(drums)
(music)
- Yeah, yeah.
Right on, welcome everyone.
Let's introduce Childish Japes to Drumeo
along with JP Bouvet.
Thanks for coming out guys.
- Our pleasure.
- Yeah, yeah it's wicked.
- So let me introduce the whole band.
Right to the very far end there we have Asher.
Asher is a guitarist, obviously as you can see.
(laughing)
And right beside him we have Jed on bass.
And then JP Bouvet.
JP you are probably one of our most
requested drummers to come on Drumeo
so I'm very thankful that you can find the time
to come out here and grace us with your presence here.
- Well it's an honor.
- Yeah and today is a really cool lesson.
It's the first time we've actually brought in a full band
for a live lesson like this.
And what a better topic than creative tools
for writing in a band.
We're gonna bring a whole band out
and talk about that with you guys all here.
So thank you so much.
- Of course.
- Now if you guys haven't seen JP the day before
you can check him out online.
He is live on his own website which
is JPBouvetmusic.com., I believe.
- That's correct.
- And also his Instagram which is just @JPBouvet
so make sure you follow him there
and if you guys like what you just heard
with Childish Japes find them online basically anywhere
that there's online presence for bands, right?
- Yeah, you won't find a lot of other Japes out there.
- Yeah, Childish Japes.
J-a-p-e-s.
- That's right.
- And you guys just released an album
a couple weeks back, right.
- Yeah, it's called After You're Born.
- Awesome, you can find it on iTunes and everywhere else.
Very cool.
So we're gonna get into the lesson very soon.
Just one second to quickly thank all the sponsors
for helping make this happen.
DW, Remo, Meinl, Vic Firth sticks as well.
Am I missing anyone?
- No. - I don't think so.
And for all you guys watching us live welcome.
I hope you enjoy it.
If you do have questions, submit them below.
We might not get to all of them
or many of them depending on how long this goes.
But we are doing a very cool performance slash interview
with the whole band tomorrow which will be live as well.
So if we don't get to them today
we can get to them tomorrow.
So that being said, creative tools.
Yeah, creative tools for writing in a band.
Take it away.
- Right on.
Alright, so creative tools for writing with a band.
The reason that we particularly were very excited
about this topic on Drumeo is that this band
is a very collaborative musical entity.
If you listen to the first album
actually all of the track on that album
were spawned from jams.
Either me and Asher or me and Jed
or the three of us together.
And then we had this great chemistry
as we were starting to play together
and we were thinking like.
Yeah, maybe we should make a band out of this
and make it real.
So all those are born from jams
and us just improvising and creating in the moment.
Or being inspired by something we heard recently.
And although jamming has this sort of like laid back
like anything goes kind of who knows what's gonna happen
vibe that goes along with it.
There is a lot more intent that can be put into
the writing process and the jamming process.
And the creating process in general.
That will make those sessions more fruitful.
And that's really the goal of this next hour.
Is to hopefully give you guys some fuel.
Whether you play in a band or not.
Actually just giving you guys some fuel
to expand your creativity
and then just get you thinking in maybe a different way.
To bring some new ideas to the picture.
So that's what we're dealing with.
There's one mental image I want to plant here
in the beginning of the lesson.
That I'm going to refer back to several times.
And I call it the web of intent.
Now the web of intent you have to just
use your imagination here.
In the middle is something I call the gray area.
The gray area is not particularly anything.
It's not too loud, too soft, too fast, too slow,
too busy, too empty.
It's kind of like what you accidentally do
when you start playing the drums.
It's fairly uninspired and it's a dangerous area
because if you stay there too long
things get very old very quickly.
And it's just not sort of remarkable anyway.
So now, that's the center of our web here.
And I want you to imagine an arrow going out this way
and an opposite arrow going the other direction.
And at the end of those arrows
are two opposite adjectives of your choosing, right.
The easiest one here fast, slow.
You can imagine this way loud, soft.
You can imagine this way busy, empty.
Another example could be all of the instruments playing,
one instrument playing.
And this works for anything.
One that I hope we explore.
I hope we have time to explore it
in this master class would be evil and.
What's the opposite of evil?
Angelic, good yeah.
Evil and good, right.
That would inspire a different musical idea.
So in this case what we're thinking is okay.
We're getting together to play.
We want to be creative.
Maybe we have an idea, maybe we don't.
But where ever we start we'll probably eventually
become the gray area.
So you want to be moving these ideas in some direction
or another.
And that kind of imagery really helps me
not only in the performance space but in the practice room.
To think what could I do with this idea
to make it more interesting?
Coincidentally you'll probably find as you do that
somethings that you could also go practice.
If you're taking a groove and you're thinking
I want to make this busier.
You're gonna hit a wall at some point
and that's where you find the things
that you can practice next.
The web of intent we'll come back with but that's a.
This overarching idea there.
And the first specific tool
we want to deal with here is subtraction.
So this was the first thing that came to mind
when Dave and I were talking about this topic for Drumeo.
Now there's a very specific concert I remember watching.
It was just a random band from Finland that was
playing at this little club in New York.
And it was a pop synth band.
And I remember watching an entire 45 minutes set
and just being exhausted by the end.
And I realized at the end that all I wanted
the whole time was for one person to stop playing.
Cause synth is really in your face and it's constant.
So you've got a synth player, a synth bass player,
a drummer and a singer who's also playing a synth.
And if they're all playing all the time
it's just way too much.
So the easiest thing you can do to make an impact
is subtract something.
So in this case a simple example on the drums
without even a band is this.
(drums)
Alright, so I don't have to change anything.
I just take one thing out.
And it makes a pretty big difference.
So a couple different types of subtraction
that we can do here.
And we'll demonstrate with the band.
The first one is just removing an instrument,
plain and simple.
Like no drums in the pre-chorus, done.
The other type would be subtracting a frequency range.
So saying between the three of us,
no low notes in this section.
Or no high notes.
And that's gonna affect what they play
and or who plays at all.
And it's gonna affect for me what instrument I play here.
Cause the cool thing about the drum set
is we kind of have the lowest
and highest things in the musical spectrum here.
But that gives us a lot of responsibility
to effect the music in a certain way.
So let's first, let's look at subtracting an instrument.
Alright so let's get into a groove.
A fairly repetitive one and then Asher you drop out.
(laughing)
Throwing the dart here.
So yeah, actually let's improvise a song A, B, A.
A, B, C and the B section Asher's out.
- [Guitar Players] Cool.
- Ready.
(music)
Cool, so two thing happened there right.
When Asher first dropped out.
I kind of kept playing the same thing.
Jed kind of kept playing the same thing
but this space was creative.
So you can imagine that if there's a vocalist.
Or if there's another instrument playing
a more melodic line.
That would be a moment for them to
step up what they're doing and take more space.
So that's one thing that happens right.
There's a change in dynamic there of the overall band.
But the other thing that's really cool
is that when Asher comes back in there's a huge impact.
So Asher playing all that time and then changing his part
is cool and impactful.
But Asher playing and then dropping out
and coming in from nothing into a part
that you haven't heard before is that much more impactful.
So that was really cool.
And then we could say let's try the other version
where we subtract the low end.
Do we do this in like After You're Born?
- Kind of.
- Kind of.
- The second verse.
- Yeah, okay.
Let's try that After You're Born groove
and then Jed and I subtract the low end.
So I don't know if that means either Jed's
gonna have to play higher
or is he just gonna have to drop out.
And then I'm gonna have to affect
what I'm doing here as well.
Just the verse.
- [Man] Cool, let's hear it.
- Cool, this is a song from the album that just came out.
One, two, one, two, one, two.
(music)
Cool so I subtracted the kick zone.
I avoid tom's, I keep it very clickey and high notey.
And Jed's adjusting what he's doing in some higher notes
or dropping out all together.
And that's just another tool to sort of subtract
a piece of the frequency range.
- Very cool.
- So that's number one.
- Tool number one, subtract.
- Tool number one, tool number two match.
Alright so.
Matching and this is in it's simplest form.
Who matches with who?
And what piece of the kit matches
with what they're doing
or even what piece in what they're doing.
It maybe overly common for us to think
okay kick drum has to play with the basses playing
and that's all.
So it's not necessarily the case
and Asher came in one day to rehearsal
and we were jamming and writing last year
with a really cool idea.
And he was like okay,
I want your high hat to match what I'm doing.
But I want the rest of your kit
to either match what Jed's doing
or just me playing a groove that's not related.
And this already, once you start shifting these
who's matching with who things.
This leads you into starting to break some of the
groove rules if you will.
Which we talk about in the course that we did on Drumeo.
But you'll see what I mean here.
So Space Jam?
- Space Jam, Michael Jordan.
(laughing)
- So Asher came in with this line
and now the only thing that's important here.
It's in four, he's playing a thing that repeats
every three bars.
The count four four, it'll be a lot cooler if you do.
And it will make a lot more sense once Jed comes in.
So Asher came in with this line.
(music)
So, that was such a simple idea
but it created such a unique groove.
Like we're going between two chords, maybe not two chords.
Two chords and he's playing one rhythm the whole time
and all that happens is they change rolls
which is something we'll talk about in a few minutes.
- And register.
- Yeah and register and so Jed starts playing.
(mouth music)
And instead of Jed holding down the chords
in the moving notes, Asher's doing that.
So, who's matching with who is not just which
are you matching with the bass player or the guitar player.
You can divide up your kit to start thinking okay.
Do my hands match one number
and does my kick match the other?
And then it's important to realize
you don't have to match anyone.
Which is something that again
we talked about in that course.
But let's quick play that groove we were doing before just.
(mouth music)
Two or four chords or whatever you want to do.
- Do you need a minor?
Do you need a minor?
- And for those wondering we just did a film
the Chorus right before this on creating unique grooves
and we talked a lot about this in more depth
so you can check that out there.
But this is a little excerpt from that.
- Totally so here I'm just emphasizing the point
that you don't need to match anyone.
So when I say that matching is a tool.
It's not saying you have to do,
it's saying that it's an option
and then that not matching then therefore is also a tool.
So I'm gonna play a kick drum pattern first
that matches what they're doing.
And then I'm gonna play a kick drum pattern
that completely ignores what they're doing
and actually doesn't play any of the notes.
So they're gonna play.
(mouth music)
And the second groove you'll hear me switch to
avoid both of those notes.
But I think it works pretty well
and I think it's pretty cool.
(mouth music)
Let's do that.
One, two, three, four.
(music)
So I'm playing.
(mouth music)
Which has nothing to do with their rhythm.
But it works cause it's repeating
so it's clearly intentional.
And I'm avoiding the notes right next to what they're doing
because that can sound like you're making a mistake.
So yeah, got subtraction, got matching.
Number three is contrast.
And this is pretty broad idea here.
But this is where we can call back to that first
mental image we had of the web in intent.
And we can as individuals or as a band together think okay.
Where are we moving on that spectrum?
If what we're doing is fairly, I don't want to say boring.
But common or boring for us, sure boring.
Maybe one of us needs to take a step in some direction.
Maybe we all need to take a step in some direction.
Maybe we need to move in different directions
on the same scale.
So let's explore this idea a little bit.
One that I have in mind here is
the difference between busy and empty.
Because everything being busy is just gonna be
a lot to handle in most cases.
Which isn't bad, it has it's place in music.
But what I think is really nice,
is one of my favorite vibes is when the drums
are quite busy and the rest of the band is just playing
longer, prettier sustained things.
So let's embody that contrast between us
and we go different directions on the spectrum here.
And see what it sounds like.
Ready?
- Same thing?
(laughing)
- One, two.
(music)
Now let's see what happens if we switch those rolls.
Or if, here's a better idea.
Tie in what we talked about with the last two actually.
So we're thinking about the different frequency ranges
here in the drum set.
What if we say high end stuff?
Or say high frequency stuff.
So high notes are busy, low frequency stuff is simpler.
- Cool.
- Cool.
- Let's try it.
And I'm gonna, I'm gonna start simple
and let them blaze their own trail.
And then I'll jump on board there.
(mouth music)
One, two, three, four.
(music)
Sick, sick so.
Clearly Asher's focusing on higher parts.
They're moving more quickly, they're active.
It's doesn't mean it's insane like shredding
and soloing, right.
It's a beautiful part but he's just playing
at a higher subdivision.
At a faster subdivision.
Jed's holding down a beautiful line.
My kick drum is just going one.
Maybe something else but mainly just one.
And then the idea that came to me
and I think is worth mentioning is that
with adding these upbeats on the high drum.
(mouth music)
Cause remember we're on a sliding scale
from empty to busy.
So moving towards busy doesn't mean
immediately shedding chops.
Right, so one step more busy on the high end of things.
So like the high notes like we talked about.
One step more busy is just adding somber notes.
So in this case, those upbeats.
Cause initially in my mind I was thinking okay,
I got to add some crazy stuff here.
But it just felt,
like what Asher came in with was so cool
and needed to just be a feature.
So I was like I should definitely stay clear
of playing anything melodic because that's covered
and that's very cool.
So for me it was just okay.
I'm just gonna add one more texture here
that makes it a little bit more interesting here.
And it makes the, I don't know how to word this.
But the digestible content a little broader right.
Just one more thing to hear.
Which just adds a little bit more interest
to the whole equation.
So yeah, yeah.
- Very cool.
These were all tools that you guys use actively
when you're writing in the shed room
or in you're practice room or wherever?
- Definitely and it's not like we came together as a band
and we were like here are our set of rules
that we follow when we're creating.
A lot of it becomes instinctual at a certain point.
And that's personally why playing with Jed
and Asher is so musically rewarding
because they are listening and they are aware.
And whether we are thinking of now it's time
for a subtraction method or not.
Sometimes it just feels like okay, this needs space.
Like there's too much tension built up.
It needs to just dissipate now.
- Right.
- Those kinds of things are really important
when you're dealing with other musicians.
- Very cool.
- Yeah and I still maintain that one of the coolest things
that you can do is drop out.
And if you're in a band or you jam
and you're thinking man if I drop out
everybody is gonna stop playing
and they're gonna look at me.
That's pretty easily avoidable.
You just go hey guys, if I stop playing keep going.
Before the jam and then you're good.
- Right.
- And that could just be the coolest thing you guys do,
you know what I mean.
So yeah.
We've got subtraction, contrast, matching
and the next thing I want to talk about is
using a less common rhythm.
Now, this is a fairly.
That's a pretty broad statement.
Like use less common rhythms.
Like what would be the common rhythm?
I mean that's gonna be different for everyone.
But all I'm really asking you to do is pay attention
to what you always do.
And what everyone else always does.
And just register it as okay it's not good or bad.
You don't have to continually play
new patterns constantly.
I was once obsesses with not repeating myself.
That's a depressing path to go down.
But just know what you always do
and start to tune in to what your band mates
or your fellow musician.
Your friends that you play with, what they always do.
So that you can.
Only so that you can push yourself
and them into new territory.
I told this story in the course we did but
there was a band that I was in previously
where one member of the band brought a lot of the ideas
to the table for the writing process.
And then we realized at the end of a four song EP
that all of the songs were within two BPM's of each other.
So that's a classic example of people having habits
and they're not necessarily aware of.
And that's a perfect opportunity for someone like you
who's a little bit more in tune with those things
to say huh.
That's really cool.
To add some significant variety to this album.
Why don't we slow those chords down 20 BPM
and now we're in territory
that we've never wrote in before.
And some people will love that.
Some people will be resistant to that
because their chops may not work at a different tempo
that they're not used to.
But it's just an important thing to do.
So in the same vein as drummers we all have myriad habits.
And when I talk about playing unique rhythms.
A great example to start with is if you ask
a 100 drummers to just play any groove.
Like 90 of them will play.
(drums)
Something that starts with that.
Because it feels good to play something
we learned early in drums.
We put that kick drum before the back beat
so we don't have to put a ghost down.
There's a lot of reasons that it make sense
but it's important to know.
Okay, that's the most common rhythm in music.
And give me 10 guitar players,
singer songwriter guitar players
and bring in a song.
And they usually start with.
(mouth music)
Right, like some rhythm of that sort.
A couple dotted notes in there.
So even just identifying that alone is huge because okay.
Let's not play that rhythm, let's play any other rhythm.
And then we're good.
And then the other thing,
I didn't want to talk about this here right.
Okay yeah, perfect.
So, well before we go to that.
So there's that.
Be aware of what there is and what you always do
and try to move away from it if necessary.
And then there are just.
I recently just stumbled upon this treasure trove
of patterns that are all super cool.
Inspired by a friend of mine named Ian Barnett
who's a great drummer and everyone should check out.
He's really into this type of music called Footwork
where there's a lot of like.
(drums)
There's always really active kick work
in these really odd kick pattern rhythms.
And what I've realized in analyzing some of it
is that a lot.
If you just take this pattern.
(drums)
And permutate it on a grid.
You're gonna have seven patterns that you
probably have never ever played weirdly enough.
And that are fairly simple to understand
but make what you're doing sound super unique.
Right so the first permutation is.
(drums)
The second one is.
(drums)
And so forth, they're all pretty cool.
But you can imagine if you take
the right hand of a paradiddle.
Just the first four notes, start shifting that.
You're gonna have the same phenomenons and be like oh.
These are rhythms I don't usually play.
And then in line with that
I want to throw in this idea of extending your phrasing.
So this is another.
This is another one of these, in my opinion, magical tips
that just all of a sudden.
Like you have so much more vocab
than you might have realized.
I want to demonstrate this point in six eight actually.
So if I'm playing in six eight all I want you to try to do.
The next time you play drums or with a band
is don't hit one every time.
It might be worth practicing a couple of times
before you go in with a band.
Don't hit one every time cause six eight
is one of the those things that we're all like.
Yeah, I'm cool in six eight
and then you start playing in six eight
and you know two grooves.
And you just can't escape them.
And what we realize is that.
What I realize in listening to a lot of people do this
is that it's really hard to not hit one in six eight.
Because we need it.
We need to know where one is
because it's an odd time in my opinion.
You know for a four you don't need it.
It doesn't matter we all know where one is
but if I start playing six eight.
I can be as creative as I possibly can
and if I keep hitting one it all kind of sounds the same.
Listen.
(drums)
So no matter what I do it feels like
it's just the same thing
because you only have six beats to work with.
If I only hit one every other beat
listen to how much it opens up the space.
(drums)
Then you can say okay if I hit one every four bars
now I have a four bar phrase.
(drums)
Cool right?
So that is just gonna open up a whole bunch of doors
for you creatively because not only will you now have
more than twice as many options of melodies to play.
Your band mates will have so much more space to work with.
Way less limiting.
- Cool.
- That's all I got for that one.
- No that's a great plan.
I just love being aware of what you commonly play
but also what your band also commonly plays too.
Their go to licks, their go to rifts that they do.
It's not just you in the band situation
that you got to worry about sometimes.
It's the whole band, the whole song.
- And what's so cool which you'll find as well.
If you play with any musician and playing one on one.
Like jamming one on one is one of my favorite
things to do because there's no limits.
If there's three of us we have to determine
what the chords are and kind of follow each other
down whatever path we're gonna go down.
And things have to be made a little bit more obvious
so that people can catch them.
But if you're one on one drums and an instrument
that plays harmonies and melodies.
Then they can go anywhere they want to go
at a moments notice.
Alright and you can go
or push it anywhere you want to go at a moments notice.
Yeah the art of reacting to people
and just listening is at the core of everything.
So yeah, that's that.
The next tool which we've kind of hint to that here
and there throughout this is establishing rolls
and changing rolls.
And maybe changing rolls away from something
that's very typical.
The typical rolls, drum set keeps the beat.
Plays the back beat on two and four.
Plays the kick drum that matches the bass.
Bass plays the root notes rhythmically that match
the guitar part who's playing the chords
or taking a solo or something.
Those are the super standard rules
and again they exist for a reason.
Because when we start playing we need somewhere to start.
We need some kind of guidelines.
But at some point in your playing
there's a point where you can start to think like hmmm.
I don't know if I need to do all these things all the time.
And there might be some gold
just on the other side of that mountain.
Lets play a little bit of Gorbis.
That's a good example.
- So you mean just establishing the rolls
or changing the rolls up you're talking about?
- Changing the rolls up and sorry let me explain something.
So this song you'll hear Jed play the chords.
Like Jeds part is very much like
what a piano or guitar might more typically play.
Asher essentially turns into a percussion instrument
and I'm playing.
To call back to the tool that we just talked about
playing more unique rhythms.
I'm playing some fairly unique rhythms
and it's actually one of the ones I was just talking about.
Permentating that.
(mouth music)
One of the permentations is the root of my group.
- Cool.
- And then within the drums we can sort of
nerd out drum lines for a sec.
The rolls here are usually high hat keeps the time
like I said standard drums to two and four.
The only rule that I'm really breaking kind of hard here
is that the right hand is actually
gonna play a secondary melody.
At least that's how I see it underneath what Jed is playing.
So it will be.
(mouth music)
On the tom.
So the orchestration is weird.
You're kind of keeping time on the tom
and it's rhythms that you don't usually hear.
And it can be seen as a sub melody
to the more important one which is what Jed's playing.
- Alright, let's hear it.
- Yeah, yeah just an A.
Let's just hit the A.
(music)
You were right.
- Very cool.
- Yeah and then Jed 5,000 that's a good example too.
- Sure.
- Yeah, let's play Jed 5K.
- Okay.
- Cause again here, this is a song seed that we're
working on for our next album.
But again Jed's handling.
Jed's actually handling a lot here.
More than bass typically does.
He's kind of handling the melody
and a lot of the rhythmic responsibility
in the beginning too.
He's really like in a sense like 80%
of the music going on here.
And then Asher and I are really just sort of
more textural layers more than anything.
Asher starts to develop a little bit more than that.
But I'm sort of no longer playing a beat at all.
I'm just a texture here.
So I'm thinking like stay out of the way kind of
and at least to maybe have it build a little bit.
But yeah, let's try that.
This one's in five in case it's a little weird
in the beginning.
(music)
(laughing)
- Nice.
- Yeah so I mean that leads into other things in the song
but we can call that back to the web in intent there.
And I'm thinking on the soft to loud scale
I'm extremely soft and only getting a little bit
louder as it builds.
And then I'm adding a little bit of
business as we go here.
I'm moving like this direction.
Asher is kind of doing the same thing
and Jed is really just holding it down.
But yeah we switch rolls up in a way that
I think is sort of fresh.
I mean you can offer a fresh perspective
if you're doing that.
- And not only just within the band switching rolls
but even we talk a little bit more in the course
which if you guys.
We'll be releasing soon on Drumeo inside the members area
but it talks about this more in depth.
About even the roll as a drummer.
You know with the rolls of what your hat
and your bass drum and your snares should do.
So it's a very cool tip.
Experiment with that next time you're with a band.
Switch up those rolls.
That's how creative unique songs come up.
So they're not all the same, right.
- Amen.
- Cool, one more tool you got you said.
- Yeah, the last one is a quick one.
It's seek inspiration.
And it seems a little obvious
but I think is what's important to mention here
is that seeking implies making some kind of effort.
A lot of people sit and think that inspiration
will just strike at some point.
And you've seen time and time again.
If you have friends waiting for that to come
it really doesn't come.
If you only act in moments where you happen to be
super stoked for no reason then
it's going to be few and far between the opportunities
that you have to create something.
So what you're doing when you're seeking inspiration
is looking for something that lights the fire in you.
So not waiting for it to come but actively seeking
the things that make you excited.
There's a little bit of.
The only thing I wanted to mention about this is
seeking inspiration doesn't mean you're
coping people's ideas.
There's a song in the first album of ours.
The first song called Don't Own Them All
that was inspired by a Zenure Abino song
that sounds like nothing like what we were doing.
But me and Asher were jamming that day
and he was like man listen to this cool song, check it out.
And we listened to it and it was indeed very cool.
And the next thing we played was the seed that
turned into the song.
And thinking back to that song.
It's really like the tone.
I mean what was it about it that stuck with us?
- It's just like interesting rhythm unison line
and then a couple displacements here and there.
And just like balls to the wall rocking in there.
- Totally, totally.
And it stick out to me too.
Like the sort of tonal indie tone, you know what I mean?
It is definitely a indie vibes of the song.
And we didn't, all we took was sort of the tone
and this idea that there's rhythms
that we're playing together made something
completely different.
- So it is cool to have that in a duo setting.
- Yeah.
- Cause everything else is just Herb rocking it out
on keys and the drummer.
- Yeah it's a duo as well.
Yeah, that's really relevant too.
I'll let you listen to the album there
because we don't have that much time.
So we won't play that one.
But seeking inspiration is the last tool.
And doing it actively and then taking
whatever you find super inspiring
and saying what are we gonna take from this?
You can't take all of it.
But you can take the tone or you can take the rhythm
or you can take the harmony.
And you can take whatever,
you can take a piece of it and slow it down.
Or it could be at a tempo that you just never play at.
And you're like well let's write something at this tone.
That's cool it's got this high energy vibe or whatever.
So seeking inspiration is the last tool left.
- Love it.
Tons of great tips there.
And the cool thing about it is just watching you
is this is all kind of improv.
A lot of the stuff, the jams you guys threw at them.
You can even see them talking through
what chords you're gonna play.
So it's cool seeing just from an insiders view
of how you guys kind of work.
And how these tools fit in with the band
cause you know one thing that we do at Drumeo
is we teach these drummers how to play the drums.
But you need to take that to your band
and create music with them.
And that's why stuff like this is so valuable.
And you know all the stuff that you were just talking about
even if you just take one sliver of that
and just apply it to yourself as a drummer.
And then maybe into a band setting
and you can go so far with it.
Do you guys want to jam something out for us?
While we're talking about that.
- Just gonna make some stuff up here.
Yeah, see if we can.
- This is not a job,
this is something you're just gonna make up I guess.
- We're gonna make it up right now.
See if we can practice what we preach here.
- [Man] Let's do it.
(laughing)
- And again guys, Childish Japes, the name of the band.
Check out their full album.
The first song that they played was on that album
and they're also gonna close out with one of those songs
on their album as well.
But this is just an improv jam.
(music)
(clapping)
Very well done guys.
- Nice yeah, thanks.
- That sounds great.
- Maybe it could be cool to, there was so much going
through my head that I was like it would be nice to
tell them what we were thinking right now.
While we were doing that.
Maybe we could do that.
- Briefly, what was going through your mind?
- I mean a lot of the things we talked about
and then a lot of tools that I really briefly mentioned.
Like building tension and building suspense
and then some kind of release.
And as a drummer one thing that I am usually conscious of
and was hyper conscious of there
is committing to the instruments that you're using
and letting that become the sound scape.
So the last section ride, kick
and snare with high hat keeping time.
So every sound I add to that requires more CPU power
for you to process.
Which sometimes is good but in this case
I just want to create this layer of intensity
that isn't taking a whole lot of your attention.
It' just making you feel a lot.
So I'm committing to these instruments
and just sticking with them
and seeing what I can do with them.
Then there was another thing that was worth mentioning
when we talked about subtracting.
I remember a part where Jed dropped out
and I was quite busy and Asher was playing.
And then there was a moment where I know Jed was
coming in cause he looked like he was coming in.
And when Jed came in I dropped out for just a moment.
So just on one.
It was like.
And what that does is it highlights the fact that
he is entering, right.
So we're sort of shifting the spotlight in a sense.
And all these, there's an infinite number of things
like that that one could consider.
And you don't have to be overly cerebral about jamming.
It's supposed to be fun at the end of the day.
But the more you do it and the more you
think about what works and what doesn't work.
The more you'll have these ideas.
These ideas like at the ready.
That are useful.
- That's cool, just diving into your brain there
while you were doing that.
That's a really cool benefit for us to watch
and that sounded really cool.
Sounded like you guys rehearsed that before, right.
So that was really cool just to see you guys
improv something that comes together like that.
Do you have any last minute tips?
We're almost at our time here.
- Any last minute tips.
Is it a choice between one more song and tips?
Or can we do both?
- No, we're doing both.
- Alright well quick tips.
The last things I wanted to tell people.
If you're jamming, if you're playing with people
don't be afraid to make big changes.
Just go ahead and change the time signature
and the tempo and just stop playing.
So some crazy stuff because there's a real tendency
in jams to kind of go uhhhhhhhhhhh.
And peter out.
So it's okay to do that.
The next thing avoid lam grooves.
I know that's extremely general but
avoid the grooves you always play.
Try to get creative, try to break the rules.
You don't have to avoid this
but if you're trying to write with a band.
Maybe avoid 10 minute guitar solos.
Cause that's not typically productive part
of the writing session.
People just get stuck in their groove
and someone starts soloing and you're like.
Well, I guess we're soloing now.
You don't have to do that.
Another thing is end the jam.
There's so many times in my life
where all the good ideas were right at the beginning
and it was a really cool thing.
And it built up and it was perfect
and it was ready to be done.
And then like 10 minutes later we're still playing
kind of like BS stuff that we thought might be cool.
We're just kind of out of ideas but no one's
got any conviction to end it.
End it when it's meant to end.
You can just stop playing and be like that was cool.
(laughing)
And the last thing is which was an idea
that Asher brought to my attention a while ago
when we were writing was to try to improvise a song.
And try to consciously play an A section
change it to a B section.
Remember what the A section was and go back to it.
And have some kind of song form.
And you know at the end of one or two or three minute song
end it and you'd be surprised at how good you are
at writing songs when you do that.
Think that's all I got.
Anything else?
- One kind of general thing to always think about
and you touched on it a little bit with the contrast.
But a great teacher of mine once said
always think about what you're creating the need for.
Like if you're doing one thing for a super long time
that creates the need to do the opposite of it.
So that's always a directional thing that you can do.
Create the contrast within your own part
and also think as a producer
which I do a little bit of as well.
Try to think about the bigger picture
and if this one five has been happening washy let's say.
Then try to do tight afterwards.
You know, create that contrast.
Bold moves when you're improvising, it's the same thing.
- Awesome, well thank you so much guys.
This is great.
Just hearing you guys play and hearing your insights
and you Asher as well and Jed your playing
on the bass is great.
He was in here jamming before we were live on the drum kit.
He's a killer drummer too.
In fact you guys are all great drummers.
- Can't complain, can't complain.
- Yeah all Berkeley students.
I guess that explains it right.
- At Berkeley you learn drums.
Everyone learns drums.
- Start with drums and you're good.
(laughing)
Anyway thank you so much.
You guys if you're watching this live.
We're trying to have like get more
into the musical side of lessons.
We do so many lessons on paradiddles and technique
and all that kind of stuff.
We're trying to bridge that gap with music.
We have two sister sites,
I guess you can call them sister sites.
You have pianote.com which is all about the piano
and guitareo.com also known as Guitareo.
Both of those are very similar to what we do in Drumeo
but they share so many similarities.
So I'm glad you guys can come here and share the songs
to Drumeo and if you guys are guitarist
or you know any guitarist friends.
In one hour from now if you're watching live.
On guitareo.com our YouTube page Asher is gonna be live
with the band Childish Japes and their gonna do
a whole live stream with a lesson on chords I believe.
- Yeah and a little bit of composition as well.
- Chords and composition which is gonna be awesome.
And if you guys are Drumeo members here
and you're watching this in the archive
or you're watching this on YouTube.
And you guys have guitarist friends
and stuff make sure you check that out.
It will be on YouTube eventually
but we have a whole website just like Drumeo for guitarist
and featuring Asher and Childish Japes.
Anything else to add, anything that I'm missing before
we wrap up with you guys?
- That's it, yeah.
- Cool, what was the first song you guys played
and opened with just so we all know?
- What did we play in the beginning?
- Seed 73.
- Yeah that's not a song yet.
- [Man] Working title.
- Oh that's not on the album?
- That's not on the album.
- Oh so you got a sneak peak of something coming up.
- Yeah, that will probably be on the second album.
- Very cool, very cool.
Well, be sure to follow Childish Japes online.
Make sure you follow JP Bouvet
and I forgot to mention this
but JP Bouvet has made quite a name for himself.
He won the Guitar Center drum off in 2011.
Amazing, amazing video.
Check that out.
You also play with some heavy hitters.
Let me just refresh my memory on the name.
Sorry, Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde and Tosin Abasi
from Generation Axe.
You play with them quite regularly
on tour with them all the time.
So you've gone quite a long way
and I've been following you for quite a long time
so it's an honor to have you here.
- I appreciate that.
- Awesome, okay.
So I'm gonna stop talking.
I'm gonna leave and I'm gonna get you guys to play
one more song.
What is this song called?
- I came up with it yesterday.
(laughing)
- Oh this is not on the album either.
Oh man.
- We're kind of really committed to the creative process
so whenever we can be playing new things
and creating new things that's what we're trying to do.
- Put your money where your mouth is.
I love it, I love it.
Well, we're gonna hear them jam one more tune.
And if you guys are watching online
check us out at Drumeo.com.
Sign up we have a whole course that dives into this
from more of a drummers perspective
on creating unique grooves.
It's really cool.
And with that being said.
Play us out.
(music)
For more infomation >> Co dziwi Polaków w USA (cz.II) Stranger things for Poles in USA - Duration: 16:00. 
For more infomation >> 5 Essential nutrients for a healthy diet - Duration: 3:13. 
For more infomation >> Perfect BB cream for Oily | Acne Prone Skin? LEGENDADO - Duration: 8:33. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét