Fine time and sophistication of Steely Dan - Aja

Steely Dan the sophisticated music to enter adulthood. The titled song Aja from the album Aja which recorded the largest sales and won the Grammy Award.

Aja

The beauty of this album art is representing the music contained in this album. It is said that a Japanese photographer took a picture of a Japanese model. I'm pretty proud of it.

Now, the drummer plays in the album title song Aja is the living legend Steve Gadd. Let's take a look at the part that you have to note as a drummer in this 8 mins long song:

(4:32-) 

The pattern in the 1st - 5th bars appears several times in this song. He kicks the high-hat pedal with his left foot to make splash sound. In a slightly unusual pattern, the expansive sound of the ride cymbal & splashing high-hat matches this clear and tinnient song here very well.

It is the part where it gets moving little by little during the 1st - 5th bars and the drums suddenly become intense from the 6th bar. Everyone knows the legendary sextuplet (2 triplets) phrase in the 11th and 12th bar. The RL sequence is like this:

The 13th bar is also a legend that doesn't seem too difficult, but doesn't end up with a legend when you lose timing or get awkward. Drums close up videos of Steve Gadd do not show him playing smartly with only his fingers or hands. You see in the videos that he plays with all his strength to make his body float off his drum throne. Take a lesson from Gadd. Don't be lazy and play with all your might moving your whole body. Of course do not give your face a break. Try the best to make you look as if you are playing music with the face! Smile at audiences with your eyes. Make a sound with your eyebrows.

And just after above. The song once gets relaxed and then regain the intensity from the 24th bar: 

In the 27th bar, the sextuplet phrase is repeated with a slight difference; the 2nd and the 3rd sextuplets do not have snare notes at the 1st shot of the sextuplets. Or rather, it is more accurate to say that he has to omit it because his right hand hits the floor tom right before. The RL sequence is pretty much the same as the previous one: 

The 28th bar is also the phrase Steve Gadd plays frequently. It's very simple but impressive. Let's do our best on the whole body, including the face as well here!

I'm going to check the part drummers are all curious about in the second half of Aja. Don't miss it out...

I want to go out with a girl who likes Limp Bizkit - My Generation

Do you think we can fly... so this time Limp Bizkit doesn't need explanation.

Here comes the drum performance in the song My Generation from the album Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. 

Chocolate Starfish & The Hot Dog Flavored Water

Chocolate Starfish indicates a part of female and Hot Dog Flavored Water is a thing male produces. I find it creepy around here in combination with the kind of disappointing illustration of the jacket. Don't worry, however, the recorded music is very good.

Here's the drum solo from the beginning of the song. Hi-hat is open all the time, but "o" mark supposed to be placed on the hi-hat notes are omitted from the score to make it more visible.

He strikes cymbals with both hands at the 1st beat and similar of all bars. 2 cymbal notes are written on the score where he strikes 2 cymbals. Check out the video of this song on YouTube to see how he moves. Meanwhile, if you want to enjoy and listen to the music itself, please listen to it recorded on CD or mp3 instead of YouTube. As lyrics of not only this song but most of their songs have a lot of F words and SH words, YouTube videos are censored to cut off songs frequently at good spots killing the power of songs.

It seems like just another heavy drum pattern, but the red highlighted notes in the score above cause a bit of a problem. If you look closely, you can see that he gives 3 successive kicks. Once you try it you may find; Oh, it is even harder than it looks! You could not play like that if you consciously kick the 3 notes. You can play it smoothly if you, how should I say, pretend that the 1st kick at the end of the last bar never happened, and the next 2 kicks just happened to be there. That is a bit curious kick pattern where how you recognize determines your success or failure.

If only we could flyyyyy, Limp Bizkit style. John Otto, take 'em to the Matthew's bridge!! John Otto, who is encouraged in the opening statement is the drummer. I thought that he has to be a stiff and proper drummer with a solid skill and that he is just pretending to be a bad guy whose songs are censored terribly. Then I checked him on Wikipedia. It was as I suspected. He studied jazz drums and he is skilled in Brazilian music, Afro-Cuban, Bebop, funk, and various other genres. There seems to be a lot of death metal musicians or like who have such a substantial background because their music is so technically difficult that they may have to practice hard and to dedicate themselves to their music.

Learn in 2 hours Whiplash - Caravan walk-through guide

Let's see a film music this time. There aren't many films that focus on the drums. But 4 or 5 years ago Whiplash (Japanese release title: Session) moved squarely into the spotlight.

I watched it of course. Drummers would not be very much comfortable looking at it carefully, which will be discussed later, but I was moved a lot. Instead of a movie critique, focus on its music that definitely moves you!

WHIPLASH

Mercy! He starts playing without a cue

In the song Caravan from the last scene, this drum performance is awesome groovy. A big band arrangement that is exhilarating and has no muddy. This is very much a moment of high drama. While the conductor who easily gets mad at a little thing is saluting, the crazy boy starts to play without a formal cue! 

The passion behind this stylish performance! This is probably the best arrangement of various Caravan recordings. Really cool. See what is happening: 

Basically the pattern in the 1st or 2nd bar is repeated. Sometimes toms are added and notes in the middle of triplets flavor the beat. The 1st or 2nd bar is really beautiful and the core of this drum performance.

The essence of the pattern is shown below. It is important to kick exactly on those positions and put the snare drum accent on the 2nd beat to create this wonderful beat.

Three patterns with different high-hats

It sounds like the basic pattern is repeated equally, but there are actually three ways to step on the high-hat. First, onbeat quarter notes like in the intro. Second, offbeat notes like jazz four beat drums (Figure A). Third, 8th notes all over (Figure B). The top cymbal strongly leads the four beat feel in the 3 patterns as well, but it is interesting to find subtle differences in the grooves. The pattern of Figure B is the most powerful, isn't it?

(Figure A)

(Figure B)

I think I worry too much about little things!

We don't know why, but notice how the film runs in reverse around 0:51. One who has an acute observation skill pointed that out in YouTube comments. I can't tell, but someone commented that the drummer shouts a 4 letter word at the conductor at 0:46. In addition, the bass player appears he is playing at 0:21, but this obviously contradicts the scenario. How did they discover those.

Now that you mention it, I remember the film titled Sweet and Lowdown that made me nervous because what we see and what we hear did not synchronize. I couldn't get the storyline into my head because I noticed big gaps between the sound and the fingering of the guitar, and the style of Django Reinhardt may not be considered. It amazed even me that I worry too much about little things. As a drummer, I also found such gaps in Whiplash, but it didn't affect the storyline at all. I highly recommend to watch it if you haven't yet.