Stuck Outside The Forum With The Hendrix Blues Again... Slight Return

For reasons unknown to me, my post "Stuck Outside The Forum With The Hendrix Blues Again" attracted more readers than anything else on "Words And Music".

In short, it was a complaint about a Facebook group called The Real Blues Forum refusing to allow discussion about Jimi Hendrix being a blues guitarist.

Well, it's happened again. But this time the guitarist whose name cannot be mentioned is Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The latest trouble started when a hapless member of the forum posted a video of Albert King performing with Vaughan. A small discussion started about the playing styles of the two men, but was cut short by a right-thinking member of the forum pointing out that this discussion transgressed the rules. Something like: old black players ok to talk about, but modern white players (or Hendrix) not ok to talk about.

Someone then asked how on earth this video had even been posted in the first place.

When I responded by asking: "Can blue men play the whites?" - a light-hearted reference to the Bonzo Dog Band's classic enquiry - my contribution was almost immediately moderated, ie removed.

So now I've removed myself from The Real Blues Forum. It's funny that Albert King was able to bring himself to play with the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Rory Gallagher, and that BB King could sing the praises of Eric Clapton and Peter Green, but (predominantly white) blues purists don't seem to even want to talk about them.

Time And Motion

Phew! After three studio sessions, my Moving Target solo percussion piece is finally recorded. It should come to a YouTube near you soon.

I couldn't have done it without the aid of sound maestro Simon "Dr Scardo" Scardanelli and his technical wizardry. We managed to stick to the basics of real drum kit, real percussion instruments and real human voice, but where it was appropriate, we did use effects that you can only get in the studio.

And that included a bit of cutting and pasting – to achieve parts that I could write but found exceedingly difficult to play in one take. Mainly because I deliberately set out to create a mathematical mix of 4/4 with 7/8 and 15/8 and 6/8...

It probably sounds rather grand to say that it was inspired by the music of Steve Reich (as well as Yannis Markopoulos, Public Image Ltd, trance music, Ringo Starr and heavy rock) but it kind of was…

And why Moving Target? Because of the time signature shifts… and also because that's the best way to  survive… keep moving.

At The Double

It was sad to hear of the death of Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor – renowned for a number of things, but also for being one of the pioneers of the double bass drumming style that has become ubiquitous in the worlds of metal.

Double bass drumming may look easy - but it isn't. You're asking your left (or hi-hat) foot to do something that it isn't used to doing. And in effect you're asking your whole body to play differently.

Louie Bellson was the man who started it in jazz... and Ginger Baker was the first to bring it to rock... closely followed by Keith Moon and Jon Hiseman.

There are a small number of good books on the subject. There is an excellent primer by Joe Franco called "Double Bass Drumming". And I would also now recommend "Double Bass Drumming and Power Fills Workout" by Matt Sorum and Sam Aliano.

At first I thought this book was just about speed and flash, but it actually leads you into some really interesting experimentations with all the (often simple but still tricky) combinations of two hands and two feet playing drums.

Learning to play two bass drums takes you back to basics, not only in terms of simplicity but also because it can give you that same feeling of excitement you had when you first discovered the drums. Try it!

A Pain In The Back

Phil Collins has announced that he's coming out of "retirement" but it doesn't sound as if he'll be playing the drums much, sticking instead to piano and vocals.

A truly individual drummer, he was forced to stop playing a few years ago because of physical health problems.

Though some folk seem to find it difficult to believe, playing drums is very much a mental exercise.

There are physical demands, of course... but drummers' injuries tend not to be of the blood-on-the-snare variety, as featured in the movie Whiplash, but ones incurred from years of moving heavy drums and drum bags around.

I've recently encountered two veteran players, both with back problems, who just don't want to carry their gear anywhere anymore.

Unless they have the luxury of a roadie, drummers are always first to have to start setting up for a gig and last to finish taking down. They also have the most awkward gear for loading in and out of cars or vans.

They keep their drums pristine and in perfect order... but it's not always easy to do the same for themselves.