Some of my gear. Beginning with my favorite subject, snares

This post has nothing to do with gear. I am watching a dvd of Return to forever at the Montreaux jazz festival. Lenny is playing well. But that drumming is so easy. In my youth I thought it amazing. Now I can transcribe it at a glance. In many ways I wish I was a beginner again.

Watching this dvd has made me sad.

Sounds interesting, especially the Origin dark ride! 6 new pairs of hi hats?? How do you thoroughly
enjoy all of them...!!

Watching this dvd has made me sad.

Click to expand...

You mean because you see through something that once captivated you?
But now there is other music that fascinates you and keeps all your senses busy.

Swiss Matthias said:

Sounds interesting, especially the Origin dark ride! 6 new pairs of hi hats?? How do you thoroughly
enjoy all of them...!!

You mean because you see through something that once captivated you?
But now there is other music that fascinates you and keeps all your senses busy.

Click to expand...

Oh these cymbals sure rate as interesting.

And yes, for me now a lot of the mystery is gone. I see the amazement in my students eyes some times when they see something they can't interpret. For example, a student may ask what is the point of rudiments? I will give a little display of the possibilities. I remember that feeling and to some extent I miss it. I own lots of drums right, imagine all the books I own. I've read so much drumming. I've looked up drummings skirt and the mystery is gone. Now I am more interested in percussion because I don't know it as well.

It's always been this way. I get proficient at something and tire of it through boredom once I understand it.

In keeping with the gear idea of this thread, I just fitted maple hoops to a great birch snare. Pic's tomorrow. And die cast hoops to another.

Oh an yes, I enjoy all my hats. Including those I wear.

To give you an idea of my obsession, on Tuesday I began teaching at 10 am and finished at 8.00 pm. Once home I refitted hoops to 2 snares. I am currently sitting on a drum stool in my flat with my table, a mounted snare, in front of me. Moving through my flat to other areas is difficult. I must thread my way through paths of cases and the occassional loose drum and cymbal. I must also avoid the practice kit I teach on at home.

Beside my bed are a tumbao, cajon. 5 snares and a set of timbales. In front of my TV are 2 more snares. There is a pandeiro next to me. 5 triple flanged hoops next to my leg. It has been 2 years since I was able to get to my kitchen sink. The kitchen is full of equipment. I can no longer have visitors because there is no room.

Next to my pillow is a stack of drum books I've been reading. Hang on, I'll count them. 23. The rest are in book shelves. Blocking most of the entrance is a stack of samba percussion including a tan tan, repique de mao and timbau, plus congas. There is a snare drum on my bed! Just noticed it. Oh and 6 sticks!

Plus several cymbal cases.

It is chaos!

I think I can understand your mystery-gone-feeling to a certain extent. I may not be at
your point, but there are of course certain de-mystified things in my musical life, too. But
I realise I still may enjoy i.e. some clichée-loaden "cheap" pop tunes if I like the melody,
the mood or the arrangement, although I completely understand everything that's going on.

Out of curiosity: What are some of the main examples you show your students when they
ask about the purpose of rudiments? Sometimes I struggle with the paradiddle. Of course
I always show them a groove, but at times I'd like to show them examples of how the paradiddle
helps switching leading hands - maybe in fills or other figures, but I haven't found the didactically perfect
example for that yet. Either my ideas are musically questionable, or then the level gets too
high and the student is left with a big questionmark in his face.

By the way, considering your chaos: You need a girl!!!!!

Hi mate.
When it comes to performing examples of rudimental ideas, I find it depends upon the student. Some students want the flash and bang, for example a very promising 16 year old who wanted a fast combination, so I joined together. 5, 6, and 5 stroke roll with accents at certain paces. Began slowly and then took it to high speed on the snare and around the toms. This demonstration led to three highly technical rudimental classes. The object for his current curiosity was the development of pure speed. This in turn was led by me to last night's class that brought the high speed way down to very slow speed with a combination between hands and feet. The boy's interest in working slowly through technique really increased as a result. Another plus is he increased his speed by about 50%.

A very satisfying month of classes for me.

Then there is another kind of student who is not into flash. For these people a cute little paradiddle variation within a groove may help. Something based on a Garibaldi/Clark style of playing for example. Or for someone more adventurous or advanced, a sticking pattern developed around an odd time. For example the tune "Looking through the right door" by Cobham, which is in 7/8. Using a sticking combination to deal with odd times is loads of fun. Add an element of linear bass drum and things get really interesting. And it is simply another way to use and apply technique. Plus I do not often see articles on dealing with odd times with stickings. So I enjoy this.

There are many methods I use. The above is a small example. You have to understand I put a great many hours into hand technique. I am glad I did because it is keeping my head above water as my arthritis deepens and spreads. Again a great example of why practice is so very important.

I fitted some maple hoops to this Le Soprano ProBirch snare. As I said in the original post this snare came fitted with triple flanged hoops. The thing was just screaming. So I fitted some die cast hoops, which served to control it but did not fully allow the character of the drum to shine through. It was only used on one album and I took it out on just one gig. So I bought these hoops and it is the perfect combination with the Modern Vintage Aquarian head. Plus it looks awesome!

Origin Dark 22" ride.

Mr. Wy Yung, I did not want to bother you with another, “Oh, my GOD look at that collection!” comment, but I simply must. It’s most impressive, and the work and love you have put into drumming/percussion throughout the years really shows.

You are also very well spoken and I enjoy that very much. I read every single post in this six-page long thread and am just blown away. You do good work, my Australian brother. Really, good work. I have at least one question, brought on by the awesomeness of this thread, but I won’t muck up this thing of beauty with my trivialities. I'll make a separate question thread. Cheers, Wy!

Thanks mate.

Be sure to read my signature though.

wy yung said:

Thanks mate.

Be sure to read my signature though.

Click to expand...

"And once again I put my foot firmly in my mouth". Arthritis can't be that bad if you can pull that off (wink). I can barely get mine past my hip. lol!

That picture of your dark ride is sure dark. Brings out the hammering nicely though.

Loving the wood hoops, & agree, they do make the snare look awesome.

Cool stuff.

Cheers mate. It does look nice. It sounds great too.

I am at least flexible.

New Guinea Rosewood hand made stave snare drum, 14x5 1/2. Nice drum.










Better pic's of my Tama 13x6" made in Japan BB.



New heads top and bottom.








More bongos!

Some cool cymbal shots.

I was going to post up some of my snares, after seeing this, why bother, for a guy who gets bored, you sure don't stop collecting do you.

It is true I get bored sometimes with band bs and much of what goes on in the so called "industry". But I never tire of sounds. It may also be that variety helps keep my interest. I am unsure. But I never tire of rhythm and music. I am in love with music. Like Duke Ellington, music is my mistress.

There are more snares. But they don't compare with the shakers.

This is a lovely drum. I am very fond of it.

Yamaha Jimmy Chamberlain, 14x5 1/2 aluminium.









We're slowly getting there.

Hi guys.

Just letting you know someone hacked into my email account over the weekend. Unsure of the full extent at this time, but it appears a whole bunch of spam porn was uploaded to my photobucket account and it was banned. This also happened at a couple of ather areas too.

I'll have to contact Photobucket to see if it can be rectified.

Thanks for the interest.

I got sick of all the video ads and crap on photobucket and switched to tinypic.com. Works better for me, less clutter

Many thanks. I was unaware of tinypics.