Guitar Center Drum off Champ named

Wow, that was really a lot of fun to watch! Gimmicky? Maybe, but who cares - that was entertaining. The glove thing was cool too - I don't know if you picked up on it, but he was playing a Michael Jackson song when he did that. He was a finalist last year.
 
Wow, that was really a lot of fun to watch! Gimmicky? Maybe, but who cares - that was entertaining. The glove thing was cool too - I don't know if you picked up on it, but he was playing a Michael Jackson song when he did that. He was a finalist last year.

yeah it was smooth criminal
 
I thought it was great, and I usually find drum solos to be rather dull. (I know that's a risky statement to make on a drum forum!) The thing is, there were probably many drummers competing who had chops galore. So, competitors must find ways to distinguish themselves beyond technical ability. That's exactly what this guy was doing. He had the chops for sure, but he also made an entertaining show of it and encouraged some audience participation. He also had great energy and enthusiasm, and smiling actually helps too! I thought the "Smooth Criminal" riff was great. I also liked his "running" style of playing. The one place where I thought it fell short was on a musical level. When I hear a drum solo, I like it to be more of a musical composition, almost like a song played on the drums, as opposed to a bag of tricks demonstrated one after the other. His composition definitely fell into the latter category. But somehow, it worked in this case. I think the overall fun nature of the performance really carried it through.
 
Check the "Drummers" area. I put up a thread on him.
 
Very entertaining, and like the above poster said I do NOT find drum solos interesting. This one managed to keep my attention by a combination of theatrics and just plain ol' skill. Kudos to him.
 
I thought it was great, and I usually find drum solos to be rather dull. (I know that's a risky statement to make on a drum forum!) The thing is, there were probably many drummers competing who had chops galore. So, competitors must find ways to distinguish themselves beyond technical ability. That's exactly what this guy was doing. He had the chops for sure, but he also made an entertaining show of it and encouraged some audience participation. He also had great energy and enthusiasm, and smiling actually helps too! I thought the "Smooth Criminal" riff was great. I also liked his "running" style of playing. The one place where I thought it fell short was on a musical level. When I hear a drum solo, I like it to be more of a musical composition, almost like a song played on the drums, as opposed to a bag of tricks demonstrated one after the other. His composition definitely fell into the latter category. But somehow, it worked in this case. I think the overall fun nature of the performance really carried it through.


I think for me that's what was missing was more of a musicality to the performance.
 
that was fun. I usually hate these guitar center solos when they usually throw in a token "latin" section and play a few bars of samba and everybody screams. this guy actually played some cool latin grooves, and he also didn't resort to the "slammin" hip hop beat that all these solos usually feature.

on top of that the showmanship was awesome. it is a memorable solo. great job.
 
Oh, that was just great. I do love to see the young cats bringing it like that. Lots of creativity in there. Well done!
 
I thought it was great, and I usually find drum solos to be rather dull. (I know that's a risky statement to make on a drum forum!) The thing is, there were probably many drummers competing who had chops galore. So, competitors must find ways to distinguish themselves beyond technical ability. That's exactly what this guy was doing. He had the chops for sure, but he also made an entertaining show of it and encouraged some audience participation. He also had great energy and enthusiasm, and smiling actually helps too! I thought the "Smooth Criminal" riff was great. I also liked his "running" style of playing. The one place where I thought it fell short was on a musical level. When I hear a drum solo, I like it to be more of a musical composition, almost like a song played on the drums, as opposed to a bag of tricks demonstrated one after the other. His composition definitely fell into the latter category. But somehow, it worked in this case. I think the overall fun nature of the performance really carried it through.

He played a pop song you actually recognized on just the drums, but he lacked musicality? Seems to be a contradiction there.

Other than that, I think you're analysis is spot on. All finalists always have chops galore, it takes something extra to stand out.

Most of the times I see drum off solos I think "yeah, ok, you have chops, but what band would take you seriously?" But this guy really gave the impression he could fit right in with a variety of bands, while showing he had chops as well.

He also, IMHO, took the listener through a bit of the history of the drum set. The light hitting with cross over was right from Papa Jo Jones. When he brought out the towel, it seemed like a reference to Ringo and the 60's super muffled sound. "Smooth Criminal" an obvious 80's reference. And the drum-n-bass and hip hop showing more modern music. He took us from the 1930's through today inmusical references, (even if he didn't necessarily do it in chronological order). And to me, that was pretty darn cool!
 
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