WWSGD?

It’s an old joke: How many drummers does it take to change a light bulb? The standard answer is three: one to change the bulb and two more to discuss how Steve Gadd would have done it.

It's inevitable that something great will resonate. Steve laid down the track for 50 Ways to Leave your Lover in 1975 and here we are, 50 years later, still marveling at it. There are numerous other examples of his genius in all manner of music styles, and always in service of the music and of drum artistry.

I have to admit that I have my own Steve Gadd moments, when I try to emulate his energy, his musical taste and, above all, his discretion. The mental conversation usually goes something like this: "What would Steve Gadd do? ... No, not that!"

I like the term emulate. It does not mean copy. It means to use something as an inspiration to your own playing.

There are very good reasons to copy licks from other players. It’s called research. I like to think of it as going to the source, perhaps the original innovator. The goal is to absorb all that material and then let become part of your personal palate. And it will.

But don't just copy the licks, also look at the ideas behind them. Go a step further and emulate the musicianship, the professionalism, the energy, the creativity.

There's much more to Mr. Gadd than a catchy militaristic beat. Plus there are so many great drummers past, present and future that you should have no trouble finding lots of inspiration free for the listening.

Now, what would Antonio Sanchez do?

Technical Note: Recent research has shown that a “What would ____ do?” approach is actually a great way to operate. By merely asking yourself the question, you put yourself into a mind set that is more creative.

Photo credit:  Skrypko Ievgen | Dreamstime.com 

Dirty Little Tricks

A lot of drummers like to have clean and shiny cymbals. Clean cymbals have a brighter (can we say cleaner?) tone and they look great on stage. Then there are those who think a bit of patina adds character. And there are devotees of grungy cymbals who just can't get enough of that well-aged look and sound.

And what if you value that worn-in sound and look, but want to keep your nearly new cymbals? Some drummers like to help the aging process along by treating their cymbals to a variety of techniques that claim to hasten the cymbal ageing process. Note that there are no guarantees and no recommendations here. Note also that many modern cymbals have a light coat of protective lacquer which must be removed if you're to make any headway with an ageing project.

Patina Happens
Cymbals are made of bronze, and bronze will tarnish. Patina (surface discolouration) occurs when the surface metal of the cymbal interacts with certain elements in the environment. Removing patina means removing the top layer of the cymbal, and if you do that, your cymbal will probably sound like it's brand new regardless of its age. Patina, by the way, protects the cymbal from further corrosion.

Getting Down To Earth
A simple trick is to bury the cymbal in the back yard or perhaps out in the woods (don't forget to mark the spot, make a map or both). Leave the cymbal there for three months or more and then dig up a cymbal that's been aged in doggie years. Here’s an interesting video wherein Sabian buries a bunch of cymbals.

In a Fine Pickle
A highly rated technique is pickle juice. The process calls for covering the cymbal with the juice and a dash of salt. Then you just watch the magic happen -- seriously, this will turn your cymbal green pretty fast. Apparently pickled onion juice works best.

Fumée Bronze
Ammonia fumes love to react with bronze. In this scenario you'll need a container large enough to hold the cymbal. You prep the cymbal with salt (saline gives a more even result) then put it on a platform inside your container of choice. Add a dish of ammonia or two and close the lid. You'll begin to see changes within a few hours. Allow a week or more for maximum effect, which can be both dramatic and beautiful.

Maybe, Maybe Not
There are reports of drummers taking their bronze to the beach and immersing them in the briny deep. If you're headed that way, why not? This one's not on the short list of aging suggestions as evidence at this point is purely anecdotal. A technique that is recommended, though, is a mixture of salt and lemon juice (some people swear by coffee grounds). Brush the brew evenly onto your cymbal, wait a few hours and voila!

The good news is that it's almost impossible to harm a cymbal with any of these tricks, so if you don't like the result, a good cleaning can usually set things right.

Want more ageing options? Check out rdavidr's video.

Photo credit:  Nadezhda Bolotina, Dreamstime.com

Drum Set Rudiments Part 2: Technique

{See Drum Set Rudiments Part 1 for 'soft skills')

Some drummers seem to have an obsession with technique. Others eschew the whole idea. A certain amount of technical skill is necessary to play well. Beyond that, it’s personal taste, values, etc. I prefer to think in terms of capability. What am I capable of as a drummer? Then I can focus on technique that makes me a more competent player. I also find it intrinsically rewarding to advance my skills and knowledge. To that end I recommend you become familiar with the following.

Natural Sticking
Given the option, we’re inclined to start things with our dominant hand. In Natural Sticking, all notes are played hand-to-hand, i.e. alternate strokes, except for diddles. This forces you to lead with each hand and it will help with independence, body awareness, and open-handed playing.

Single Strokes
Your number one work-horse sticking should need no explanation. This is where most drummers gain their speed. Remember to lead with each hand.

Double Strokes
While the traditional Long Roll isn’t called for very often in modern music, the movements are vital to many other techniques ...  diddles, drags etc.

Paradiddles
The Single Paradiddle is probably the most useful sticking available, second only to alternate strokes. There is an entire extended family of paradiddles (single, double, triple, paradiddle-diddle, and all their permutations) and all are worth studying as they help build speed, finger control and efficiency.

Paradiddle-diddle
This simple sticking takes advantage of diddles and can outperform single strokes for speed while providing a variety of rhythmic textures. The permutations are rich in possibilities.

RLRRLL    LRLLRR
RLLRRL    LRRLLR
RRLRLL    LLRLRR
RRLLRL    LLRRLR
RLRLLR    LRLRRL

Triplets
Triplets underlie swing and shuffles, and are important to the inner feel of funk. Be comfortable with 8th, 16th and quarter-note triplets. A good triplet feel contributes to flow and balance. My preferred way of counting triplets is 1-trip-let 2-trip-let etc.

RLL & Variations
A favourite component of many drum solos, this sticking provides speed and flexibility, with the diddles giving the opposite hand extra time to move around, yielding better speed and efficiency.

RLL RLL LRR LRR
RRL RRL LLR LLR

Flam/Ruff
Usually thrown in as an accent, these simple stickings are effective attention-getters. They also help with developing height control, dynamics, ghost notes, and even Moeller.

I consider familiarity with these concepts to be just a starting point and, hopefully, inspiration to further your drum knowledge.

Photo credit: University Of Washington Libraries Digital Collection

Best Practices (Please No Jokes About The Name)

My last name is low-hanging fruit for schoolyard-style teasing (still is) so it can sometimes be a challenge for me to untangle what is meant by 'best.' But identifying and learning what we call best practices is pretty straight forward, and it can apply to everything we do.

You have your own best practices, honed over a lifetime of experience: how to load the dishwasher, which way the toilet roll goes, etc. It's the procedures you’ve adopted to get the job done quickly and economically without compromising quality and possibly safety. In short, best practices are the most efficient and practical way to do things as well as possible and with no more effort than necessary. Those are the habits you want to develop.

The way to determine a best practice is to try different approaches and then compare. It sounds like a huge task, but in the case of drums, the options are not that extensive and are usually well defined. Analyzing just a few prominent techniques can help you identify which practices have been adequately field tested and were found to reliably deliver the desired result.

Testing and comparing are important tools in making progress. I'm a stickler for field testing. I want to get it out on the job where I can apply some pressure and see how it fares. No matter what quality I may be assessing -- technique, hardware or whatever --  a good field trial will quickly tell me what I need to know. 

I don’t think I’ve seen a top player with a questionable grip, poor technique, inappropriate tuning, or an awkward set-up. They know what’s what. Want to work on your traditional grip? Then study Joe Morello, JoJo Meyer, Dave Weckl. Need to develop your right hand? Check out John Bonham, Tony Williams and Steve Smith. For whatever aspect of your playing you want to work on, there are great players who will show you exactly how they do it every time they play.

Best practices can refine existing practices, make playing easier, prevent injury, and broaden horizons. At the very least, best practices can help to avoid wasting time and following blind alleys. Best practices also tend to be easier to master and usually require less effort overall.

We are all individuals, and what works best for one may not work for another. But in general, you can assume that the techniques you see the better players using are some of best practices available. You just need to find the ones that work best for you.

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Drum Psych 101

When I entered university many years ago, I’d become interested in studying the invisible forces that drive human behaviour. And so I majored in psychology (with a minor in philosophy). Along the way I picked up a few principles that we musicians should be aware of.

Operant Conditioning
This principle applies everywhere. Any behaviour that is rewarded is more likely to be repeated. It's how learning works. If you play it right and your teacher praises you, you’ll be happy to play it some more.

Successive Approximation
Most learning happens through baby steps: trial and error. Even when we know exactly what to do, we still must go through the process of trying and failing and trying again. As we rack up more tries, we make fewer errors and so we gradually baby-step our way to the final product.

Proactive Inhibition
We're inclined to automatically do the things we’ve been doing. But to do something different, you may have to first ‘un-train’ the muscles and brain so they can give up what seems so natural and embrace the new. The goal is to set aside the old mindset and imprint a new one,  to convince the brain that it’s OK to let go of the other way.

Dunning-Kruger
This one is rather disturbing. Psychologists Dunning and Kruger (see below) studied test subjects' performance and their perception of how well they had performed. The researchers came to the conclusion that the less capable or competent the respondent, the less able they were to judge their own ability. In other words, people who are less skilled really do tend to think they’re better than they actually are because they don't have sufficient skill or knowledge to accurately assess their level of competence. Solution? Learn more, get better.

Leave It In The Dressing Room
Your mind is often mulling over something that's in your future. It’s called the Reach Back Effect and it happens unconsciously. You can adopt a clear mind-set and focus on the here and now rather than be distracted by upcoming events or other concerns.

Superstitious Behaviour
We humans like superstitions. We even seem to be programmed to manufacture them. If we observe two things happening together, we're inclined to think that they’re related. The more it happens, or seems to happen, the more convinced we become that there is a relationship. No behaviour is immune, as lucky socks owners around the globe will tell you. That said, superstitions beget rituals, and rituals can be beneficial ... as long as you don’t buy into the hype.

Audience Effect
It's great to have an audience. Cheering fans can inspire you to raise your game. But this can also set you back a little. When we have an audience, our performance does in fact improve. That's good. But this only applies to our most ingrained moves. The stuff we've been working on recently may not stand a chance. So you’ll play better, but your playing might not include your latest achievements.

The Hawthorne Effect
Similar to the Audience Effect, this is the tendency to behave differently when someone is watching. The result can be for the better or worse. If you’ve ever played to a room full of drummers, you know what I mean.

Depression
There are two types of depression. Clinical depression is systemic and usually a lifelong condition. Episodic depression is a normal reaction to trauma. The death of someone close or the break-up of a relationship can push someone into a depressed state. It resembles clinical depression except that it's easier to treat and is, thankfully, self limiting. However, what to do in the mean time? Many people like to channel their mood into their music. Note the popularity of drum circles for stress relief. Playing music floods your body with endorphins and can get you away from your current doldrums.

With all these things potentially working against us, taking care of our mental health should be a priority. Knowing what can affect us -- and how -- gives us a means to avoid, or at least cope with, some of the dangers.

More on Dunning-Kruger:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/dunning-kruger-effect

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The Great Drag/Ruff Conspiracy

Of all the traditional snare drum rudiments, two have had more than their share of drama. The Drag and the Ruff (a.k.a. Dragg, Rough) have been around for centuries, but a lack of documentation has led to some confusion. There have been attempts to clarify the situation, but none have fully resolved the issue. Fast forward to the present day and we have a three-way tie. One ‘official’ list has both, one claims they’re the same, and one leaves the Ruff out entirely. So after a bit of research, I have formed an opinion about the issue.

According to Strube*, the Ruff is two grace notes followed by a single stroke: rrL / llR. This is the Ruff that I learned years ago. Then came another interpretation where the grace notes are played as quick single strokes, so rlR / lrL. There’s also the 4-stroke Ruff, which is normally played as single strokes --  rlrL lrlR -- and it too has variations.

The Drag is more consistent as the grace notes are always diddles. There is also the Half Drag -- rrL / llR -- which is identical to the original 3-stroke Ruff. And then we have the Drag-ruff and the long forgotten Half Ruffe, Whole Ruffe, and Ruffe’n’Half. Hmmm.

Sorting Out the Raw Data
When I compared 10(!) different configurations of the various Ruffs and Drags, a couple of aspects stood out. The Ruff consists of grace notes plus a single stroke, whereas the Drag family always have diddles followed by two or more strokes. So there is a clear demarcation between the two: 2 or more grace notes and a single stroke for the Ruff, and diddles plus two or more single strokes for the Drag.

So:

3-stroke Ruff	4-stroke Ruff	Drag Family
rrL / llR	rlrL / lrlR	rrL-R / llR-L
rlR / lrL	rrlR / llrL	R-llR / AL-rrL
	rlR / lrrL	rrL-R-AL / llR-AL-R
	rrL / lllr	rrL-rrL-R / llR-llR-AL

The Final Analysis

So at risk of raising the ire of the powers that be, I'd like to propose the following solution:

1. Bring back the diddle-driven 3-stroke Ruff and call it a Ruff.
2. Add the 4 (and 5) stroke Ruffs to complete the set.
3. Forget about the Half Drag and the Drag-ruff. The Ruff can replace them both.

And In Conclusion
Here’s what Ryan Bloom has to say on the subject:

“In summary, a modern Ruff is a 3 Stroke Ruff, or a Single Stroke Drag, while a historical Ruff is the same as a Drag, except for when it is a buzzed orchestral Ruff or Rough. A Drag, of course, is the same as a Half Drag because if it were a Full Drag or Single Drag it would be a Drag Tap. This leaves us with the obvious: that a Double Drag is just a Double Drag Tap.”

And here’s how Strube presented it:

Any questions?

For more on drags, ruffs and rudiments, see:

The Percussive Arts Society: https://www.pas.org/resources/rudiments

The National Association of Rudimental Drummers: https://www.nard.us.com/N.A.R.D._Rudiments.html

Gardiner A. Strube: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardiner_A._Strube

Photo credit: 1265529 © Steve Mann | Dreamstime.com

One Link At A Time

Jerry Seinfeld has a simple method of working that he calls "Don't break the chain." Jerry is a comedian and an author ... in other words, an artist. And just how does such a successful artist achieve his demanding goals. Does he look in a mirror and announce gravely, “I will write eight jokes by 5:00”? No, Jerry takes a more modest and less confrontational approach. On a simple drug-store calendar, he puts an X through each day that he has worked on his craft. His only goal is to see an unbroken chain of X's. And it doesn't matter if it was 3 hours or 3 minutes. It all counts. 

I very much like Jerry's method as it makes it easier to commit to the program. Do something every day -- however small -- and you will move ever closer to your goal. This 'salami’ approach is easy to pull off. Just slice off a bit at a time. No time to practice? Really? Next time you plant yourself in front of the TV, get out the pad and sticks and do a few minutes of hand work*. It may seem almost pointless, but even two minutes done daily can reap significant rewards. The object is to build practice into your daily routine. Consider practice as basic as brushing your teeth.

Be sure you have a flexible schedule, one that lets you breath, one that won't make you feel guilty if you can only manage 5 minutes instead of the planned 20. As long as you don’t break the chain. And keep in mind that you’ll probably be ‘banking’ minutes from time to time.

A nice perk is that this system is much less stressful than setting fixed targets that you may have to miss. I used to beat myself up for not putting in 3 hours a day. Interestingly, when I decided to practice only when I felt like it , I actually ended up practicing more than I expected to. I didn’t feel obliged to put in a lot of time practicing, and the lack of pressure suited me just fine.

So your goal is to practice -- something, anything -- for whatever length of time is available, and to make it a daily commitment. And be sure to keep track on your drug-store calendar.

It’s in the cards URL
A practice program that works very well for me is a stack of 3x5 file cards. I write one exercise on a card along with the parameters I want to cover. You can find the full details here: Stay On Track With A Practice Matrix.

* Watching TV and playing a sticking are two completely different tasks. They require different skills from the brain and can co-exist quite nicely. My teacher always had a pad and sticks set up in his home theatre viewing position.

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