Video: Badger Strut

I’m nursing a bit of a foot injury at the moment so I’m just going to blast away on some snare drum for the time being.

The Badger Strut by Jay Collins is a short rudimental piece suggested to me by John Tafoya when I was studying with him at the University of Maryland. I found it while going through some snare music earlier and decided to whip it up.

It starts out as a pretty typical rudimental piece exploring some paradiddle patterns before triplets and various types of rolls emerge. The second half of the piece is a true chop buster, featuring sextuplets comprised of accented singles filled in by double strokes.

I have no idea the publication history of this piece, but what I have is two pages with a pencilled in roadmap and dynamic markings from Tafoya. I tried my best to decipher his writing and incorporate it for this purpose!

Asahi Compo Snare Head

This snare head recently turned up at PitchBlak's rehearsal space. Based on my research, they stopped making them in the late 80's, which is too bad because I really love the sound - warm & thumpy. The only downside that I can see is that they're made of cloth and seems like they'd rip easily if you're a heavy hitter. Anyone know where to pick some up?