Gavin Harrison here!

Hey Gavin! What did Santa bring ya? :p
 
Happy holidays!

There is a polyrhythm somewhere in the middle of "what happens now" (the riff from "anestesize") , what is it that you do there?
 
Hi Inngwar,

basically that Anesthetise riff is in 5/8. Then I come in with this polyrhythm..
WhatHappensNow.jpg

Then the bass joins in playing in 7/8 - then the guitar and keyboards join in playing the 3/16ths pattern that I'm playing on the ride cymbal. The really hard part is that the bass is following a chord structure and changes with the chords every 4 bars of 7/8. So I hit a crash cymbal on the downbeat of every four bars of 7/8 (but my part - as you can see - is cycling in three bar repeats). Bit of a brain teaser that one.

eventually we modulate the tempo so that the ride part becomes an 1/8 note in 6/8. Make sense?

cheers
Gavin
 
Hi Gavin

Since you're one of my favorite drummer and you're so humble and available for the drumming community, I want to take the time to wish you an happy new year, that 2008 bring you whatever you want or need and that health stay with you.

God bless you


Cheers

A+
 
Hey Gavin,

I am trying to play Cheating the Polygraph and the displaced kick drum pattern has me about to seize up ! I would love to be able to play that beat and work on improvising my own thing in it as a practice drill for myself but I just can't figure out how to get it right. Could you perhaps give me a some insight in to how you count the rhythm in your mind ?

Happy New Year to you and yours.
 
Hi Liquid_Drummer,

I'm imagining that you're talking about the verse groove? (There's a lot of different challenging grooves in that piece). If you are - there's a basic transcription of it on the previous page of this thread. As you'll notice the hi hat part is the same in the fist half as it is the in the second half. I think that's the pattern that I focused on originally - it's a very fast 7/16. I never count it - I just hear that 7/16 sound in my mind. I don't know what you mean by "displaced kick drum pattern" ?

The whole pattern is a kind of "rhythmic Illusion" and it's interesting to me to see how our audience feel it during a concert. Generally, they just notice the downbeat (the first bass drum) and the backbeat (the accented snare note in the middle of the bar). This is what tends to happen when you present a listener with equidistant 'downbeats' and backbeats'. So what I play with the hi hat and snare ghost notes would sound to them like septuplets - which most audiences are not used to hearing.

Cheers
Gavin
 
Hi Gavin,

I got the pleasure to meet you during Porcupine Tree's concert in Mexico, your such a nice (and tall) person, a serious inspiration for playing drums better every day, my questions are pretty simple, how was your experience (and for the group, if you know) of playing in Mexico? did you got to know the city?

Best wishes for the next year. Good luck.
 
Gavin,

I am very curious to hear your evolution as a drummer. What is your oldest available performance ? Do you have any old recordings of you practicing that you would consider letting us hear ? Something from when you were a teenager perhaps.

Happy new year to you and yours,

Liquid Drummer
 
Hi Gavin!
All the best wishes in New Year!
Your talent is unique!

We were watching that live Porcupine Tree video from Drummerworld and the band is so so great and correct in time,and you are playing all those ideas,and i really don't know how your friends from band manage to play with you,and me and my drummer begin to suspect that they have a metronome in their in-ear monitoring...or you're all so well practiced that they know your every move?

And about the UNSETTLED - whoaaa,great song!great played!bravo!

And question about your songs from Musikmesse in Frankfurt,are those your own compositions?Because those songs are very beautiful.Especially 7-7-5(And since i am a keyboardist)Have you played all instruments on those tracks?
 
Hi Gavin,

Hope you had a great (and hopefully relaxing) Christmas?

Happy New Year to you. I'm hoping we hear lots of new things from you in 2008.

I notice on the PT site that you're playing some clinics in Switzerland at the end of January. Are you likely to do any UK clinics any time soon? I think they'd be amongst the most well-attended events in clinic history if you did ;o)
 
Hi Liquid_Drummer,

I am very curious to hear your evolution as a drummer. What is your oldest available performance ? Do you have any old recordings of you practicing that you would consider letting us hear ? Something from when you were a teenager perhaps.

I think the oldest available stuff on record is from 1986/7
Sam Brown's "Stop" album
Dizrhythmia "Dizrhythmia"
Froon (a German based band that used to be called Spliff)

I did make a record in 1980 with a band called "Choice" and I have my very first BBC sessions that I recorded with my Dad's quartet from 1979 - plus a group jam at a friends house when I was about 8 years old...but these are for my private collection only. There's a pretty full list of recordings that I've made here..

http://www.drumset.demon.co.uk/recordings.htm

Hi sloba_dragovic,

And question about your songs from Musikmesse in Frankfurt,are those your own compositions?Because those songs are very beautiful.Especially 7-7-5(And since i am a keyboardist)Have you played all instruments on those tracks?

I co-composed the first one "Designer" with Gary Sanctuary

http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/gavinharrison1.html

Tthe second one "19 Days" with Dave Stewart.

http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/gavinharrison2.html

The last one "Quite Firm" is written by Laurence Cottle.

http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/gavinharrison3.html


I didn't play any of the instruments on those tracks except the marimba on "19 Days". Tracks 1 & 3 appear on my first DVD "Rhythmic Visions" - and the second piece appears on my DVD "Rhythmic Horizons".

Hi mixamuss,

I notice on the PT site that you're playing some clinics in Switzerland at the end of January. Are you likely to do any UK clinics any time soon? I think they'd be amongst the most well-attended events in clinic history if you did ;o)

Thanks - but I have no plans at the moment to make a UK drum clinic - but I'm trying to get a date in March/April to make a show for "Hardcase". I don't think I've made a clinic since 1998 in the UK.
 
Yes, for many years I used the N/D408 and I understand that they have now been replaced with the N/D468 - (which I now use on my live setup).
Ah. So no real discernible difference between them? (Sorry, no one I know around here has ever used them.)

Recently I switched to using Sennheiser MD421 for the toms (in my studio) as I thought there was an improvement especially in the sound of the lower toms....but they are very big mics and a bit cumbersome, so wouldn't want to used them live.
Understandable. I have used MD421's in the studio on a couple of occasions and they do sound very good on bigger toms. But yeah, they do tend to get in the way and I'd like to get something that's a bit more multi-functional. The N/D468 looks easy to mount and if they're the same as the 408's you used, also sound pretty good to me (and being a tad more budget-friendly doesn't hurt!). I think I still might get an MD421 for my 16" tom, though. I have plenty of room to mount one over there.

I just checked my Schoeps CMC5's and there's no number on the capsules.
They must be the Mk4g capsules (if they're cardoid, that is. is there a pictogram?). I think that's the kind of standard capsule for the CMC5, according to what I've read. But I've never even seen one!

basically that Anesthetise riff is in 5/8. Then I come in with this polyrhythm..
View attachment 15970

Then the bass joins in playing in 7/8 - then the guitar and keyboards join in playing the 3/16ths pattern that I'm playing on the ride cymbal. The really hard part is that the bass is following a chord structure and changes with the chords every 4 bars of 7/8. So I hit a crash cymbal on the downbeat of every four bars of 7/8 (but my part - as you can see - is cycling in three bar repeats). Bit of a brain teaser that one.
Sweet! Thanks for posting that, Gavin. That's got to be my favorite bit on Nil Recurring. That fill right before the 5/8 guitar riff comes in is also pretty darn cool. And the fill at 3:06 into Cheating the Polygraph is just brilliant, man. I know you like to vary up your fills, but that one on the record has a certain bit of ninja-ocity to it. I wish I'd thought of it! ;)

Thanks again for taking your time to post here for us all!
 
Hi Gavin.. Congrats on the King Crimson gig. Should be a great experience ;-) I must admit I had a small heart attack when I heard the news since I'm a huge Porcupine Tree fan. I hope you still continue with PT otherwise I'll be sobbing uncontrollably for a long time. ;-)

Question: You've probably been asked this 10 times so apologizes up front. ;-)
When you record at your home studio, how do you divide your kit, track wise.
Is every single part of your kit on a separate track? If so, at some point do you ever combine or bounce drum tracks from say 2 to one track. I'm just trying to understand your recording setup "track wise" with your Mackie. For "Fear of a Blank Planet" did you have just rough music tracks from Steve that you played along with to get your final drum parts recorded and if so what tracks were you listening to, or did you play to the complete final song versions. I've heard of some drummers doing their tracks after the music had been laid down previously to a click track which sounds a bit odd to me.

Another question is if Steve and the band recorded one place and you recorded your drums at your home, how does this all merge together. Do you bring a disc of your drums to Steve or visa versa. I've only recorded in studios when the band was also present and all recording was done in that same studio. I was just wondering how it worked when different parts were recorded in different studios and then finally put together. You must all have the same recording software, hardware etc I would imagine, no? :)

glen = pest :)
 
Back
Top