Last night I had a good, progressive jam with the band. I decided to take my Roland TD-8 brain and 3 triggers: the snare, Bass and a tom. I managed to stuff the bass trigger and pedal in beside the acoustic hi-hat pedal (to the left) and the two pads on a double tom stand tothe left of the hi-hat cymbals. We had SOME fun with them.
In Hungry Like the Wolf, I set the bass pedal as a tambourine and the two stick pads as the funky electronic tom sounds from the 80's. When I played the 'electro' fill coming out of the chorus our singer laughed his ass off. They sounded perfect and I played that fill perfectly at the perfect time. The tambourine on the left foot allowed me to give the snare ruff a little juice in the opening verse. The T-8 drum set was 'Mexi-Mix'.
The other song that sounded great with a little electronic enhancment was Welcome to the Machine (Pink Floyd). The original track doesn't actually have acoustic percussion, but our version does. When we played it live, I laid down a standard rock beat with my bass drum following the Bass guitar lines. Last night I added a trigger sound from the 'Juck Yard' set on the Roland TD-8. The sound was triggered by the kick pedal to the left of my hi-hat. I played it on the 2's and 4;s, opposite the bass drum and it created the effect of a steam piston. I found it tricky and challenging to keep it going with the bass drum pattern I was playing, but kept it going generally well. A few more practices at that and it will be clean. It sounded great as a concept so I hope I can make it sound as good live.
When I said 'progressive' at the beginning of this post, I meant that I was progressing. I only get to practice solo a few times a month, so when I do I don't always feel that I am improving. Last night - I could really feel more power, more flexibility and more independence. Progressive.
