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#Post#: 3760--------------------------------------------------
Drum questions...I have some..
By: AJ Date: June 11, 2019, 9:27 pm
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...So Dudely...I have some drum questions....
Tuning drums...WTF?
I mean...when you tune drums, are you doing this to a particular
key? I've been in bands but never really paid any attention to
the drummers while they were tuning them, or asked them exactly
what they were doing even. I was always concerned with keeping
my own shit straight...But I don't recall a drummer asking me
for say an "A" or a "G'....Or even asking what key we were
playing in.
Do enlighten me. I mean I've used drum machines...But never gave
any thought to whether the samples were in "Tune" with anything
else.
Feel free to school me.
Also...You've held forth on the palette of tones available on
the gongs....Interested in how you approach that within the
confines of the 12 note scale as well.
#Post#: 4022--------------------------------------------------
Re: Drum questions...I have some..
By: The Dudely Lama Date: July 2, 2019, 9:05 am
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yes, there are melodic toms, these and standard drums can be
tuned to pitch. mst often drummers tend to tune in thirds and
fifths... pleasing to human ears, western based music... i
have tuned drum sets to specific pitched instruments but
usually went backwards from the most depth for a pleasing sound
in my kick, first... rooms are all different.... if im playing
jazz, i tune up...for melody, finesse... rock or modern country,
i tune down for thunder... primitive... plus i dont advocate
set and forget... i tune actively if needed and enjoy using
manual applied tension to change pitch of a tom on the fly.. in
use...
in order.
1,well... sometimes...
2. there exist, unfortunately, a plethora of individuals calling
themselves drummers that probably think a drum key unlocks
their high hat clutch... tuning drums isnt tough but it takes
some mechanical know how...basic...
3. i used “ hey wait! wait! what key is this one in?”. a couple
of times an evening if the opportunity arose... over the mike
once or twice is good for comic relief
4.gong... and confines... different worlds... doesnt
compute... there are no limitations in gong... all sounds
known have passed through and are contained within. the lamas
tell that every sound in the universe, known and unknown, is
found in gong. to try and contain or restrict infinity is
truly folly... i have been finding tones in accordance with
ascending and descending scales. several times, guided by
intuition and basically feeling the vibrating nodes as they move
within the instrument, i have been given basic, repeatable
melodic phrases... and then it escapes and morphs into
something entirely different... its at about this point that i
start hearing rhythmic patterns in the resonance and begin
playing to them... and time stops... everything slows down
and stops... and its just the sound carrying this concept of
consciousness... like barinthus carried merlin... amidst
the stars and beyond all of this...
#Post#: 4026--------------------------------------------------
Re: Drum questions...I have some..
By: AJ Date: July 2, 2019, 10:19 am
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That’s a great and informative post bro! Stuff I did not know!
#Post#: 4027--------------------------------------------------
Re: Drum questions...I have some..
By: The Dudely Lama Date: July 2, 2019, 12:09 pm
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just the musings of a madman... seeking to discern the shit
from the shinola...
#Post#: 4031--------------------------------------------------
Re: Drum questions...I have some..
By: AJ Date: July 2, 2019, 6:51 pm
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[quote author=The Dudely Lama link=topic=401.msg4027#msg4027
date=1562087394]
just the musings of a madman... seeking to discern the shit
from the shinola...
[/quote]
If'n yer a bit teched in the haid...Your in the right place Bro.
really glad you finally answered my drum questions. I'm always
interested in musical things. Even those things I have no grip
on, or dog in the hunt, so to say.
Ta go a bit further.....What got you into drums? Didn't you
start out playing guitar? or am I thinking of someone else.
I'm always interested in musical journeys as well....
#Post#: 4037--------------------------------------------------
Re: Drum questions...I have some..
By: The Dudely Lama Date: July 3, 2019, 9:45 am
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i started out singing solos at church... my dad is still a
bishop in the church... pentecostal, oneness... jesus only...
anyhow, when they discovered i had a set of pipes i was three
years old... standing on the platform, singing my heart out in
little country churches up and down the ohio river valley...
around 1960 in the summer. the superintendent of state roads’
wife played piano and started teaching me to play, i was just 5
years old. ive been telling folks it hapoened at about 9 years
old, but remembering it now in order, i was 7 years old, it was
the end of my first grade year, pauline, my piano teacher asked
me to sing “ the old rugged cross”... when i started down from
the podium, i noticed everyone i looked at was streaming tears.
music often moves me to tears, joyful... but i didnt
understand how people were physically impacted by the sound and
i had to know how or why it did. i remember finding out that
different sounds could be felt resonating in different objects
around me, or places in your body... i had no idea they studied
this in india for thousands of years and actually had names for
all of this! certain pitches caused my vision to distort...
oscillating lines, vibrating across the field of view, rippling
the image... sound, really all vibration, has always, and
continues to fascinate me in how it moves things... how it
changes things... and how it heals living things. it can be
used just as effectively for destructive or negative direction
as well, but in my choices, i strive to achieve balance...
moving towards positive flow. but i digress
flutaphones in the second grade (piano teacher changed,
classical, continued through 12yrs of age) led to clarinet in
third grade... alto sax by fifth grade and my 7th grade year i
was the only bass drummer in the high school band... they
recruited me early. my first public performance on a trap set
was my eighth grade graduation. for some reason we ( high school
jazz band), played hawaii 5-0 and watermelon man for that?
lol.
my grandfather had played steel guitar in a party band, during
prohibition... if you arent certain what that means, check it
out, i had no idea at the time my grandpa was a rocker! they
didnt play what i thought... anyhow, he taught me guitar on a
lap steel... i was hooked! jim rustemyer played an old cort
beatle bass, me on lap steel... we wore out black sabbath
paranoid and carlos santana abraxas until we could play along at
soeed... getting it right! yes, i played war pigs AND iron
man on a flippin lap steel! the hunger grew... i sold sunday
papers until i saved the coin for a harmony acoustic... took
the pup off the lap steel, modified the harmony and plugged it
into the rca console stereo every time the folks left the house.
grandpa saw what i was up to and he helped me find an old
piggy back harmony amp and a Holiday guitar... by my freshman
year i was playing sock hops in all the local high schools... a
red mustang guitar and a fender vibrosonic borrowed from an
uncle... i saved enough to get my ovation solid body and super
reverb by sophomore year, added the gold top, purchased from a
teacher my junior year and continued with guitar and drums. in
high school, they didnt know what to do with me... ive always
been very good at taking tests. that doesnt mean i know a damn
thing, but i can pretty much spend ten minutes or so with the
instructor and ace their shit... its more “reading people” than
what you know about any particular subject... anyway, the
majority of my high school days went like “. hi george...
hello jamie... ( the principal and i were on first name basis)
ummm. time for algebra and ms harper didnt get her homework from
you... again... you headed to the band room? (me) yes sir!
practicing my all state stuff... stay out of trouble..
later! id go get high and pick up an instrument... learn
to play it... never did audition for all state band... after
high school, i got scholarships... that whole test thing again,
and became a professional student... graduating 5 times without
a degree... 5 degrees each needing an hour or two to
complete... as long as i didnt graduate, my tuition, board,
meals, all paid because im pretty good at taking tests... so i
skipped classes and played music for a while.
took a semester off... a local outlaw country band couldnt find
a drummer so... lived on a tour bus for a few years... then
played with a show band... sax, trombone, piano, guitar,
sousaphone... it was fun. countless bar bands... during
all of this i have always gone to care facilities... personal
care homes, hospitals, mental hospitals, prisons, etc, because,
one, its the right thing to do...music is about healing. a balm
for the human condition. and secondly, it furthers my learning
experience with the resonance response so it was inevitable that
i ended up working as a recreational therapist, using music as
a therapeutic tool, before “music therapy” was ever coined, to
my knowledge. i have been everything from direct care staff to
director of recreation of a 500+ bed facility, group home
manager, supervisor and client advocate... with music and sound
integral to the work.
i stagnated after the government destroyed the traumatic brain
injury progress we had been making... medicare/medicade cuts
erased ALL of the clients that were making progress...
literally cutting everyone but those that were clearly not
making headway... after a couple years of not having the heart,
i stopped for a beer in a little out of the way joint on thr
beach.. open mic... young kids... a couple had real promise.
next i knew i was mentoring and then on stage with a young punk
that reminded me of myself... we ended up at a festival...
sitting around the campfire as nakho and his drummer are jamming
with us for hours, nikolas leans in close and asks.. do you
remember? you remember what you are? you remember why?
gongs have become my focus for therapeutic and the pure joy of
sound, but very recently ive found new impetus in guitar...
ive been playing daily, in the mornings after flute or gongs for
sunrise... old stuff... dave dudley, james taylor, john prine,
revisiting santana, doors, van morrison and playing in the
moment as opposed to “how it was written”... sometimes complete
rearranging... manic depression and melodic melancholic
gershwin on the banjo with moving countermelodies... medleys
joining the likes of bob wills and the texas playboys with
commander cody and the lost planet airmen, with nat king cole,
with lou reed morphing into something “not fit for airplay”,
(everybody’s doing it now!). . . you know what im up to
now... or at least what im telling...
#Post#: 4049--------------------------------------------------
Re: Drum questions...I have some..
By: AJ Date: July 3, 2019, 6:06 pm
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That was an awesome post, an awesome share Brother. Thank you.
I'll reciprocate when I get a little more time.
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