers, traditional from islands… and a CD of rebetiki songs. One rhythm caught my hear : straight, firm, slow, but kind of unstable, in a pleasant way. It’s called zeibekiko, and it’s a 9/4, 60bpm, divided as follows : eqe qq eqe qqq (e=eighth, q=quarter), in a 4+5 division… I love this 9th beat.
If you want to listen some :
Firm, slow and unstable? Sounds like a job for me. I’m always up for a challenge (especially when it’s an odd meter), so I decided to take a stab at laying down a Zeibekiko groove. After listening to a few songs online and eating three pounds of baklava, I figured I’d approach it from a more contemporary angle. I used the kick and snare to outline the basic rhythmic cadence and filled in the rest with sixteenth notes on the hi hat. If you’re having trouble identifying the downbeat, just listen for the shaker. If you’re still having trouble, have a few shots of ouzo.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I know I’ve madesomesnarkycomments about splash cymbals in the past. This is why I feel I must explain myself before posting today’s loop. You see, there are other ways to utilize splash cymbals besides highlighting DX-7 solos in bad fusion jams and recording prog-rock concept albums.
Charles Haynes
This is a trick I picked up a few years ago while hanging out at Wally’s on “funk night”. One of the house drummers, Charles “The Dog” Haynes, would often pull out a splash cymbal in the middle of a song and place it directly on the snare drum, completely changing the sound of the backbeat. By hitting the splash with the shoulder of the stick and really laying into it, Charles was able to produce a piercing, almost bit-crushed sounding snare. If only splash cymbals always sounded this manly.
Loop #74
Today’s loop takes The Charles Haynes Splash Method™ and combines it with a jingle stick in the right hand and a floor tom hit (covered with a t-shirt and soaked in sub-bass) on the “and” of 1.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The life of a touring musician is one that is often full of bizarre and surreal encounters. Between hanging out with methed-out truckers while you eat pancakes during 4am pit stops, to the VIP events you attend because you’re “in a band”, traveling around the world and playing music will supply you with plenty of crazy stories to tell your grandkids (and blog readers). Often times, these encounters include rubbing elbows with the most random of celebrities in even more random situations. Like my drunken 4th of July in Malibu with Don Johnson and Anthony Kiedis or having Maria Sharapova turn up at my gig at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. Out of all of the crazy and unexpected things that have taken place while on the road, a certain night in San Francisco remains the most incongruous.
It was 2006 and my band was in the middle of a West Coast tour. We were scheduled to play San Fransisco on a Friday night and our manager, Peter Asher, decided that he’d fly up from LA for the weekend to attend the show and stay with his good friend who lived in the city. Well, it turns out Peter’s good friend was comedic legend, Robin Williams.
Robin Williams - Comedian/Roadie
As we were soundchecking for that show, my cell phone rang and it was Peter, telling us that Robin wanted to come out to the gig and asked if we could also put him on the guest list. Sure. NO BIG DEAL. Now, it’s not like we were playing The Fillmore and could reserve some box seats for Robin and Peter. We were playing a rather intimate (small and disgusting) hipster/rock club in the seedier side of San Fran. A place that made the bathrooms at CBGBs seem like they belonged in The Four Seasons. I walked up to the heavily tattooed door guy and told him to jot down those two names on the guest list. At first he laughed at me. “Robin Williams? Coming to this shit hole on a Friday night??” I assured him it was true.
Fast forward six hours later. I hit the final crash of our encore and stumbled off the stage, a sweaty mess, looking for the nearest bottle of water (or beer). As I entered the green room, I saw Peter and another man whom I never thought I’d meet, let alone be shaking hands with in a dingy club. “Ryan, I’d like to introduce you to my friend, Robin.” Like he needed to tell me his name. He told me that he enjoyed the show and said he hadn’t been to a club like this in years. We continued to chat for a few minutes until we were interrupted by the stage manager. “The DJ needs to set up his turntables. Can you move the drums off of the stage?” Apparently this rock club turned into a dance club at the stroke of midnight.
Before I could answer, Robin transformed into a character that I had never seen on TV or in his movies. It wasn’t “Mork”, or “Mrs. Doubtfire”, or even “Garp”. It was “Ryan’s British Roadie”. Picking up a nearby flashlight and suddenly developing a thick, Cockney accent, Robin leapt into action, breaking down all of my hardware and taking the cymbals off of their stands. I stood in amazement, watching this Oscar-winning actor play the part of someone who would normally be hauling road cases for Iron Maiden. Before I had a chance to process all of it, my drums were off of the stage and Robin was back to his normal self, saying goodbye to me and the band.
Loop #69
This loop is dedicated to the funniest (and cheapest) roadie I’ve ever had. I’m pretty sure this is the same dance beat the DJ was playing as I stood there in that shitty club in San Francisco, wondering if that really just happened.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Roland 808. It’s the drum machine sound I grew up on. Round, blippy sounding toms. A kick drum loaded with enough sub-bass to shake an entire roller rink. From hip-hop to pop music, the 808 dominated the programmed drum sound of the early to mid 80′s. You can even hear the 808 on Marvin Gaye’s 1982 hit slow jam, “Sexual Healing”.
The Roland TR-808
Loop #67
Today I decided to go for that old 808 sound on my acoustic kit… and then some. To get the classic, “round” tom effect, I grabbed my trusty pile of dirty t-shirts, laid them across the head of each drum and de-tuned one lug to get some pitch bend. The rest is in the mix. Lots of gating, a ton of compression, some heavy panning, a dash of sub-bass and the entire bus mix ran through an amp simulator. Yep, that’s a lot of digital plugins just to recreate an analog machine from 1980.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
One of my good friends, a fellow drummer and former classmate, offered me the chance to ‘babysit’ his cymbals this week. He was going down to New Orleans for Jazz Fest and, knowing that I was busy recording a series of loop packs, was kind of enough to loan me his vast array of cymbals.
Today's Ride
When I set up to record today, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I had two cases FULL of various cymbals to choose from. Everything from Sabian HH crashes to Zildjian A Custom hi hats to Bosphorus rides. I love my own collection of cymbals, but it’s always exciting and inspiring to play with a completely fresh set up. It’s amazing how the inherent tonalities of a new instrument can completely change your approach to performing.
I set up two of the Boshporus ride cymbals and immediately found myself immersed in up-tempo bebop and way-out-there fusion for the next hour. I recorded everything and saved it on the external drive. I then realized I needed to crank out a loop for the blog….
Loop #59
I’ll admit, this loop sounds like I’m banging my right hand on a trash can lid… but it’s actually one of the nicest sounding ride cymbals I’ve ever played. You’ll get to hear its true sound soon. There are several gigabytes of grooves which I’ll be editing, mixing, rex’ing etc over the next week. For now, I give you the low-fi, filtered, dirty, bad babysitter version.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
For my 50th loop I wanted to try something a bit different. No funk beats. No paradiddles. No wanking. I wanted to downsize and simplify. I wanted to see how much music I could make with a limited set of tools. I set forth some parameters:
One drum. One measure.
My initial instinct was to run to the safety of my snare drum, but I knew that would be the easy way out. It was time to explore uncharted waters. The threat of pirates only added to the excitement. I flipped my bass drum over and began hitting it with various things. Sticks, mallets, spatulas. Nothing was really working… until I grabbed some brushes.
The Setup
Loop #50
It’s amazing how many frequencies you can pull out of one drum with a pair of brushes (especially when you start processing and mixing). With a bit of limiting and a dash of distortion, this loop soon took on an ominous life of its own.
For the geeks who are curious about the mic setup, I kept it pretty simple:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Continuing my hugely successful rudiment series (0 comments and counting), today we take a look at one of my favorites:
The Paradiddle
Paradiddles
I tend to think of the paradiddle as “the popular kid” of rudiments. Unlike less popular rudiments such as the ratamacue or the single drag, it’s the captain of the football team and the homecoming king. It’s class president and it just landed a full ride to Stanford. It dates all of the hot girls and never gets ID’d when buying beer. You want to hate it… but damnit, it looks and sounds good.
Here is a clip of Steve Gadd getting down with some paraddidles (and paradiddle-diddles).
Loop #46
Today’s loop is nothing but straight-up paradiddles (the exact same sticking shown in the example above). My right hand is on the ride cymbal (with some accents on the bell) while my left hand is on the snare with accents on two and four. I took great care in tuning the drums and placing the mics prior to recording, only to mix it to sound like it’s coming out of a clock radio.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I’ve been busy prepping for the big audition and haven’t had much time to blog …. BUT I did hit the record button whilst working out some hot licks. Billy, are you listening??
Blas Elias approves this loop.
Loop #43
This loop is actually a scientific experiment to see how many notes I could squeeze inside of one measure. Go ahead, try to write a song to it. I might need to add a new category called “ridiculous”. For now, this will reside under “wanking”.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
It’s 3:30 pm and I’m still wearing my pajamas. So far, my day has consisted of eating waffles, watching the Travel Channel and preventing trying to stop my cats from mounting each other.
Vinny & Scooter
It’s definitely a lazy Sunday.
However, between sitting on the couch, stuffing my face and telling the cats to get a room, I did find time to record one loop.
Loop #36
In the spirit of lazy Sundays, today’s loop started off as something totally mellow. I was going to throw all of you James Taylor-ish, singer-songwriter types a bone and give you a nice, slow brush groove. Then I decided to run everything through an amp simulator and it turned into some sort of late 80′s, Straight Outta Compton slow jam.
Keepin' it Lazy.
Preview Here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
