Possible Clinic

I have been invited to teach a clinic on drumset counterpoint, polyrhythms, and ostinati. I'm rather excited about that. Also, the sponsers have invited my band to come along and play a show as well. How cool is that!? I will let you know what's happening as the saga unfolds. For now, let's just say it's all in the planning and logistics phase. I don't know about the band yet, but I have sent the sponsers a note saying that I am committed to teaching the clinic. I sure hope more than three people will come.

Drum Charts

I was playing a piece for some folks today and I realized they had no clue what was going on., so I showed them the chart and started to explain what was happening in a certain measure. One of them asked what key signiture the chart was in, and I explained that it's not in a key signiture because it's a drum chart. then he asked if it was some kind of tab. On further investigation, I discovered these fellows had no idea that there is such a thing as drum music, and one of them is a drummer! This is not the first time I've run across this situation. There seems to be a common misconception that you can't write down music for the drumset. Well, you can. The example I've added here is from a song called Time To Kill with drummer Bill Bruford. The top line represents hi-hat/cymbal, the middle space is for the the snare drum, the bottom space is bass drum, everything else is a tom-tom. Notes and rests are the same as any other music.