DRUMMER CAFE

I just got back to Waco from this.  UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE!!!!  A glimpse of what heaven will be like for drummers....as a bonus, I got to say hello to Bart.

--David

I'll share some of my experiences this weekend ... a little later ... but would like to give anyone who attended an opportunity to share what they got out of it.

As a participant ... I have to say that I was blown away. Getting to hang and play a bit with all these great musicians was definitely a once in a life time experience. I only hope that I get to do that again!

Also ... for any Cafe members who came to the event ... I'm sorry if I didn't get to chat very much, or even appeared to be "distant". I was so fried from the rehearsals and long hours ... I was in a daze for most of the weekend. That and trying to visit/chat with everyone.  

You know the customer is always right.  But now, it has been officially confirmed that:
[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]The Drummer is ALWAYS right![/move]

Thanks for that info, David.  

Doug

Awesome everyone!  Sounds like it was a great experience!
I can't wait for Bart to tell us all about his clinic!

Yeah ... that particular thing wasn't a contradiction. I was referring to when you are actually playing, creating and expressing yourself; Terl was referring to a student situation which is very different ... and important to first learn how it is done on the CD (perhaps) ... then taking it and making it your own.

The only thing that I heard that were polar views was on the topic of secular versus religious musical situations. I think the thing that was agreed upon with all of that is that you have to do what YOU are called to do ... and not look to others for approval. I know that I am supposed to do both; I'm just a musician who happens to be a Christian.  If more people would just focus on what God is telling them to do, and trust that God is directing what others are doing ... we'd all be a lot better off.  

what no pics?  tsk, tsk...  

Well, there were the signs Saturday AM that said no video or audio equipment allowed in the sanctuary...seemed to be mostly disregarded.

I took a couple of pix of the stage using my daughter's camera Friday night before things started.  If one of them turned out, I'll try to get it posted.

--David

I'm looking at the pic with Barts auxillary kit aannnnndd.... oh yeah, there he is- I can just make out a couple arms and is that a receding hair line?

That really is quite a unique setup.  Did you do any drum set work as well or did they call you specifically for the aux. work you do?

Here's a quick description of my set-up, which I played with my hands as well as Blasticks.

Right foot is playing a Ngoma drum (like a Djun-Djun) by way of a pedal. Left is playing some Ghungroos (ankle bells) by way of a pedal and a Gajate bracket.

The large frame drum is actually my tuneable Bodhran, mounted on a snare stand. Tambourine (with head) mounted on snare stand. The "salad bowl" is filled with water ... and I dipped an LP Essoteric Cowbell into the water as I played it, thus bending the pitch.

I'm not "wearing" the Bamboo Wind Chimes ... as it appears in the photo; it's just the camera angle.

There's also an assortment of rattles and shakers ... including my favorite Caxixi ... and an old Chinese Temple Block.

Here's a link for video footage which gives a few excerpts from the composition ... CLICK HERE!

I'll talk about the composition and what I played a little later on ... so stay tuned!

That's called a Bean Tree ... which is made from a type of Chestnut tree I believe ... like a Bendo Seed. The sound is very dark ... more than you'd expect. During the drumset portion of my piece, I played the Bean Tree like a Ride Cymbal ... along with backbeats on the Tambourine and Bodhran.

Ah ... she's just having fun. During one of her solos, early in the night, she spun around ... and even used her foot to bend the pitch on the timbales. Nothing wrong with having a good time!

My seminar was based on percussion ... as you can see in the photos, however my approach was both as a percussionist and as a drummer.

My composition, Heavy Revie, is based on a two-bar melodic ostinato ... written as a bar of 5/4 followed by a bar of 9/8. The rhythm I used, predominantly played by a marimba, was syncopated and in a broken three-note grouping, which allowed me to play a lot of rhythmic displacement and quasi-metric modulations.

I started out playing freely over the ostinato, using only my bare hands, and later picked up some blasticks to move the feel into a shuffle feel with more of a drumset approach. I was using the Bean Tree like a Ride, the Bodhran as a Snare (accents/ghost notes), the Tambourine as a Tom Tom, and of course the Ngoma (djun-djun) like a Kick drum.

With the ostinato continuing, I moved into more of a duple feel, adding the Ghungroos in straight eighth-notes and a high pitched accent (right hand) on the Bodhran playing every other eighth-note (ala Vinnie). This meant that the accents where landing on downbeats for two-bars, then upbeats for two-bars. While keeping this going, the left hand and right foot played the syncopated ostinato ... like a Kick & Snare ... along with the melodic ostinato of the track. Did I mention I was playing to a track I created?

So there was some soloing ... and moving into a more obviously groove which outlined the real meter of the piece ... 5/4 + 9/8.

If the video turns out well, I may share it here. I'm not so sure that it will happen though, because I had to keep turning around to the sound engineer, asking for more track. This broke my concentration, and the performance is not where I would want it in order to share it with everyone.    No fault of the sound people, as it was early in the morning and there just wasn't enough time for all us to sound check the way we would have liked. We'll see what happens.

Oh, by the way, the title of the piece "Heavy Revie" has two meanings. First of all, the title was inspired by the fact that it was a "heavy revelation" to me years ago when I saw how I could modulate the feel against the melodic ostinato. So it's sort of a play on words ... a heavy revelation ... or  ... heavy revie. Secondly, the word revie means to bandy or retort, which is exactly what I feel happens throughout this piece.

Here's a snapshot from some of the video footage I took during our Thursday night rehearsal. You can see a mass of drumkits and percussion set-ups filling the stage; what a mess!!!

Dear friends - soon there will be clips of the Drummers for Jesus event  posted at www.drummersforjesus.com. And then soon those clips will be downloaded and sent to other sites all around the world. I only hope that when that happens that folks will hear what the drummers were REALLY doing there that night. I also pray that many of you will join us next year. Those that came from all over the United States and around the world agreed that it was WELL WORTH THE JOURNEY. All that I talked to personally said that next year they would bring 4 or 5 more people with them. The artists themselves said that it was the most incredible LIVE event they've ever been a part of .. now that's quite a statement from some of the greatest drummers and percussionists on the planet. God Bless. carlos <><