Brandon Olander - Technique Notes With The Drum Corps GOAT

If you're like me, you probably remember those drum corps videos from 2017 and 2018, when a certain media network started sharing a ton of them on YouTube.

One of the most captivating to watch were the blue devils. I actually used excerpts from some of their lot drum line performances to illustrate what I meant by "playing clean": if you treat your drum kit like 4 players playing together, your "personal drum troupe" should sound, well, Together, rather than all over the place. And it was the devils' footage I used.

The center snare player for that group, during several of its best years, was Brandon Olander, who, I'm excited to say, is today's podcast guest.

Brandon and I had been meaning to have a conversation for a while, and decided "why not record it". I was excited to pick the arch corpsman's brain on a number of things.

Topics we touch on in this interview include:

-The differences between marching snare and drum kit technique

-Brandon's philosophy and approach to teaching

-What it's like to be an apex marching percussionist learning drum kit

If you've ever wondered why the hands of corps folks and drum kit players look so different, or whether the crazy rhythmic vocabulary of drum corps gives you a "leg up" learning to improvise, I know you'll dig this interview.

Does Anybody Know What This Drum Beat is Called?

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

I actually genuinely hope someone in my audience can supply some more info on this.

It started like this: I’m listening along to my instagram, then I see this “Bill Withers with 32nd notes” thing from Jharis Yokley, and I think “wow, that reminds me of this Chris Dave beat with Meshell Ndegeocello.”

I also thought of the beat I played over one of the tracks I recorded the last time I was at Meinl - this stuff is clearly in my head too.

There was just one problem: I had no idea what to call it.

It’s not exactly breakbeat, the way Jojo Mayer or JD Beck play it.

It’s also not really jungle or Drum and Bass.

But it does seem to share their DNA.

After texting umpteen drummers and asking “what is this thing”, I got fed up, and decided to hatch my own tinfoil hat theory.

In today’s video, I’ll tell you what that theory is, and also show you how to play the beat. Complete with transcriptions.

Hope you enjoy!

The "Sneaky" Way to 2x Your Speed on Drums

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

Whooooa Nelly I’m tempting the clickbait accusations with this one.

Sometimes I’ll come up with a learning technique with my students that works so well I’m in the unenviable position that everything I say to describe it sounds like utter horse$#!#.

So, caveats out front:

The method I’m about to describe assumes you’ve done a lot of prerequisite work. That means learned to play cleanly and in time, and developed your idea flow. I’ve often said that the key to playing fast solos is playing slow solos. The reason what I’m about to describe works is that you’ve already learned to play slow solos. If you take a sloppy solo and add speed, it’s just going to sound sloppy fast.

With that out of the way, how long should it take to play faster, once you can already play slowly?

The answer could be a couple of years, if you just inch the metronome up. (And I recommend you do that either way.)

But, it turns out, there’s another, faster - sneakier - way.

In this complex soup of drum improvisation, speed is one ingredient. Another is number of licks you maintain in active memory. And you can play with both.

In fact, one of the most famous “choppers” of his generation is talking about it, in public, in plain English. If you know where to look.

I promise I’ll explain more in the video.

Hope you enjoy!

I Changed One Thing And My Weak Hand Got Faster

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

I’m actually pretty excited to present today’s video. It represents the culmination of at least a few months’ experimentation, not-to-mention working around an injury. It took a bit of time until I felt I had things comfortable enough to show to the public in a video.

But here goes - I made one change in my left hand that, I believe, brought it much more in line with what I’ve been doing naturally with my right. It’s probably fine to have slightly different techniques between the two hands up to a point - i.e. if you’re not trying to chop, but unfortunately I was, and that exposed a limitation.

I realized I’ve been doing something very “against the conventional wisdom” with my right hand for at least the last year: moving almost totally away from the “pinch and fold” fulcrum everybody shows to beginners, and approaching something much more dynamic, with the hand kind of dyamically resisting the rebound force from the drum or cymbal, with a bunch of input from the middle finger.

“Against conventional wisdom”, unless you listen to teachers like Gordy Knudtson or Murray Spivack, or watch the hands of - to name just a few - Thomas Pridgen, Giancarlo Pellerito, JP Bouvet, or Chad Wackerman. Two key details differ from “basic technique”: first, the stick is linear with the forearm, instead of “out in the fingers”. Next, you’re utilizing that entire range-of-motion with the fingers.

Great! So now all that was necessary was applying it to the left hand. Which, as you’ll see, is a work in progress. Anyway, I hope this will be helpful for anybody trying to break the “speed limit” with their weak hand.

Hope you enjoy!