Gavin Harrison here!

Working along the lines of double bass pedals, how did you come to a comfortable arrangement with your hi hat? i have 13" hats and after i bought a double bass pedal, they always felt too far away and my hand would cross over the other (causing the hazardous situation of having your hand over a drum stick!). I have been playing around with it for a few years, but i havent found a good solution yet.

do you have any insights you discovered? or is this just something you played with on your own for a while, like i am doing right now? or did you just find the least uncomfortable spot and just deal with it until it feels natural?

i noticed in the videos that are kicking around that you seem pretty comfortable with the location of your hi hats, so i was just wondering.

thanks,
Austin
 
I had the same 'problem'.

I change or alter my setup regularly, making slight adjustments, just in order to hopefully stumble on the ideal setup, and I'm getting there gradually...
I useally start with just the snare, bassdrum (single pedal) and hihat, and nothing else to affect the placement.

I place them where they feel most comfortable, while playing the hihat, snare and bassdrum. Changing the placement and height of the hihat while playing for a couple of hours.
80% of the time I play the hihat so I want it to be in most ideal, relaxed place.
Then I put the leftpedal of the double pedal to the right of the hi-hat.
You might even put both pedals 2 inch to the left putting the ideal position between the 2 pedals.

I think there is no real ideal placement for both pedals. I think you allways have to make a compromise somewhere. But the pedals itself are not that mega wide so the compromise is probably minimal.

But my tip would be to just ask yourself which pedal is the most important for you and put that one in the best place and then find the most ideal place for the other pedal.

I once made this drawing to find/analyze the ideal placement of my drums.
Sometimes I have too much free time..... :)

Good luck...
Dre
 

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wow, detail. thanks. what you are talking about is pretty much what i have been doing for the last 3 years. glad to know im not just spinning my wheels here.
 
wow, detail. thanks. what you are talking about is pretty much what i have been doing for the last 3 years. glad to know im not just spinning my wheels here.

I guess it's a problem every drummer expierences when setting up.
Because you want all the drums and cymbals in an easy to reach and playable place.
And when you have a lot of drums and big cymbals there is useally not enough space to put everything so it's easy to play.

A couple of weeks ago I changed my setup (bought a new rack) and I put my toms in the best place possible. Then I had to find a place for my 20" ride cymbal so that the bell is easy to reach, I still haven't found it.....
Sometimes it's to far away or to ackward to play, and when I bring it closer it blocks to much of the toms.

Maybe I have to ask Terry Bozzio how he does it.
 
Hi Gavin,

Thanks for answering the question about that FOABP (solo) fill. I got to see it first hand last night at the Chicago show - I finally got it! Some other points of the show I really enjoyed were in "Way Out of Here" and "Halo". In WOOH during the heavy guitar riff section you break out into some amazing drumming. As you said in previous posts you like to spice things up to keep from going nuts, and you did that in this section. I was cracking up as I noticed Colin and Steve standing near your riser during that section (they looked at each other then looked at you) as if they hoped to find count "one"! Your fills were quite special there and I think they were amazed too! Steve also pointed at you when Halo started. Almost like he's saying, "hey man stop it! You're just messing with them!! I loved it!!

Seeing you in Milwaukee tonight. Last show for the US. Just wanted to say thanks for all the shows and the great drumming! You and the band are a class act all the way. Sorry for the long post - no real questions - just a sincere thanks and appreciation to you and your playing!

Jeff
 
thanks for the overhead shot! you really do put alot of effort for us on here. it looks like your left pedal is tucked under the snare drum a little, which i did for a while. i might go back to that because my hats are way too far away.
 
Hey Gavin! Quick question, what is the best way to practice with a metronome to get a better sense of time? I've been meaning to get a metronome but I keep putting it off due to the fact of not knowing how to properly practice with it? Thanks! -Josh
 
The man himself may differ from me, but here is what I know:

use headphones. preferably with some sort of hearing protection. this is assuming you are on your kit. it is just far easier to hear your met with headphones whenever you are making any more noise than a practice pad.

step 1: isolate what you need to work on like a rudiment or a musical passage/groove.
step 2: set your metronome to a tempo you think is comfortable and play to it. about 95% of the time, i find that i have set the metronome too fast (my playing is close, but not perfect). keep dropping the tempo until you have a tempo on which you cannot mess up.
step 3: play at that tempo for a while, then, when you feel you are ready, bump up the tempo up a bit (i usually use 10 bpm increments until i really start pushing myself). if you reach a difficult spot, try changing the way your nome plays subdivisions (i have a db-60 which has seperate pitches and volume levels for beat 1, the 1/4 notes, the +s, e and a, and 8th note triplets). i use this to make sure all of my notes between the beats are where they should be if it sounds funky.

you just repreat the process of perfecting (almost anyways) and speeding up until you are at a tempo that you find desirable (for me, this is usually 10-20 bpm above performance tempo).

this process is really for working on very specific things like etudes, rudiments, and particular licks, fills, and grooves. as he has mentioned in here, mr. harrison typically practices with the aim for creativity and sponteniety, so ill let him discuss the exact role of the metronome in that context.
 
Wow Gavin, there are no words....I was at the Chicago show on Friday a few days ago and you were going nuts! It was my 5th time seeing you guys live, but man your solo during Hatesong was simply incredible. I also enjoyed your going out of time in a few different places (rhythmic illusions?), and also in Halo the double-time run you did towards the end was a nice little surprise. You just seemed to be having such a great time up there, even moreso than the Cleveland show a couple of weeks ago.

Any particular reason why you chose to experiment so much that night? Or have you been doing that every night? Either way, I really loved the performance.
 
thanks man! i'm gonna get one as soon as I can. what is the best metronome for basically just starting out using one?

your local shop should have a few $20 metrtonomes thatll get you through your life quite well (there is a grey Sabine one that i used to own, but i lost it. my instructor uses this one too since she lost her good one). these metronomes not amazing, but theyll do most of the time. essentially what you end up losing with the cheaper ones is fine tuning. they dont advance tempo one bmp at a time, but instead change by 2s and 3s, for example, but since the human ear should only beable to recognize a tempo change of 8 bpms at the least, this isnt a big deal.
my db-60 was about $60 dollars i think, but i felt the tap function and the subdivision adjustments justified the extra cost due to my tech position.
 
I have a question for all of those reading, and specifically Gavin regarding programming the click for the live shows.

My band syncs with a sequencer and I do need a click for most songs. My plan was to use a Tama Rhythm watch but I don't want to be fooling with it during one of our MANY temp/time changes. My questions are:

-What is used to deliver the click to you with PT (software/laptop, a standard metronome, etc?)

-Do you just use a solid click with the temo changes or actually put an emphasis on beat one and change signatures? I think I read you play to just a click sound with the proper temp and keep where "1" is in your head - and that's good for me as well.

I was thinking maybe a drum machine I program or recording software like Logic to just program the click and the speed changes - that seem good?
 
Hi Gavin -

Looks like I'm a bit late to the party, but I've just recently discovered your drumming and PT and I just wanted to say that I can't remember the last time I was this excited and inspired to get behind my drums. I'm in my late 30's now and have been a bit skeptical of "new" music for a while, so I'm a bit disgusted with myself that it took hearing that Alex Lifeson had a guest appearance on your new CD for me to "find" you.
At any rate, I've bought just about everything PT related I could find in the past 3 weeks and I can't stop listening. Unlike every other band I listen to, every single song is great! It's amazing. I hear so many of my favorite drummers in your playing, but your playing is truly inspirational in a new and exciting way (for me anyway!).

Hope to see you in Minneapolis
 
Hi guys,
I used to write a column about timing issues and practicing with clicks - I'll try and find some of the material and post it up here soon.

The other issue is what sounds and how to program a click.

I wrote an article about that too - and here it is..

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug03/articles/clicktracks.htm

Attached below are the actual sounds that I use (and mention in the article) - feel free to use them and spread them around as you wish.


In Porcupine Tree the thing generating the click is Logic Pro on a Mac laptop. I use these sounds inside the virtual sampler inside Logic Pro.
I always use the same sounds and have eq'd some of the high frequencies out of them so they don't give me so much ringing in the ears at high volumes.

Cheers
Gavin
 

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Hello Gavin,

Since we're on the topic of clicks, I had a quick question: I saw the show in Boulder recently and you guys played without the visualizations. Since you didn't need to sync up with the visuals did you play without a click or did you still use it?

Thank you,
Derek
 
Hi JordanC,
glad you enjoyed the show. I try to improvise wherever I can - some nights are more 'successful' than others - such is the nature of improvising. The later half of Hatesong has become a good place to try and get outside the box. I'm hoping that you mean "going out of time" as a reference to playing odd rhythmic patterns - and not really 'playing out of tempo" !!

cheers
Gavin

Wow Gavin, there are no words....I was at the Chicago show on Friday a few days ago and you were going nuts! It was my 5th time seeing you guys live, but man your solo during Hatesong was simply incredible. I also enjoyed your going out of time in a few different places (rhythmic illusions?), and also in Halo the double-time run you did towards the end was a nice little surprise. You just seemed to be having such a great time up there, even moreso than the Cleveland show a couple of weeks ago.

Any particular reason why you chose to experiment so much that night? Or have you been doing that every night? Either way, I really loved the performance.
 
Hey Gavin,

When you improvise, do you 'sing' it mentally to yourself just a second before you play the fills or do you just do it on the fly and see where it ends?

I allways think of the melody of the section and try to find some cool groupings and subdivisions around the drumset to create a (hopefully) cool fill.
Is this sort of the same way you do it.

The intro fill on Halo on the Arriving DVD (if you can remember) is that something that you just start and see where you end up in relation to the click track and then fill up the 'gap' , or do you mentally know that when I start 'here' and play 'these' subdivisions in these groupings I'll end up there and play this fill to resolve back to the 'one' of the beat???

I hope you understand the question.....

Greetz, Gavin
 
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