September - Jayson Brinkworth

THE BLACK PAGE
SEPTEMBER 2009
BUILDING A GLOBAL VILLAGE,
ONE DRUMMER AT A TIME
THE BLACK PAGE
SEPTEMBER 2009
3
Drummer Connection
by Sean Mitchell
13
Drumming: The Art of Living
by Jayson Brinkworth
18
Baggage Claim
by Sean Mitchell
21
22
24
Virg’n it Up Part III
by Ryan Carver
Global Educators Database
The Final Word
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Jayson Brinkworth Ryan Carver
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by Sean Mitchell
O
ne night, not too long ago, I was yet again
at a loss for inspiration as another Black
Page deadline loomed in the near future.
I needed an interview that was different, something that showed a whole different side to the
drumming world.
I found that something in Drummer Connection and creator Eric Rosebrock. What I found
initially on the website was a free online drummers’ community complete with pro lessons, tips,
news, videos and much more. In Eric I found a
gracious soul that shared a common belief in a
community of drummers who help and support
one another.
Eric and the Drummer Connection crew have
not only gone above and beyond the call of duty
in creating an online community of players from
all skill sets, but they have also begun to connect
the world of drumming and the players in it. In
this, the era of the global village, Drummer Connection is truly the future of networking.
Eric, let’s start by introducing the players that make up the Drummer Connection team.
Eric Rosebrock, aka Drumfreak, I’m the
founder and owner of Drummer Connection. I am an experienced web developer,
twice published in the field of computer
science and programming. I have a very
strong technical background, and I own a
company called The Web Freaks, INC out
of Kissimmee, FL. My company has several aspects to it, to include Server Hosting
out there.
Billy Ashbaugh is an amazing educator
who is here to share with us his knowledge behind the drum kit, on the road, and
inside the music. He formerly played for
‘NSYNC, Pat Benatar, Britney Spears, and
a long list of other famous musicians. Billy
has performed at the Modern Drummer
Festival, Jay Leno, MTV Music Awards,
the Grammys, the SuperBowl and many
other events. His role here is to educate
drummers by his free online drum lessons.
for companies who run websites, and we
have helped build large scale websites and
their data center infrastructures for sites
such as playlist.com. I’m a bit of a geek
when it comes to these websites, networks,
data centers, etc, and I’ve built a successful company based on my desire to provide great customer service and constantly
expand our horizons. I have an incredible
passion for drums and music, and my goal
is to combine all of those passions together to share a killer resource for drummers
Keith Thomas is our Web Content Administrator. He’s also an outstanding
drummer and at his age of 19, he’s only
been playing for 5 years now, but his ability would quickly lead anyone to believe
that he’s been at it for over 20 years. He
records with his band, To My Dearly Beloved, which just finished their first album
and hopes to be on tour here soon.
Jeffrey L. Cash Jr, aka “Cash,” is our inhouse, multi-talented musician. He’s been
playing since he was two years old; now
he’s 26. He grew up in a Jackson-Fivetype family of musicians who traveled the
world sharing their music, which is mostly gospel. Cash can play keyboard, guitar,
bass guitar and, most importantly, drums.
He also uses a special Talk Box which allows him to sing songs like “Drummer
Connection Soul” which can be found
on drummerconnection.com/playalongs
which is his section on the website.
Joe Brewer is our web programmer. He
and I work closely together as geeks to
build new features on the site. I reached out
to Joe at the end of 2008 and quickly relocated him down to Kissimmee, FL, where
our offices are, and now Joe maintains the
development aspects of the website.
Joe ‘Rotcav’ Burke is a miracle. His role
is to help our social networking aspects
(MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and
etc.). Joe started out a few years back with
his own online community in support of
Blue Man Group fans (www.bluemanfans.com) Joe’s website helped connect a
rapidly growing fan base and proved his
abilities to tie a community of very unique
people together, despite some very challenging health issues he was faced with.
His efforts highlighted him to me, and I
insisted that we find a way to work with
him. A miracle has happened and Joe is
now here in Kissimmee, FL, with us, and
he’s been treating us to many wonderful
skills that he has to share. He’s an absolute
blessing to have with us.
Danilo Maia is also starting on with us.
He’s originally from Brazil and has been
playing for over 11 years now. His style
is incredible and his love for drumming
and music makes him a perfect fit for our
team.
Who can utilize DC? Is it just for working pros?
Anyone who has an interest in music or
drumming can utilize Drummer Connection. Ironically the pros don’t seem to
have many interests in this, but we’ve had
a few dozen celebrity drummers sign up,
some which we have made friends with
and interviewed,. We work to treat all of
Click here to sign up at www.drummerconnection.com
our members/drummers the same, regardless if you’re a pro or not. By all means
we encourage anyone regardless of your
skill level or professional status to share
and participate.
It’s easy to get the wrong impression
about who you have to be to get involved
with us. Frankly, if you’re a drummer or
another musician and you have something
to share, please join us. If you just like
drums and music, join us as well. We’re
here to communicate and help others share
their experiences with the world. All you
have to do is sign up, which is 100% free
and always will be.
How does one fully utilize DC? Tell me
about the features.
Drummer Connection is a social network
much like MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube
and all of the others. The concepts are
much similar; we’re just trying to make it
even easier and most importantly friendlier to use, and much more targeted to
drummers. The best features we have are
your ability to communicate and interact
with other drummers and musicians. We
have a place on your profile where you
can share your videos, audio, or even your
favorite YouTube clips. These sections are
designed to help you.
Some of the features we currently have:
Free Drum Lessons: We have nearly 100
drum lessons to date, and probably 500
more to film! With Billy Ashbaugh here,
we have an endless supply of lessons (Billy won’t admit that but it’s true), and we
really enjoy filming, editing and receiving
feedback from these free lessons. (http://
www.DrummerConnection.com/drumlessons)
Drum Store Search Engine: Where you
can find, comment about, and rate drum
stores you shop at. (http://www.DrummerConnection.com/drumstores)
Free Drumless Playalong Tracks: We
offer these for free, and we even have a
way for you to download these tracks, jam
to them on your drums and upload your
system that is really active. We get new
drummers saying hello and new topics
posted every day. Soon enough, this will
become its own powerful resource by the
amount of interaction we’re seeing our
members put forth. It’s a very cool place!
(http://www.DrummerConnection.com/
community)
I could go on and on about our features
but the best thing to do is visit Drummer
Connection and have a look around. And
remember, it’s all free, all you have to do
is sign up!
version back to the website. This feature is
catching on like crazy and people love the
fact that we have been providing almost 100
free drumless tracks of all genres, whereas
this seems to be a hot item that you have to
pay for on most other websites. We enjoy
giving these out and watching drummers
from all around the world hook the tracks
up and record audio or video and upload
their takes on it. You’d be surprised at the
talent that’s out there every day drumming away in their bedrooms, basements
and dining rooms. This is by far one of the
coolest features we have to offer (so far)!
(http://www.DrummerConnection.com/
playalongs)
Drummer Community Board/Forums:
We’ve taken and designed a whole new
and completely unique community forum
Who came up with the concept of Drummer Connection, and how did you get
started?
I came up with the concept for Drummer
Connection. I have very strong visions and
feelings about certain concepts that come
to me, and I gave this a go. After gathering
a large number of skills and a vast understanding of computers, servers, networks,
and computer programming, I decided
to combine all of my passions together
(drumming and computers/websites). My
company was blessed with success, which
I quickly turned into investing into Drummer Connection. Drummer Connection is
completely funded by The Web Freaks,
INC, which is an independent company.
The turning point was really a few years
ago when I was in Las Vegas as a speaker at
a conference on Web Technology and met
some very interesting people (cast members and artists for Blue Man Group). I be-
came very interested in the unique percussion aspects of the Blue Man Group, and
I had a very strong passion for drumming
and music already. Based on the blessings
our company was giving, we had a very
unique opportunity to start something
new. A unique group of people crossed
paths with me and helped me form Drummer Connection.
What were some of your biggest obstacles in the beginning?
Wow, where do we start? First, we had to
train drummers to be web geeks. Ironically,
that was a major task to overcome, even in
today’s social-network-driven society. The
mentality is completely different between
drummers and computer geeks and getting
a drummer to pay quite a bit of attention
to a website was not a small task and still
isn’t. We would all rather be playing.
After a few months, we quickly decided
we needed a place to produce audio and
video with acoustic drums for the website.
We built our own studio at my house using
an extension (900 square foot block enclosure) on my home. This studio is now
known as The Drum Room on the site
– where Billy Ashbaugh shoots all of his
drum lessons and the crew comes out and
does jam sessions quite frequently with
special guests.
The Drummer Connection crew designed and built the studio mostly on our
own. Damian King (former Drummer
Connection employee), Keith Thomas,
and myself, along with a few outside con-
tractors (friends of friends), pulled together and built The Drum Room – most of
us have never done construction before,
so we applied ourselves and our passion
and learned the tools and skills necessary
to include all of the electrical wiring, circuitry, spray foam insulation, attic work,
raised flooring, and flooring. Everything
was done by us with the exception of the
dry wall finish (Who in the world wants to
do this for fun?) The funny thing is, it all
passed inspection and it turned out awesome!
When we finally got our studio, The
Drum Room finished up, we started filming there and learning the ropes of sound
engineering, studio configurations, lighting, camera configurations, software, and
much more. It was quite an experience,
and it’s an ever-evolving project.
The other obstacle was to work our way
into the drumming industry, so that we
could be part of the business as well as
the fun aspects of drumming. In the beginning, we met a great person and store
manager, John Spinelli, from Seminole
Music & Sound in Seminole, Florida – in
the Tampa area. John saw our passion and
instantly came on board with us by simply
putting us in touch with people he thought
would be interested in what we are doing, thus opening the doors to our friendship with Terry Platt, Division Manager of
ddrum. Terry and John have always been
very helpful to our vision. This is really
fascinating to watch drummers literally
crawl out of the woodsheds and join our
community.
on our website. We treat them as brothers
and sisters and we’ll help out in any way
possible.
We also have studio days when we’re
not at the office. The goal is to have at
least two of those a week where we can
shoot drum lesson videos, have jam sessions, interviews and experiment with the
equipment we have on site. The Drum
Room changes face every couple of weeks
in configuration terms.
On an average day what goes into maintaining this website?
I would say that we scan through the website watching and listening to the content
our users have created, leaving comments
and critiques, and answer a vast array of
questions. On a typical day, we receive
over 200 e-mails between our staff of
people just saying hello, thank you, and
of course asking tech questions, which we
promptly redirect to our community forums: http://www.DrummerConnection.
com/community, where we prefer to answer questions in public because we feel
if you can discuss it openly, more people
will benefit from the time and energy to
answer the questions we get. The responses we’re getting as of lately are becoming
overwhelming, yet rejuvenating as we’ve
been on a long road to get here and sometimes didn’t feel like we were going to ever
accomplish anything. The important thing
for anyone reading this to understand is
we truly appreciate every single member
Where do you gather your information
(industry news, etc.) and how difficult is
it to stay on top of all that is happening
in the drumming world?
That’s a tough one. Information comes
at us from all different directions. At first
we had to do a lot of legwork to get our
info, but now we’ve been seen more as a
valuable resource, and we get the bleeding
edge information sent to us from various
sources. Other than that, it’s just a matter of syndicating some news from other
sites. Our focus is shifting away from
news writing to some other new features
we’re working on.
We’re always looking for news writers and helpers around the site, so if you
want to join up, please contact us. This is a
volunteer position, and if you’re only out
to get paid, then please do not apply. We
view this as a community effort, almost
like WikiPedia, and do not have a budget
to pay for contributions. At the very least,
show your appreciation for what we’re
giving you and simply pitch in and help
out!
What factors played the biggest role in
choosing the layout of DC?
The site has been evolving for awhile now.
Joe Brewer, our new web developer is also
great with graphics and design. He really
whipped us into shape when he came on
board with his design abilities. The funny
thing is we’re nowhere finished with our
designs yet! We’re not here to flash you
with a bunch of fancy artwork and sell
you anything. We’re here solely for the
community aspect, and for the past two
years we have not run any advertisements
on our site, thus keeping it clean and user
friendly.
Our goal– and this is still ongoing– is
to make it simple, easy to use and make
it possible for you to get around as fast as
possible on our site because we all know
that drummers would rather be drumming
and not trying to navigate through a complicated website. So your time is of essence to us and we truly value that.
How can potential advertisers benefit
from a site like this?
I feel the benefit from advertisers is that
you’ll get a real targeted audience. It’s also
been proven that online advertisement is
much more effective than magazine ads
(unless you’re going to spend big bucks
on magazines for full page ads, etc). Not
to beat up any magazines out there, but
internet advertising is simply the easiest
method to connect directly to your audience. A click away is much simpler than
going through the effort of (1) remembering to go back to that advertisement in a
magazine, and (2) relocating to a computer, or picking up a telephone and making
the efforts to follow through with a paper
advertisement.
Say I have a product I want to get reviewed. How does a manufacturer, author, etc. get some face time on DC?
We love reviewing new gear. All that a
manufacturer has to do is contact us and
make arrangements. We’ve done several
smaller product reviews for things that
are new and innovative. However, we’ve
also had some really bad products cross
our desks. Some which were really heartbreaking to see that they just didn’t pan
out. There’s no need to name-drop, but if
your product isn’t what you’re advertising it to be, and you’re afraid of an honest
review, please fix your product and let it
speak for itself before contacting us. We
are very honest here and if something is
crap, we’ll call it crap, if it’s gold, we’ll
call it gold and make sure you know why.
Contact Drummer Connection: http://
www.drummerconnection.com/contact
and let us know what you have to review.
We’ll make arrangements.
What opportunities have arisen personally for you guys since the site went
live?
In April, 2009 we had an outstanding opportunity with Jeff Ocheltree (Billy Cobham, John Bohnam, Danny Carey, Steve
Smith’s drum tech). Jeff, a legend in his
own right, came to visit us exclusively here
in Kissimee, Florida, and he spent three
days on the ground here, and visited our
drum room, and he even brought two of
his Tree Bronze Snare Drums down here.
It was an awesome time and we really enjoyed visiting with him.
There’s a 2 ½ hour video interview we
put up on Jeff’s new section of Drummer
Connection called “Ask the Tree” where
Jeff will do a Question and Answer about
anything related to drumming that he can
answer.
Jeff Ocheltree defined the experience we
want to have with drummers that we follow and have interests in. We walked away
from “The Ocheltree Experience” being
more educated, more open, and more mature, and we have made a friend for life
with him. That’s what Drummer Connection is about. See more of Jefff Ocheltree
at drummerconnnection.com/askthetree.
There are other opportunities for us to
work with some of the greats in the industry, and we’re still working on those.
When we find out their intentions and
make something happen, it’ll certainly be
up on the site!
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Jeff Ocheltree
What about drum clinics? Seems DC
would lend itself well to doing live clinics online even.
Any new developments coming in the
next few months that site users can look
forward to?
We had our first Drum Clinic at Seminole
Music & Sound on May 28th, 2009. Our
crew performed several playalongs from
our site at the clinic to include Billy Ashbaugh and J.L. Cash Jr. doing a live version of “Something about You” by Cash.
We had eight performances, some information about Drummer Connection and a
presentation. The whole clinic was about
2 ½ hours and went very well. We packed
the store very full with standing room in
back.
Our goal is to gain some support for
our clinics and we’re putting together a
media kit right now to send out for support. Perhaps we can start out in central
Florida and work our way around to stores
and chains here giving clinics. Obviously,
we would need to get funding for that, so
that’s one of our current goals, to be able
to do our own clinic tours. From the feedback we got, we put on one hell of a clinic,
and people are interested in seeing us doing more of them!
Absolutely. We’ve got the programmer–
Joe– locked up in his office and we keep
piling more things on him to do. He’s a
kickass developer and our team has so
many ideas, so occasionally, I’ll dust off
the coding skills and get in there and help
him out with busting out some new features. We literally push new changes live
to our website every day. Stay tuned, we’re
just getting started and we haven’t even
touched on 10% of our ideas yet.
We like to surprise our members and
viewers with new features on the website,
and we like to be original and authentic
when we roll these features. Keeping that
in mind, trust me, we have stuff coming
soon, but we have to keep it quiet until it’s
been developed, tested and launched.
Also, stay tuned for our online store for
Drummer Connection gear. We’ve been
getting lots of requests to put some cool
shirts, hats and gear out there, and our
store is being worked on now.
Drumming:
The Art Of
Living
by Jayson Brinkworth
T
his month I want to touch on the
“real” meaning behind drumming. I know a lot of us started
playing with a specific goal in mind–
play in a band, meet girls, money
(not) or many other reasons. We all
just want to experience playing music and communicating on a different
level.
But what about those people who
have no desire to play in a band and
want to play drums for a totally different reason? Believe it or not, there is
a very high percentage of people who
use the drum for many other purposes
than jamming along to their favorite
songs.
Years ago when I realized this, I
had a real hard time wrapping my
head around the concept. People want
to play but not learn all of the complicated stickings and rhythms they
can? They don’t want to play along
with Rush or AC/DC? Well I soon
realized that in my narrow-minded
thinking I was missing the true spirit
of this instrument. The drum is the
communicator, and in Africa it is used as
such. If tribes were to send a message to
a neighboring tribe, it would be played on
the drum. I don’t imagine there was anyone in the tribe who was wanting to hear
a 7 over 4 polyrhythm in 13/8 time. The
pulse needed to be clear and convey the
emotion of the message.
As I have stated before in past articles,
clarity is everything in playing music, and
most times playing this way involves less
notes. Also most of the drumming referred
to in this article is based on hand drumming and instruments such as djembes,
congas, bells, etc.
Let’s look at a few ways the drum can be
a helpful tool in our everyday lives.
DRUMMING FOR HEALTH
Many drummers tend to forget that drumming is a very physical activity. It is also
a very stimulating activity for our mind
as well. I believe that drumming is truly
one of the few activities that stimulate the
mind and body simultaneously. This being
said, there are many health benefits related
to this wonderful instrument we play.
I was given a fantastic book from one
of my students last year that I am really
finding inspirational as I read. It is called
The Healing Power of the Drum by Robert Lawrence Friedman. In this resource he
explores how drumming is used to aid Alzheimer patients in focus and interaction
and cancer patients in dealing with their
illness and recovery. He also has great
stories and research done on drumming
to help with addictions, disabilities, stress
management and many other subjects.
This type of research has been ongoing
for sometime now, and the data they have
compiled is quite astounding. Another
friend of mine who runs a great drum circle
here has done workshops and drumming
events in senior care homes, rehabilitation
centers and other locations that are not
your typical drumming atmospheres. The
reaction and response she gets from the
people involved is not short of amazing,
and I am sure that the 85 year old woman in a wheelchair playing a shaker could
care less about playing YYZ, but feels just
as powerful as the 15 year old who can.
Saskatchewan’s
hippest music school.
Click HERE to visit
www.musicinthehouse.ca
DRUMMING FOR HAPPINESS
It is very safe to say that everyone wants
to be happy in their lives. It is also safe to
say that life will hand us many situations
that will try and prevent this. I have seen
friends turn to drugs and alcohol to help
cope with family illness, tragedy and other
very tough situations.
Music, specifically the act of drumming,
can be a very good healer to our minds
in these trying times. I recall a personal
situation where drumming was my saving
grace at such a time. It was the fall of 2000
and my first marriage had just fallen apart.
I moved out of the house in November.
Around this same time, my grandmother, who I was quite close to all my life,
had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and
was becoming quite ill. Unfortunately she
passed away shortly thereafter, and I was
having a very tough time with all of this
going on around me.
I quickly discovered that music was going to be the only thing that would help
me through this. I listened to the lyrics and
rhythm with more attention than I ever
had before. I also had a teaching space
that allowed me to play anytime of day.
I remember many times when I would
wrap up a night of teaching and be extremely tired and have my mind wander.
I would think about my grandma and my
kids and get very sad. Luckily I could sit
at the drums and start playing whatever I
was feeling at the time, sometimes slow,
sometimes sticks would get broken, but I
If you have ever used a drum
as a piece of furniture,
you might be a drumgeek.
made sure I always laid my emotions on
the line. There were nights when I would
leave the space at 5 or 6 in the morning
because I was totally lost physically and
mentally and healed a little bit of myself
through the drum.
There are many other situations that the
drum is used as a healing tool for depression, high stress occupations, war veterans and even inmates in prison. The act of
drumming is a bit like meditation and can
shut our mind off from the outside world.
And we all need that once in a while.
DRUMMING FOR COMMUNITY
In the origins of the drum you will always
read that it was involved in community
events in the African villages. The drum
has the power to bring people of different
cultures, beliefs, languages and ages together. It is almost as if the world was one
big drum circle, it would be a much happier place. Instead of the old saying “Have
a coke and a smile” it should be “Have a
drum and a smile” because drumming is
an extremely joyous activity.
One thing I have found is that there is
still a gap between the drumset players and the hand drum/world/drum circle
communities. Something the kit players
keep forgetting is that the traditional hand
drums like djembes and congas have been
around a lot longer than the drumset. The
drumset is based on those instruments and
not the other way around— please don’t
forget this.
I have an event coming up this month
that I am hoping breaks down some of the
misconceptions between the types of drummers, making everyone “drummers.”
Myself and a couple of others are putting together a halftime show for a professional football game. The game is sold out
and attendance will be around 30,000 plus,
so the pressure is on. I am putting together 70 drummers from our community for
this event. Some drum on a professional
level, some play casually, some play once
in a while and some might have their first
drumming experience at this event. It is
involving drumset players and hand drummers with more of a world drumming approach.
This event will be a blast as I know everyone will commit 100% to the task at
hand– rocking that football stadium on
that day! The rhythms are not fast or complicated at all, but we will experience a
true community and team effort through
this event.
Drum circles around the globe bring people together to share their love of rhythm
and music, but most importantly, it brings
people together.
I challenge all of you players out there to
explore new areas of percussion that you
have maybe missed or been overlooking.
Set aside your thoughts on playing and try
to view the drum from a position of health,
happiness or community. I guarantee you
will find yourself getting way more out of
your drumming than you had ever imagined.
Jayson Brinkworth is an accomplished drummer,
percussionist, vocalist, educator and writer.
Click HERE to visit him at www.jaysonbrinkworth.com
2010
THE YEAR OF THE LEGENDS
Feature Artists
Scott Atkins
Skip Hadden
Pete Lockett
Danny Seraphine
Liberty DeVitto
Bernard Purdie
Jerry Mercer
Asani, Ed Mann & Bruce Aitken
Paul Wertico
Dylan Mombourquette
Chris Sutherland
Billy Ward
Roxy Petrucci
Carmine Appice
Denny Seiwell
Bill Cobham
Virgil Donati
Alan White
John Morrison
Steve Wilton
Dom Famularo
May 22 - 23, 2010
Savoy Theatre
Glace Bay, Nova Scotia
Canada
Special Guest Stars
Sean Mitchell, Ben Ross, Moe Hashie,
Mark Marshall, Todd Mercer, and The
Pete Lockett Cape Breton Percussion
Ensemble.
Legends Award 2010
Carmine Appice, Alan White, Jerry
Mercer, Roxy Petrucci, Virgil Donati
Ticket Sales
Tickets available from July 1st 2009
Click HERE to purchase online
Click here to visit www.capebretoninternationaldrumfestival.com
BAGGAGE
CLAIM
h e ll
By Sean Mitc
F
or those of us who know the rigors
of touring, many will attest to the
importance of traveling light. After all
who really wants to have a one bedroom
apartment to pack away when lobby call is
7 am? After all is said and done, after the
hours of practice and the years of paying
your dues, when the time comes time to
take what your mama gave you on tour,
baggage can become your best friend and
your worst enemy. Much like the art of
the groove, when it comes to baggage,
sometimes more isn’t better; it’s just
more.
Unless you are Mick Jagger or Paul
McCartney, I am guessing that you have
limited room for baggage in your current
circumstance. Once you hit the big time of
course, take all the baggage you want and
more. There is always someone, besides
yourself, to deal with it. For now, however,
you will no doubt have many other factors
coming into play.
First and foremost assess your current
baggage set up. Before you head out, have
a good long look at what you take with you.
For those of you packed inside hot, sweaty,
foul-smelling rental vans, how much of
your baggage is taking up precious room
in your current situation? The baggage
you bring on the road affects a multitude
of other players; be very certain of what
you need (not want) to have along for the
ride.
Is that an Iron in
your Carry On or
Are You Just Happy
to See Me?
Are there things you routinely bring with
you that you just don’t pay attention to,
but take along out of habit? Maybe it
is time to look at that baggage and ask
yourself, does it really need to collect any
more Air Miles? Often we, as drummers,
are notorious for being creatures of habit
and many times what has been deemed as
a necessity may just be extra weight.
While you do have the right to live in
the level of comfort you have grown
accustomed to, until you get your very own
Sliver Eagle tour bus, there will be some
fat trimming in the ol’ baggage department
on your ascent to drummer stardom.
Keep in mind a tour is a lot like life in
a fish bowl. Every thing inside the bowl
is amplified 100 fold. Only you and your
select comrades are privy to the dayto-day grind of the tour, as those on the
outside continue life as they know it. The
more baggage you bring to that situation
the less water for the rest to swim in, my
friend.
Selfish vs
Self centered
The definition of selfish has been given a
bad rap. To be selfish can mean taking care
of one’s own needs. I need this baggage
to perform at my best, therefore it comes
with and I will keep it from affecting you.
However don’t get that confused with self
centered. I need this baggage to perform,
therefore it comes with and I will let you
deal with it so as to not bother me.
Your bandmates are your bandmates,
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and under normal circumstance you all
have your quirks, but on tour you are all
the epitome of an ecosystem (and a small
one at that). Once one part of the system
breaks down the whole environment
becomes inhospitable.
Stuff
George Carlin, in my opinion, has the best
advice about stuff.
“That’s the whole meaning of life isn’t
it? Trying to find a place for your stuff.
That’s all your house is: a place to keep
your stuff. If you didn’t have so much
stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. You
could just walk around all the time.
A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover
on it. You can see that when you’re taking
off in an airplane. You look down, you see
everybody’s got a little pile of stuff. And
when you leave your house, you gotta lock
it up. Wouldn’t want somebody to come by
and take some of your stuff. They always
take the good stuff. They never bother
with that crap you’re saving. Ain’t nobody
interested in your fourth grade arithmetic
paper. All they want is the shiny stuff. That’s
what your house is, a place to keep your
stuff while you go out and get...more stuff!
Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a
bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff
anymore. And maybe put some of your stuff
in storage. Imagine that, there is a whole
industry based on keeping an eye on your
stuff!”
How much do you need? What is it time
to let go of?
Wake Up Call
Much like the stage, a tour really comes
down to what you bring to the proverbial
table. Have a look at your typical bar or pub
stage. Amps littered with beer bottles and
ashtrays kicking up smoke from neglected
cigarettes. While this is super cool image
carefully molded for the likes of any self
respecting rock act from the 80s, it doesn’t
really lend much to the performance of
said bar band. If you are a pack rat and life
is a rat race, guess what?
Don’t forget when you bring your
baggage on tour, leave some room for the
drum tech, the pyrotechnics and the private
dressing rooms that are no doubt soon to
come. Your altitude will always work to
match your attitude.
For those who have read my many rants
in these pages you have no doubt become
accustomed to my metaphorical style of
writing. While an article about baggage
may seem somewhat off the beaten path
for me, fear not, for I will not disappoint.
Go back to the beginning of this article
and read it again, this time place the word
emotional in front of the word baggage (or
stuff, for that matter) and it all still applies.
Bon voyage!
DRUM TEACHER NEEDED
Music Workshop in Thunder Bay is
in the market for one fantastic drum
set teacher to join our team. Multiinstrumental teachers should also
apply. We pride ourselves on our
quality instructors, deluxe facility
and gear and an appetite for expansion that has seen us outgrow
4 locations in the last 10 years. We
offer a full music store onsite with
a special focus on drumming (including hand drumming) and education. Applicants should send
there resume to:
Sean Jesseau: School Director
Music Workshop
#101-430 Waterloo St. South
Thunder Bay ON P7E 6E4
Inquiries can be directed to:
807-622-1841
www.musicworkshopdirect.com
Virg’n It Up Part III
In the final part of these double bass lessons, inspired by Virgil
Donati, I put together a little 12 bar solo using the patterns and
phrases from the previous two lessons. This is an attempt to show
you how to apply this stuff musically. Ultimately it is up to you to
practice the patterns until comfortable and use them to help create
music. Hopefully these ideas will open new doors for you and help
you to express your own ideas on the drum set.
Ryan Carver is a member of the Academy of Drums faculty, the Vic Firth education team and PASIC.
Click either link below to visit him on the web or to email Ryan your questions and groove requests.
www.carverdrums.com
www.myspace.com/ryancarver
GLOBAL EDUCATOR DATABASE
AUSTRALIA
Dan Slater
Melbourne, Victoria
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.drumhappy.net
CANADA
Thunder Bay, Ontario
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.musicworkshopdirect.com
Hand drumming/kit drumming
Mike Michalkow
Vancouver, BC
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.mikemichalkow.com
Randy Ross
Woodstock, New Brunswick
Contact Info:
[email protected]
CHINA
Bruce Aitken
Marion Bridge, Nova Scotia
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.bruceaitken.net
Jayson Brinkworth
Regina, Saskatchewan
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.jaysonbrinkworth.com
www.musicinthehouse.ca
Adam Hay
Toronto, Ontario
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.adamhay.net
Sean Jesseau: Music Workshop
Chris Brien
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.chrisbrien.com
USA
Stefano Ashbridge
Los Angeles, California
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.drumlessonsinLA.com
Jake Burton
Nashville, Tennessee
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.JakeBurtonMusic.com
Ryan Carver
Brick, New Jersey
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.carverdrums.com
Chris DeRosa
New York, New York
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.chrisderosa.com
Dom Famularo
New York, New York
Contact Info:
www.domfamularo.com
Sean J. Kennedy
Ambler, Pennsylvania
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.seanjkennedy.com
Dave McAfee
Mount Juliet, Tennessee
Contact Info:
[email protected]
myspace.com/davemcafee
David Northrup
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Contact Info:
www.davidnorthrup.com
Intermediate to Pro Level
Mike Otto
Baltimore/Westminster, Maryland
Contact Info:
[email protected]
mikeottodrums.com
Dyrol Randall
Dallas/Fort Worth,Texas
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.dyrolrandall.com
Rich Redmond
Nashville, New York, Las Vegas, L.A.
Contact Info:
www.richredmond.com
Billy Ward
New York, New York
Contact Info:
[email protected]
www.billyward.com
THE BLACK PAGE WANTS YOU
The Black Page is looking for a few good educators. The Global
Educators Database is published every month in The Black Page.
To submit your contact info to our database, email Sean at:
[email protected]. Listing is free for all pro/semi
pro educators. Please provide reference material to be considered.
“Live for yourself -there’s no one else more
worth living for.”
Neil Peart