Every Fuego Ever

In 2014, Phish released its 13th studio album, Fuego, and the title track is a tour de force of drumming. In just over nine minutes, Jon Fishman takes the listener on a journey through a ’50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’ inspired groove and blistering drum n bass before setting up a singalong shout course with the type of mighty fill that drummers dream of playing in front of thousands in a rock arena. I transcribed every version of that fill and turned it into a drum exercise.

This piece has been a long time coming and was truly only possible due to the downtime I was afforded by the pandemic. Though the article was originally written to be published in a certain drum magazine that dropped off the face of the Earth, Phish.net was happy to publish it, so I updated the text to make it Phish-ier which is truly a language of its own! Check out the full blog here. While you’re there, please consider making a donation to The Mockingbird Foundation, a non-profit organization operated by Phish fans, dedicated to improving access to music education for America’s youth.

Download the sheet music here.

Here’s the video of the transcription. Stay tuned to the end for ways to apply this exercise to the drum set:

Quintuplets

I’ve been thinking about quintuplets, or fives, a lot in my practicing lately. I’ve been trying to implement them in my fusion playing as well as the hip hop feel best described as Dilla beats.

In my experience, 5 and 7 note groupings tend to get overlooked by teachers when they are working with student musicians. This was certainly the case for me. For many, 5s and 7s are unusual, exotic, and difficult to master. I believe if we start teaching students about these groupings at a young age, they will come as naturally as 8th and 16th notes.

What I’ve also noticed is that there seems to be no universal way of counting quintuplets in western music. In fact, everyone who responded to a deeply unscientific poll I posed on Instagram yesterday had a different answer for how the count fives. Many people use different syllable words such as ‘serendipity’ and 'hippopotamus.’ For some reason I was taught ‘homosexual’ for 5s and ‘homosexuality’ for 7s, which is obviously extremely problematic! Fellow percussionist Jeremy Yaddaw provided me with a few 5-syllable phrases, including ‘back to stick control’ and get me out of here,’ which I found particularly amusing. A few people also suggested counting 12,123 or 123,12 depending on how the phrase is grouped.

I find myself using a combination of methods for counting 5s. Sometimes I’ll use a 5-syllable word, sometimes I may just count to 5, sometimes I may just concentrate on ending on the correct hand at the correct time. I’m curious how YOU count 5s. Please comment below!

On Practicing

The author before a gig in Eugene, OR, 2011.

When COVID hit, in addition to my worries about my family, my health, and the world, I was also super bummed about the upcoming work (and money) I was going to miss — subbing on an off-broadway musical, a new recording session, a production of The Addams Family, a few cabaret shows, etc… But quickly I realized, “my god! I can practice for the sake of practicing for the first time… ever?”

Then my rehearsal space shut down by order of the state and suddenly I was forced to practice in my apartment with pads and low volume cymbals. I developed a healthy routine the first few weeks but slowly it began to deteriorate with thoughts of “will I ever be able to hit actual drums again?”

Thankfully, my rehearsal building re-opened and I moved into a new studio within it. Again, the first few weeks were amazing — I’m hitting drums again! I feel so productive! Music completes me! Then a new reality set in — What’s the point of practicing when there’s no work? What’s the point of making music when there aren’t other people to make music with?

I’m writing this blog to let you know that if you are feeling this way, dear reader, you are not alone. I’m also writing it to keep myself accountable. I've been playing drums for almost THIRTY YEARS but the motivation and drive to improve comes and goes.

It’s been almost 5 months of NYC being in some sort of lockdown and the two main things I’ve realized in terms of music making is that 1) I love playing with and for other people and 2) my relationship with practicing ebbs and flows. It always has and it always will.

Here’s what a typical practice session is looking like for me, the solo drummer. I’m trying my best to use all the different parts of my brain and body with the help of these books and methods:

1. Warm up - Stick Control

If I recall correctly, I didn’t really get into this book until grad school, but it has become a part of my everyday warm up routine. Lately I have been focusing on getting my strokes even, whether it be singles, doubles, triples, or the occasional fours when switching from one line to the next. Playing through the first page at the beginning of my practice session offers exceptional insight on how my body is feeling on that particular day. Maybe I took a few days off and am feeling rusty. Maybe I pick up the sticks and everything is just working. No matter what, this is a great way to get the blood flowing and the muscles moving.

2. Snare drum exercises

For me, it all comes back to snare drum. It’s the first instrument I started playing and my favorite of the lot. I spent a lot of my time studying orchestral playing, but I have a deep affinity for rudimental styles and believe it’s better for my chops than anything else. Lately, I have been playing 10 of Wilcoxon’s rudimental solos each day.

I play each etude as follows:

1) As written

2) Adding quarter notes on the bass drum

3) Bass drum playing the same accents as the snare drum

4) Bass drum playing an ostinato pattern

3. Speed

Whether you use it in a practical setting or not, most drummers have some desire to develop speed around the kit. Now that my hands are warm and my feet are starting to move, it’s time to pick up the pace with some technical exercises. Every 3 years or so I go through a drum and bass phase, which I mostly attribute to my love of STS9.

Johnny Rabb’s book is a detailed look into the style and I’ve been trying to go through a section each day. The key here is to stay relaxed at these brisk tempos. For me, it helps to think of 2 and 4 backbeats as actually being on the “ands.” This makes it easier to switch back and forth into halftime feels as well.

4. Feel

Now that I’m feeling nice and agile, it’s time to focus on what usually serves me best on a gig: feel. Billy Martin (of Medeski Martin & Wood fame) has one of the most organic grooves I’ve ever heard and his book on claves is certainly the most in depth I’ve ever seen. I’ve worked out of this book on and off for the last 15 years, but it hasn’t been until now that I’ve focused on competently playing every page: Can I play each system at any tempo, dynamic, or orchestration? Can I play it straight, swung, and in between? Can I use these patterns in the context of metric modulation? It took me a long time to feel comfortable reading his non-standard system of notation but it has been worth the effort: I’m hearing and playing music in a new light.

5. Just Play

At this point, I’ve gone crosseyed from reading music. I’m warmed up but my brain is mush and I just want to PLAY. I will save my thoughts on Spotify’s unjust treatment of musicians for another blog, but the ability to have access to nearly all recorded music at your fingertips at command has been a godsend for learning music. I no longer have to download music to my phone or computer, rip CDs, or spend hours finding recordings at the library. It’s all just there in one place.

Sometimes I will go to my liked songs playlists and play along with favorite tracks but lately I’ve been exploring my release radar section to blindly play through new music on the spot. Sometimes I’ll try to play verbatim what’s happening with the drums. Other times I’ll add my own voice. Most importantly, I’ll try to apply some of the concepts I’ve been working on that day to a real musical context. This is my favorite way to wind down a practice session and experience the joy that is making music. For me, that’s what it’s all about.

If you’ve come this far, I hope you’ve found this post useful. It can be hard as hell to get to the practice room or take your instrument out of the case but once you finally start playing, I sure hope you remember why it is you do what you do. Happy music-making!

On Subbing

I have the honor of subbing for my dear friend Jeremy Yaddaw on the current run of the off-Broadway show, Attack of the Elvis Impersonators. Subbing on a show is quite an arduous process. You can't simply show up and read down the charts. Your job as a sub is to play the show EXACTLY like the regular. The main goal is for the other musicians in the pit and actors on stage to not notice that there is a different drummer behind the kit. 

Prepping for this show was a month-long process. First, I got the music and recordings from Jeremy. The recordings were two giant WAV files, so I imported them to Garage Band and split the file up into separate tracks for each song and scene. Next, I went through each track and followed along, marking up my book. The older I get, the more I find I write down EVERYTHING. I'm not sure if it's because I fear my memory will fail or if I'm just more meticulous in my old age. Probably a combination of both! In this example, both Jeremy and I have written in measure numbers, vocal and instrumental cues, changes to the actual drum part, and places where it's necessary to follow the conductor: 

That's a lot of information for just 21 measures but it helps with the learning process and insures that nothing is missed in performance. 

After putting my book together (a craft project which includes printing, whole punching, stapling, and making sure page turns are in the right places), it was finally time to play the music! I scheduled 6 or 7 three-hour sessions at my rehearsal space to go through the show, playing along to each song, making more notes about things I was hearing that were different than what the music told. There are a lot of up-tempo rockabilly numbers (hello, this is a show inspired by Elvis), so in addition to playing the songs, I worked on some shuffle grooves and swing fills using two of my favorite books - The Art of Jazz Drumming and Syncopation. 

Somewhere in between practicing the music, I went to "watch the book" twice - once while being conducted by the regular music director and once with her sub. I took a thousand more notes. 

The day before my first show, I went to the theater between the matinee and evening shows to play on the drums, a Roland TD-30. All drums have a different feel, especially when they're electronic! I had to make some adjustments in my technique to get the best sound out of these beasts - playing my right hand lighter on the hi-hat, my left hand harder on the snare drum, and my right foot lighter on the bass drum, to name a few. There are a few patch changes throughout the show, so I had to get used to advancing the kit between many of the songs. Here's a look at the kit:

Finally, it was time to play the first show. I made sure to eat a good meal, avoid caffeine, and show up to the theater an hour early to practice on the drums again. Thankfully, I was super nervous the two days before the show, so by downbeat I was feeling fairly relaxed. I tried to stay as focused as possible (the show moves quickly), make EVEN MORE NOTES of what could be better, and get used to playing with the guitarist, bassist, and pianist in a live setting through the Aviom (personal mixer).

After the last note, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought about things I would do differently for the evening show. I put a lot of time in to preparing for the show and it got to the point where the only thing left to do was to actually play it live. I have a few more dates with Elvis coming up and I am looking forward to each one of them! 

TL:DR - Here is a NYTimes article about subbing on Broadway, featuring Ann Klein who I just played with a the Beechman a few weeks ago. 

It's in the details: Sectionals

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Photo by @TubaFresh

Last night, the PitchBlak Rhythm section (Ben Brody, Chris Johnson, myself, and Chanell Crichlow) got together for a little sectional. We are heading to the west coast for the first time in August, so we want to be sure the band is as tight as possible, and that starts with us. We fleshed out a few problem spots in existing tunes, worked on the groove for some new rep we will introduce on that tour, and most importantly, really focused on listening to each other. It's amazing what you can accomplish in just two hours together! 

Practice tips: iPod Shuffle

So I was out of town at my parents' place in Maryland over the weekend and upon returning to NYC Monday night, I realized I hadn't picked up a drum stick for almost five days! I just wanted to play. No grooves to build, no music to study, no licks learn, just play.

It was a little late to call friends for a jam session, but who needs friends when you have access to hundreds of top tier musicians on your iPod (actually, there's nothing better than playing with real, live human beings!)? So I got out my iPod (err, iPhone), hit shuffle, and played a long to whatever it threw at me. Here's what came up (yes, my iPod is Phish heavy...):

Phish - Bouncing Around the Room (A simple, basic Latin groove that never changes. Can you stay as steady as Jon Fishman for the entirety of the tune?)

Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime (I tried to play all the percussion parts with the drum set part. Pretty doable!) 

Phish - Round Room (How many ways can you play a pattern of nine and still fit within a song?)

Radiohead - Morning Bell (The 5/4 version from Kid A)

Phish - My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own (Traditional bluegrass number played here by Phish. Again with the steady-as-Fishman bit.)

Steely Dan - Rikki Don't Lost That Number (typical Steely Dan studio perfection with Jim Gordon on drums.) 

************

Suddenly it was 10pm (quitting time at my apartment) and I was feeling much better after getting to hit some drums. Always keep it fun! If it's not fun, why bother?