I just found out how crappy my blog is, all because of a food blog that I found via a book (A Little Relish) on www.issuu.com. the-dogs-breakfast.com is a Canadian food blog with beautiful photography and great recipes. I made some pickled lemons yesterday because I found it on the site. So to make this blog more interesting, I've decided to use my camera every chance I get. I'll post some pictures of my kits and maybe try a demonstration or something.

My weekend of reflection

Well, over the weekend I found another talented "new" drummer... new to me that is. Emmanuelle Caplette. Based on my youtube subscriptions and viewed videos, one of her videos was recommended. She has a youtube profile which I am now subscribed to. She is a fantastic drummer, with great stick control and speed. Most of her videos are covers of fairly straight forward 4/4 popular songs, but on a few, she really demonstrates her jazz percussion training, with paradiddle variations and two surface riding.

Also based on my subscriptions and viewed videos, Vic Firth has posted many of the videos from its website Vicfirth.com. In particular, I've been re-watching Sergio Bellotti lessons. The lessons are based on simple concepts, but he takes those simple concepts and plays them on the drum set in a way that make them sound new and different.

I was in St. John's last week and bought a Pearl C-1000 stand for my 24" Zildjian ride. I'll try to post some pictures of both my setups. My next purchases are hopefully going to be a new drum throne and some Evans heads.

Also, I've been going back through some drum instructional books that I own and have decided to start running through them entirely. As I go I'll post my results here.

Open Handed Playing

I have started trying to play open handed, as Claus Hessler demonstrated on several of his Youtube posts. On top of that I have started playing along with songs on my iPod by hooking it up to the mic input on my Roland V-Drum sound module. This has made me realize how crappy of a drummer I really am. A word of advice to anyone who is thinking about stopping drumming for whatever reason... DON'T. I, for the life of me, can't get comfortable playing a smooth fill. Keeping a beat is not a problem.

So it's back to the basics for me.

Mad drummer

So I have climbed out from under the rock which I have been hiding and saw the video This drummer is at the wrong gig. As usual, I am late to the party. What makes Steve Moore so special is the constant showmanship and the gold jacket. He has since had a guest appearance on The Office and is now sponsored by Audix Microphones.

Claus Hessler

I think that Claus Hessler is one of the best technical drummers that I have seen. Great 4 way coordination, and since my drumming start was on a marching band snare drum, the fact that he plays a rope tension field drum is kinda cool. You should also check out his channel on youtube.

I've discovered a new drummer!

Well I say that I've discovered a new drummer but he is probably not new to most... Claus Hessler. I first spotted him on vicfirth.com giving a brief chat on collapsed rudiments. Which I guess are really rudiments that you can combine by slightly altering the timing of each stroke. I would have liked to see it slowed down, but I would bet that they are a lot harder to play slow than they are fast. Then I found him on YouTube. He has his own page. From the few videos that I've seen, he is a very tallented drummer with a great command over his left hand. But what I think that interests me the most is his traditional rope tension drum playing. Marching band snare drum is where I got my start and rudiments are what got me back into playing. He is definitely worth checking out.

Old cymbals

I have a 24" Zildjian ride cymbal that I got with my first drum set. The stamp says Avedis Zildjian Co Genuine Turkish Cymbals Made in U.S.A.

I'm not sure how old it is. I bought the drums second hand somewhere around 1986, and the set was is bad shape then. I would guess it was made in the 70s sometime.

So I'm going to try to clean this thing up, or at least do some research to see if the tarnish adds to the sound.