Latin Percussion Trio

        It's not every day when you have three of the greatest percussionist in the world be together in one place, let alone in the same band. In Carlos Santana's song "Jingo" there is a lot of percussion happening throughout the the whole thing and by a lot I mean A LOT! Now if you think that the selection having a lot of percussive instrumentation was cool, what if you were informed that Raul Rekow, Karl Perazzo, and Dennis Chambers were the ones playing those percussion parts. I'll give you a few seconds to process this........you done?......ISN'T THAT FREAKING AWESOME!!!
 
       What you are about to watch is the "Jingo" Live at Montreux and also "Oye Como Va" Live at Montreux. Yes I know I was taking about Jingo but I mean come on don't forget that it's still Santana and it ain't Santana with out Oye Como Va. I hope you enjoy the videos you are about to watch and I also hope you are moving and grooving to the sweet sound of Santana and the amazing latin percussion trio. Enjoy! :)

The Tech Life #2

Here's another behind the scenes look at another great drummer's drum tech. Chris Warren, drum tech for the awesome Chad Smith from Red Hot Chilli Peppers. He gives you a tour of Chad's kit and how teching for him can be awesome, insane, and straight up hilarious!

Lickety Split!

      This is for all you marching people and rudiment junkies. This is called the "Lickety Split" and it is instructed by Emmanuel Deleon. Enjoy!!!

The Tech Life

Behind every great drummer, there is always a great drum tech. What some people don't realize is that a lot of drummers have drum techs and for those who don't really know what drum techs are, let me break it down for you. A drum tech is a person that pretty much takes care of the drummer and by that I mean they are there before a show or a performance and they set up the kit, clean it, tune it, change heads, take it back down, and etc., but the main thing why the drum tech is there is so that the drummer can feel comfortable. That is the main purpose of why drummers hire drum techs. It's so that the drummer doesn't have to worry about showing up before the show or performance and spend a decent amount of time setting up and doing maintenance on the kit because come on lets face it most drummers don't have the patience to do that and we kinda just want to play and not worry about all that stuff.

There are also some benefits to being a drum tech as well. They get to travel to different places and if you get a good on gig the money is actually pretty good, but that doesn't mean who ever wants to be a drum tech will get the top notch gig right away. Every tech has to start from the very bottom to work there way up and yes most like a high percentage of the techs that work for all these famous drummers all started from the shity low payed (probably not even payed) gigs. A good example of that is Sean Bates a.k.a. the tech for Jose Pasillas from the band Incubus and he talks about his experience on what he does and the life as drum tech.

Gibraltar Hardware #1

Don't you hate it when you are looking for new drum hardware or accessories but you can't really seem to find them for a reasonable price. Well thanks to Gibraltar Hardware you can get new sturdy hardware and accessories that will not only work well but that will also make your life as a drummer a whole lot easier. If you are looking for reliable hardware and accessories that will not hurt your wallet then I highly recommend Gibraltar.

One thing that Gibraltar likes to show is there products with you so that way you can have idea on what you want before buying any of there products. In this video Brent Barnett will be showing the different types of clams that Gibraltar has to offer and who knows, maybe after this video you might consider getting some clamps on your set-up. Enjoy!

Taking It Back

Sometimes you just have to take it back and let the masters show you what's up!

Everyone, The Great Buddy Rich! :)

Back and Ready!

My apologies for not posting anything for several weeks. I decided to take a little break from posting, but now I am back and will be posting more frequently. So to show my apologies please enjoy this video of this video of Chad Smith's performance at the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert. :)

Drum Workshop (DW) Candyland V

   DW Drums just released the latest video of their show room called Candyland. They show beautiful, amazing sounding drums. You have to check it out!

Drummer Of The Week

   This Drummer Of The Week goes to Scott Pellegrom! This man right here is one of the greatest percussionists I have ever seen in my life and I had the privilege to see him play and give a clinic at the DW Factory Day in Oxnard, CA this past summer and it awesome and so inspirational. Scott is a world class percussionist and he makes a living traveling the world and playing on records, doing clinics, and playing with world symphonies/bands.

  If I were to describe his playing style I would have to say he is definitely not afraid to take risks which is why I think his style unique than any other drummer. He shows that there are different ways to play drums and make new sounds with things that aren't even in percussion. 

I can't even talk about his playing because I just get the urge to look him up on Youtube and watch him play so I'm just going put below two link of videos of him doing a TED Talk and a jam session with a couple of musicians, enjoy! :)

 Scott Pellegrom TEDxMuskegon 

Live at River City Studios featuring Scott Pellegrom - Oralgami Jam pt. 1 

New Kit Builder

Quick announcement! Zildjian just came out with a new kit builder not to long ago called the Zildjian Sound Lab. It allows you to here and see your dream cymbal set-up so that way you have an idea of what you want on your set. Go check it out!!! :D

 

Drummer Of The Week

 

  This Drummer Of the Week is an awesome upcoming professional drummer name Cobus Potgieter. If you have been seeing my other posts on here you'll probably recognize Cobus in a couple of my previous ones. Right off the bat I want to talk about Cobus's background. When Cobus was six-teen years old he decided that he was going to learn how to play the drums, but had no experience whatsoever, so he basically taught himself how to play drums by ear and tried to imitate drum parts from songs that he liked. Eventually he started putting up videos of himself doing drum covers of songs on YouTube and he became a pretty big hit. In fact he became so big that he was getting multiple sponsorships by companies such as Truth Soul Armor Clothing, TRX Cymbals, UDRUMS,  Samson Microphones, and Evans Drum Heads. But over the years he has made a couple changes. Now he is sponsored by Drum Workshop A.K.A. DW Drums, and Sabian Cymbals. 


  Cobus has also teamed up with Drumeo to make and release lessons called The Cobus Method and right now he's working on another series of drum covers that he will be putting up soon. On other projects he also made his own band called Ventura Lights who are working on doing a tour. 

  Cobus has certainly proven that you can do what you love and can make a career out of it no matter what the odds are. I definitely look up to him as a role model and he always inspires me to want to do better know his background and how much he has progressed as drummer in the a short amount of time. 

   I give my respects to him and with out further-a-dew, with his band Ventura Lights and the music video for their song Superheros, here's Cobus! :)

 

Rhythm In Education

   Now I love playing music and I also try to relate it to other things or subjects so other people can try to get a better grasp on music and whatever other thing they are focusing on. Now I am very big on trying to relate music with school/educaton, even though I'm not really best person when it comes to academics but I love to try to find new ways where I can try to connect the two and try to find similarities and also some type of motivation so that way the person can not only see what the two have in common, but also try to go beyond and explore on their knowledge.

  Remo Drum Heads uploaded this video on Youtube of students doing better in school by taking on a music classes. Not only do they find it fun but it makes them want to better in school so that way they can stay in the music program. Seeing this just put the biggest smile on my face and gave me hope that music and education can work together. :)

 

Quote Of The Day

  My favorite quote ever is one of the main reasons why I still practice and play the drums to this day.

"Practice doesn't make perfect, it makes permanent." - C. Belyea

  Now I heard this when I was in jr. high from my old band director, Charlotte Belyea, now I know she's not the person that made the quote but she is the one that introduced it to me so I'm giving her the credit. If anyone knows who made this quote originally please let me know because I've been looking for the longest time.

  Good Day! :)

DRUM DUET!

Here is a awesome drum duet remix of The Beatles song "Come Together" by Jared Falk  and Cobus Potgieter. It is so good! If you are a Beatles fan then you will love this and if you are a real Beatles you'll probably think they just ruined the song. Oh well, hope you like it! :)

 

Kit Builders

Ever wanted to see your dream kit come to life? Well now you can by playing around with these kit building websites! :D 

Drum Workshop Kit Builder 

Meinl Cymbals Sound Check

Mapex MyDentity Kit Builder

Sabian Set Up Builder

It's Getting Better #1

     One of the things that drummers find challenging is how can we make our lives easier when it comes to the drumset and what we can do to improve it and not really worry about it. Well we are lucky enough to have companies to take that time to make things that can improve our drum life without much stress. One of those companies is Gibraltar Hardware and they are always coming up with new ways to make it easier and accessible for drummers to do things with there set-up or come up with new accessories that they think drummers would like. It really appeals to me when companies take the time to focus on the small things that we as drummers struggle with because it really is the small things that count and if they aren't working or if they aren't working to your requirements then you want to see what other options  out there that can work for you. I will be showing a lot more products by other companies that I feel are a good use or that appeal to drummers, because what drummer doesn't want things easier? 

   I will be keeping up with cool products so that way you can check them out and hopefully you can look into getting a couple of these products to make your drumming life easier. :)

   

Drummer Of The Week

                  Tony Royster Jr. 
 Well if you don't know who Tony Royster Jr. then you are totally missing out! Tony is probably one of the greatest drummers ever and has truly left a mark in the drumming community probably in the past decade and a half. He started playing drums at the age of three and since then he has won the Guitar Center Drum Off (at age 11), he performed at the Grammy's (at age 15), getting multiple sponsorships, working with some top artists, and he is currently on tour with Jay-Z. He even has a couple DVDs out like Pure Energy and Evolution. So you can defiantly see that he has accomplished a lot in the short time he has been in world. 

  If I were to describe his style of drumming it would defiantly be fusion, hip-hop, and just insanely bombastically musical, and the last description I feel is right on point and the people who have ever seen him play would probably agree with me. 

Just talking about him makes me want to just go on Youtube right now and watch him play so I'm just going to stop and just let you watch the videos I have below

   ENJOY! You can thank me later. ;)

 

 
   

Drummer Of The Week

 

Billy Kilson

  Awwww man! Billy Kilson is one of the greatest jazz/ fusion drummer I have ever seen in my entire life. I remember the first time I ever saw him play was when my old band director showed a video to the jazz band last year and it was on a amazing trumpet player named Chris Botti. It was a concert that he did in Boston and me and a couple of the other drummers noticed this drummer in the background playing like a madman. It wasn't that he was going super animal or anything like that, it's the way he poured out himself when he was playing on the kit. This man was moving his entire body, flailing his arms, and was making the most over exaggerated faces when he was performing and I loved every minute of it. I knew that he was giving that 110% when he was playing because you can see it coming out of him when he plays. 

 

  Right now this usually where I would be talking about the drummers style but I can't put it into words on how much I love Billy's playing so I'm just going to set a link to a interview of Billy on Drum Cafe, which is right here. The interview talks about Billy's background, his style, and his experiences in learning on playing the drums. 

 

         

   So with out further a do here is Billy Kilson. :)

 

 

Fede Rabaquino

Fede Rabaquino is a drummer I started following not that long ago and he has definitely made an impact with me. He has shown me that drumming doesn't always have to be so serious. I think with a lot of drummers that go on wanting to do this as a career they start getting more serious ,which is good, but sometimes we just need to stop and remember why we play the drums. From my personal experience I remember I went to this whole serious drumming phase and I was really focusing on how I can become a better drummer. Again that it isn't a bad but I did loose the reason why I played drums in the first place, I forgot on how fun it truly is.   One of the things that really stood out to me that I found out about Fede is that he is a mexican drummer and what I mean by that is he lives in Mexico and only speaks spanish , but that didn't stop him from making drum covers of The Police , Mana, Green Day, Lady Gaga, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and etc. He was willing to take a chance and do songs that he loved that were kind of out of his comfort zone because he loves drumming and music so much and he shows in it in his playing which also adds his own kind of style when he plays. I have so much respect for Fede because he truly knows what it is to have fun for what you love and that is a big part in my book.

     Please subscribe to his YouTube channel right here. I swear, you wont be disappointed.

 

Drummer Of The Week

 

This Drummer Of the Week goes to Dave Weckl. Dave is absolutely one of my favorite drummers of all time! I can watch him play for hours and still be amazed since he is just so good. In my own words I can say that he is one of best fusion drummers and overall one of the best drummers of all time.

I was first introduced by him and his amazing playing around two years after I started playing and I was looking up drum videos on YouTube and I actually clicked on a video montage of drummers and Dave just happened to be one of them. It showed him playing to a track and I remember him doing all this these licks and chops and it sounded really off to me since at the time I was really only into rock/punk music and I here him playing to a latin/fusion track. I wasn't used to hearing any type of fusion music whatsoever, so right away I didn't like it since I was so used to a 4/4 rock beats.

 

 A couple years later once I really started opening to other styles of drumming and music I found another video of Dave and the only reason why I clicked on the video was because his name sounded very familiar so I winged it and watched the video. Once the video had ended I was instantly hooked because since I wanted to become a better drummer I was looking for something that was more challenging than just a simple rock beat. Seeing him play was definitely a inspiration. He is for sure one of those people that I can call more of musician than a drummer since he brings so much musicality in his playing and you can hear it when he plays the drums.

 

 Okay. So I think that's all I have to say for now...sooo....with out further a do here's DAVE WECKL!!! :)