Drum/rhythm knowledge rolling thread

hint

party record with a siren
Is this more recent? I"m pretty sure he doesn't really mention his mad drum techniques here, but the bit about vocals is pretty cool.

Yeah - it's recent... but I think hunting for a tutorial on the elusive "mad drum technique" is a bit misguided.

It's sound selection and, as someone quite rightly points out upthread, use of velocity. Can't really show that in a video. Pick the same sounds and you could get the same beat going, I'm sure. That's the hard part.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
having to sift through folders of drum hits really is one of the most boring parts of making music. i keep meaning to make some ready to go kit presets
 

hint

party record with a siren
Yeah - spend an afternoon or two building custom kits and presets and you'll be set for a couple of months of music making.

Gives you starting points so you can write quickly, then swap out sounds later if necessary.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
should just add this thread which should have been called "origins of the US duple rhythm" instead of "wow didn't know that".

to the naysayers, there are of course reasons why no significantly large body of modern music uses the 1-2, 1-2, kick on the 1 and snare right on the 2, "duple" rhythm, other than N.American music (and those it influenced, of which category reggae partially belongs), and the main one is undoubtedly the banning of the drums during the 17th Century.

also, i have, since posting that thread, consulted "card carrying" musicologists, such as Wayne "and Wax" Marshal, who attested to the thesis' basic soundness; as well as obtained from my friend the music documentary film maker Keith Jones, from whom i originally got a bit of this sitting in a bar in Prague one evening, the sources of his information - a main being the influential musicologist/composer Ned Sublette.

and additional conversations with author, historian, and documentary film maker Darius James (United States of Hoodoo) has revealed more layers of information such as: due to the Catholic laws in Luisiana being somehow different from the protestant ones in Georgia and the Carolinas, where large slave plantations were, drums were NOT banned in New ORleans -- where jazz music was born, in the seedy bars and whore houses.

this from Keith Jones just now:

slave dances were openly allowed in Congo Square (in New Orleans) on Sundays until the 20th century
and as Ned is fond of pointing out, Jazz and Rock'n'roll were both born within one block of where Congo Square was
as the first Fats Domino and Little Richard records were made in the same street,
the first jazz record (1918) and the first Rock n roll records (1949) were made in the exact same vicinity, in this same Tremé district
and that is the main location where African cultures survived and mixed in North America, so it is no accident.

"In Louisiana's French and Spanish colonial era of the 18th century, slaves were commonly allowed Sundays off from their work. They were allowed to gather in the "Place de Negres", "Place Publique", later "Circus Square" or informally "Place Congo" [2] at the "back of town" (across Rampart Street from the French Quarter), where the slaves would set up a market, sing, dance, and play music."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Square

and on Ned Sublette:

the best place to find info on the dessemination of drums and rhythms in his books is "A History of Cuba and its Music" but his new book is entirely on the history of the Slave Coast (as he calls the East Coast of US and stretching down to Caribbean) so I imagine there will be lots more in there... Also good is "The World That Made New Orleans" on the 18th century silver trade as an underpinning for slavery. and here is an interesting historical monument.


so while the story is of course much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much more complex and nuanced than the 1 paragraph i had written in that thread and the couple of more here (for instance drums were also banned in places like Trinidad, by the British, much later in the 18th Century), the basic gist of it is sound: that this legacy of the banning of the drums was a major factor in shaping modern American music. It a matter of public and historical records, which interested parties can read much more about from the sources i cited above.
 
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zhao

there are no accidents
seems like the first reaction from Americans when this stuff is mentioned is defensiveness, like "our music is no less rhythmically sophisticated than any other music!" but sorry,

1. it basically is. but

2. it's not necessarily always a bad thing! because complex polyrhythms survive in the best American music, despite the simple drum patterns, in the form of vocals from gospel (which some major figure termed "percussion music without drums") to hiphop.

Also, the understatement of suggested polyrhythms in the best American music gives it a whole new quality which was not there before. And the raw force of simplicity which results from this history of impoverishment and lack, that punch-you-in-the-gut-and-make-you-see-stars power of American modern music can not be denied.

(but with that said i'd rather listen to Konono :) )

so the fundamental, grand finale, rainbow in the sky, lighters in the air message of all this, is i guess the indestructible African rhythm heritage which survives and thrives despite every hardship, against every oppressive measure.
 
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Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Looks like interesting stuff generally - will read properly later.

I'm not sure "sophistication" is the best way of putting it, though. One can be simple in a sophisticated way or complex in a fairly unsophisticated way for instance - compare Sly and Robbie with Conlan Nancarrow on the rhythmic front, for instance. Once you go down the road of comparing the best reggae or funk drummers with the best traditional African drummers on such abstact terms it turns into a bit of a dry wank, I think.

I'd accept a comparative lack of simultaneous complexity and subtlety of drum rhythm in most US (and UK) music, though.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
I'm not sure "sophistication" is the best way of putting it, though. One can be simple in a sophisticated way or complex in a fairly unsophisticated way for instance

i guess that may not be the best term. what i actually mean is more along the lines of formal, mathematical, complexity. of course you are right simplicity can be very sophisticated...

but on the other hand, compared to this:

http://soundcloud.com/djzhao/babatunde-olatunji-jingoloba

rhythmically speaking, mathematically speaking... James Brown is... not less sophisticated?
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I'm probably a philistine, but I never really got the appeal with James Brown anyways. I can see how he was unbelievably influential, but his music itself (particularly the funk era) leaves me largely cold.

http://www.tlafx.com/jasa06_1g.pdf This is an interesting article on swung rhythms - might be a repost from somewhere on here, possibly even earlier in this thread, cant' recall where I saw it. The part on reggae is fascinating, although it's a bit annoying that they leave their investigations half-done, and their way of visually representing rhythms is not the clearest.
 
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