Tony and his ride cymbal tech.

[Lance69]

What kind of technique did he use and is it more effective than other techniques?

And how did he make his doubles so clean at fast tempos so effortlessly?! Did he spend alot of time on rudiments? I suspect so..

Thanks.

[vadrum]

as far as specific technique unique to tony vs other players i dont really think there is that much of difference (strictly speaking about how he played the cymbal.....physical motion).

having studied w/ dawson i garauntee that he had his rudiments together, if you are looking for a way to practice them that may have been presented by dawson search out the rudimental ritual. there is a book out (more than one) re: dawson's methods where im sure you can find a written copy of the ritual. tony just spent a lot of time w/ the instrument. if youre looking for clarity of strokes let me recommend going thru the stone book playing all passages at 2" of the drum or lower. this really helps w/ getting a nice sound out of the drums and gives a lot of control and clarity to your strokes.

also, tony was very competitive when it came to drumming. both clifford jarvis and tony studied w/ dawson and there was always a competition between the two for who had what together and which one did it better. tony just worked really, really hard at what he did. he was focused and determined. couple that dedication w/ his natural talent and then you get that end result.

if you like the way he played the cymbal, you will probably just have to experiment until you can find a way to get that same sound. seperate the cymbal from the rest of your kit and practice away. when you feel comfortable w/ your cymbal sound go back to the kit and add the other limbs.

john riley has also written some out some excellent lessons re: tony's playing in his book beyond bop drumming and there have been at least 3 style and analysis articles on tony's playing in recent modern drummers (not sure if any really dealt w/ cymbal tech. tho)

practice hard and good luck.

btw if you like tony's cymbal playing be sure to check out joe chambers approach too, he really has a dark moody sound to his playing and, to me, sounded like he was influenced heavily by tony.

[centralzeke]

Tony also primarily held the stick with his 2 back fingers.

[Lance69]

Basically, I want a technique that is relaxing and requires less effort and can play freely. And by what I can see hear, hes using the push/pull method.

I use a lot of wrist and he uses a lot of fingers... and he looks soo relaxed... do you have to use this technique to play this freely?? What do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDu6w66F5dU

[dizkneelande]

like vadrum said, rudiment ritual all the way. it's a monster of a practice routine/ warmup

[jazzgregg]

He used the 'push-pull' or whatever the hell you call it. The other thing is the length of his stick, it's VERY long (plus he held it near the end), which would provide more whip.

G

[TheSteve]

Oh, and he practiced over 8 hours a day and reached the point where his family had to literally pull him out of his room to experience things like fresh air and the rest of the world.

[rendezvous_drummer]

Yep, the push/pull technique. I'm trying to learn it right now. Nobody could ride the cymbal like he could. The man was a genious.

[Drummer Karl]

Has anybody an exact description of that technique or some videos how to use it???

Karl

[jazzgregg]

Has anybody an exact description of that technique or some videos how to use it???

Karl

Uh, yeah Karl, in Derrick's vids, Jojo Mayer's and many others.=)

G

[Pearlrules]

Great! I'm gonna try this out...

But one thing though... I'm having trouble doing the "Rudiment Ritual" doing the push/pull... how the hell do you do it? OR should you just do the push/pull when you're just working the one the ride cymbal and hi-hat alone, and do the "Rudiment Ritual" with your normal technique...?

Thanks again.

[vadrum]

wouldnt worry about using the push pull for the ritual, at least not until you have the basics of that movement down....then try to apply it.