Livin' and Giggin'

In this edition of Phil's Fills, I am publishing some good info and advice that a friend of mine wrote. Jeff Traplin has been playing and performing for about 30 years. I often poke him to get his opinion on specific hardware I am considering or techniques I am trying. It usually ends up with me banging my head laughing after Jeff says something insane. Here he has provided some insight not only into his life but how drummers in general like to be surrounded by hardware.

A couple of months ago I purchased the last drum kit I’ll ever buy…again.
My first was a late ‘60’s Raven 4-piece which my dad picked up for me in the early ‘80’s. I’m not a 100% sure, but there might be a shell or two in the folk’s garage still. No cymbals though. Shredded through those tin pans by the end of that summer. Currently I own three drumkits: The new one for studio recording, the live kit, and the Roland V’s for practice. There have been three others between the Raven’s and the new one I think…I’ll have to check the garage.
I think drummer’s lean more towards the collecting side of things as opposed to the hoarding side which our wives or girlfriends might want us to believe. Over the years, new products pop up which help us become a more comfortable player; a remote high-hat, a double kick pedal, cymbal stand extensions etc., and as these new products make their way into our garage or basement, other items get “moved down the bench…”
Gone are the second kick and the 30lb. boom stands. The old suitcase full of Latin percussion instruments has been replaced by an electronic drum module. Constant live gigging miraculously shrinks the size of a kit too. This is a combination of playing clubs with a small or no stage, and loading fatigue. What starts out as a 7 piece ends up as a 4 piece by the time the tour ends. But is that second kick and are those 30lb. booms really gone? It seems a makeshift drum store has materialized in the garage.
Getting rid of old drums is tough. Getting rid of the old hardware is tougher. I’ve rummaged through the pile over the years to see what I could use again; a clamp, maybe a boom arm, but what I found most useful was the wing nuts and cymbal felts. This was the beginning of what I like to call the drummers First Aid Kit. These are items which I’ve found to be a necessity to have close by when gigging, and yes, this list was partially built from learning the hard way.
Kick Pedal
Chances are if you’ve bought a new kick pedal, you still have your old one. Keep It.
At one of my first gigs in Toronto, my pedal strap snapped close to the end of the first set. We cut the set short, and since the crowd was compiled of mainly musicians, a drummer in the crowd had his pedal in his car and lent it to me for the remainder of the show. I switched to a chain after that, and a double kick since, but I’ve always brought the spare. It doesn’t take up much room in the car.
Snare Drum/Head/Muffling Rings
It seems I’ve amassed a small collection of snare drums in the garage too. A spare snare in the trunk comes in handy since these babies take such a beatin’. If you cannot afford a second snare, then I recommend keeping extra heads nearby. I do both, in case I forget the backup snare (it’s happened). I keep a skin jammed in my cymbal bag along with a pack of dampening rings for my lower toms. Rings tend to bend during set-up/tear-down sometimes, so I’ve added moon gel to my odds and ends bag…
Odds and Ends
As mentioned above, this comprises mostly of cymbal pads, wing nuts, lugs, and drum keys.
Unless they fly off and hit you in the face, which they do from time to time, we never realize we’ve lost a wing nut and/or felt pad until tear-down after the gig or the cymbal itself comes crashing down. Nothing like trying to find a frickin’ wing nut in a dark, cavernous dance club! A ziplock bag works for me for this stuff.
Drum keys for me are everywhere: on my car keys, in my cymbal bag, one in the hardware case, in my leather coat, one in my suit jacket that I wear to wedding gigs and one in my stick bag...
Ah Yes. The stick bag. Load ‘er up kids. Minimum 6 pair.
Spring cleaning is just around the corner, and I’ve noticed the neighbour’s kid across the street loading a kit into his basement. Maybe I’ll pop over and see if there’s anything he wants to buy…or sell.

Strength and Stamina

As I was rummaging through the Internet's drawers, looking for something to help me build speed and strength in my wrists and fingers when I am not near a drumkit. I did manage to find a couple of gems in the clutter of websites, but I also recalled that I used a couple of exercises that were developed out of necessity last year. The exercises used a 2 litre plastic pop bottle filled with water (and in our case powdered goat milk). Once a year for several weeks we bottle raise baby goats (for serious farm reasons, not because we think its fun or cute) and we need to make milk 4 times a day. Its that time of year again which is how I remembered the exercises.

Part of the reason for my quest was an inspiring blog I read when searching for info on Gil Sharone (Stolen Babies). http://drummingasart.tumblr.com/  describes Gil's work with great use of visually creative language and really increased my desire to improve everyday. This blog is a must-read for anyone. I can only hope to be written about on this blog (good or bad), but since the odds of living to 150 years is against me, I don't see it happening.

Gil Sharone himself is a great source of inspiration and material to use for practice. I have owned Wicked Beats  (his instructional DVD) for a few months and seem to watch it every couple of weeks. His hi-hat work with his right hand is truly outstanding and is a great foundation for many styles of music.

I know there's no practice like actually playing, but I find myself sitting in my car for hours at a time or at my desk, wasting good practice time. I keep a drumstick in the car and when stuck in traffic I bounce it on my leg or car seat. A couple more tricks I found in my searches include:
1. Practice rolls on a pillow-top matress or car seat. The less bounce the better, make your wrists do the work.
2. Hold stick near the tip and slap the body of the stick against your wrist using pinky, third and middle fingers.

The pop bottle exercise I developed goes like this:
Hold a 2 litre plastic pop bottle (full of water, not pop) in one hand sideways (palm up) shoulder high, and twist back and forth for 2 minutes. Take the same bottle in both hands stomach high and throw the wrists down like playing drums, then raise it and do it over for 5 minutes. The main purpose of the actions are to mix the powder into the water, so shake vigorously. I found that it improves strength AND endurance. Do this 4 times a day for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks, wait one year and start over. Well, that's my regimen, you can set your own schedule.