After teaching at Pirate Studios in Tottenham, London, I had some extra time and let loose:
Checking on my abilities, giving voice to ideas, holding a heavy groove, deviating, and stretching the sound levels!
Seeing Yussef Dayes was a highlight of my year, and this shedding practice is somewhat of a reflection of my love for his 5 piece band that played live at Somerset House, London on 2022.7.9.
Shedding
Shedding was a term used by teacher James Oscroft who emphasised that letting loose in practice is great but it's not the same as the focused training you need to improve (paraphrased). The best practice is quality over quantity, taking a new challenge well matched to your ability, on step at a time, systematically, consistently regular, until you can apply it, on command.
I see shedding as the place where the training I have done is put to a creative test. Even though this is fun, I think it's equally important to enjoy the more mundane technical practice. Feel free to get in touch about online lessons, or lessons in London.
Stay tuned for more and many thanks for watching and subscribing.
Gear
The house kits in Pirate are usually Natal and give a resonant ping and bang for their buck. The snare in multiple rooms has the rim of the head ripped off the skin that it holds together, including this one. I'm surprised it sounded this good, but took a while to tweak. Maybe people are just overzealous with tuning it up (drum stuff actually breaks).
The cymbals were already in the studio: a lovely Stagg Sensa which was cracked in the middle twice. Somehow that crash has a lot of variety of big washy accents each time I play it loud, with a modern almost china cymbal attack, and a very even decay. The ride and hats were Sabian sbr, the cheap and durable. I changed the hats to my own teaching hats: bottom Zyn and top Sabian Fusion both 14 inch.
jonasgolland
9 сен 2024