drumstinytranscriptions

drumstinytranscriptions

drum play reviews with transcriptions


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Conclusion: Prince - Everywhere is harder than you think

Hello! Let's see another song from Prince's album "The Rainbow Children" who passed away last year. I have very little hardware but own his signature snare. Yes, he is John Blackwell, aka JB. Today we see the song "Everywhere" to reconfirm the JB's performance. Experience and go through the JB's Mystery Adventure!

See also the past article: 

At the beginning of the song, the clear female vocal sounds sweet through the serene Rhodes. The bass cuts in there. And when the digital and ungentle orchestra hits come in, the intro starts from the drum fill!

(00:20-)

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Noteworthy is the basic pattern stars from the 5th bar. That is certainly very unique. It would be a normal pattern if all the left foot hi-hat comes on 8th note offbeat, but here you see a distinct Latin-like pattern. What kind of practice made him play such like that? Utterly incomprehensible, really. Since he plays without hesitation, it may be one of his usual patterns.

The tempo is fast so the double kick on 2nd beat is quite hard as well. At least I declare that I cannot keep it at this tempo through a song. A dignified concession speech!

Next, check the colorful and exciting drum solo!

(01:04-)

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The sextuplets phrase steamrolls in the 1st and 2nd bar. He puts accents to the 1st and 6th of the sextuplets, hitting toms and cymbals to give it a variation. In the 2nd bar, he steps on hi-hat by left foot at the positions where are beyond human control. But you do not have to worry too much because it seems he moved his left foot just like when we usually play "hi-hat open + Kick -> Immediate hi-hat close".

At the 4th bar, the JB's specialty shows up. That is right hand on the floor tom and left hand on the open hi-hat. In the 5h and 6th bar, the exciting rapid and polyrhythmic phrase is repeated which goes with right hand floor tom and left hand open hi-hat, and right hand snare and left hand open hi-hat. Take notice of the red highlighted notes on the score above which are on floor tom rather than on bass drum.

And at the 8th bar, drum solo closes down with snare mashing. I thought that the 2nd beat was normally 6 strikes, but I found another snare strike and I knew it was 7 when I heard it in very slow playback speed. It may be a septuplet, but in the score above I write four 32nd notes. In any case, it would be OK to try your maximum snare mashing with alternate sequence.

And the part just before outro of the song is way too massive:

(01:48-) 

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The 1st/2nd bar is in the basic pattern. The 3rd/4th bar is a part of the keyboard ensemble phrase for entering outro. Take a close look at the drum in the 3rd/4th bar which changes in response to the keyboard phrase here. As he realizes it with this fast tempo, it is almost impossible to imitate the play. You do not understand what I'm saying, but it is neither a fill nor a temporary pattern change. It is not such a simple thing. A revolution sparks on both feet.

Aside from above, my band performed the first single-band show (having no other bands in the night) the other day. I brought the JB's signature snare drum that I do not usually bring to studio rehearsals saying "Here comes a golden opportunity to utilize it". The huge "JB" mark is appealing on the shell, having 13 inches diameter which is smaller than the commonly used 14 inches, being slightly deeper (6.5 inches).

In my live performances, I usually borrow a snare drum a live music club owns. Depending on the club, a snare head and snare wire/cords are almost dead so that I cannot adjust the sound in some cases. For that reason it is safe to bring your own snare. Nothing special here. In the single-band show I identified myself with JB using the JB's snare. I'm not sure the audience found a difference.

Thanks,

Tales of Tower of Power - Oakland Stroke...

After I exhibited a paranoid obsession with paradiddle in the song Scatterbrain of Jeff Beck on the previous article, let me introduce a paradiddle guru! He is David Garibaldi from Tower of Power who is often cited as a notable player deserving special mention!

The first track "Oakland Stroke ..." from their album "Back To Oakland" made him famous not to mention. Just to make sure, do not miss out the 3 periods at the end of the title. Also, the 11th track "Oakland Stroke" of the album has the same vamp. 

Back to Oakland

Back to Oakland

 

This album was named "one of the most important recordings for drummers to listen to" in the vote of Modern Drummer Magazine! Although genres of music and classification of music groups are really varied, some people call them "Oakland funk". The cause of calling so instead of just "funk", is the performance of David Garibaldi, who creates such subtle differences, isn't it? If your answer is yes, you've come to the right place. The drum part of this song for you:

(00:00-) 

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The light and crispy snare fill rustles at the beginning. Mark the subsequent drum pattern. This is not an improvisation nor his autopilot pattern. He carefully considered and combined paradiddles to make mechanical combinations so that snare accents correspond to the horn riff. If I remember right, he commented like that. For that reason, it is hard to trace the play without transcribing it and only by listening. We have to write it on a score and to understand how it flows.

We may think that each musicians perform randomly in the song. We firstly hear that the open hi-hat phrase lying between the 2nd and 3rd bars is corresponding to the slide guitar phrase like "swap swap". Meanwhile the organ also plays the very similar "swap swap" phrase at another timing. That is very much confusing, so it took a lot of hours to transcribe it! However, after hearing the song several times, we find it is not random but played in fixed position. Immediately after the above is:

(00:16-) 

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The fixed form in four bars with a fill is repeated. In the above part, only the snare hits highlighted in red are different from the fixed form. That is a fine performance to give variety to the routine. In the meantime, the song having only 52 seconds faded out. It is amazing that the song comes up in conversation in a long time and is handed down though it is such a short song.

My band mate attended a live performance of Tower of Power a couple of months ago. He said that the solid technique of David Garibaldi showed no sign of declining and that David was awesome brilliant. Looking for Wikipedia I found David is more than 70 years old now! I think I can continue being a drummer no matter how old I get. Even though my strength declines somewhat, I could attract people who listen. I who soon grow old am relieved a little!

Thanks,

Interviewer: Tell me about your skills in Jeff Beck - Scatterbrain?

From Jeff Beck's album "Blow by Blow" released in 1975 (the Japanese release is titled as "the revival of the guitar murderer". That's weird), I'm going to analyze the song in detail you know what!

Blow By Blow

Blow By Blow

 

The drummer is the maestro Richard Bailey of course that I took up several times in this blog. See the articles describing the master's performance: 

In this album, you can hear his performance being rough around the edges but the most powerful. He had the dignity of the master at a young age already. Among songs in the album, we are all curious about the drums on "Scatterbrain". This is the drums part with a bit unusual time signature 9/8 that fascinates those who listen:

(0:00-) 

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He starts playing in Tempo rubato. When we are thinking that it a free style solo without tempo, 9/8 comes In Tempo from the 3rd bar before we are aware. While it wobbles a bit in the second half of the 3rd bar, the basic pattern appeares from the 4th bar. From the 7th bar, a sort of sinister guitar melody like a guitar fingering practice begins and the drums repeat that pattern.

The hi-hat open accents are on 16th notes offbeat and ghost note-like triplet notes are at the end of the bars. Listening to this basic pattern, you may think at first: it is performed in combinations of paradiddle (RLRRLRLL etc.) and must be something like paradiddlediddleparaparadiddleparaparapara..... However once I transcribe it, I found that except for the last triplet RLL, surprisingly it goes in alternate (RLRLRLRL). The magic trick wrapped in mystery for many years is revealed now.

Taking out only the snare and the hi-hat, the sticking sequence is like this:

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Left hand hits the open hi-hat notes. If you fix right hand on hi-hat and left hand on snare trying to do it with paradiddle, you find you cannot hit three snare notes of the 4th beat and that is an apparent contradiction. I found that hi-hat does not tick at the same time as the snare of the 2nd beat. That was a clue.

Here is the part turning into a pattern using ride cymbal instead of hi-hat:

(0:34-) 

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The right hand is on ride cymbal from the 4th bar of the score where it returned to 9/8. You hold the right hand over the ride cymbal and the left hand does not reach the ride cymbal hence it can not be alternate. Unlike the basic pattern of the previous hi-hat part, here he handles with right hand on ride cymbal, left hand on snare, and paradiddles as it sounds. Taking out only the snare and the ride cymbal, the sticking sequence is like this:

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In the drum play around here, we should not miss listening to the hi-hat that keeps stepping by left foot. That is the master's specialty which is also discussed in the previous article:

The left foot hi-hat starts from the 3rd bar's 12/8. The volume is small but this makes us feel that the groove is effectively kept. That is the same idea as ghost notes on snare. And the play requires stamina so we have to start with a fitness training first. He always plays the left foot hi-hat during ride cymbal part so surely it is simply his autopilot. That is one of the autopilot systems we want to acquire in order to get closer to the master.

Thanks,