Thomas Lang

Re: Thomas lang


Freddy you're great all day I was thinking- which tune of Lang I did like... And I couldn't.
But you found it first. I like this tune I think it's called ''Jump Seat'' thought it's based on Michael Jackson's ''Jam''

If he would play all the time like that he would be in my agressive-groove-influence top 20

Thought I don't like when he overdo techniqual things
 
Re: Thomas lang

No feel or musicality? His playing in his latest DVD is mindblowing. He turned BLAST BEATS into something musical for crying out loud.

I am a fan of Thomas and have met him several times but to say that he turned blast beats into something musical is totally off base. NOBODY plays blast beats with double strokes on the feet on Roland trigger pads. A real blast beat done by the likes of Flo Mournier is many times harder to do than what Thomas did on his video.
 
Re: Thomas lang

Maybe I should of ended the musicality statement with an "in my opinion." Flo has his way of doing blasts, Thomas has his. Neither one is right or wrong because there is no defintion that is chisled in stone anywhere that says THIS IS THE WAY YOU HAVE TO PERFORM A BLASTBEAT OR ITS WRONG, as in what type of kit its done on (which he does his blasts on both the Roland and his Sonor) or the sticking patterns you use or whatever else. I still believe the way he encorporates blasts into his playing is more musical and stimulating to the ears then every other drummer doing your standard 16th note singles on snare/bass/ride for 2 minutes straight.
 
Re: Thomas lang

There seems to be some kind of dislike of technical players on this forum. Thomas does solo a lot in his clinics but lets not forget that he is one of the most in demand sessions/touring guys in Europe, so he very obviously does something right.

Someone like me would love to see a Lang clinic; to see his technique and how he applies it with soloing/his own music. I would love to study that and better my own technique. That's why I got so much out of Langs DVD whereas I was bored to death with Blackwell's.

Just because some drummers, like Lang, Weckl and Donati, really study the technical aspects of drumming very thoroughly, and therefore tend to play things more technically applied, does not mean that they cannot groove, especially if they are touring with acts like Sinead o Connor, Bill Liesegang, 911, B*witched, Karen Ramirez, Robbie Williams, or Victoria Beckham like Thomas Lang is.
 
Re: Thomas lang

You've got to have pretty good technique if you can't find anything left to get out of Blackwell's DVD. That guy's got blistering chops.
 
Re: Thomas lang

Adam,
Good point, but Jonescrusher has made a case for himself. I find it hard to believe that Blackwell bores you. That guy is pure groove (and chops)!
 
Re: Thomas lang

Adam,
Good point, but Jonescrusher has made a case for himself. I find it hard to believe that Blackwell bores you. That guy is pure groove (and chops)!

A couple of cool ideas on a video, but sitting down behind a drum set for long enough will do that anyways. I'm just saying having him sit down and play drum beats wasn't exactly what I'd look for in an educational DVD. Listing and playing music is already a great way to develop groove and feel, and I manage enough of that to be satisfied. In terms of technique I found he didn't talk much about grip/concepts/his approaches to things, whereas Lang did, and therefore I found Lang's DVD much better as an educational tool.

That isn't to say that his DVD isn't helpful. I just didn't seem to get a lot out of it, but then again we drummers can and should learn from EVERYTHING we see/hear.
 
This stuff needs to stop:

"As far as his drumming, I will say it again, they guy can do anything and everything"


No he cannot.
 
Re: This stuff needs to stop:

"As far as his drumming, I will say it again, they guy can do anything and everything"


No he cannot.

I would beg to differ Erik; this is someones opinion and means something to them, in my humble opinion Thomas is a wonderfully talented drummer who has worked very hard to get to his standard and that should be respected and, although I may be a little unfashionable, I have enjoyed his dvds and the clinic performances I have seen of Thomas.
I appreciate that you and I have very different influences, tastes and 'heros', but neither of us are wrong to follow what we follow; you find BR boring and uninspiring [now] and have moved on to other inspirations, where I am stuck with 'west side story from the Talk of the Town' as my motivation.
On a personal note, thank you for the tips regarding various sounds and drummers, I have had a listen to some but sadly remain in BRs fanclub, peace jc
 
Re: Thomas lang

Adam,
Good point, but Jonescrusher has made a case for himself. I find it hard to believe that Blackwell bores you. That guy is pure groove (and chops)!
Sure, but not all drummers with a lot of chops and groove are appealing to everyone. Even if you consider a drummer being well versed in groove and musicality in a certain genre it might not be my cup of tea because I'm not into that style.
 
Re: Thomas lang

A couple of cool ideas on a video, but sitting down behind a drum set for long enough will do that anyways. I'm just saying having him sit down and play drum beats wasn't exactly what I'd look for in an educational DVD. Listing and playing music is already a great way to develop groove and feel, and I manage enough of that to be satisfied. In terms of technique I found he didn't talk much about grip/concepts/his approaches to things, whereas Lang did, and therefore I found Lang's DVD much better as an educational tool.

That isn't to say that his DVD isn't helpful. I just didn't seem to get a lot out of it, but then again we drummers can and should learn from EVERYTHING we see/hear.


Those are valid points, but I believe his reasons for doing his latest DVD were to just focus on the feet and foot coordination. It wasn't a generalized "This DVD will you an all-around better drummer" DVD, it's meant to just improve your feet and the coordination of your feet with your hands. I believe he did an excellent drop in doing so.
 
Re: Thomas lang

hey, dont know if this sounds lame but i receive alot of inspiration from many drummers.i mean like in the whole thomas lang, not groover debate and stuff.
im busy with both his dvd's and it's realy cool and a challenge, but on the other hand im also doing some steve smith stuff and gavin harrison.
im mostly into jazz playing and i try to lay down a descent groove and make it sound musical.
so its something from both worlds for me.every educational thing helps your drumming, if you do a thomas lang exercise for instance, it helps for something else you might come up with which you can use in a musical way.i dont think im exactly making sense:-0
but i find it to play jazz, to groove, to be able to do the thomas lang, virgil donati stuff, it realy helps you expanding your vision on drumming and what you can create for a song or whatever.
damn, i just typed this so fast.so sorry if it sounds like im talking nonsense.
 
Re: Thomas lang

hey, dont know if this sounds lame but i receive alot of inspiration from many drummers.i mean like in the whole thomas lang, not groover debate and stuff.
im busy with both his dvd's and it's realy cool and a challenge, but on the other hand im also doing some steve smith stuff and gavin harrison.
im mostly into jazz playing and i try to lay down a descent groove and make it sound musical.
so its something from both worlds for me.every educational thing helps your drumming, if you do a thomas lang exercise for instance, it helps for something else you might come up with which you can use in a musical way.i dont think im exactly making sense:-0
but i find it to play jazz, to groove, to be able to do the thomas lang, virgil donati stuff, it realy helps you expanding your vision on drumming and what you can create for a song or whatever.
damn, i just typed this so fast.so sorry if it sounds like im talking nonsense.


I think i get the gist, but I must say I can't see how guys like Lang and Donati ar going to help expand your jazz playing... You're certainly getting stuck in at the deep end with these guys. You could also try getting some material of the established groovers, Gadd, Hakim, Steve Jordan, to balance out the chops guys.
 
Re: Thomas lang

im mostly into jazz playing and i try to lay down a descent groove and make it sound musical. so its something from both worlds for me.every educational thing helps your drumming, if you do a thomas lang exercise for instance, it helps for something else you might come up with which you can use in a musical way.i dont think im exactly making sense:-0
but i find it to play jazz, to groove, to be able to do the thomas lang, virgil donati stuff, it realy helps you expanding your vision on drumming and what you can create for a song or whatever.
damn, i just typed this so fast.so sorry if it sounds like im talking nonsense.

Although I don't really see how absorbing the musical vision of Lang or Donati helps your jazz playing, I do understand your cross training aspect. This is what I've been saying about Drumometer runs for the past 2 years. I don't get too excited watching a speed drumming run anymore than I do about incorporating aspects of Lang's musical direction into my playing, because /just IMO/ he leaves me cold. Still, I can certainly locate some aspect of his technical side, isolate it and say "OK, I can use that for what I want to do with my own music."

In my case for instance, working on that single stroke stuff sharpened up other things, which the detractors never seemed to understand. Instead they wanted to harp on the nonmusical aspects of what was really only a glorified practice exercise. And to me that was always a ridiculous thing to do. Now that I no longer participate so much in the actual competitions I find there are things I am now capable of musically that used to be beyond my grasp, and I think it's because I now have more colors to draw my picture.

So yeah, I can see how observing Lang from time to time can help someone reach a technical understanding that to them can lead to something more musical, without having to share that same opinion about Lang himself.
 
Re: Thomas lang

Gotta say I was pretty impressed with Lang's performance with Louis Conte on the MD 2006 Festival DVD....

To me that was the best I've heard from the human drum machne :D
 
Re: Thomas lang

I really love Thomas´ playing. Never seen him live yet but bought his dvd´s, and when I watch those, or some clips on the net, sometimes it seems to me that he´s playing a lot the same all the time.
 
I do agree with Honketonk, but i have to say that the stuff he does play is very skillful.
One of the most amazing thing i have seen him, would have to be when he did that fast 16th notes with his feet and then had a slow hand 16ths, then start to speed up this hands and slow down his feet. just like a see saw.
 
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