Another great example of a simple drum section in isolation – with a military influence. The Ringwood Pipe Band can be seen at all sorts of events and always catches my ear. I saw them performing again yesterday and took the opportunity to take this video clip. The beauty of an iPhone G3s…
Those snare drums really are as crisp as they could be – great sound.
There’s nothing like stripping percussive performance back to its bear bones, and the Chinese Lion Dance is an excellent example. I was lucky enough to catch this one today (video below) in a little village in the south of England, performed by the Waterside Lion Dance Club, who created a polished, energetic display in the middle of a drab, wet afternoon.
The percussion is traditional – a drum, a gong and a couple of cymbals. It’s simple, repetitive and mesmeric. The last time something as raw as this captured my attention was years ago in Zimbabwe. Lying in a field one afternoon I watched some kids come out of a school nearby with a few oil drums and sticks. Most of them formed up, and spontaneously sprung into action, dancing perfectly in sync to the pounding, impressive rhythm in the background. I wish I’d recorded it – I do have a photo though. I’ll see if I can dig it out.
Anyway, it all serves to remind me that talent is much more important than expensive kit. A well played collection of saucepans is more entertaining than a badly played Tama Imperialstar.
Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee couldn’t have found a bigger bass drum if he tried. And I think he might have a bit of trouble taking it round the indoor roller coaster of rock he’s planning.
We’ve got our simple online drum set up and running again for the purpose of testing drum tabs. Have a play and please let us know what you think by leaving comments here.
I just finished an eventful weekend at the Isle of Wight Festival. The weather was great and my viewpoint was unique. I sailed up the Medina River from Cowes, moored up and then took my little rubber dinghy all the way to the festival where I tied up to a bigger boat, settled back and enjoyed the gigs.
The main stage is right next to the river, so the big screen is clearly visible and the sound powerful. Although it probably wasn’t as good as being inside the compound, it was certainly more comfortable! I didn’t envy the hardy souls who were swimming fully clothed (beers in hand) from the other side of the river, trying to sneek in, only to be turned back by security and having to swim back to the other side. There were other equally unsuccessful, albeit drier attempts to break in, such as the man paddling by on a windsurfer.
Looking for a back door
My favourites were more of my era, like Simple Minds, the Prodigy and Neil Young, although there were plently of other great acts. Below you can see my view of The View performing on the second day. The Stereophonics were good in the evening.
My view of The View
The Red Arrows came by for a spectacular aerobatics display to make the day perfect, despite the fact that I didn’t get to play on stage myself. Maybe next year…
Jimmy Cobb’s been geting a lot of press recently because of the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’ seminal Kind of Blue album of August 1959, the 50th anniversay for which is approaching fast. Almost 10 years older than me, this has to be one of my top five favourites. Occasionally I’ll listen to a track like So What by chance and wonder why I left it so long since last I heard it.
Jimmy Cobb is the last surviving member of the sextet that created this piece of work, and he’s touring in 2009 with Jimmy Cobb’s So What Band. Below is a 1959 TV performance of that very track.
I heard from my old friends from Mary Jane last week. MJ was the only band I played with who released and albums and singles, and the experience of recording (sometimes on a shoestring, sometimes with a modest budget) was second to none.
I often hear from seasoned musicians about how when recording (and similarly from actors about filming), most of the time they’re standing around getting bored. I never understood that – I love all aspects of the creative process, and never got tired of take after take until it was perfect. (Well maybe not perfect, but acceptable!) I have very fond memories of playing and recording with Mary Jane anyway – even if sometimes the music was a little on the hippy side now and then!
Here is “Isle of Wight” recorded (if memory serves) in a great little studio converted from a garage somewhere near Cranley.
There are so many different styles and methods of drumming that one tutor method won’t suit everyone; you have to find what’s best for you. When I first started learning I just played along to my favourite bands – and then I began to find my own style. Click here to read the full review.
What I find great about this course is the fact that I can download the videos straight to my iPhone and watch & listen while I’m at my drum set or practice pad. It’s certainly a back-to-basics course, but to be honest it’s something I could have done with years ago. Click here to read the full review.
If you didn't already know about Krop, you should. It's an excellent place to build a portfolio and put yourself up for hire. And like all the best things online, it's free.
Gimp vs Photoshop - how do they compare? Gimp is free image manipulation software and part of the GNU Project. This beginning Gimp tut explains how Mac users install and use Gimp at a basic level.
Finally someone has come up with a useful solution to the lack of Spotlight support for InDesign and Quark files. Page Zephyr by Marzware was released at the end of 2009 and it does the job admirably. It searches your archives of INDD and QXD files (any version) and displays the text contained inside each file. Each text box in the document is shown as a sep […]
Thank goodness I'm not the only one who is bothered by the misuse of apostrophes. It seems to me that these days the attitude of the masses is (whenever a word ends in S): 'if in doubt, stick an apostrophe at the end'. I'm fed up seeing CDs written as CD's, cars written as CAR'S and idiots written as IDIOT'S. Fortunately, t […]
Page Zephyr is a Markzware Quark InDesign text search tool which does what Spotlight cannot. It searches for Quark and InDesign files and allows you to find and extract text from within the documents.
Why is this government so desperate to please everyone and offend no one? Just pick a side and do your bloody job. You'll earn more respect. 2 weeks ago
Despite the fact that Apple computers are better for just about everything design-related (if you disagree, just pretend I didn't say it), it's sometimes surprisingly hard to find the right bit of kit for them. I've been hunting for a decent webcam for my working Mac Pro - sometimes a video call is required - and I recently came across this fu […]
Nick’s Other Life