Today, I have listened to old and new(er) recordings. I am not very often in the mood for practicing rudiments, cool new fills, new technics or the dubbel bas drum I set of to learn couple of months ago. But when listening to these old recordings, only a couple of years old, I thinking; "is this really me! Am I that lousy!?". Then I put on the same song from a later recording and thinking "That's the way that song is supposed to be played! I kick as!" and suddenly I have the perspective of my practice and I am certainly in the mood for practicing!
So, this is a very good tip for you to do as well! Take a couple of songs, as many as you like, as long as you love to play to them! Record them today, and play the best you every did! Then put that recording away. Do this once every month, just so you don't forget how good the song is or how you are supposed to play it. Then after a year or two, take the first and last recording and compare them! You are sure to be surprised! ... in a good way!
Today the new Meshuggah album, "Koloss", was released, at least in Europe. I listen to it while writing this so I havn't listen thru it all, but it's really great!
One song I had intention to redo since the guitarist had "something else in mind" :-/ Nevertheless, it's he who wrote it and the only thing to do is to rerecord it. Had fun doing it!
The second song was for the same project! For this song I was totally free to do whatever I liked. I looove that! No one to tell me whats wrong and didn't sound like they intended! A lot of fun recording this funk-inspired-power/thrash/progressive-metal song! Hope I may publish it here soon!
The third is one of mine solo project! I't is a kind of rock-n-roll kind of song inspired by Rolling Stones and bands like that. I have no name for the song yet and I hope to be able to record some voicing for it soon (and perhaps some new guitar tracks). This one will be great! :-D
Well, Since I wrote a post about drummers that influenced my playing style I feel I have to list some of the music styles that have influenced me. Styles had have stronger influence on me than a single drummer, due to I am a musician, not a drummer and I listen to good music, not a single drummer. And I play to music, I play with music and I play music! So here are some of the most important
70s rock
If you read my previous post, you noticed there was some 70s rock drummers, so it will be no surprise that 70s rock is one of the music styles that have influenced me the most. When I started to play drums, bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Kiss was practically the one thing I listen to! I remember playing to Deep Purples 'Living Wreck" in my grandmothers basement (where I had my drumkit. Rest her soul, you really, really patient woman!).
Jazz
I just recently have begun to listen to jazz (perhaps the last five years or so) but this music style have influenced my greatly! How does that come? Well, first and foremost, my drum teacher was old school and jazz was the mother of all music and jazz was the music you should know how to play! If you could play jazz, you could play anything (but then again, why would you play anything else when you know how to play jazz!? :-P ). Here is one of the greatest jazz band ever!
Grunge
As a drumming teenager in the 90s I couldn't help to be influenced by that times new music style; The Grunge! I just loved the heavy melodic rhythms of Sean Kinney (Alice in Chains) and even more lovely drumming of Matt Cameron (Soundgarden). At the time I was not able to cover Matt Cameron but I loved to play to Alice in chains. These great rhythms have influenced me greatly!
Progressive Rock
The progressive have some influences from both heavy metal (including grunge) and jazz! My main influence from this genre is of course Dream Theater but also bands like Rush! Isn't this a genre to die for, especially if you are a musician! The technics, the beauty, the melodis ... the everything!
Funk
So where does it all end up? In Funk of course! What does this genre not have (a growler perhaps)!? It's fun to play, fun to listen to, it's technical and melodic and just about a great time! You can play as heavy as John Bonham, fast as Mike Mangini, technical as Dave Weckl or you name it! I often find drumless tracks online to drum to and record (I will post audio clips in a later post)! Here is a clip with Stanton Moore and Sprung Monkey.
John Bonham
Yes, my number one influence and drum good for many years. I love his heavy but, oh so, melodic sound. He's technics is astonish, not forget to mention the base drum technic! Mixing all kinds of music styles and master them all, he is my true and major inspiration and influence!
Ian Paice
I not a fan of Ian Paice, sorry to say, but his drum playing have influenced me a lot. During my first years as a drummer I listen to a lot of Deep Purple and in particular In Rock! He has (often) a more fast pace and rawer sound than Bonham
Mike Portnoy
I have always been a fan of polyrhythms and always tried to incorporate them in my playing, with questionable results, but after listening to Mike Portnoy I have realized what could be done with polyrhythms. And not just polyrhythms but also back beats and other really cool stuff as well!
My Drum teacher!
As a young drummer, still struggling to even be able to hit the drums without missing them, he learn me the JAZZ! And of course as a young man still formable I incorporated the jazz into my veins!
Terry Bozzio
Perhaps he haven't influenced my style as much, but he deserves a honorable mentioning here, since he makes the above drummers look like amateurs. And, yes! That incorporates The professor as well! :-P
Mac Book Pro
The hard ware I am using is a ( almost on the day) five year old 15 " Mac Book Pro, 2.16 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo. I have maximized the memory to four GB (667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM). The computer is running Mac OS 10.6. I haven't dared to upgrade to the latest Mac OS.
Audacity
I use this program for adding drums to drum less music, that I don't need to edit or do anything extra with. I usually open a track and add the drum less mp3 and plug in the output to my TD-9 Unit. Then I adjust the volume to my satisfaction and record the drums directly in Audacity. Couldn't be more simple!
Logic 9 Pro
There is, of course, projects that Audacity isn't enough, e.g. when recording an entire song or when I really, really need a click track (yes, audacity has that feature to, but no!)!
My level of expertise is low, I only have a weekend crash course as a background. The course have, however, given me a really good ground to stand on and the means to seek new knowledge and new ways of doing things.
The way I write music, in the extend I write my own, I usually record the guitar in Logic, then add the drums. Last I add bass either with the keyboard or with midi directly in Logic. Sounds surprisingly good!
