Why I finally did my first gear review

Anyone who knows me knows this: I'm not a "gear guy".

Part of it is living in New York, where it's difficult to practice at home, and where single-tenant "lock outs" of the type David Cola rents don't really exist unless you're willing to pay the equivalent rent to that of a small studio apartment.

So we share, and I've had plenty of fun airing my public practice grievances in public.

Which necessitates less gear-obsession than those with full-time setups they know nobody is going to touch get to enjoy.

But even by New York standards, I do not give a sh!# about gear. My nearly 20-year-old Gretsch kit sits in bags in my practice spot. I use it on occasion for videos. But mostly I've been using the communal drum kit.

We used to have a Yamaha Recording Custom. Then the owner moved out of the room. And we got the current Ludwig That's Missing One Leg.

All of which is to say it probably won't surprise anybody that I haven't spent a ton of time investing in mics.

I'm essentially "frozen in time" from the year the Zoom Q3HD was invented. Once I owned one, my mic ambitions stopped dead.

Which must've gotten the attention of a friend of the channel, because he offered to send me an EAD10.

First, I had no idea what one was. Then, I tried to refuse. He insisted, so the largeish box arrived at my apartment a few days later.

(Try getting toilet paper, hand sanitizer, weight plates, or meat that fast.)

Knowing I'd want to showcase the unboxing to honor the donation, I waited until I had a whole afternoon at the studio, then brought the EAD, still in the box, to the studio, along with all my camera gear.

As I opened things, assembled them, and experimented with them, I realized "this is a gear review."

Hence, first gear review on the channel.

Now part of me wants to just order a drum kit. Or at least a snare. Turns out, gear videos are fun. And people like them.

Meh - maybe I'll pay somebody on Fiverr to react to me instead.

We'll see.

Anyway, the EAD turned out to be a lot of fun, and to improve my sound production by quite a bit (though, when I recorded this lesson, it was still a bit of a learning curve, so I wouldn't consider the sound representative).

I had no idea how well I'd like it, but I'd say the EAD is the perfect tool for the price: sounds better than a zoom, which it should, as it's nearly twice-the-price. Sounds great with recorded tracks, as you'll see.

And better by a damn sight than many mic setups, especially in the hands of less-than-stellar engineers.

Hardest Drum Cover EVER?

I jest only slightly.

If you’d like to witness the chronicle of my adventures learning one of the hardest jazz tunes I’ve had to play…and learn what I learned about what makes tunes difficult, just watch :)

The ultimate left foot survival guide for drummers

Left Foot Exercises

The left foot is like the red-headed step-child of drumming.

Unless you've studied jazz, the hi hat remains a mysterious and intimidating creature. It's always over there, and you know how to play on top of it, but whenever you're doing something else with the lead hand, you kind of ignore it.

Completely ignoring the hats is probably better than what some others do - play it out of time, and/or completely unmusically.

As my friend Jordan once told me "you never *have* to play anything with the left foot".

But that creates an "uncanny valley" between nothing and something good.

So my aim in this video is to shepherd you through that valley as quickly as possible, so you can some out on the other end sounding more like a "pro".

But how are we supposed to get there?

Watch great drummers like Guiliana or Larnell, and their hat placements are esoteric.

What if you had a source code for getting inside these guys' heads?

I can't fully tell you what Mark, or Larnell, or up-and-comer Rhagav Mehrotra are thinking or feeling, but I can get you to something close to what they *play*.

Take my hand, and leap with me off the ledge.

Because on the other side is hi hat bliss.

Here's the video. Hope you enjoy.

Back next Monday with something I know you'll love.

Yes, I'm really going to tell you about Insta Chops

Insta Chops Transcription

Since when did we have to stick up for Instachops? When did flashing a little chop swag on the 'gram become a crime?

Love-them-or-hate-them, Instachops are here to stay.

And haters miss the point.

For decades, the most exposure to great drummers people in far-flung corners of the world, like my home town, could get was a VHS tape of the Buddy Rich tribute concert, a Steve Houghton seminar, or the occasional live concert.

As such, drums moved at the speed of snail mail. People in Wisconsin were just learning about Bill Stewart the first time I traveled to New York in 2000. Nobody had heard of Ari Hoenig.

In my 20s, living in Astoria, I remember wanting to put some video of myself playing on the internet. Just what we'd now call a drum cover!

My best option to book a studio, and spend several grand. In 2006, I got a canon power-shot, and a zoom mic, and started using iMovie to splice them together. It took a week to produce a single clip.

Then, almost overnight, smart-phones arrived, and Instagram start allowing video. First 15-second clips (the #VF15 era), then, one-minute.

Take an entire world of drummers studying their Dennis Chambers DVDs and recording with their camcorders, and tell them they can now record something higher resolution with their phone, and put it up for tens of thousands of people to see ...

...and you don't think they're gonna chop?

So of course the arms-race started. And good Goddamn thing, because it gave us Andy Prado, Maison Guidry, Joel Turcotte, and plenty of others. I've written and video'd elsewhere that if you're looking for somebody to cry for the end-run of the "gatekeepers", don't look at me.

How much of Insta-chopper hate is because they didn't have to "pay traditional dues" (i.e. deal with a system intent on taking their money for the promise of gigs it can't deliver), and how much is because they're just...better than us?

Regardless, I'll plant a flag that Instachoppers are awesome.

And, in this week's video, I've decoded some hotlicks from three of my favorites.