Pribek

The phrase “hybrid picking” usually refers to a technique that employs a pick and the second and third fingers of the picking hand.

I’ve got an exercise here that will help establish some hybrid picking and can open up a lot of possibilities later on.

Start with an A7 barre chord on the fifth fret.

What we’re going to do is play a right hand triplet pattern that ascends through the chord…

Play the first note of each triplet with the pick. The second note with the second finger and the third note with the third finger. Get smooth with that and then we will descend through the chord…

Now, here’s the trick; when descending, play the first note of each triplet with the second finger of the picking hand and the remaining two notes with the pick (you can either alternate pick of play them both with an upstroke). It’s a really useful device this pattern. It will allow you to get the same rhythmic feel going both directions.

Let’s take the changes to “Key To The Highway” in E…each chord symbol represents one, four beat measure.

E7 B7 A7 *A7* E7 B7 E7 *B7*

Play your swampiest, funkiest, Jimmy Reedish, triplet feel shuffle. When you get to the *A7* measure, play the ascending hybrid pattern using the barre chord form. When you turn around to *B7*, play the descending pattern. Switch them around the next time through.

Work on getting the hybrid parts to swing the same way your shuffle rhythm does. Also, try to match the volume of your rhythm (switching from chords to single notes without adjusting volume is pretty handy).

Next time around, I will show you some triad stuff using these same two patterns that help to unlock the harmonic potential of the guitar and provide a ton of possibilities.

I have a recently acquired interest, fascination maybe, with poetry. By recent, I mean the last couple of years. Not really just poetry, poets as well.

I read poetry the same way I look at paintings. At first, I just look and try to catch some vibe. Maybe later, I will try to analyze what/why it makes me feel.

I watched a documentary about Allen Ginsberg a couple of nights ago. Yesterday, I was talking to my Mom and I asked her about about Ginsberg and she said; “It seems I wasn’t too fond of him but, I don’t really recall why”. And then she went on to say that she needs to revisit some of that stuff…

Separating the art from the artist…mention Van Gogh and real soon somebody brings up the ear story.

Separating the art from the artist… I find it especially difficult with poets. Suicidals, besotted, children of wealth, prisoners, academics, family men, gentle souls, tortured souls, homosexuals, vagrant shooting stars…there always a story. Every poet has a story don’t it.

People talk about the rhythm of poets, of poetry and, as a student of musical rhythm, it eludes me. Until, I hear the poet read and the rhythm is in your face. The key is the pauses…the space. The space isn’t defined on the paper. And the voices…they just add to the story, make it harder to separate the art from the artist.

Ginsberg had great rhythm. Compelling rhythm. When I listen to him read then, I’m inside the poem. The art.

The rhythm man…that’s the stuff.

Here now, to start the festivities, is my new official soapbox issue.

Save The Drummers!

Got that? Keep that in mind. Make it a mantra. Save The Drummers! A call to action, a groundswell, a grass roots movement.

If we do this right, if we raise awareness, the solutions to seemingly larger problems will fall in to place.

First order of business, we have to stop the grid. We need to end it now! No more recording of music with grid-based software. No more after the fact editing, shifting the drums around in cyberspace until they sound utterly inhuman. The placement of individual drum hits should be decided by a human being; a drummer. A guy with a wicked foot not a guy with a wicked mouse hand.

Music has three possible elements; melody, harmony and rhythm. The grid effectively destroys any individual performance characteristics of fully 1/3 of the sonic landscape.

You wouldn’t allow that with other things you enjoy. New Cheetos! Featuring 1/3 less flavor! “Ooh baby, when I see you in that red dress, I just want to make love to you 2/3 of the night long.”

The grid and it’s evil sibling, the click, are so prevalent that, generations now, of drummers have come up hearing nothing but perfectly placed percussive strikes. Consequently, the “best” drummers of this age sound like they are on the grid even when they aren’t. Lifeless, boring, stiff.

Also, we must eliminate the click track from live performance. In order to duplicate the sound of the grid, in a live setting, with the illusion of a human element; the drummer has a relentless, cold, fascist clicking sound piped in to his eardrum in order to keep any outburst of percussive creativity subdued. Tempo shall never vary from one performance to the next. All drum performance shall be uniform.

Live has nothing to do with the rhythm of life.

Listening to music has been transformed in to conformism. That’s what’s wrong with the music! The personality, the life, the soul has been sucked out of it! Life is not perfect. Humans aren’t perfect. Tempo, laid down by a human isn’t perfect but, it can make you shake your moneymaker.

Rhythm is the foundation that the house is built on. Sterile drums+brilliant vocal=boring record.

What set you off, Jack?

Thanks for asking. I saw this article over at Music Radar called “18 Steps To The Perfect Sampled Drum Sound”.

Here’s the thing; the evil is a lot worse than most folks are aware of. See, there is a studio trick that’s used on a massive scale. This is the use of sampled drums. Sometimes, the drummer will actually be allowed on the cutting floor. They will let him set up his kit, throw some mics in front of it, get good signals or, as they say, “good drum information” and let the poor sap bash around a bit.

After the drummer leaves, and after all of his performance on each individual drum has been shuffled around to the proper places on the grid, the producers/engineers/editors will then take the sound of each individual percussive device and replace that sound with a drum “sample”. This sample could be one of an actual drum recorded in an ideal environment, it may be one that is lifted from another record or, it can be a digitally manufactured fantasy drum.

So, what we have is a drummer who has had any individual performance characteristics regarding placement of beats removed then, to top it off, stripped of any tonal individuality.

OK, now back to this piece that set me off, “18 Steps To The Perfect Sampled Drum Sound”. I read through the whole deal and here’s the part that should interest someone who is not a musician or recording engineer…

18. Humanise

While using repetitive, consistent drum hits is OK for dance music, if you’re trying to get a more realistic, human-sounding drum part and your sampler has a randomised ’round robin’ feature, use it to cycle through different drum sounds at random. As long as your drum samples are similar-sounding, this trick will enhance the believability of your drum parts. The more drum samples you use, the more convincing the feel. Subtle timing changes to individual hits can enhance the effect.

The whole idea is to fool the listener. Play the listener for a chump and all hail the omniscient grid.

Conformity! That’s what wrecking this joint! Don’t you see it? Don’t you hear it?

Everything is manufactured. Everything is processed. I’m talking food, shelter, water even body parts. Rampant conformism and we all just consume it.

Conformity and art don’t mix.

The antidote in non-conformism. That’s the only way to stop the poison. Are there going to be boundaries for the looming artificial intelligence? Are there personal places it won’t be allowed to touch?

My friends, the sound of the revolution starts with the thunder of the drums!

Save The Drummers!