Rich Redmond - "Fly Over States"

Rich Redmond

www.richredmond.com

Greetings everyone from slightly chilly Nashville, TN.  I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing holiday season! It has been a little over three months since I packed up my drums, cats, and wife and moved down to further pursue my drumming, teaching, and writing in Music City, USA.  Although I miss my friends and colleagues up in the windy city of Chicago, IL, it has been a blast getting acquainted with this new fun city.  I have been fortunate and blessed to begin working quickly, most recently playing a Thursday - Sunday comedy/musical Christmas revue at a popular dinner theater in town.  I have also been busy meeting lots of musicians, including an exceptional group of Nashville drummers who's talent and camaraderie is second to none in all the cities I've lived.  Of course, I am always busy teaching skype lessons to some of the greatest students a teacher could have, and I'm excited recently to be adding in students from Europe and Asia!

Nashville has no shortage of incredibly talented drummers...  This city can at times be split between touring musicians and studio musicians, however, on occasion someone breaks that mold, and this month's featured drummer is one such person.  Rich Redmond, most well known as the exuberant drummer for country superstar, Jason Aldean, is a renaissance man of the highest order.  Whether he is traveling the world playing sold-out arenas with Aldean, recording hit records in the highly competitive Nashville studio scene, conducting his C.R.A.S.H. education seminar to both aspiring drummers and non-drummers alike, or writing columns for well known music publications, Rich Redmond always brings with him two things...  LOVE AND POSITIVE ENERGY!  

Recently, Rich has been sharing video's on youtube of himself playing the final takes of chart topping hits!  For a guy like me who's main goal is to become a busy studio drummer, getting the opportunity to watch Rich perform "keeper tracks" in the studio is complete magic. This month's featured transcription is Rich performing the song, "Fly Over States" from Jason Aldean's album, My Kinda Party.  The first thing you will probably notice is Rich's extremely hard hitting back beat akin to the great, Kenny Aronoff.  Redmond places every note exactly where he wants it and completely commands this track from the first crash cymbal to the last.  I mean, even his count-off has better energy then most drummers!  A great benefit of having video is having the ability to take a sneak peak into the way a drummer like Rich uses ghost notes to fill out a groove.  Note to up-and-coming drummers:  Ghosts notes are everything!  When listening to the final studio version on the radio you can't necessarily hear the ghost notes, but you sure can feel them in the way the band grooves, and that's a key reason why this track feels so good.  I tried my best to catch every ghost note I could hear/see rather then just giving you a general map of the song, which I feel would be missing the point entirely.  I may have pulled out a few hairs, but no more then transcribing Elvin, Max, Blakey, or my most recent transcription for Downbeat of Bill Stewart...  I was almost hospitalized! 

The studio is a high pressure situation with time and money on the line, but Rich keeps his positive energy and wonderful personality in check, and in the process keeps everyone smiling and having fun.  This is the mark of an incredible and wise studio drummer.  If you have the opportunity to study with Rich Redmond or attend one of his many seminars, I would absolutely jump on it!  

Enjoy the chart.  The final take starts at 2:42 after Rich jokes about the always cultural Smyrna, TN!  Please note that at the bottom of the page I will include a link to the PDF for your downloading pleasure!  Also, please visit Rich's webpage, it's incredible!  www.richredmond.com.

Final take starts at 2:42 after Rich jokes about Smyrna, TN!

Would you like a download of this PDF, please click here!

Nashville Drummers, Rich Redmond will be conducting an in-store clinic at Nashville's Guitar Center on January 12th @ 1pm!  Come on out!

Thank you as always for visiting... Please "like" my blog and share it with your drumming buddies!  Also, I always love to hear your comments and to connect with my readers from around the world, so please don't be afraid to reach out here or at jeffreyliendrums@gmail.com.

Thanks and keeping rawking!

Jeff

Basic Afro-Cuban Studies

                                                                         (pictured: Horacio 'el negro' Hernandez)

Afro-Cuban music is one of the most exciting, progressive, and complex styles of music on the planet!  Like American Jazz and the music of Brazil, Cuban music is deeply rooted in African culture and rhythm, particularly West-African drumming.  The music of Cuba first emerged in the United States in the early 1940's by way of "Machito and his Afro-Cubans," a group based out of New York City.  A little later, the great jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie teamed up with Cuban drummer, Chano Pozo, to create a fusion of jazz improvisation and Afro-Cuban rhythm, creating Afro-Cuban Jazz as we know it today. 

Because this music has stretched across the globe and influenced nearly every other style of music, it is very important for developing drummers to get their Afro-Cuban "chops" together.  Like jazz drumming, the Afro-Cuban style requires advanced 4-way independence and deep listening to develop an authentic 'feel' for the music.  As educators, we can expose our students to the basic concepts of Afro-Cuban drumming by first developing the various 4/4 and 12/8 clave rhythmic patterns.  Clave is the underlying rhythm that supports Cuban music and must be understood in order to appreciate the composition and rhythms of this culture.  To learn more about clave and it's history, please visit this page.

Below, I have included step-by-step exercises for developing basic 2:3 Son Clave, 2:3 Rumba Clave, 3:2 Son Clave, and 3:2 Rumba Clave rhythms on the drumset.  Please take your time and eternalize the different clave patterns.  As you become more accustomed to these rhythms and listen to this style of music, you will begin to pick out which pattern corresponds with which song.  Please note, a clave pattern can change in the middle of the song and can even change meters from 4/4 to 12/8 at any time, so watch out!  This music is complex, but something that will open up your playing into a another dimension.  Practice slow and aim for quality of sound ,and always, a sense of groove.

                                  Here is one of my favorite Afro-Cuban drummers in action!

Thank you as always for visiting.  I love to connect with my readers, so please feel free to contact me at anytime with questions or comments.  Thanks and keep drumming!

- Jeff

Skype Lessons Are Here!!!

EXCITING NEWS DRUMMERS!!!

If you have ever wanted to study drums privately, but didn't have access to a skilled drum instructor in your area, now is your chance!  Starting September 2012, Jeffrey Lien Drum Studio is expanding its operations to include drum lessons via Skype. 

All you need is a computer with a webcam and an internet connection, a drumset, and a pair of headphones.  That's it!

Each lesson is 30/60 minutes in length and covers a wide range of techniques (Moeller, Alan Dawson, Berklee, etc), style studies, transcription and analysis, chart writing, soloing, 4-way coordination, and Jeffrey's own unique methods to launch your playing to the next level!  

All Styles.  All Levels.  All Ages (7 - adult).  Together we will design the lessons that fit best with YOUR goals!

No matter if you live in Italy, Japan, or the middle of Alaska, you now have access to affordable and professional drum lessons!  Let Jeffrey Lien guide you through his 20 years of performance and teaching experience. 

First lesson is always free, so sign up today! 

Please contact Jeffrey here for rates and information.  See you soon!

 

Nashville or Bust

"Take the first step in faith.  
You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Essential Jazz Drumming Literature: "The Art of Drumming" - Bob Kaufman

I can clearly remember the first time I ever walked into Bob Kaufman's office at Berklee.  It was the fall of 1999 and I was very excited to finally begin my studies at the school.  Not knowing what to expect and a little nervous, I made my way to Bob's office through the corridor of dark hallways in the basement of the 1140 Boylston building.  A few knocks on the door received no answer, but I could hear someone inside...  Figuring maybe Bob just wanted me to come in, I cracked the door and was suddenly blasted with Elvin Jones at full volume!  I believe the song was "Three Card Molly" and Bob was sitting quietly at his desk looking at me with hands folded and eyebrows raised.  Although I was a nervous wreck, Bob looked very peaceful and comfortable in his dimly lit drum space.  As I stepped further into the drum cave I was surprised to see an xray image of a wrist/arm, which was taped crooked against a light up xray screen on the wall.  Written on the xray in permanent marker was the phrase, "Use this!"  I remember thinking, "Jeeze, I'm not in Wyoming anymore!"  Bob didn't turn off the music, but instead sat quietly as I scuffled around not knowing what to do next.  Finally, I found my way to a drum stool and settled in, placing my stick bag at my feet.  I gave him a nervous smile, and he looked up at me and just smiled and pointed at his ear.  So began my studies with master drummer, Bob Kaufman. 

Bob has a very unique way of teaching drums, and in some ways, I was not at all ready for it at that time.  Bob's lessons did not follow the path of methods books like stick control, syncopation, etc, nor were they about applying specific rudiments necessarily to the drumset.  Instead, Bob's lessons were about sound production, relaxation in the limbs, mental focus, and above all, musicality.  No one in my opinion, and I really mean no one, has a more beautiful 'sound' on the drums than Bob Kaufman.  The tuning, the attack, the relaxation in his phrasing..  Sticks or brushes, it doesn't matter.  Just hearing Bob play is lesson enough.  Bob is as deep as the ocean, and as I became very involved in Buddhism during my time at Berklee, I suddenly began to realize that Bob was indeed a Buddha!  :) 

Bob produced two books that should be listed in the hall of fame of drumset publications.  The first book, which was written in 1993 and entitled "The Art of Drumming," goes deep into Bob's concept of 'slow motion swing.'  His theory, and it's spot on, is that practicing at super slow tempos will dramatically improve your sound, time, and overall body motion/tension far greater than flying through a bunch of independence exercises.  Simply, this is meditation through drumming, and the rewards are endless.  Quiet the mind, quiet the tension, and observe and react accordingly.  Again, Bob is deep!  As you go through the book, Bob takes you through various exercises in 4/4 and 3/4 as well as some funk applications, some polyrhythmic concepts, and finally some outstanding transcriptions.  Bob's transcription of "There is No Greater Love" from the great album, Inception, by McCoy Tyner, was a pivotal point in my development and made me fall deeply in love with Elvin Jones.  No one loves Elvin more than Bob, and he passed on his respect and admiration for Elvin to all of his students.

Bob's second book called "Deeper Into The Art of Drumming" further tackles the subjects of polyrhythmic playing, musical phrasing of triplet variations, and more slow motion swing exercises.  In general, "Deeper" goes further into contemporary concepts and features some great transcriptions of Paul Motian, Elvin, and concepts of Jack Dejonette's drumming.

Like all artistic masterpieces, you can find endless amounts of information the deeper you go into Bob's books.  Ten years later, I am still using this book on a weekly basis and all of my students have gained great insight from the concepts that Bob has displayed.  I remember Bob said to me simply, "The students who really follow these concepts and apply patience, become great drummers."  Guys like Jeff "Tain" Watts are proof enough. 

In my opinion, the most valuable part of these books isn't just in the music, but instead in Bob's foreword and instructions in the beginning chapters (presented in both English and French)!  Many of the quotes he comes up with in this section are hanging on my drum studio wall motivating both myself and my students. 

"The Art of Drumming" and "Deeper into...", along with Bob's continued mentorship and kindness, have taught me so much about music and ways to approach my own teaching practice and life.  

Please, do yourself a favor and go get these books!  DO NOT skip over the words and try and tackle these books on your own, or you will miss the point entirely.  Count the exercises how he tells you to count them, and be patient with yourself.  You can click here to purchase.  Also, here is Bob's website for further information.

Book Review: Jim Riley's "Song Charting Made Easy"

First off, sorry to all my loyal readers for my lack of blog posts in the month of March.  At the end of February, I received a nice opportunity to begin working on a transcription and article for Downbeat Magazine, so I've been pretty busy getting all of that together.  However, I need a break and I've been wanting to write a post on Jim Riley and his great book for a long time now.  I hope you enjoy, and thank you as always for visiting!  Last month the blog had close to 2,000 unique visitors!  I always appreciate the nice emails I receive each week, and I encourage you to go one step further and "like" the articles, as well as write in the comments box, so we can help spread the word further.  Thanks!

For those not yet familiar with the great Jim Riley, he is the drummer and musical director behind Country mega-group, Rascall Flatts!  Not only is Jim an accomplished and busy tour/session drummer, he is also a highly sought after clinician and private instructor throughout the US.  Recently, Jim was a featured at the Modern Drummer Festival where he performed along such greats as Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and John Riley.  This accomplishment, among many others, has quickly made Jim Riley a household name in the drumming world. 

My lesson with Jim:

I always prefer to write about personal experiences, and as luck would have it, I had the great opportunity to study with Jim at his home studio in Nashville.  To put it mildly, Jim has the greatest drum/man cave you have ever seen!  If you missed the recent article in Modern Drummer showcasing "The Drum Dojo", then please click here to check out a video tour by Jim!  It's a virtual drummer's paradise!  My experience in the drum dojo was very inspiring and I highly recommend that anyone in the area book a lesson.  Not only is Jim a fantastic teacher, but he is also an inspiring person to be around.  Jim is a drummer's drummer; a musician's drummer; and an all around decent human: a combination of which is rare in this biz, believe me.

I was a little nervous driving down to Nashville from Chicago to study with Jim, so much so that I booked a room at a hotel near his house so I was 100% SURE I didn't have a problem making it to the lesson on time.  Up to that point, the majority of my life had been spent as a classical percussionist and jazz drummer deep in studies at Interlochen and Berklee with some of the greatest teachers in the world, so I was very excited to take a formal lesson with someone outside of those genres.  At the same time, my mind was spinning...  What was this monster of country and rock drumming going to think?  Had all my years playing with singer/songwriters, wedding bands, and cover bands done any good?  I ate a little breakfast, fought through some nerves, and made my way over to the Drum Dojo to find out! 

After a ring of the bell, Jim appeared at the door sporting a Boston Red Sox hat, an instant mark of an intelligent man!  As a professional drummer myself, and someone who is pushing to get to the next level, I had plenty of questions written down prior to the lesson with Jim.  As we spoke, Jim seemed to size me up pretty quickly and we discovered quickly that we had a lot of similarities in our path to drumming.  To me, Jim seemed as hungry as I was to keep achieving and growing, which was inspiring in itself considering his vast accomplishments in the field.  After a good chat about our careers and the Nashville studio/tour scene, we moved over to the drums and played along with tracks from his debut book, "Song Charting Made Easy."  The lesson wrapped up nicely with Jim taking me into his office to show off his amazing collection of Boston sports memorabilia and signature snare from Ringo Starr!  At the end of the lesson, Jim was nice enough to walk me out to my car to sign a drum head for me.  Although the head had been beaten into submission after a string of gigs in Chicago, the ink managed to stick!  Currently, the drum head is hanging in my studio right next to my prized Elvin Jones signature drum head. 

Jim's lesson was great and the perfect combination of information and playing.  I drove back to Chicago feeling inspired as I listened back to the recording of our lesson.  Sure enough, my back beat did need work and my fills needed more clarity.  Hearing the velocity and confidence behind Jim's driving beat both in the lesson and on the recording taught me about a million things all at once!  I haven't left the shed since.  Thanks, Jim!

The Book:  (Click here to buy book)

I know I've given a lot of love to Jim Riley up to this point, but the love fest must continue!  Jim's book detailing the Nashville Number System is an amazing and extremely important book for every drummer and musician to have in their collection.  I can't even begin to describe the ways that this book has streamlined my own work, especially when someone hands me 3 CD's to "learn by Friday".  I know for certain that this method will take whatever cheat sheets or manuscriptis you have used for your rock/pop/country gigs and make you re-think your approach.  Humbly, Jim would probably argue that the Nashville Number System has always been out there and that he just put it into a book.  However, the fact that he organized the information so masterfully for all instrumentalists and featured tons of ear training examples and play-a-longs to help people of all levels, makes it an instant classic.  Honestly, it raises the bar for all of us who are attempting to write our books.   

So is the Nashville Number System meant for every style of music?

No, it is not meant to be used for specific writing of melodies and highly detailed drum parts per se, but this method is perfect for mapping out the harmony and sections of a song, showing all the hits, and getting everyone on the same page.  In other words, you can use it for most modern music, just not to write out symphonies or big band charts.
 

I won't give out specific details from Jim's book because you should pick up a copy, but at the basic level the Nashville Number System uses numbers instead of chord symbols.  For example, if we were in the key of Bb major and we wanted to show a simple ii - V - I chord progression, instead of writing Cmin  F  Bb...  we would write 2- 5  1 ...  If we changed keys, the numbers would stay the same.  Think about that for a minute...

So what's the big deal?

The big deal is that you can write ONE chart on a single page for the entire band, and it is instantly transposable for all instruments in all keys!  Normally if you had a chart in your book and say a singer sits in who couldn't sing it in that key, the whole band would need to do some pretty quick mental math to wrap their head around the new key.  Although tranposition is an essential skill for all instrumentalist, it sure would be nice to have one chart that made all of this easier.  The Nashville Number System totally streamlines the process of writing charts and it is used in high level professional situations on a daily basis.  Sound simple?  It is, but it serves the purpose unbelievably well.  There is much to learn about this system and I can't possibly detail it all in the this blog, you just need to pick up the book.

But, there are hits and breaks in songs...  what then, ahhh!? 

No worries, in the book Jim discusses techniques Nashville musicians have used for years in detailing these charts.  These are universal symbols that any musician/band can learn in five minutes, tops. 

But I'm a drummer, I don't care about chord symbols?

*leaning in*....come closer....closer....  How are you going to communicate with other musicians and understand music if you don't have an understanding of melody, harmony, and chord progressions?  Smarten up buddy, it's time to evolve!  "But, but...Ringo and Bonham...?"  You aren't them!  :) 

Ok, I'm being a jerk, but if you want to be taken seriously and contribute to the writing process in your band, let alone survive studio sessions, you had better get your theory chops together.  It will change the way you hear music.  In the meantime, there are some great substitutes for chord symbols that drummers can use in their charts...  Jim discusses one technique in his book that works well for drummers, and you can read that to find out.  In addition to his method, I like to use numbered bars in each section of my charts.  These numbered bars aren't meant to represent chord values, but instead simply detail the number of measures per section. 

Here is an example chart for your reading pleasure, High and Dry, by Radiohead.  You will probably see a few symbols here that you don't understand, but they will be further explained in the book.  I added in a few of my own symbols that Jim doesn't use, namely a circled number meaning an important crash, but that's just my own thing.  The good thing about this system is that you can customize charts in ways that make the most sense to you...unless of course you are sharing this with everyone as an actual Nashville Number chart, in which case you would need to write actual chord numbers for the band. 

The template you see above is something I developed in Excel so I didn't have to always re-write boxes and lines.  If you would like to Download your own blank template for your use, please click here.

Thanks everyone, and enjoy!

Transcription: Kendrick Scott - Intro groove to "How We Love," by Gretchen Parlato

If you don't know Kendrick Scott, it's time for you to jump onto itunes and youtube and get educated!  Kendrick is one of the baddest young drummers performing today, but don't take my word for it, just ask Terence Blanchard, Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, or dozens more why they choose him for their bands! 

I graduated from Berklee with Kendrick in 2003, but the first time I ever heard of him was the summer of my senior year at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan.  At that time, I was playing in a combo with the great alto saxophonist Patrick Cornelius, bassist Matt Brewer, and pianist Roland Hamilton, and having a great time playing with like-minded musicians.  I remember talking to Patrick one evening and he was going on and on about this amazing drummer from Texas named Kendrick.  He was so excited that he gave me his walk-man and a tape of the Texas All-State Jazz Band for me to check out that night.  Needless to say, I was blown away that someone my age could play so well.  Later, I considered taking my stick bag over to Lake Michigan for a little dip, but I refrained and hit the practice room instead!  :) 

About three years after hearing that tape, I finally found my way to Boston and re-united with Patrick and many other amazing musicians at Berklee.  Before I even hit my first class, everyone I met was talking about Kendrick.  It's fair to say that Kendrick pretty much dominated the Berklee straight-ahead scene with his unbelievable musicianship and performances with Walter Smith III, Warren Wolff, and many others.  I spent a lot of time going to the various recitals he was playing, and I learned a lot just by watching him perform.  What always did it for me was his unique touch on the cymbals and how dynamic he was when interacting within a group.  He was also very good at building rhythmic tension through metric modulations and displacement, and like a magician, he didn't show you the cards until the tension was at it's peak, then BAM!  He is an amazing combination of so many great drummers past and present and everytime I hear him he develops more into his own voice.  He is a pace car for many of us, no doubt, and I'm thankful to have had the chance to learn from him all these years. 

Notes on the Transcription:

The other day I heard a nasty little groove on the track called, "How We Love, " from the new Gretchen Parlato CD, The Lost and Found.  It was a Samba, but it also had a little Hip-Hop mixed in.  Right off the bat I could tell it was one of the Houston drummers (Kendrick, Chris Dave, Eric Harland), but all it took was to hear the cymbals at the end of the intro to know it was KADS!  It's difficult to put into words what that touch is on the cymbals, but it is completely his own and you have to check it out for yourself. 

Note #1: I could have written this transcription out as eighth notes, but I thought that it would be easier for you to navigate the ghost notes as sixteenths.

Note #2: You are going to see some ghost notes on the snare that almost sound like they aren't there, but if you slow the recording down (I had it down to 45% it's original tempo), you will hear each one of them.  I think those ghost notes are what makes the groove flow so nicely.  Try it out for yourself... 

Thanks for the great music, Kendrick!

Download PDF here, Thanks!