The revenge of the attacking New Music !!!! - "The Minimalists"

This episode of the Drum Show deals with the Minimalist school of composers with a study and discussion on the two leading composers attributed to this style, Phillip Glass and Steve Reich. The techniques these composers used such as Phasing, Augmentation, Polyrhythms, Paradiddles, Hemiolas, Ostinato and the concept of "Notes within Notes" are all discussed.

Watch The Minimalists

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New Music Attacks Again !!!! - "Stravinsky"

This episode of the Drum Show is dedicated to not only one of my favorite composers Igor Stravinsky, but to one of my favorite pieces of music "Le Sacre du Printemps" ... The polyrhythms, polymetres, odd time signatures ... my God, what was this man thinking!!!??? I finished this on Xmas Day 2011 ... Merry Xmas Igor :)

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New Music Attacks!!!! - "Varese"

Edgard Varese is often referred to as the "mad professor" of 20th Century Music. He coined the term "Organized Sound" and the famous quote ...
"The present day composer refuses to die!".
Widely regarded as the "father" of electronic music, I have prepared four pieces of drumset music in the spirit of and gleaned from studying Varese' work. A tip of the hat to "Octandre" "Ionisation" "Density 21.5" and "Poeme Electronique".

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The return of the son of New Music!!! - "Debussy"

This show is about Claude Debussy. Carrying on from using triggers on the tom toms to trigger notes and samples, I have used the technology to trigger the Whole Tone Scale that permeates so much of his work as well as tuning my piccolo toms to the G minor pentatonic scale, incorporating Polyrhythms, Polymetres and Double Bass Drum work to create a series of soundscapes that hopefully evoke the "atmospheric" quality of this influential composer's work.

Watch Debussy

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The Son of New Music!! - "Shostakovich"

I've made this show in dedication to Russian Composer Dmitri Shostakovich. The show details his life, times and tribulations as well as talking about his four note motif which appears in so much of his work. Carrying on from using triggers on the tom toms to trigger notes and samples, I have used the technology this time to trigger the four Shostakovich note motif to create drumset music in the spirit of one of the great composers of the 20th Century.

Watch Shostakovich

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New Music! - "Trigger Happy"

Trigger Happy is a series of nine musical vignettes that depict the clash between cultures, the futility and ultimate destructive nature of unresolved differences with a hope that peace can develop from acceptance and a determined effort to cure the virus of prejudice. The title is a play on words used to describe the nature of the music as well as the way in which it is realized, the use of drum "triggers" on four of the tom toms to trigger specific notes and instrument samples.

Watch Trigger Happy, make my day!

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From Show 501, I've been going with a back to basics approach aligning the shows with my Drumset Manual Series, so ...

BUY THE BOOKS then watch the show and follow along ....

Snare Drum Book ... HANDS OF STEEL
... revised and updated!

The book deals with the full use of paradiddle inversions, the single tap, double tap and press, flams, drags, ruffs and rolls, full use of Moeller whip strokes, Gladstone finger control along with extensive use of dynamic levels along with odd times (27/8 ??) and odd note groupings as well as a collection of 16 orchestral snare drum solos for concerts and recitals.

I started out by writing a "homage" to a long out of print paradiddle book by jazz great Dave Tough, but then I went bananas! It has become an advanced book beginning at Grade Five level (VCE/HSC equivalent) and moving on to University and Tertiary levels.

Think of Stone, Morello, Tough, Wilcoxin and Cirone and your on the right track!

Click here for the Drum and Guitar Books page.

The DRUM SHOW Curriculum ...

I have updated, rejigged and augmented my Drumset Syllabus and Manuals and they are now available for sale on this website, everything you see on The Drum Show can be sourced back to these books.

Back in 1995, I wrote the first Australasian based drumset syllabus and book series with a graded approach ... this is how they work ...

Preliminary: Getting started with basic Reading, Rudiments and Rhythm
Grade One: The main beats and rhythms
Grade Two: Around the drums and stand alone drum solos
Grade Three: Getting Funky (equivalent to most TAFE Course levels)
Grade Four: Advancing Jazz, Latin and Rock Styles
Grade Five: Advanced Rudiments and Odd Times & Note groupings (equivalent to VCE/HSC level)
Grade Six: Polyrhythms, Odd Time, World Drumming (equivalent to VCE/HSC level)
Grade Seven: Advanced Hand, Orchestral and Drumline techniques (equivalent to University level)
Grade Eight: Melodic Drumset Music and Advanced Concepts (equivalent to University level)
Performer Level: The "Open End" of Melodic Solo Drum Music (Bachelor/Doctorate level)

The syllabus has been endorsed by Drumming greats Billy Cobham, Dom Famularo and the Australian Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society (PAS). The syllabus has been used throughout Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.

My Drum and Guitar Books

MUSIC

Symphony No.1 in C
4th Movement

"The Inner Child" - a ballet in three movements
1st Movement 3rd Movement

"Orchestral Oddities"
String Quartet 1st Movt. Babel (for Orchestra) Threnody (for piano)