Huh. Surprised I've only heard of 1-4 of those guys (depending on which Andy White, Bobby Richards, and Alan Grinley those are)
Sadly, this is my last year as a voting member of the organization's governing body, so I will miss experiencing Bérubé as my direct overlord. I made a bid for the exec. council and continuation of my term, but won't get it.
The warden (or whatever)'s demand for "5,000 paradiddles" doesn't really make sense to this drummers ear. Wiki disagrees with me here, but people don't use the term to describe any single unit. I could sensibly call any of the following sticking patterns "paradiddles":
1. RLRR
2. LRLL
3. RLRR LRLL
4. RLRLRR LRLRLL
Therefore, whoever wrote that bit dialogue is dumb, according to me. Whoever wrote the drum parts, on the other hand, is wizard cocksucker.
Also, if you're going to throw around drum rudiment names, why not go with "flamacue", which is delightful?
Flamacue!
||
You have got to be fucking kidding me:
The Texas Longhorns relied on All-American Destinee Hooker and numerous Minnesota errors to take the first two games of the NCAA women's volleyball semifinals today at Tampa, Fla.
I didn't even know they named an Porn Name All-American team.
|>
Therefore, whoever wrote that bit dialogue is dumb
Er, that bit *of* dialogue. I, too, am dumb.
I have encountered "paradiddle" as a count noun with exactly the definition that appears in the Wikipedia entry on rudiments.
7: Well, I think Wikipedia's is a prescriptivist definition, and I move for a more descriptivist one, based on my long and storied experience as a drummer. Plus I'm in a mood to be overly snotty about something, and this seems like a good something. (I don't really care that much, that is.)
Where did you encounter it, by the by? It seems like a bit of drummer jargon, so I'm happy and surprised that you did.
From drummers in the CMU music department and other musicians, I'm afraid, so I'm not really evidence of its wider currency.
Further to 8, Wikipedia's section on paradiddles is murky, because it gives the description "Two alternating notes followed by a diddle." However, its notation shows what would be more aptly described as "Two alternating notes followed by a diddle, followed by two more alternating notes (starting with the hand opposite the hand that started the first set of alternating notes) followed by a diddle."
(Note to self: I should probably get a more active social life, when I find myself thinking about trying to edit the Wikipedia page about paradiddles.)
11: I wonder if, um, that commenter asking about what a flam is has since figured it out. There are lots of 'em in the video in the OP.
There was a period when I just couldn't stop rewriting that verse (and I'm pretty sure there are others that I can't find).
When I was taking pedal-steel guitar lessons, my teacher had me do paradiddles with the thumb and alternate fingers of my right hand, plucking strings. And there was a certain pattern that counted as one paradiddle.
14: That illustrates what I'm getting at. Any combination of alternating limb or digit followed by a "diddle" or double of one limb or digit is going to be called by a drummer, generically, in most settings, a "paradiddle".
One of the neat things about that video that I should note (since no one else seems to want to talk about this thread, and teo can't seem to find a relevant xkcd comic) is how the drummers playing "traditional" (that is, with the snare-hitting hand holding the stick in a manner that sort of resembles holding a chopstick) have their snare drums slanted away from them. This is something people I see less and less of, despite the fact that slanting it away is really quite helpful for popping rim shots with your snare hand, when you're playing traditional.
For the Europhiles in the group, playing in the more common (today) manner is usually called playing "matched" but sometimes one hears the term "French grip", most often in reference to timpani players, with "German grip" as the stand-in for "traditional". I don't really know why, but I suppose I could go look up the origin (with a suspicious eye toward the crowd writing the Wiki articles about drum stuff).
Finally, I may take this thread to 100! So, uh, sorry.
The "traditional" grip is the grip used by pipe-and-drum band drummers, yes?
16: Normally, yes. Not doing so would be okay but frowned upon by me in high school drum snobs.
A lot of marching-around-with-drums culture is imbued with a trying-to-look-badass cosmetic, and marching while playing in the traditional manner is deemed to look badass.
teo can't seem to find a relevant xkcd comic
Yeah, sorry, I've been packing and stuff. I doubt there are many drum-related ones, though. Not really Randall Munroe's area of interest or expertise, I don't think.
Randall Munroe has never let a topic's being out of his area of expertise stopped him from writing a comic about it.
Further to 17, there's a similar sort of machismo around playing jazz with a traditional grip. And, to be fair, it's hard to learn to play that way. Especially if you learned to play matched.
Also, it's easier to switch to a cross-stick (the thing that jazz drummers {rock drummers, too, but it happens a lot more during jazz songs} do where they place a stick across the drum and make that "clock" sound by raising a stick with the tip pressing the drumhead and striking the rim with the butt end), when you're playing traditional.
I suspect I could bore you folks all! night! long!
Actually, I find this stuff interesting.
22: Well, then: another thing that's easier playing traditional is that "ping" thing (there might be a technical term, don't know) jazz drummers do where they flick at a cymbal at a 90° angle, producing a sort of light bell sound.
On drum rolls: there are two kinds: buzz and open. Buzz rolls are that constant purr type of roll. Common in classical music but shows up all over.
Open rolls, the most common marching-band roll, involve sticking two equally powered hits in rapid succession on alternating hands. It gives a sort of machine-gun sound and takes a bit of wrist workout to get to (I practiced doing it on a towel or pillow during high school*: RR-LL-RR-LL....). The thing that catches the unannointed, is that up till that point, everyone's been letting the drum head bounce do some work. The open roll makes you actually stroke each note, with a goal of all the drummers playing being exactly in sync. (Just try hitting RR-LL over and over. You'll probably try to use your elbows, which is wrong. It's in the wrist.)
I can do matched pretty well for both; traditional, I can do a passable open roll but suck at doing buzz rolls (and will actually switch to matched to buzz roll in a jazz setting).
*low-hanging fruit alert
24: It's hard to describe (but I presume you know what sound I'm talking about). IME, you do use the the bounce of the drum and sort of frantically move your wrists as fast as possible while pressing close to the head.
That's actually like the random (and occasional, I note with emphasis) great* Terry Gross-type question; you should ask every drummer you meet that question. I'd love to hear the responses.
*Great in the sense that I can't imagine a non-drummer asking, but it's illustrative in some way.
I know the sounds of buzz and open rolls well, my dear Stanley. I will ask every drummer I encounter.
So how do you do a buzz roll?
Alternate response: if you don't know, you can't afford it.
28: Yes! By the by, the drummer seems to be doing a somewhat rare but not unknown form of what I called earlier the "open" roll. If your chops are top-notch, you can play fast enough* to stick R-L-R-L fast enough to sound like like an open roll (RR-LL).
Thus, to speak of subsets of the open roll, I offer the distinctions: (1)the above-described "double-stroke roll" (RR-LL) and, (2) the less common but impressive "single-stroke roll" (R-L-R-L).
Anecdotally, if you want a familiar example of drummers than can pull of a single-stroke roll, I'd offer the DMB drummer and the guy from Tool. Both do so with aplomb. More common in metal than jazz, but a definite skill.
*It's hard for me to diagnose single- or double-stroke rolls by ear. It's one of those things where I show up and say, "Holy shit, that guy single strokes that!"
A drumming acquaintance of mine once claimed that there is also such a thing as the single-stick roll.
Basically, someone rich should pay for me to give nosflow drum lessons over the winter break and we'll vlog it. That's what's happening here.
30: There is a single-stick roll. I can't do it well at all, but there's ample youtube evidence of it. You bounce a stick between the rim of the drum and the head with vigorous wrist action. Voila.
My roommate in college tried to teach me to roll, but I wasn't very good at it.
Except without the actual acquisition of any skill on my part.
The drumming acquaintance adverted to in 30 will confirm that I used to love beating on his practice pad* our first two years of college.
*see note to comment 23
33: That probably wasn't a good thing to teach you first. Hit RLRL and a bunch of rudiments for a long time.
I suspect I sound like Will, with the "Snap your hips" thing here. But it's true. Technique does matter. Most people, never having done so, try to play drums from their elbows or shoulders. Wrong, or at least, not very efficient.
And to pile on being the late-night commenter, I should note that I have bad technique, too. I have bad habits I slip into. I hit cymbals at a bad angle. When nervous, I rush tempos like a motherfucker (which is really, really bad if you're a drummer).
Don't rush tempos, Stanley!
I'm picturing you shouting this at a percussion horror movie.
Don't worry, Standpipe. I'm sure I'll be fine. Sure, the power's been cut off. Sure, Julie went looking for jazz brushes in her car down by the lake. Sure, it's thunderstorming outside. But I'm fine. Really.
Once in college, I was dating a conservatory student and went to their fall dance. It was a thing of beauty when everyone clapped for the jazz band and everyone kept perfect time with each other. Clap clap clap clap clap.
Once Many times in high school I witnessed parents at jazz performances clapping on the beat. Clap -- clap -- clap -- clap.
Then we all went back to the club and had cucumber sandwiches.
It wouldn't be hard to clap like this, but most people just don't make the effort.
To bring things into this blog's true current focus: what does comprise a proper cucumber sandwich?
I've never had a cucumber sandwich.
Cucumber, cream cheese, white bread, no crusts, cut into triangles.
Or is it sour cream? And I think you mean constitute.
re: 43
Or like the 'backing dudes' in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BCoZiSbGtY
[That clip is pretty much the holy grail for that type of guitar playing, also, the sheer aggression of his touch in the section right at the end...]
re: 45
Canonical English ones wouldn't have cream cheese, I think. Just very finely sliced cucumber, butter and bread [with some seasoning].
43: That is one of my favorite pieces. Reich writes surprisingly good music for working to; e.g., piledrivers are really annoying outside the window, but great in City Life.
I suppose this goes without saying, but the comments on that Reich YouTube video are truly idiotic.
OK, just so I've got this straight: a normal, typical drum roll that I'd hear in any given rock song is probably being played RR-LL-RR-LL...? That's incredible to me.
Also, I was noticing when I watched the video that some drummers were doing the chopstick hold, and was wondering about its provenance. It looks much harder to me, but I have no rhythm, coordination, or ambidexterity, so it's all kind of moot for me.
Also: when I was a freshman, we were sitting around studio before a crit and one of my friends just casually drummed along to some tricky fill that was on the radio in the background. My other friend and I just froze and looked at him, as we'd had no idea he was a drummer and it was so obviously semi-conscious - just rattling 20 or 30 beats off on the table leg without any thought. The friend had, of course, been a drummer in HS.
Same guy, when we were long-tossing while playing catch, would just sizzle in throws from ~120'; turned out he had pitched some in HS, too. Modest guy.
46: is that little kissy face he makes at the end part of the piece, or is it his own innovation?
Back when I was learning drums, the chopstick hold was explained as being more natural for playing field drums (fife & drum drums). They were typically worn so that the left side was higher and the drum head correspondingly angled.
I guess I never learned the RR-LL roll as such, just varying densities of buzz rolls. Plenty of rudiments though, which seem kind of inflated just to reach 26. I mean, paraparadiddles? Flamadiddlediddles? 3 different flavors of ratamacue?
OK, just so I've got this straight: a normal, typical drum roll that I'd hear in any given rock song is probably being played RR-LL-RR-LL...?
No, both buzz and open rolls show up in rock. Here is Travis Barker of Blink-182 going into what I presume are a lot of RR-LL rolls, but they could be R-L-R-L. In any case, they're open rolls, not buzz (which are also sometimes called "press") rolls. Dude's got chops.'
Back when I was learning drums, the chopstick hold was explained as being more natural for playing field drums (fife & drum drums). They were typically worn so that the left side was higher and the drum head correspondingly angled.
Yes, that rings a bell, now that you mention it. I've heard that, too, and it makes sense (and also explains the slanting-forward jazz snare drum).
I saw Them Crooked Vultures last night, in London. I have no idea what roll technique Dave Grohl is using, but it seems to involve hitting the drums significantly harder than any drummer I've ever seen.
Uh, and since when do punk bands go in for drum solos? (Even punk bands as deracinated as Blink-182.)
Does Dave Grohl start a band every couple of years?
re: 56
Crooked Vultures? Really pretty great. A few songs were a bit sloppy, or unfocused and meandering, I thought, but the best bits of the set were really good. Keytars, and all.
There are already youtube vids up from last night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=begE2TiQpSY
[poor quality]
re: 58
This is more of a supegroup/vanity side-project. Josh Homme, Grohl and John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin.
Which is, you have to admit, a pretty bitchin' lineup for a vanity project.
60: I suppose I should stop thinking of the Foo Fighters as a vanity side project.
re: 62
Given the number of records they've sold? Yeah.
Probot was another vanity side-project.
If you hardly sell any records, it probably isn't going to help make you more vain.
62: I don't think it counts as a side project when your previous band ceases to exist.
Dave Grohl's so vain, he probably thinks this thread is about him. Don't he?! Don't he?!
Stanley's so vain, he apparently thinks 66 is about him.
ben's mama's so veiny, she ain't that vain.
68: Geez, Mutch. At least observe the proper form.
Crooked Vultures? Really pretty great.
I've really enjoyed the album.
70: I was RIFFING! Stop stifling me!
re: 71
I'm not completely convinced by the album, I don't think. But the songs worked better, mostly, as live songs, or at least I came away thinking that. Maybe I'll reassess the album again.
cucumber sandwiches should have unsalted butter, thinly sliced cucumbers, salt and pepper, and mint leaves on crustless white bread. the mint leaves take it to another level.
Then they should be thrown out, as good for nothing.