All About Custom Guitars - What no drums???? (Must read)

I just had to share this info on my blog. One of ma bro's Garren who used to play guitar recently in the last few years found his way into making acoustic guitars and might I add they look amazing and sound fantastic!

Now this isn't just something that you one day decide to do. Garren has had his own workshop for his own business for over 20 yrs and is a true craftsman when it comes to wood. Do me a favour and just read who he made a guitar for and look at his link on youtube so that you can see just what it took to make this masterpiece. Totally awesome and Garren deserves all the recognition he gets from this type of work.

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Loucin Guitar Co.

Serj Tankian (System of a Down singer/musician)- Empty Walls (song)

Loucin Guitar Co./Garren Dakessian. I approached Serj Tankian eight months ago. I wanted to offer him a hand-crafted custom acoustic guitar. After a few emails conversations & sorting out of some details, I started designing & building. This was a true labour of love, as I had wanted to make him ..."

The making of Serj Tankian guitar

Dance Music - What's Up With That?

I know I haven't posted anything in quite a while but I have been rather busy. Between going to see the Gypsy Kings at Casinorama (BTW a must see!!!) and listening to completely different styles of music and playing gigs. I really went into an area of music that I had no interest in, why? Well I thought that this particular genre quite frankly "bored the arse out of me". So I wanted to know more about dance music, types of artists and why I really didn't like this particular style.
So the only way that I can get to know about how anything works, feels, sounds is to immerse myself.
Yep I downloaded both Cd's of Lady GaGa which to me was one of the most interesting artists to listen to. Turns out that when you strip the music down and really get into what makes up how each of her songs are processed and glued together it is quite interesting. For one thing if you just listen to the music itself and in this case the drums, none of the beats are overly complex, very few fills and a lot of processing. Actually in most dance songs they are all really processed. Sometimes you actually have a hard time hearing an actual drum sound. For example a lot of the snare drum sounds become claps, finger snaps, electro 80s snare, trashcan lid or a tambourine. The bass drum often sounds like that really bad 80s Simmons electro bass drum or some low thud frequency. Either way this is what makes up the basic sounds of a dance song for drums. Maybe that is why I was so opposed to this type of music or had I just shut myself inside the box instead of looking outside. It seems that if you are not open to an idea it can limit your creativity, right? So after listening to this particular artist for over a month and even comparing Lady GaGa to other artists I started seeing what I did like about this style of music. It just took me a while to really get in tune with this style.
There is this consistent driving beat, simplistic at times and one thing I have learned over all styles of music ..... sometimes it is harder to make something simple. It is always easier to throw in all kinds of drum fills or guitar licks wherever you want but to be able to restrain yourself enough to just lay down a straight forward driving beat and stay consistent throughout not just that song but most songs in a night, that takes a lot of control. I'm not saying that this is my new favourite music but I certainly have a new appreciation for what in this case Lady GaGa does. Several other things in this artist really impressed meas well, Not only can she actually write/sing/play piano but there was a particular song that she included on "The Fame" CD. "Again Again has a really different feel altogether, not overly processed at all, actually quite raw sounding and shows a very different style of her voice and writing style. It also has a very open raw sounding drum kit and shows off that this artist can really write.
So what was the point of this post? Well I learned that you can always open doors, find out why the door is closed and always look for good in everything. In case you are interested in hearing this song "Again, Again", here is youtube link to this song  Again Again - Lady GaGa Stay tuned or go phlat ........

A 2nd Listen to that song!

OK, so these days we have soooo many ways that we can listen to music and listing them would just be an insult to anyone reading this post but we do have unbelievable sources for listening to music. Most just listen to a song, maybe play air guitar or airdrums (that's me), sing along to it(not me), dance. In general it strikes an emotion that makes you think of something or feels good to you at the time. I personally use it as a memory manager. Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy, every time I hear that song it brings me back to Glasgow Apollo, Scotland. It was my first concert and it was Thin Lizzy, WOW were they amazing and it was the Black Rose tour, what a night. I have many songs that remind me of specific things since my memory needs a jolt here and there so I use songs to jog my memory. Anyway a funny thing happened over the last little while in our band. We brought on a new bassplayer Paul, great playing and attitude. We also decided while Paul was learning all these new songs to throw in 16 more new songs just for fun that we had never played either. Part of this process though of learning the songs is that Dave, my brother and lead vocalist also has to sequence all the keyboard parts as well. We just played the Casino Niagara show last weekend and all the new material went over great, a few minor flubs here and there but more things that only we would notice. It's funny how quickly you will learn a song and then all of a sudden you somehow make it yours, some fills change, the guitarist might change the way he plays something which then affects the bassplayer which comes back to affecting the drummer. All minor little changes and not that there is anything wrong with that but try doing this as an experiment.

Take a song that you think you know inside out, backwards forwards, you learned this song 6 months ago and it sounds great as is. Go back and actually pick apart just the drum track and listen to the track for what it is. It is amazing what you will hear, these little subtle changes in something that you might have overlooked in learning it originally. Maybe when you had to learn the song you were rushed for time and just skimmed over it or the drums were buried and you just assumed what the drummer played but really didn't have time to pick apart what was maybe being played. Re-listening to that song a 2nd time, taking the time to actually pick it apart and learn it for what it is can change your entire feel of the song. You might even think that the original version felt or sounded better or "how could I have missed that really cool fill".

This is just something to think about because lately I went through some of our older songs and realized how much I had changed some of them and some were not for the better. Sometimes it really is just about giving the song a 2nd listen after you have learned and played it for a while. See what and how much has changed. If you are changing the song intentionally like the band "Disturbed" doing a cover of the Genesis song "Land of Confusion" and they without a doubt made it their own song, then that is fine but if you are trying to keep the song in it's original format and it changes, you just might never notice the changes.

This topic was purely an observation on something I realized about myself and listening to others around you. Nothing more nothing less and there is nothing wrong with being creative, after all that is what music is isn't it, expressing yourself. Stay tuned or go phlat ........

It's just a practicepad, right?

Ok, so I am in NY for work, have no drumkit but I do have my practicepad and my promark 747s, thank God I remembered to pack them. Sometimes this is the ultimate experience to have nothing but a pair of sticks and a piece of hard rubber to play on.
It's funny, you sit down at a drumkit and want to hear certain types of sounds, rimshots or on a digital kit it's all about changing all of your sounds and you can easily get distracted from what you might have set out to do . A practicepad ...... well it really has just one sound. Having only a practicepad at your disposal normally means that you are going to actually practice your rudiments, stick balance, types of grips and when to tighten and release your grip. All of the above are very important and on a drumkit it is easy to get pulled in another direction. Just try sitting on the floor with your iPod, and start going over some rudiments. It might sound boring but when you actually get back to your drumkit you will find out just how much easier it is to play faster, you might have a better grip or balance of the stick, better control of your rudiments and that is most often the times when you realise just how valuable the practicepad actually is. It also helps that it is really quiet to play whether you are at home or in a hotel room. I also do use this pad as my warmup before I play any gigs.
I guess I figured this would be a good topic to cover since I am apart from my kit and this is really under-rated as a very important part of your drum toolkit. The more you use the practicepad the better you get and the more you will want to use this tool. Stay tuned or go phlat ........

Playing the song or looking cool - Can you have both?

It has always stumped me to watch any drummer play live and see them spinning sticks and throwing them in the air. All that is missing is the triple back flip over his kit and they are golden, however what happened to the song? Showmanship is not what impresses me, it is how the drummer plays the song. I almost wonder if some of these drummers listen to the tune then figure out where to spin their sticks. Screw learning the tune properly, I just want to look cool. right?
The way I look at it and everyone has their own opinion but if you cannot play the song properly, why bother trying to add show to it. That just shows that you spent more time learning how to spin sticks in parts of the song than actually learning the damn song. I seen this clip from Thomas Lang who said it perfectly. If you are adding show to your playing, it has to be fun and when you throw a stick or spin it, it has to be in time. That is really important. That way your actual playing does not suffer and you can look really cool while playing and keeping time. Thomas Lang stick trix video. I will be starting to make some of my own vids soon to show you some of what I have been talking about.
Anyway sorry for the short post. I will post more stuff soon.
Stay tuned or go phlat ........

Sometimes the HARDest sonG is tHe eAsiEst bEaT, Huh?

I look at some of the most complex songs out there and think how could I ever play some of this stuff but you break it down and all of a sudden it starts to make sense and you learn the song in small increments (pending your level of playing of course). If you want to play something with double bass drum you need to know how to play your kicks first. OK, so let's take a few of my many fav drummers like Neil Peart (Rush), and Robb Reiner of Anvil. Both these guys like many of the drummers that I look up to have an amazing talent for being unique, great chops and have speed whenever they need it. These guys just smoke when it comes to playing and it is a real challenge just trying to keep up with what the hell they are actually doing on their kit.
So let's look at the opposite of those 2 types of drummers for a second and who are equally as good but in a very different way. Phil Rudd of ACDC and Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones. These guys don't play buzz rolls and play drum fills wherever they can or see fit and that is not a slight against Neil or Robb. Their style of music in those bands fits how they play their fills.
What I am getting at here is when you watch a band like ACDC or The Rolling Stones, the rhythym section is incredibly solid, tight, they don't falter of laying down that back beat and just feeling the groove.
Now go out to a bar and check out some bands that cover this same material to see how they play those same songs. It amazes me to see these drummers adding in all types of drum fills and jazzing up a song when the rest of the band plays it the same as the original song. It is really hard to just sit there and play a song all the way through just holding down a back beat with no fills and just feeling the groove. At some point you itch to just throw in some fills here and there. Maybe it is because you get restless, bored, don't know what else to do, feel you need to contribute more to the song perhaps.
Have you ever just sat down with a click track, thrown on the headphones and laid down a back-beat and just listened to how you are playing it, how it sounds, feels, where is the groove. You will be amazed at what you hear and how it can be improved and in the end how good it will sound and it is just a beat, no fills. Remember it being "just a beat" can be as simple or as complex as you want but in the end if it is repetitive and no fills it is a beat. Try playing the beat for Rosanna by Toto over and over again with no fills. Here is the drum score to it. Once you click on the link choose Toto and then the song Rosanna to get the sheet music. Remember to feel and groove every beat that you play. Stay tuned or go phlat ........

General Drumming Tips

General Drumming Tips