Paul Shaffer, Steve Jordan, Anton Fig

Finished reading Paul Shaffer's "We'll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives". I recommend it. A couple of the drummer's that Paul talks about are the drummers he had at Saturday Night Live, and on The Late Show with David Letterman... Steve Jordan and Anton Fig. Fig took over for Jordan on the Letterman show in 1986. He says the Letterman show never feels like it's "just a job" because it's a different show, with different guests (and different songs) all the time. The band rehearses from 2:50 to 3:10 pm to learn all the cues and comedy bits, then they rehearse with the feature act from 3:15 to 4. At 4:20 they warm up the audience for an hour and then it's show time!

Kenny Aronoff

A nice interview in "Drumhead" magazine this month with Kenny Aronoff. Kenny is one of the busiest touring/recording drummers in the business. Kenny first came to people's attention as the drummer for John Cougar Mellencamp, with his 'fill of a lifetime' in the song "Jack and Diane". Kenny shares some wisdom about things he's learned about success... 1) The first key to success is hard work. Kenny points out that through hard work, people who are more talented will go further, but people with less talent will still go somewhere. They'll go further than they would if they didn't work at it. 2) The second key to success is passion. It's one thing to work hard when you're into it, but the passion shows and the passion gets you through, when you're willing to work hard even when things get rough and tough. 3) The third key to success is education. Constantly learning, educating and re-educating yourself. Keep growing.

"Adventures of Power" - Air Drumming!

So there's a new movie, "Adventures of Power", which has drumming as a central theme. The writer/director is Ari Gold. Ari started playing drums as a teenager. The idea for the movie was born when he once entered an Air Guitar Competition and, as a goof, did an Air Drum performance to Rush's "Tom Sawyer". The crowd loved it! As luck would have it, Ari was able to get Rush's drummer Neil Peart to perform a cameo in his new movie. The movie was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival. Looking forward to seeing this one...

Pitch Tuning the Drums

"Pitch-tuning", tuning the drums in your drum set to a certain pitch, is a technique used by drum tech, Jim Vincent, the drum tech for Matt Cameron (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam). Jim tunes Matt's toms, from floor tom to high tom, C, F and A#. He tunes the snare to F#. My question is, what if F# isn't in the key of the song being played? Every snare hit is going to be a note that's out of key, and there tends to be a lot of snare hits in any given song. I'm going to try to contact Jim and see if I can get an answer... I'll be sure to provide his explanation if/when I get one. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can reach Jim, let me know...

Russ Miller's "Arrival: Behind the Glass"

Russ Miller has a new DVD out called, "Arrival: Behind the Glass". I don't actually have it at the shop yet, but it sounds like it's really cool. Russ hadn't planned on making a DVD, he was actually just recording an album with a bunch of guest drummers. He was filming, but it was solely for historical purposes. He quickly realized that the footage would be great for other drummers, so they could see how these masters of their craft approach the recording process. Drummers on this DVD/CD set include: Steve Gadd, Steve Smith, Pete Lockett, Akira Jimbo, John "JR" Robinson, Wolfgang Haffner, Jeff Hamilton, Johnny Rabb, Zoro and Rick Marotta. Looking forward to it!

Josh Freese, "Since 1972"

So, Josh Freese. Awesome drummer! Josh is a mighty studio drummer who has worked with so many huge names in music that I'm not about to attempt to list them all, but to name just a few... Sting, Devo, Avril Lavigne, Nine Inch Nails, 3 Doors Down, A Perfect Circle, the Offspring, Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, RATM), the Vandals, Slash, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Rob Zombie, Miley Cyrus, Weezer, Guns & Roses, and the list goes on. Josh has also put out two of his own albums: "Notorious One Man Orgy" and his new one, "Since 1972". Josh has come up with some original marketing for "Since 1972". If you decide to buy "Since 1972", you'll be presented with eleven different packages, priced from $7 to $75,000. For $50 you'll get a personal "thank you" phone call from Josh, which gives you the opportunity to ask Josh whatever you want to know. For $5,000 Josh will give you a private tour of Disneyland where he used to gig. For $75,000 you get a choice of a) any one of Josh's drum kits, you pick b) Josh as a member of your band for a month c) a ride in Danny Carey's Lamborghini or d) a flying trapeze lesson with Josh and Robin Finck (NIN) which includes dinner made by Finck's wife. Crazy! As a kid Josh practiced what he calls "the most basic rudiments": double stroke rolls, fives and sevens, paradiddles, flam taps and flamadiddles. He recommends recording yourself playing along to drum machines and pre-recorded music, and then listening back. Also he highly recommends playing with other musicians, "you have to play with people".

Roland V-drum Benefits and New Kits

The electronic drum market is growing, mostly due to two big reasons: technological advancements and a new generation of drummers that are more open to playing electronic drums. There's an analogy between electronic drums and digital pianos, back in the '80s everyone thought they sounded bad, and fake, but today they are more accepted and they sound great.

Some of the reasons that electronics are winning over drummers in a big way are that electronics fill a lot of needs that acoustics can't satisfy. With electronic drums, drummers can play at any time. By putting on headphones, they can hear amazing drum sounds without disturbing family members, or if they live in apartments, without disturbing other tenants. Churches love electronic drums because of the great sounds and the volume control aspect. Also, show drummers appreciate the variety of sounds available in a small and simple to use unit, and of course, the volume control. Even, recording studios realize the advantages of the electronic drums. For them, there's a huge savings in time and expense to get a great drum sound. Then there are other musicians, like guitarist, that are getting more and more interested in electronic drums. Not the entire drum kits necessarily, but the drum brains and modules which have features they can use for sequencing, or simply finding a groove to jam along to.

Roland has recently introduced two new V-drum kits. The TD-20SX is the grand-daddy of the V-drum line. The TD-20's brain has 920 drum instrument sounds, 100 drum kits, new sound layering and enhanced editing features, new compression algorithms, and new ambience choices for a wide variety of live environments. The TD-20SX is for the professional who really needs the ultimate in the industry, or for the hobbyist who has a lot of money :-) The TD-20SX list price is $6,999.

The other addition to the V-drum line is the TD-4SX, this kit has all mesh heads. The Roland mesh heads have the nicest feel and response of all of the electronics on the market. The list price for the TD-4SX is $1,599, but The Drummer's Den will get you the best price possible. In fact, the dealer cost on the TD-4SX was just reduced and I'm passing the savings on to the customer. Come to The Drummer's Den to get the TD-4SX at a big discount.

Come to The Drummer's Den and save $$$! I might be located in Scottsdale, but I don't charge "Scottsdale prices"!