I love this guy, but what is this?

M

Matt Bo Eder

Guest
Gotta love Marco!

He has a hard time explaining what he's going to do, and then he does it, explaining that this is what a lot of people ask him about (I don't know who these people are).

So 20 extra points if someone can explain this to me. I'm perplexed. I do love his playing though, I just can't get my head around what he's doing here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyq76s7Y3RY
 
So 20 extra points if someone can explain this to me...

20 extra points of what? You guys do anything to avoid paying! Hahahah!

Best regards!
 
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I have trouble keeping one time signature in time and he is doing a different one with each limb. Makes for great discipline, or a drum solo but other than that, I'm not sure where to use it. More power to him.
 
Gotta love Marco!

He has a hard time explaining what he's going to do, and then he does it, explaining that this is what a lot of people ask him about (I don't know who these people are).

So 20 extra points if someone can explain this to me. I'm perplexed. I do love his playing though, I just can't get my head around what he's doing here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyq76s7Y3RY

In fairness, it's a lot easier to write this stuff out than verbally present in a video. A picture is worth 1000 words.

There's like 5 different parts to this little routine.

1. Play 9/16 between RH and RF (RFRFRFRFF...). Improvise on top of this with LH and LF.

2. Same as #1, but LH and LF play 9/16, and the other limbs improvise.

3. Play 9/16 with the feet (RLRLRLRLRLL...). Add 5/16 pattern with the LH (L_ll_). Then, add 7/16 with the RH (R_R_rr_). So, 3 time signatures at once.

4. Nonuplets with the feet (RLRLRLRLRll...). Add quarter notes with the hands (1, 2, 3, 4). For every quarter note played, the feet have played 9 notes. Make sense? The hands play 4/4, but the feet subdivide each quarter note into 9 smaller notes.

5. Nonuplets with the feet (cont'd). LH plays triplets (i.e. one note for every three notes the feet play). On top of all this, the RH adds 8th notes, then triplets, then 16ths, then quintuplets, then sextuplets, then septuplets, then octuplets (32nd notes), then nonuplets.
 
Huh, never heard him speak before-- he's a likable enough goofball. No idea what he's doing, because I can't get interested enough to try to understand it. At some point you have to decide am I a musician or not, and am I going to do things that advance that, or am I going to continue developing surplus facility for its own sake.
 
I lost him after the first sentence. In contrast to Marco, here is my explanation to something I'm constantly asked about by those who watch me play: "I hit the snare drum on two and four." I love Marco, especially his work with Steven Wilson.
 
Great playing and limb independence but, when he started with the 3/16, 7/16, 9/16 I thought cool he's gonna beat on his drums with some wrenches. Sadly disappointed.
 
My random thoughts:

1. This made about as much sense as my Advanced Shakespeare II professor in undergraduate school.

2. This has no practical value in anything I will ever do or play.

3. Not all great players are great teachers. Just because you "can" do it doesn't mean you should try to "teach" it.

4. I watched (tried to watch) a few of this other drumming videos. I made it about 15 seconds into each one. Great drummer, but I'm just not into crazy syncopated patterns and extended solos playing along to midi-sounding tracks.

With all of this said, the guy's an animal and works on a whole different field than I do.
 
Marco has more technical facility than most of us mere mortal drummers could ever dream of.

But he can play tasteful, appropriate 'normal' stuff. Check out his playing with Steven Wilson.

His playing with The Aristocrats is exceptional. Met him briefly after one of their club gigs in the UK. He was warm and friendly, and that's OK by me.

Never really been a fan of Joe Satriani - but came across this with Marco playing great in 5/4 and it's something else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8qAdg79j8Y
 
Marco is an amazing player. And he can play everything from simple to crazy hard. His technique is insane.

As for this clip, does anyone else think this is a lot harder to play than it sounds? I feel like if I'm going to work that hard at something, it has to sound a lot cooler than this. I don't think even most drummers could recognize the complexity of the pattern here just by listening to it. You could probably knock a lot more people out with fast double bass or stick twirls.

I think the pursuit of mastering stuff like this has to come from a need within you to overcome the challenge. I watched a video of Mangini at some kind of drummer camp and he was saying he would never have been satisfied just playing drums in a band; he needed to test the limits of the instrument. I'm guessing Marco is cut from that same cloth.
 
It's obviously a bum bum bum slap, bum bum bum ungh. Jeez, he explained that from the top. This is the drumming-equivalent of a pub mate talking to me about Marx.
 
Marco is an amazing player. And he can play everything from simple to crazy hard. His technique is insane.

As for this clip, does anyone else think this is a lot harder to play than it sounds? I feel like if I'm going to work that hard at something, it has to sound a lot cooler than this. I don't think even most drummers could recognize the complexity of the pattern here just by listening to it. You could probably knock a lot more people out with fast double bass or stick twirls.

I think the pursuit of mastering stuff like this has to come from a need within you to overcome the challenge. I watched a video of Mangini at some kind of drummer camp and he was saying he would never have been satisfied just playing drums in a band; he needed to test the limits of the instrument. I'm guessing Marco is cut from that same cloth.

I'm still trying to master cool speedy flamadiddles.
 
It's pretty straightforward really.

If you think of it as an inverted Polynesian Nightmare groove over a pyramid ostinato it will start to make sense.

Concentrate on the pulse from the hi hats and you'll get it. It's kinda like those 'magic eye' 3D pics from the 90's, but for your ears.
 
Never heard of him before this post, but thanks as I just found a bunch of youtube vids of him. He is truly phenomenal. To me the beauty of guys like this is that us mortals can pick up a few licks to enhance our playing. Some of these guys are so good it makes me laugh.
 
Great video Bo. I have no idea what he's doing but he makes sense out of seeming randomness. A couple really vicious licks in there too and at the end what he's playing on the ride over the two other patterns he's playing with his feet and left hand.....just sick. He can't even explain it himself!
 
So that's what the smell of burning toast sounds like.

Reminds me of Terry Bozzio's "Melodic Drummer and the Ostinato" series from long ago. I could listen to it all day, and enjoy it, but won't ever sit to figure it out. The guys who have the time to work out things like this are true unicorns.
 
Marco has more technical facility than most of us mere mortal drummers could ever dream of.

But he can play tasteful, appropriate 'normal' stuff. Check out his playing with Steven Wilson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8qAdg79j8Y

I like his playing with SW and this stuff fits right in with Wilson's music. However in what I play, this has no practical application, other than a mental exercise.

F
 
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