"The Drummer's Diary" - share w. us what happens to you drumming

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Postby ABAKUA » Sun Oct 01, 2006 12:52 pm

Interesting!! Suitcases! Cool. :cool:

I just got home from day 3 of the festival, closes 2moro.
Ive lost track of how many gigs and rehearsals Ive done and with what bands Ive played with, hahaha my heads all messed up been so busy! All good though, I love it and Im very thankful for it.
Heaps of pics were taken, I'll post them up sometime tomorrow once they've all been emailed to me.
We've had some great weather last few days, felt like the middle of summer today, my afternoon gig today had the sun directly on our faces, mmmm 3pm Sydney heat! Working on my tan now!
Awesome day, great crowds, band sounded fantastic, sound was great.
It was our first gig with me as percussion director (my 2nd gig with this band) theres a few little things needed to work out still, but its coming along nicely.
Need to rest them hands for a few hours... til 2moro! More gigs and rumba at the festival afterparty! Lovin it.
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Postby ABAKUA » Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:21 pm

ha! just read back over my post on the previous page! thats some crazy s h i t! :D I think I may have left out a rehearsal or gig in there somewhere! lol. :laugh:
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Postby niallgregory » Sun Oct 01, 2006 3:42 pm

just did a workshop with a group of yoruba women from nigeria .All non musicans , fantastic stuff .They loved it man ! Had them playing some funky afro samba reggae grooves by the end of it :D
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Postby windhorse » Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:40 am

Wow! You guys are the gigging machines! Abakua, you are the working man! Great stuff!

I'm going to see my main teacher this weekend, and it has been a while since the last visit, so I'm really psyched! I've been studying songs over bell and clave on a daily basis since this past summer, and have come a really long way. Just last night practiced with a friend so that I could hopefully hold my own on Chorus today at the Rumba.

As for drumming, I've been working mostly on Tresillo Hocket and Bass-Touches:

The top three exercises are the latest

All the best to you music working stiffs!
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Postby niallgregory » Sat Oct 07, 2006 7:36 pm

sorry man,but what is a Tresillo Hocket ?
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Postby pavloconga » Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:53 am

Sounds like a cut of beef! Maybe the leg portion. :;):



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Postby windhorse » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:44 pm

niallgregory wrote:sorry man,but what is a Tresillo Hocket ?

On the top two exercises of that link I gave, the touches - the "T"s are the Tresillo - (little three) - three notes evenly spread in a half measure. The clave is based on it, and the three main guanguanco notes are tresillo. The hocket of anything in percussion is its opposite, or the hole, or the notes that aren't played.

The Tresillo hocket is really hard for me to play, but I've been convinced by all my friends that it's the holy grail of quinto playing, so I'm constantly working on it.
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Postby windhorse » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:56 pm

So, yesterday went to see the big guy on the hill and have a rumba. My gal goes right for Dave's fat trap kit; one of the two kits sitting in the middle of Dave's 1300 sq foot sound studio. She proceeds to channel this amazing 6/8 rhythm that I think was really a 9/8 since it was three sets of three before she came back around to the snare. I started playing with her on the Tumba and played really heavy on the bomba note. (the first 8th note after the one - just saying it since maybe I don't realize how much of our nerdy terminology you guys know and use yourselves) Dave, our teacher sits at the percussion kit with timbales and bells and hammers out 6/8 upbeat bell and the timbales on the doubles (or ponche). Dusty sits down at quinto and we all just ripped to shreds the most amazing rhythm I've been a part of in a long time! Whoof! It was truely incredible!
I told Lisa yesterday while were there, and several times on the way home that she needs to get herself a kit,, start taking lessons, and be well on her way into drum set life! She was mad at me for suggesting it, but really,, I could see so much talent in her little flurry that I couldn't leave it alone.
Today, she called up a friend about looking into some drums to buy and some lessons..

It was so unexpected! I've never seen her play anything but conga, djun, or djembe...

Cool stuff happens just when you're looking the other way! :p
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Postby GuruPimpi » Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:50 am

Dear guys and diary!

I was away for a looooong time, but nevertheless, I'm here now... :D

It's very nice to see/read that Congaplace, forum and all of you guys are having fruitfull musical and successfull lives. Hopefully I'll soon have my i-net conection back so I'll be joining you with the debates more often.

Past fw months were crazy for me, not a lot of gigs but intensed anyway. I had some medical problems, musical chllenges and now it's wide open.
With january I'll have new job, more convenient and challenging.

If everything will be fine, my band's record will come out in 3 weeks. I'm very ery happy with that fact, we got ourselves a record company and in two weeks i got offers to play with 3 projects (big mixed choir (singing and playing the covers of TOTO, Alman Bros, Hair..., funk disco band and the percussion project) Really happy and eager to do it all good)

I decided to buy skins from Isaac for my Woodcrafts, DVD from Johnny Conga....

My life is back on the track, playing and exercising every day, improving...

Just wanted to share that with you.

Groove On and Enjoy Life!

Primoz

ps: Abakua your train has no stopping, that's cool! :D
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Postby yoni » Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:31 pm

Hey GuruPimpi, hey Windhorse, hey all!

Great to see your writings and news around here, also after some of us are away for a while.

As for me, after my beautiful 2 week trip to Hawaii, all has returned to "normal" here. Still play steady weekly at the restaurant in Haifa, outdoors with a big crowd, the only gig like it there. I enjoy best when we go ethnic later in the evening, but most of the material is rock n roll oldies and some blues.

Our same band was hired recently to play a place in the nearby Druze village of Isifya, where, believe it or not, the people wanted American blues, rather than Mid Eastern ethnic styles which I thought they'd want. For those who don't know, the Druze, like Jews, are another people of Mid Eastern origin who are non Muslim, non Christian, and their home is also in this part of the Mid East. Anyway, Samir, a local super blues guitarist and former teacher of our regular guitarist, played that night with us, and we had a blast.

I rarely talk to crowds, but was outgoing that night and introduced our band as the "Druze Jews Blues Band" - at risk of seeming "politically incorrect" - but the crowd loved it and cracked up laughing.
:D

Later the music went ethnic anyway, much to the consternation of the club owner, a Druze, but a die-hard blues buff!
But I really wanted to blow on darbuka by now and not much could stop me. I invited more local players to join, and a great time was had by all.
In the end, it was the musical variety that made the evening.

Did a couple of shows with my friend Amin, and it seems to get better each time out. The man is just a violin monster, not only technically, but with huge emotive sweep as well... the audience was even in tears at times; Amin and I were close to that, too.

Those 2 shows, in a tiny place, may hopefully lead to more - we were contacted next day by "Bustan HaCarmel", a known venue here hosting ethnic music in a Bedouin-like setting, and we hope to get gigs there and in other places soon.

Tomorrow night I bring the "Druze Jews Blues" band to play at "Mike's Place" in Tel Aviv, the most famous blues club there. Amin plans to join later in the evening - last time there he did also. The big crowd was first stunned by the sharp musical turn from "Country Western" to "Country Mid Eastern", but was soon stunned by the music itself. It ended up another Amin/Yonatan duet, and the people nearly tore the roof off the place as things heated up - they wouldn't let us offstage til 3:00 am.

Well, I'm hoping all this glory will soon turn into some steadier and more profitable gigs; both Amin and I have kids to support. And both of us are real greenhorns at promoting ourselves - which isn't easy anyway in the nation with the highest proportion of pro musicians per capita on earth!

But we're havin' fun.

Hope you are, too!

All the best,

Yoni




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Postby Quinto Governor II » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:53 am

Hello to all! I've been drumming since 1999 (wish I had started much earlier in life), and found this forum a few years ago. My user name was quinto governor, however; I believe I only posted once under that name. I have re-registered as quinto governor II, after a lull in Internet service. My first couple of years of drumming were mainly drum circle type of settings. Around 2002 I started buying instructional videos. That opened up a whole new world for me, and after a couple more years ,I became one of the leaders - so to speak - in the park scene where I play. I want to say thanks to all who participate in this forum. It really is a blessing, especially to us beginning drummers. The information and resources found here have no doubt speed my development significantly. When I look back at my development I always recall how prophetic Changiuto was in the video 'History Of The Tumbadora' when he said "technique will come" or something like that. I think he was saying all of a sudden one day it happens, and you have it.( after much practice of course). That's how it happen for me with the slap and the muff or mute. I thought I would never get it, but it finally came. The last year 2 years may development has slowed on the conga, because I have been spending time on other aspects of percussion, timbales, set drum, bata, shekere, bongos , etc.. To top it all of I've been playing with a jazz band for about a year now. Drumming has really been good to me, and helps a lot since other aspects of my life are not where I would like them to be, but its been great and you all in this forum have been a big part of it. There is more I would like to say, but I'm so slow at composing a letter it will have to wait for another time. Its getting late so I will end here for now. Again much thanks!!!
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Postby verticalgil » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:38 pm

in ONE WAY OR ANOTHER WE ALL OWE SOMETHING TO CONGAPLACE.... :ghostface:



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Postby yoni » Fri Oct 20, 2006 8:08 pm

verticalgil wrote:in ONE WAY OR ANOTHER WE ALL OWE SOMETHING TO CONGAPLACE.... :ghostface:

I second that emotion!

:)
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Postby windhorse » Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:28 pm

Dear diary, I'm so glad to have a week off from work! :D Now, maybe I can finally do those little recording projects I've been thinking about. Really been working on singing Orisha songs while playing 6/8 bell! I think I'm at a level where I can start recording and seeing how the voice sounds..
Yesterday we went up to Dave's on the hill, and Lisa fricken rocked on the drum kit again! I can't believe what a natural she is, and I keep telling her so. She is getting her first official lesson this week! :laugh:

And to my conga friends on CongaBoard! You guys are the best!!
Thanks for all your postings about your gigging, equipment finds, and current projects!!
It's so uplifting to see what everyone's up to!!
Lots O Love!
Dave
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Postby Quinto Governor II » Sun Dec 03, 2006 11:04 pm

As we come to the end of another year. Its a good time to reflect and do an assessment of the past year. Anyone care to share how the year has gone for you, in terms of your development. A few months ago I felt the year had not been as productive as my previous few years, however; I now feel more satisfied with what I have accomplished. The second half of the year, I put more time into doing stick rudiments, and was finally able to achieve one of those breakthroughs. The bounce is there now and my speed has increased a little. The timbales are not my priority, but I love that sound so much, (especially when I'm out salsa dancing) that I have to keep dabbling at it on occasion. When I first started studying and practicing seriously I brought a bass guitar, keyboard and roland drum pad. Within the year, I was recording crude songs on the computer, and having a ball doing it! Hadn't done a lot of recording since then, until this year. Tried putting together the different parts to Mozambique and Comparsa, and a couple of weeks ago recorded, as best I could, the bass line from 2 of the cuts on Tito's Top Percussion cd. Now I'm able to put my new found level of speed and stick control to the test. :>) So whats ahead for the coming year? If the blessing continue to come my way, I look forward to continued improvements. Would really like to improve on the chekere. Hope to bring some of my park drumming buddies around to the idea that we can play something structured sometime. Thinking of promoting the idea of a early meeting where we can practice the different parts. Some other buddies that I play with once a month have already indulge me in doing this. They too tend to prefer improvised playing. So things are going great after all. The band is still together, although; we have not had a gig in a while. Recently added Blue Bossa to the repertoire. We are starting to add some pop standards too- I think maybe to have a broader possibility of venues to try to play. Also found a local club that has a weekly jam session. Been going there, although they don't play enough jazz for my liking, and certainly not latin jazz. A lot of vocalist come in and many of them will sing r&b tunes, but there are some regulars who play and sing jazz and bossa nova, so I'm sure to get my fix. :>) Plus, the house band is excellent! Well, would really like to hear how the year has been for you all and if you have had any of those breakthroughs. Thanks!
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