3 posts tagged “drums”

Last night, I was at the dinner table with Mitsuki, going over some math problems. There’s a focus on mathematics in the First Grade, we discovered. To support this, we’re been giving her extra math problems after she completes her homework. We make up these one-minute math tests (20 addition or subtraction problems), as well as some word problems (“James saw Star Wars three times. Then, he saw Up twice. Finally, he saw Madagascar 5 times. How many times did he go to the movies?”).

I gave her a visual-pattern question:

Complete the pattern.
 
square triangle square square triangle square triangle triangle square triangle square {blank} triangle square triangle {blank}
 
Hint: Break up the shapes into groups of four

Well, she didn’t get it at first. We looked at the hint together. Then I divided the shapes into groups of four:
 
square triangle square square
triangle square triangle triangle
square triangle square {blank}
triangle square triangle {blank}
 
As I said them aloud, she said, “Wait, I’ve heard this before.” She was remembering the bilateral move in aerobics wherein the exercise – such as a jab or tilt of the head – alternates sides, in the pattern of single single double (or, left right left left, right left right right).
 
Then, it clicked. “Oh!” she said and grabbed for the pencil and filled in the blanks.
 
square triangle square square
triangle square triangle triangle
square triangle square square
triangle square triangle triangle
 
It was quite gratifying to see that a) she could get her arms around this new type of problem, b) she recalled the musical/dance pattern and could related it to the math problem, and c) she (hopefully) walked away with a new technique for finding patterns.
 
Then, the kicker. What I was waiting for. Before she could move onto the next thing, I said, “Wait, I want to show you something” and I wrote R above the squares and L above the triangles. “This is also a drumming pattern,” and I played it for her.
 
RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL
 
Half surprised, I watched her take it slow and tap it on the dinner table. It was easy for her.
 
“That,” I concluded, “is called a paradiddle.”
 
“A para-diddle?” she repeated and laughed.
 
I’d been waiting years to teach her that, and it took all but 5 minutes for her to get it.

Back in the spring of 2000, I got to play with the lead singer/songwriter of The Smithereens, Pat DiNizio. The Smithernees had their heyday in the Eighties and Nineties with powerpop classic such as "Blood and Roses," "Behind the Wall of Sleep," and "Only a Memory" on albums Especially for You, Green Thoughts and Blow Up. They recorded albums up until 1999 with the excellently and humbly titled God Save the Smithereens. (Their 11 album gets props for alluding first to the original Ocean's Eleven, well ahead of George Clooney.)

In 2000, Pat DiNizio was on a "Living Room Tour," where he'd come to people's houses and play intimate acoustic sets. My buddy John, who is a huge power pop fan, opened his house and hosted a big concert party for Pat. Since John is a musician with lots of musician friends, a few of us were lucky enough to be the "house band" for the evening.

In amongst the chatter, beer drinking and deep-fried turkeys, the house band - myself, my brother Kevin, John, John's brother Gary, and John's friend Jeff - opened the evening with covers of Prince's "Rasberry Beret" and Susanne Vegas's "Luka." Then Pat took the stage.

Pat started low-key, but his set got increasing rousing, strumming out Smithereen greats like "Only a Memory," "Top of the Pops," "Cigarette," "Blue Period," and "Blues Before and After." He's a natural talent, with that gift of showmanship and easy melody.

Then the house band came back on to back Pat. Our set included the Smithereens wonders:

• Blood and Roses
• Behind the Wall of Sleep
• Time and Time Again

On "Time and Time Again," at the end of the pre-chorus leading into the second chorus, there is a 4-beat break, followed by an easy, but dramatic drum fill - a semi-sophisticated change for a 3-minute popsong. But before I get to that, I must note that this was the first and only time we'd played together. You can instantly tell how well you hold together as a band, from the jump. What binds you together is each musician's ability to listen to one another and not space off and blow a change. So keeping your ears open and your eyes on each other helps lock you in.

Back to the drum fill. Being the ham that I am, right during the 4-beats of silence, I purposefully looked away from the band. I think I even rocked back in my seat. I could feel everyone's eyes on me, audience included, everyone thinking oh man, that stupid drummer is going to blow it. But in faux-dramatic fashion, I rocked back in place just in time and nailed the machine-gun snare fill and off we went into the second chorus. Pat, who was in front of me with his back turned most of the time, actually turned around at his next opportunity in between lyrics, and smiled like, yeah alright man.

But I'll gloss over how I blew the cue to end the song. (Not too badly though.)

Playing music in front of people is itself a thrill. But playing superbly crafted guitarpop with the person who wrote it is something else. Pat explained, "This was a way to get closer to the audience." Think about if you were that close to Paul McCartney.

I asked Pat before the show if it was hard being a professional musician. He responded, "When you're doing what you love in front of people [who enjoy it], what can you say?" A stock answer to a banal question, but still. He sounded sincere. 

God save the Smithereens!

More photos on my Flickr set.

Do you play any musical instruments?

I play a drum kit, and can play an assortment of orchestral percussion (snare drum, bass drum, tympani...eh triangle). More interestingly, I'm learning congas. There's nothing like striking a drum skin with your bare hands, but doing it correctly. You can get an assortment of different sounds by changes to hand/finger position, target area, force, etc. blah blah. But the joy is from using much of your body (not just your hand and arm) in the striking motion, getting the conga to resonate nicely, and having that impact travel back up into your body. Do this in succession, and in some wonderfully tasty pattern, and it's as good as... as... pork chops and apple sauce. (What?)