On this Independence Day

I was raised to be a proud, grateful American.
Proud of an experiment in freedom that gave the world a new way to think about self-determination. Grateful that my ancestors, escaping anti-Semitic pogroms in Eastern Europe, had a shining, golden place to come to and in which to rebuild their lives. Growing up, I celebrated every Independence Day with delight, with light and noise. 
Independence Day is the ultimate extrovert's celebration.

Then, over time, corners of the rug started getting pulled back, to reveal all the bad things about how our country was created and founded. Over the last decade or so I have learned that slavery was more than a horrible idea, that it in fact was a key pillar of our nation's founding. I have learned that we haven't come as far as we thought we had on issues of racial, gender and social justice, that there are still so many white people who insist on hating those who differ from them and insist on raising their kids and grandkids to feel the same way. I have learned that there are a lot of white Americans who are itching to fight another Civil War, who cannot wait to blow black and brown people and their allies back to the Stone Age and dance on their bodies.
The bloodlust and bigotry in our nation has not gone away.

I have loved rudimental drumming since I first learned of it as a schoolgirl. 
Something about it grabbed me by the collar and fired up my musical ears and inspired me to become a musical mathematician myself, to join the long line of rudimental drummers and keep the tradition alive.
Never mind that the long line of rudimental drummers was almost entirely male and nearly all white; I ignored that (or wasn't taught to notice it, or maybe I did notice it and wanted to be a drummer so badly that I didn't care -- I don't really know) and was all in.

Today, while my arthritic hands are not contest material by any means, I can more than hold my own in a community band drum line and I play well enough to really enjoy myself. I play almost every day now, partly as a way to deal with my shpilkes (Yiddish - restlessness) and partly because I still love the artform.

But the artform has its roots in a tradition of war and conquest, and I cannot deny that either.

This is where I have to sit in my ambivalence and stew on it.
Because while I still love the artform, while I still love the feel of picking up a pair of sticks and playing rolls, paradiddles and ruffs, I feel weird about the other messages that my drumming sends, the stories it reinforces.
And I wonder what my part is in reinforcing those old messages, that old history which so desperately needs to be corrected (since it cannot be undone).
Drums were present on the battlefield in every major Civil War battle. They drummed out a throbbing, painful pulse at "America First" rallies during the first and second World Wars; KKK gatherings and even some lynchings. And they continue to bring up vestiges of American colonialism and American exceptionalism that lately have made me sit less comfortably with the artform.

How can I turn my talent and skill into something for good? How do I take something rooted in the art of war and conquest, and turn it into a call for real justice?

I don't have the answer. This is probably the deepest I've ever gone in asking questions about the roots of my chosen artform and instrument, and these questions are uncomfortable.
I think they're supposed to be.

I'll still play on my pad every day -- it's therapeutic -- but I honestly don't know what I'll do about Independence Day this year.

One Drummer Chopping: more adventures with the Drumslinger pad

Today I needed to give Sweetie some space in the house (it's a little house, even for just the two of us), so I took the Drumslinger pad out by the shed and chopped a bit.

After warming up, I managed to get up to speed with a favorite exercise.

 

I appreciate this pad the more I use it. It's definitely not a pad where I can hide my weaknesses, and for what I want to accomplish these days that's a good thing.

I'm glad I got this one used, because the word is that Drumslinger is having an increasingly difficult time delivering pads in a timely manner.  In fact, based on communications from both Drumslinger and from Rudimental Drumming, both companies produce pads of similar design and construction. It's possible that I may want to try the RD pad, but for now I'm content with this find and wil hang out with it awhile, while I try to improve my left hand.

Practice Sticks, part two: Evolution

A closer look at specialty practice sticks: Signature models.

In my previous post on the subject, I showcased a pair of practice sticks designed by Matt Savage, made by an off-brand some fifteen years ago. Since then, Savage has joined the Promark artist roster and re-designed his stick in conjunction with Promark. It looks a lot like the earliest generation of Xymox' "Dead Beat" sticks. When I can get my hands on an original from Xymox I'll take a closer look.

Meanwhile, here's a comparison of two different generations of the "SCOJO" practice stick, as made by Vic Firth and later by Promark/System Blue.

Upper: SCOJO sticks made last year by Promark with guidance from System Blue Percussion.
Lower: SCOJO sticks by vic Firth, made over a decade ago.

Note the subtle differences in size and taper of the stick, and in the size and shape of the rubber tips.























Playing both pairs of sticks, I could feel the differences immediately.

The Vic Firth sticks are heavier, and pitch-matched, with more heaviness at the front end of the stick (which matches up with the feel of his regular signature stick from the same maker and era).

The Promark stick is not pitch-matched (you can hear the difference between sticks). The weight overall is lighter, with a lighter feel up front due to the slightly skinnier taper. I like the feel, but the oversized rubber tips and mismatched pitches are a a bit of a distraction.

I got the Vic Firth model used, and you can see cracks in the rubber tips from age and use.
It will be interesting to see how well the Promark version holds up to use.

Aerofactor drum pad: why, exactly?

 Every now and then, I come across a practice design that makes me scratch my head.
Aerofactor is such a pad.

Made from aircraft-grade materials and sold between 2015 and 2018, this pad is a marvel of over-engineering that makes me wonder why it was even made.
Other than the fancy materials, I'm not sure what unmet purpose it was meant to serve.

The company no longer has a web site, and their Instagram page hasn't been updated in two years.
The only reason I came across the pad is that one is on sale right now on eBay.
(The seller wants $200 so I won't be bidding on it.)

Anyone who wants to shed some light on this pad and what it's for, feel free to respond in the comment section.

Practice Sticks: Why?

Over the years, drum companies have developed sticks specifically designed for practice, and/or for warming up. So far, my research shows that this idea was being considered as far back as the 1960s.
Why?

Various schools of drumming advised students to use a bigger, heavier stick to "warm up" with, so that when they switched to their "normal" sticks their hands would feel lighter and the sticks livelier.
At first, since most concert and show drummers had been trained in rudimental, military drumming (either because they'd served in the armed forces or because they'd marched in a drum and bugle corps), warming up with marching sticks was a logical choice. Later, as more refinements to drum studies were being espoused by various professional drummers, a few drum companies developed practice-specific models that were not intended for use in performance, but strictly for practice.

I've collected a few models of these practice-specific sticks and thought I'd share a few of them here.

1.  Swingmaster warm-up sticks by Capella, circa 1980's.

Calato developed this stick strictly for warming up. Made from solid aluminum, these sticks are really heavy, and designed for use with a practice pad only. They are ideal for slow, careful warm-ups of a short duration. I obtained these primarily for my collection, and I actually never use them for warming up as my hands are smaller and frankly a little too arthritic for these. The other drawback is that these can only be safely used with matched grip.

2. Matt Savage Practice Pro sticks, circa late 1990s.

Matt Savage marched with the Bridgemen drum and bugle corps, then rose through the ranks as a drum instructor for corps and college marching bands. Today he runs a marching drum line camp and works as a clinician with others' camps as well.
Along the way Savage has developed a few different incarnations of his practice stick. This early design from Johnny Rabb's company H & R Innovations (which would later morph into Malletech), features a thick, heavy marching stick with the playing end ground down to accommodate a rubber cover that approximates the size and shape of the tips of its performance model, the Field Pro:



In both cases the shape of the tip doesn't make for a great connection with the drum head. The sticks are not very well-balanced and they feel klunky in my hands. Still, if I had nothing else to practice with and I was in need of a quick way to blow off some steam, they would suffice. Again, I got these for my collection and not for practical use. (I also got a pair of the Field Pro so I'd have a "set".)

3. Vic Firth Corpsmaster MS4, "Magnum", circa 2010's.












These sticks were originally the Dennis Delucia signature model back in the late 1990's/early 2000's. Made of laminated layers of wood called "Sta-Pac", they were designed for use with Kevlar heads on high-tension snare drums. When Delucia left Vic Firth and became a Promark endorser, Firth renamed the stick the Magnum, and eventually just the MS4. While some drummers have used these in field performance, many only use them as warm-up sticks because they are noticeably heavier than the same model made of standard hickory (formerly another Delucia stick, and dropped by Vic Firth when Delucia left). I have occasionally used these for warming up, but their weight gave me pause and now they are mostly for show in my collection. I hope at some point to find an original Delucia signature pair to swap in.

4. Vic Firth Corpsmaster "SCOJO" practice sticks, Circa early 2000's.

This stick has gone through a few incarnations as well. Designed with Scott Johnson, the current percussion caption head of the Blue Devils drum and bugle corps almost twenty years ago, this is the original design made and marketed by Vic Firth. Subsequent editions were renamed when Johnson fled to Promark, and today it's known simply as the MS6 Chop-Out model. (A similar design made with Sta-Pac bears the signature of Ralph Hardimon, formerly the longtime Percussion caption head for the Vanguard and currently a staff clinician and product development adviser for Vic Firth. As you can imagine, the Sta-Pac version is quite a lot heavier, but with the rubber tips is still meant primarily as a practice stick.)

While practice sticks are not a major focus of my collecting interest, since they are practice aids I will sometimes obtain them if they're interesting (like the unfortunately-named Tomahawk practice sticks I reviewed earlier in this blog).

Here's a video demonstrating the sound and look of these four pairs of sticks, played carefully on my Drumslinger marching pad.

I am always looking for interesting, unusual practice pads and practice sticks.
If you have something to re-home, contact me here.
Happy drumming!

when drum companies don't deliver

After sharing my initial testing of the Drumslinger pad, friends on various FB groups warned me that the company had been plagued by delivery issues to the point where people had been waiting over a year for pads they'd ordered and paid for. They warned me that if I were considering buying a pad from the company, my money would be better spent elsewhere.

Similar compaints have been voiced for several years about Xymox, another company whose pads I generally like and which are represented in my collection.
So far, I've found that kindness and good manners go a long way with Xymox. I'm still waiting on a pad I ordered last winter, but I knew that production issues would delay the pad before I placed my order and I was willing to wait. The COVID-19 shutdown has obviously thrown further wrenches into the works, further delaying my pad. I'll post about that pad later.

With Drumslinger, I decided to do a little investigating.

I went to their web site, noted that it hadn't been updated since before Christmas 2019, and emailed them to inquire. I got an email response within an hour, explaining why the web site hadn't been updated ("most pads are now ordered through apps, and the web site is the last to be updated," said a respondent name Bill). I was given a one-time discount code and encouraged to place an order.

The next evening, I decided to go further. I sent another email asking for specifics about differences between a couple of pad models. So far, there has been no response.

At the same time, I sent an email to Rudimental Drumming, a company based in the Netherlands that makes pads of a similar design and price range to Drumslinger. I asked questions about specific differences between pad models and also asked about production time. The very next morning, I received an informative and helpful reply.

Based on ths limited experience, I would be more inclined to order a pad from Rudimental Drumming and wait for the several weeks' turnaround.
Add to this the fact that one of Drumslinger's biggest endorsers publicly ended his relationship with the company and soon became an endorser of RD, and my hunch was confirmed.

So I'll keep the used Drumslinger pad for awhile, and plan to purchase an RD pad for my collection sometime later this summer. I'll compare the two pads and report back.

pad review: Drumslinger marching pad, 10" - part one

Before I snagged my RCP pad, I was waiting on delivery of a Drumslinger marching pad that I bought used online a few weeks ago (the seller was very slow to ship).

(Drumslinger pads have been made in a small home workshop in Texas, one at a time to suit, for several years. I have not provided a link because the future of the company is unknown at this time. I hope to have some more info when I'm ready to post part two of this review.)

It arrived today, and I immediately put it in a stand and tarted playing it.

The only detail I'll make note of today is that the hex bolts used for tuning are SAE, rather than the ubiquitous Metric that is now standard on almost everything in the world. Thankfully, I own an SAE hex set and was able to tighten things up a bit. (The bolts were only finger-tight when the pad arrived.)

I like the clarity of the sound. This is a pad that will immediately tell you if you're playing accurately.
The feel is a little tight and tiring, but that may be me and not the pad, so I'll hold off on passing any judgment on that aspect just yet.

Here's a quick video I made this afternoon. I'll take a much closer look at the pad tomorrow.

RCP pad testing, day two UPDATED

Today I had some time to really hang out with my new practice pad, the Active Snare model from RCP. I ran it through its paces, playing both modern corps-style stuff and some of my old-school favorites from the NARD book, for about 20 minutes, adjusting the snare sound periodically to see and hear how it responded.

Then, I decided to take a closer look at the mechanics of the design.

Here are two videos I made of my findings.

Disclaimer:
This is a completely independent review by a daily drummer with nearly five decades of drumming experience. I offered this review in hopes that it will help improve and refine a promising product.
I get no bro-deals from RCP for any of this. I paid for my drum pad just like anyone else.

UPDATE: several days later, I am still enjoying playing on this pad. The rubber surface is among the most responsive and comfortable I've tried. I would be perfectly happy with a pad like this without a "snare" sound mechanism if RCP chose to produce one.
I also have a better understanding of what the pad was designed for, what its limitations and bonuses are; and I won't quibble as much about the limitations of the adjustability. I'm glad I got this pad, not only as a collectible but as a player. My only suggestions would be that RCP include a short instruction sheet with the pad that states their intended use of the mechanism and the limits of its adjustability so that the buyer knows what s/he is getting. Other than that, it's an enjoyable pad to practice on.

new pad: RCP active snare pad

I purchased this pad from RCP last week from their web site, for a sale price of around $65.
(Because I play exclusively on Mylar heads, I didn't feel a need to purchase the separate laminate; if you play a lot on Kevlar and Kevlar-Hybrid heads you may find the laminate useful, as it will provide crisper articulation that simulates a modern, high-tension marching snare.)

The pad arrived in a week, which for direct order from the manufacturer is pretty darned quick.
It came in a plain box with a styrofoam insert to stabilize it.

Right out of the box, I noticed:

-- some noticeable scuffing on the metal side panel, nothing fatal but still a little surprising for a brand-new item.



-- there are no instructions with the pad. For someone who's seen the videos this may or may not matter; but for someone receiving the pad as a gift or who doesn't know the company's products, a sheet detailing care of the pad and its mechanism might have been a good idea.
(To be fair, Xymox pads don't come with instructions, either. I'm waiting on a Hybrid Snare Pad and we'll see what includes.)
-- the rubber on the bottom is thick enough to raise the pad above a tabletop so you have a small resonance pocket of air between the tabletop and the pad itself.


-- the "snare" sound is achieved by the use of metal ball bearings placed inside a sunken space in the underside. This concept was originally patented by Xymox years ago and by itself, is nothing new.
-- What IS new is that the "snare sound includes a mechanism controlled by a side knob, which controls how freely the bearings vibrate and move around, which in turn controls how much of the "snare" sound you hear while playing.

My partner asked me to take the pad outside because the off-gases smelled funny.
So I took outside and placed it in a stand, and began to play.



Right away I liked the response and rebound of the rubber pad. Without a laminate to tighten things up it feels about right for practice, and responds well enough that I would enjoy a simpler, non-snare version of this pad if offered, with only the rubber and the hard plastic polymer rim.

Then it was time to play with the knob and see what would happen.

Turned all the way counter-clockwise, the snare sound becomes muffled, but never goes away entirely. Perhaps more experimentation and use will lossen things up so I can turn the knob a little further and completely disable the snare sound, but I didn't get there with this first trial.
Turning the knob all the way clockwise as far as it will go releases whatever is impeding the movement of the metal balls, to achieve the "snare" sound.
In my initial work with the adjustment knob, I found that, turned to either extreme it would sometimes get stuck, and require greater hand strength to turn the knob the other way again. I don't know if this is because I turned it too far, or because the mechanism needs "breaking in," either of which could have been explained by the inclusion of an instruction sheet. Because I understood that the "snare" sound depends on how freely the metal balls could move, I sometimes jiggled the pad in the stand to see if it changed how the balls had settled against whatever the dampening device was.
In earlier pad designs with a simulated "snare" sound, there has been no dampening involved, so the metal balls could wiggle about in the recessed area. (Xymox pads now come with a rubber sleeve you can install to dampen the metal balls completely. It's not adjustable and takes a couple minutes to switch it in or out; but the dampening effect seems more completely than on the RCP pad here.)

I think it will take spending more time with this pad to see if I can get perceptible gradations of sound somewhere in the middle, which would go a long way in making the pad truly versatile.
If there are no real gradations, and all the pad comes with are two distinct "snares on" and "snares off" settings, then the "snare feature is little more than a gimmick that is already available on other pads. I'm going to put this pad through some paces over the next several days and file an update next week.
But in the meantime, here's a video of my very first explorations with the pad.

One Drummer Chopping: Offworld Percussion Shuttle pad

Offworld Percussion has in many ways become the n'est plus ultra of marching practice pads, simply by dint of their consistency, quality control and overall lack of drama. They just make a good, reliable product and that's why so many drummers -- including me -- own an Offworld pad.

I recently scored one of the first generation Shuttle pads from Offworld's warehouse. They had five of them still in the bag and blew them out on Instagram. Right place at the right time, basically.

The "Dark Matter" playing surface is thinner than what's used on the flagship Invader series pads, and it feels harder and brighter as a result.
Still, I can see why this little pad was so popular. It feels and plays well (especially if you play on Kevlar), and it travels well. If I had to choose between this and my Invader for longer workouts, I'd stick with the Invader as the thicker rubber is more forgiving and less fatiguing. But on the fly, the Shuttle is a nice pad to take to the park or on a road trip. The thick rubber bottom gives it a non-skid surface for tabletop playing, or even a short stint on your lap.

I think they discontinued it in favor of their Outlander series, which uses the same thickness of rubber in a circular design.

I might end up keeping this for the collection. I kind of like it.

UPDATE: Offworld is currently producing prototypes for a second generation shuttle pad; one will be made with a rubber surface only, and the other will be made to take their snare drum cartridge insert (like the Aurora and BYOSphere pads).
I think I'll hang onto my 1st gen Shuttle and call it good, as I was unimpressed with the Aurora pad and cartridge and sold them. Offworld needs to utilize much stronger magnets so the snare cartridges doesn't pop out on an accented note before I'll consider buying one again.

Well, THAT was quick.

Curfew was extended only two nights, and then ended when subsequent protests turned out to be peaceful. Considering that the park was filled with more people the second night I went there, it's jsut as well. Tonight we got news of a spike in COVID-19 cases here in Oregon that are likely the result of all the vacationing and partying over Memorial Day weekend (two weeks ago).
We're told to expect another spike in a couple weeks from all the protests.
This may be how it goes for awhile.
..::sigh::..
So for the time being, I'm home and drumming.
This time, a return to a song I wrote for my most recent album, The Watchman's Chair.
On the album I played it with brushes; but today I wanted to see how it would feel with sticks and a Xymox pad. So here you go. Enjoy.
(Lyrics can be found at www.beth-hamon-music.com. Click on "Stuff I Make", then in the drop down click on "Words" and then on "The Watchman's Chair" and that will take you to all the lyrics for the album.)