Thank you for your continued support and here’s to more percussion education in the coming year. It would be great to hear from you. Please leave a comment below and say hi. Happy New Year! Here are the top 5 posts from 2016.
2) Jeff Porcaro plays Rosanna: One of my all time favorite drummers playing the classic groove to Rosanna. Even if you are not a drumset player, you will appreciate this amazing video. Last year this was #1 and it remains in the top 5 again this year.
5) Episode 026: Composing using the Rudiments: Rounding out the top 5, this post continues to be popular. In the coming year, I hope to create more videos about composing.
Inner Eye is inspired by a statue of Shiva at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The “third eye” or “inner eye” of the statue is believed to see beyond sight, and is the portal into the central energy point of a being. This idea of inward reflection, and dizziness felt when observing the multiple faces of the statue, led the the circular motifs and chaotic moments of this piece.
I always enjoy finding hidden gems on the internet. A while ago, I posted the drumset audio track of Jeff Porcaro playing Rosanna. What an iconic groove! In today’s post, I want to share another fantastic drumset audio track by legend Neil Peart. This track features his drumming on Tom Sawyer. Are there any tracks you have heard that you would like to share with the community? Please leave a comment below and I will post them.
Head to Toe by Molly Joyce
Performed by Mike Truesdell
Video: Evan Chapman (Four Ten Media)
A note from the composer Molly Joyce:
“Head to Toe was inspired by my experience performing in high school marching band, and thus the idea that one player can perhaps become a whole marching band himself. When I was working on the piece, I was specifically reflecting back on the Friday night football games, and found it particularly interesting how during the majority of these events the marching band stands still in the bleachers, barely marching at all. Therefore with the video for this piece, I wanted to highlight this contradiction by having the solo performer “march” in the bleachers, becoming a single-person marching band aurally and visually.”
Joe Morello, legendary drummer for the Dave Brubeck Quartet and his drumming on Take Five and Blue Rondo a la Turk, also wrote one of the best technique books for snare drum called Master Studies. If you don’t own this book, I would highly suggest that you add it to your collection of technique books. Joe describes this book as the continuation of Stick Control (another must own book).
Our friends over at Drummerworld.com, a great resource for videos and lessons from the top drumset players, has written a post on Joe Morello’s Killer Exercise (Ex. 22). You can check out the video and sheet music on their site.
What other exercises do you frequently use? Leave a comment below and let me know.
I have featured the original recording of Andy Aikido’s Karakurenai a couple of months ago. It is a great piece for steel pan and marimba. During the summer, a former student, James Yoshizawa, recorded a video of him playing it on marimba.
