I know, I know.... things have been a little quiet around here lately. But trust me, I have a very good Reason for my absence. I would love to share more information with you at this time, but a team of international lawyers and a very large Swedish man who goes by the name, "Sven", have me sworn to secrecy "or else...". In just under a month, I will be able to provide you with all kinds of details about this very exciting project.
I've also been making some major strides in the upgrade o...
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Such a pun-laden headline could only mean one thing: Another funk loop. And rather than picking up the sticks and burying the VU meters into the red, I decided to to go the subtle route and use brushes to lay down the back beat.
[caption id="attachment_5263" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Jim Keltner - Master of brushes, forks and pens."][/caption]
Loop #119
I'll admit, I'm not breaking any new ground with today's groove. Drummers like Steve Jordan, Jim Keltner, and even the ...
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Loop #107
Here's my loop response from the following request:
"I'd like something that can go behind a slow acoustic guitar without taking over."
[caption id="attachment_4651" align="aligncenter" width="276" caption="Brushes - Russ Kunkel Style"][/caption]
I immediately thought of Russ Kunkel's brush-ballad playing from those early 1970's James Taylor records. I tuned the snare down nice and low, kept the groove nice and simple and rounded things out with a bit of reverb.
Pre...
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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:
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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...
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Everyone has an album that reminds them of their childhood. A certain recording that can instantly transport you back to being a little kid. For me, that album is Willie Nelson's 1978 classic, "Stardust".
Every time my family made the six hour drive to my grandparents' house in Missouri, "Stardust" found its way into the in-dash cassette player. I'm not sure if my parents had inside, CIA-type information telling them that this album would relax their kids and make them stop beating the s...
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[caption id="attachment_263" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="One of my RSS subscribers"][/caption]
I've been getting hounded with emails from ryangruss.com subscriber, Bobby Lee, (above pic) asking me to post some "real music". Apparently jazz/fusion isn't his cup of tea... or errr, can of Old Milwaukee. Anyway, I traced Bobby's IP address and discovered he lives in Varner, Arkansas. I aim to please, so here's a beat found in many of the songs of another Arkansas native, Johnny Cas...
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Butter makes the world a better place. I love butter on english muffins. When I go to the movies, I ask for extra butter on my popcorn. I love butter so much, a few years ago I often starting using it as an adjective: "buttery".
I think I first used the term "buttery" to describe the sound of drummer, Matt Chamberlain. Matt's high cholesterol drumming started to make it's way up the music charts in the late 90's when he began to record with artists such as Tori Amos, The Wallflowers ...
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After starting off my blog with two rather distorted and edgy loops I've decided to chill things out for today's post. And in the world of drumming, nothing chills things out like putting down the sticks and pulling out a pair of brushes. When talking about brush playing, most people associate the technique with legendary jazz drummers such a "Philly Joe" Jones and Vernel Fournier While it's true these men perfected the art of timekeeping with a bundle of wires throughout 1950's and 60's ...
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