as you can see – the single piece maple snare drum is coming right along…I have hit a bit of a snag on the interior, as I had a grinder to even it out and it was too fast, and it burnt the wood so I stopped immediately. Part of this project taking so long is I am curing it as I go, with no instructions or clear idea of time frames involved – only looking and working with the drum. I have had some wood experts express surprise that the wood is not cracking and unworkable (as well as surprise at my archaic approach)…I will show more as I near the finishing stage and complete (with audio samples as well). The 2 images show a before and after on the size of wood stump I cut the snare from, and an interior shot showing just how much work I have ahead of me to get the shell even and beveled etc. (click images to enlarge) Big fun.

Assigning the musicians; I was reading through 1 Chronicles 25 and was struck by some aspects of Gods designs for worship musicians. It was a quickie of a spoken thought – with a washer running in background and people walking upstairs – but I hope you get the idea of why I wanted to share this…about 6 minutes long. The blue arrow streams, or you can download.

Download

There has been some discussion over the years of just exactly what constitutes “proper” music in the church. My contribution to this discussion / argument would be “it depends”. I have been reading through Chronicles, and was especially struck by 1 Chronicles 31, where King David assigns musicians to minister in the tent of the tabernacle, before Solomon built the temple. He made specific appointments of those who should minister in the service of song (service of song has a nice ring to it…). 2 names come to the front; Heman and his associate Asaph.

If you want to look at the commentary I was reading go here and scroll through the bit mentioned above (1 Chronicles 31). Apparently Heman and Asaph were well known and busy ministers accomplishing Gods will in various ceremonies and locations. Anyway, in 1 Chronicles 16:5 when David brought the Ark Of The Covenant into Jerusalam Asaph was the “Chief” of the music celebration….and he ” made a sound with the cymbal”, so if anyone ever tells you drums don’t belong in church, they are sharing an opinion, rather than a command from God. All too often people use their personal tastes in music to define a rigid church standard. To all of you drummers out there (and really, any music maker / minister) – make your sound with zeal!

I have been working on some new songs, and videos, and bits of my kit…and a responsible conscientious blogger would be rattling away and updating you the whole time…I should be – but- alas – I haven’t. Well – it is only because I have started several things and not finished any of them that I am in this predicament. Someone asked me what the most significant thing was I learned from doing the wallops…I replied “volume matters” and by volume I mean quantity, then thought about it and added – and “finish everything”. I never really know if a song I write will be good until it is finished, and I might not be as crazy about a song someone else likes, and not every song is great – but maybe 1 in 10 or whatever. Also – finish your stuff. Too many people get caught up in the exciting starting phase of ideas and noodle away without doing the real work (and sometimes even more difficult work) of hanging in there until it is done. This week I was playing with a free SSL plug in on the drums and wrote this little sketch mono manno ,
it is only about 1 minute and a half long…but my label just shrugged when I asked about distribution costs…plenty more should be coming in the next days – stay tuned.

BTW if you want some history on this plug in, as well as the infamous “In The Air Tonight”drum fill… read the Phil Collins article in MIX

I am working on the next song and I find myself really wanting the “right” snare sound. It is a bit strange – since I am often flying fast and furious while recording, and will use various mics and placements – just to execute the idea…but not this time. The last time I really spent a lot of time trying to get the right sound was at Paisley Park, Princes studio – and I had about 15 snare drums, and Tom Tucker had me work through them ad nauseum. Nothing against Tom, I had em, he wanted to hear em. at the time I was a bit in awe of Paisley, and found things a bit over thought. Gordy Knutson (amazing drummer) happened to be doing a session at the same time and wrote on my drum set (which was a single head Tama Mahogony) “GET BOTTOM HEADS”…which is like saying ADD SALT TO YOUR SOUP… he might want more salt – but not me…it is truly a taste bud issue.
The more I learn about music and recording, the more I learn that there are a lot of ways of doing things, many I find disagreeable as far as the final sound, but not necessarily wrong. One of my favorite snare sounds is actually from a sample CD Brian Eno did, with Neil Conti, Dark Side Of the Groove…but there again, sometimes the ” Salvation Army Snare” sound of Bonham is the cats meow…FYI I will be using a SM57 on the snare – which is probably the most used snare drum microphone in recording studios worldwide…and I will play with an AKG C414 under and around a Noble and Cooley 14″ maple…additionally I am going to use a cheap condenser ambient mic – with lots o’ compression stay tuned…

I have added some shots of the snare project…right now the shell looks kinda like a beaver hit it – but I push ahead…the gallery is below here and also in the photo section. The latest shots of me carving out the interior are on their way. Note that when you click on an image – you open up a gallery viewer. I have written a new article entitled “Who in Hell is Satan?”- which you can read here if interested. I am working on some new tunes of my own – and of others, and have guests coming into Pajamas studio tonight. I asked Josh about showing the album work but he said it was too big – but it does look good – so we will have to be patient, he said he’d probably be done in a few weeks….

laid down a sweet groove in ‘fool in the rain’. Given the weather today – and a slight desire for something of a bombastic beat I did my own version, if you want to just listen to the loop . You can download a wav file here JH_FITR

welcome, you made it! please click on the banner to get to the home page, or refer to the menu on the right.

the new drum groove a day (see panel on right) is an idea I have been playing with for a while…it is currently password protected for 2 reasons;

1) I am trying to determine, in my schedule, if I can maintain a daily groove (write, record, produce, upload etc) for publication on the site…and not just do a groove – but consider other formats for various applications as well.

2) It will be a membership only access for a yet to be determined fee, which will give you full access.

the idea will be you will have online access to beats / grooves I produce – to use in your productions.
In all likelihood there will be quite a variety – as I personally love rhythm in many forms.

Here is a slower tempo beat 56 BPM as an example. I will occasionally publish other grooves too – free.

Click the blue arrow below to preview…then if you want to download the .wav click the i*groove image, and select save page as…

I hope you guys that are waiting for drums and production work can stay patient – I am trying to do a number of musical projects in a number of locations – I hope to be getting a few things out in the next day or 2. In the meantime – why not go on over and buy a song a few hundred times? Here is a little sketch named tentatively distant sounds