Gigging to an empty venue.

               What should a musician do when playing to an absolute zero of a crowd?  Have you ever played a gig to a venue audience of literally the other four bands? More people on the stage than in the audience? Ever not been given a soundcheck before your set when every other band got at least one song for theirs? Ever had to sit around for literally four hours before any one actually did anything to accomplish the complex task of setting a stage up and putting a gig on? 

               I had to endure a similar occurance last night, with watch us fade. I would go ahead and say that it was a large element of unprofessionalism that the company/organisers failed to achieve at least the headliners soundchecking before the doors opened, but there is always some form of other factor included into organising a gig that affects everything that needs to happen. but should i, four hours? thats no good, lack of promoting the event and lack of punters, other bands taking the piss to load onto stage, having not set their equipment up before putting it into potision, stood there hanging around watching for four hours. AND even then we didnt actually get to soundcheck. 

        Although the audience was ( apart from a few or three people) made up of the other four bands members, and all of that said, the gig was great. I had noticed a decline of the crowd as bands came on and offstage, showing that the other four bands where watching the first band,. three bands were watching the second, two for the third, one for the fourth and i felt kinda bad for the fifth.  Sad times.

   The headliners kit was perched onto a rug. like a bathmat or something. seriously, how is that not gonna move? i had started our set at the back of the stage, and in the six or seven foot of stage there was, i ended up at the front of it. What the full on fuck.  not as bad as when watch us fade had played rockit bar, everything was moving in different directions, not just forwards! i had tried with all the finnesse i have in my playing to avoid it happening any further, as the kit had about another four inches before it would have ended up on the crowd. or no crowd....


      All im saying is, COME ON PROMOTERS! WHAT?! I know i should be putting maybe a little bit more promotion in myself, and to share events, post on social media about my gigs with whichever number of bands i work with,  and i do, but surely, promotion companies and event organisers should be more of a major part in doing this? leaflets, posters, flyers etc maybe word of mouth? Where is it all?   


                                            

Reckon a drummer can get withdrawal symptoms from not playing?

                              I haven't played in at least two weeks. I don't know whether i'm going crazy or just haven't been able to de-stress for a while. Sometimes i'd walk down the street and be playing the ol' air drums, even when im not listening to any music. Whats that about? Why do i do that? Its not like im "practicing" as such, its just, maybe the song in my head bypasses the nervous system and its just a massive massive reflex... :| jittering, restlessness and tapping on everything is something i always do, but ive noticed i do  it more if i haven't played drums for a while. 

               Drummers have always been known to never sit still but, i find that it is something to do with them trying to release energy when they've not got access to a kit. That said, it could be argued that its just someone with a lot of energy, as opposed to a drum player. If that makes any sense whatsoever. What're your thoughts on the aspect of "forgetting" or becoming "rusty" in terms of playing if someone hasn't practiced for an extended amount of time? i reckon its just natural for standards to fall if its not kept up. Cadaverous, one of my songs, throughout the first three sections of it, its almost constant double kick, at a fairly high tempo. Its something that really challenges me, sometimes i can do it, sometimes it just fails abysmally. Which is another thing i want to mention, ( the difference between rehearsing and playing live.)
But why is that? Why is it that some days i can just blast the hell out of that song, and others i just cannot get my legs to stop tensing in the way they do? 

               Live playing as well, sometimes i find that if i haven't gigged for a while, i become rusty on some parts, even though wed have been rehearsing on the same regular space each week. Which brings me round to that same question, does that come in the list of withdrawal symptoms of a musician under haitus? In some aspects its just like riding a bike, in the way of never forgetting the basic idea behind it. I.E. the proper grip, finding the bounce, the reaction of the skin/head, the popular 4/4 time sigs, or  simple rudiments, but is that really the case? An old student of mine said when he started lessons was that he knows the basics because he used to play drums in a band before. T his person didnt know how to hold a stick. Now, im not saying he was lying at all, but more so that he proved himself wrong in suggesting that he didnt forget how to play. Of course everyone has their level and varying skills within them, but was he really in rememberance of what he had taught himself over the years?



Please, if anyone has any input or comments please feel free, not just about drums or music but about this blog itself, i could say that it has way  too much writing and that im just rambling on and on about shit but, a lil feedback would be ace! chewd@live.co.uk or comment, thankies!

Beginners and their first interpretation.

                          What made me want to play drums in the first place? Why the percussive side of things in particular? Why be a tub thumper? What is it about a drummer that makes someone else want to play too? How does one person get over that feeling of underconfidence about their abilities? Email me your thoughts!                                                                                                                                                              chewd@live.co.uk

                Perhaps it could be a parent figure, influencing an extra curricular activity, an encouragement into doing something outside of their regular day that would eventually allow the child to release stress or maybe just to keep them busy. I have a few drummer friends who say that their main influence behind playing at all is because of the pure "backbone" of the instruments position in music, as opposed to any parental guidance from a young age. From a non - drummer perspective, it could be said that the instrument is just generally really cool, loud and obnoxious, which could be a sort of  "awww yeeeeah" aspect when they see someone playing at a gig. That is regardless of whether or not they know what the drummer is really doing . 

                I am really kind of just literarily just exploring the vast reasons to this. Whether i genuinely think im right in saying any of them is highly unlikely, however i find brain storming fun. Intruging as it is, the difficulty of using each limb simultaineously at different pace and accents, (faster or slower, stronger or weaker) is the most fascinating part of any player. The most common reaction i get when casually showing someone the simplest rhythm or beat is that "its just the fact they're doing so much at the same time". I love that reaction, people always seem to make it ten times more challenging than it actually is, and tend to put hurdles in front of themselves! Example of saturday night, Jess wanted me to teach her something to play on drums. I taught her the intro to Billy Jean (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y), and she herself was saying she couldn't get over that factor of moving all four limbs in different paces at the same time, and after ten minutes, she got it! Whether she remembers it i don't know, but i seemed to enjoy getting some more experience in terms of how using opposing methods and giving alternative tips toward her goal, and i hope she enjoyed it too.

             This is my ultimate desire in terms of anything drums. To deliver that feeling of a seemingly impossible task of manipulating the sticks to make a nice sound. Just think, its not all that hard!

Recently i have been.

Drumming.

Driving.

Sleeping.

Eating.

Writing.

Gigging.

My band, Watch Us Fade,(https://www.facebook.com/WatchUsFade?fref=ts) are currently in the studio (actually my studio) recording what they call a debut album. Its definitely not going to be like proper popular and known to load of people nationally, but y'know, more like a local debut. Recording with Steve Beville, an established guitarist in Disarm Goliath, (https://www.facebook.com/disarmgoliathuk) has been epic. Thanks Steve! I am really happy with the tracks, and i look forward to finishing the album!

We've made more of an attempt to be a bit structurally quirky, and try not to "refer" back to the original riff or melody, and writing something that has more of a "storyline" effect to it. If you were to assign a letter or number to each section of a song, you could say that abbcbccdccc is the most common song structure, in terms of popular and chart music: starting off with an intro, moving into a long verse, followed by a chorus, then followed by another verse, ( or maybe even the intro melody again) followed by a double chorus, changing into a bridge section and completed by two or three repeats of the chorus. This is of course probably very untrue and maybe a little presumptious of me to say but, i find this is the most likely case in popular music. Probably because its easy to listen to and allows for the non musician to understand.

That aside, we have been trying to write music that is more along the lines of a lettered structure of abcdcdcdcefefefg, based upon "Call Of The Einherjar" which is included on the "Past Present Hell" album.Were doing this not to try to defy the generisms of music but to create a bit more of an interesting turn in terms of the creation process, making a bit more of a challenge in the respect of the relationship between five musicians and creating something to be proud of, that stands out a little more. I find it makes the rehearsal period much more of an anticipation as opposed to just putting this that and the other together and make the same music as we did on the e.p.

This week, i have been praised for my playing.  I had spoken to the owner of a recording and rehearsal studio, about maybe looking into a teaching job, teaching beginners and the unexperienced about the art of rhythm and percussion. I do teach by myself at the office but, being ungraded, i felt that maybe he wouldn't be such of an enthusiastic professional about it. I had explained that i have taught before as well as telling him that my previous tutor had told me that if i was to be graded, i would be around the grade 4/5 mark. At this point Tony retorts immediately and says, " no, id say you're more grade eight, definitely." i couldn't help but think, wow! why?! i couldn't read grade eight level theory for shit, let alone teach to that standard. I'm looking into getting drum grade books and getting myself to that level however, although that said i don't want to be totally theoretical about everything. I do hope i can be influencial though. Its this sort of thing that i really like to share with people, not because it makes me feel good, but because it means that they know that i could hopefully help others on their own journey to something great! 

Reckon you could email me on chewd@live.co.uk, with ideas for the design on this guitar? 

      Just think of something simple.. please? :P    

                    

                                      

Entry no.1.

I have been influenced, by significant people, to start writing a blog.

                          Whether its interesting or not, id like to get used to the idea of inputting to this weekly. Im not too sure about how often it should be updated but im thinking daily is a bit too frequent. Any opinions? Reckon daily is too much? Chocolate hobnobs or digestives?

                          Before i go off on a tangent about biscuits, im going to return to the original intention behind this blog. My sister, Darcie, has been on at me for weeks about writing a blog about my musicianship, expressing my thoughts, feelings and sharing experiences with however many people. I wasn't particularly keen on it at first but now i've actually typed out a few nice sentences, i've been convinced. 

                       Today, after sitting in my car for at least two hours, i finally decided to go and join in with the jam. I thought, what the fuck am i doing here sat on my own listening to Karnivool, ( https://www.facebook.com/karnivool?fref=ts  ) when i could be jamming with and enjoying making music with my friends, at the studio. (NOT my studio, the proper professional one.) And so drove swiftly over there and went metal as fuck. The kit is quite large, six toms, 7 cymbals not including hi hats, and a mini tymp just for extra use. Its sound is definitely tuned around to the rock side of things, and it has that look of being a prog rock players kit. Crazy, quirky but also mean and aggressive (if you could call prog rock aggressive). But leading to what i was going to say, i had got into the studio and saw that kit for the second time, i could say i have alot of respect for the owner of the unit. He isnt one of these guys who says " oh yeah only good players can touch a kit like that, its too expensive to be messed about on" kudos to the guy in my eyes, ill go into this in more detail in a bit but what im saying is, he allows a beginner to be influenced to play.

                         I reckon the state of a kit has everything to do with their influence and desire to play. Theoretically, a beginner who has been given a kit but not allowed to use it at all at any time due to neighbors, family, space or just pure annoyance, is less likely to want to play generally, and is more likely to not look after the kit, and let it down into disrepair, and make a massive waste of it for years just because its a naturally loud instrument. Even after that time period has been and gone. If the kit SOUNDS terrible, or looks bad, or doesn't even work properly in terms of setting up, a player can be put off the entire prospect of playing. I also think that drum teachers should also include how to properly set up a set, and to tune well in the first couple of hours of lessons, as opposed to only teaching how to play the basics and leaving the item itself to a later period in their lessons. 

                          Not entirely sure of how to end ones first entry to a blog, but ill work it out as it goes. ciao!