Donnerstag, 31. Juli 2008

Can't stop listening to DMB

Funny... I knew them for a long time - being a drummer, you can't miss Carter Beauford - but Dave Matthews' singing just wasn't for me. Until, one weekend, I couldn't stop listening to "When the world ends" from the first Central Park concert CD, which Rene gave me a long time ago. I've been a fan ever since; for almost half a year now, I haven't been listening to much else. Sure, the drumming also plays a part in it, but mostly it's just about the songs which are good.

My all-time favorite DMB song is Grey Street, check out the end (from approx 4:35), the drumming at the very end always sends a shiver down my spine.

Speaking of drumming,the groove of Eh Hee is just incredible - so simple, and so powerful... and this is one of the few DMB songs that one can play along to :)

Other great songs: Everyday, Dream Girl, Too Much, Ants Marching, Crash Into Me (if you don't really know DMB, you might still know this one ... the video is terrible though), ... okay, I'll stop there :)

Donnerstag, 24. Juli 2008

Current practicing

I play a lot at home these days because it's just great fun to turn on some music and play along with my e-drumkit... too much fun to get myself to practice, but when I do, I play the transcription of Harry Connick Jr's "How Do Y'all Know" (from his great Star Turtle CD, one of the (sadly only) two funk CD's that he made), from an old Modern Drummer magazine .... it's tricky but I almost got it nailed, I almost sound like Raymond Weber :-)

One thing I'd love to get to work is this rudiment that Carter Beauford from the Dave Matthews Band (of which I'm a big fan btw) always plays - it's just RLRL, but played as two sixteenth notes followed by two eighth notes .. but this only sounds interesting at a speed which isn't human - see around 0:20 in this video for example. Or, maybe even better, 1:00 in this one. Damnit, I'd love to be able to do that. Could someone please tell me how long you have to practice this to get this up to speed? There's even a video of a crazy guy teaching the lick, but he's no help... I guess I can play it at the speed at which he shows it, and, like him, I don't sound like Carter when I do that :-)

Oh, and I'll get myself a second bass drum trigger for my e-drumkit, so I can practice double bass... about time, I really need that for one of my current bands. I occasionally use the double pedal there, but so far I never practiced it before, so it's always a risk ... anyway double bass is fun; I found out that I can actually do this stuff (again a Carter video, but actually an old trick) with double bass, including the cross sticking... sure, as he says in the video, it's only for the sound, not for the show, yeah, yeah...

First real post: pics from the Treibhaus gig

Tuesday last week we (the Alexander Komlusan Quartet) played as Session Opener in Treibhaus, together with Nina Braithwho arranged this gig. Philipp took a couple of pics and made a video with his cell phone, and Jimmy's girlfriend Toria took some more pictures - thanks!

Hi there

So Tommy and I decided to start a blog today; while it was my idea, he was in fact faster than me. Why a blog? Well - I have an urge to share some of my thoughts with people, so this lets me do that efficiently without getting on everybody's nerves. This will be about private stuff, which means 90% drumming related (yep, boring for non-drummers, that's why this is better than sending emails around :-) ), which is the reason for the name of the blog...

Please leave a comment every now and then so I know that I'm not writing for myself, as a therapy or something - thanks :)