The aim for Unit 8, is to be able to show you what being a session musician is like. I will aim to have a cover song, ready to perform, an original song (drums written by me). And finally (last minute change), I will also aim to have a recorded song with some boys from the tech course. I will play the drums on a track for them and will have written it myself.
Unit 8 – Context
This album, has the exact vibe I wanted to create (drum and song wise) for my Unit 8. I am mainly talking about the song ‘Saturday Night’ that I have written a drum piece for which is by Emma Sampson, a singer on my course. This album inspired the drums for that as the song has a similar dreamy vibe to ‘To Zion’ and a cool groove like in ‘Ex-Factor’. I love the album and the whole energy of it is laidback but also very present. It’s impressive and it’s definitely in my top 5 albums of all time It is so brilliantly written and has been created and driven by so much talent and character. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Lauryn Hill creates an energy that hasn’t been portrayed anywhere else (at least, not that I know of) and I’d love to be able to recreate it as best as I can for Emma’s song. The drum grooves are always reasonably simple, but the snare/rim-click is accented and it really stands out in the song for me. That might just be because I am a drummer but I am going to try to include that in the composition I make for the as it’ll help give me the vibe that I am looking for. Another reason I love this album is because it was a powerful moment for young black women, breaking the silence of black feminist issues and reclaimed their power. The album is beautiful and the songs are all as individually unique as the others. This inspired me to create almost a memorable drum beat, as I want it to stick in peoples heads, as even though the song doesn’t have as special a meaning, I want people to remember the song because of what I play. The beat I have created for it so far is decent and I think it is catchy. The connections I have made may seem quite loose to whoever may be reading this, which I understand, but to me it makes complete sense. This albums songs have a big inspiration on most songs I play on the drums anyway, not just this. The drum piece I improvised for Harry and Dylan’s’ track was also based around listening to this album!
As I have probably mentioned in the units before this, I am a lover of feeling the groove and the audience also feeling and dancing to it, as well as you. There is something about an audiences reaction that I love, whether it’s to my own performances or watching someone else’s. That’s why I chose Alicia Keys Tiny Desk as part of my inspiration as from the many performances I’ve seen on this channel, she has has the best audience reaction. She gets them to interact and sing with her and she enjoys hearing it just as much as them. I feel like she understands what it is to hear a song you love and have the need to make the most out of it because she always gets people involved for their own benefit. I’ve had multiple people come up to me when rehearsing ‘Saturday Night’ with Emma and Sean and they have all said they’ve loved the song and they’ve been ‘humming the guitar lick all week’ or ‘the chorus is stuck in their head’ which I always find to be such a huge compliment. Wit the song I’ve done for Harry and Lewis, I was in the studio recording it and was making sure I was playing a simple yet groovy beat, and when I would look out to the people watching, they all had their heads nodding and I could see Lucy’s feet tapping. I took this as what I was playing to be good, and it gave me much more confidence and I was able to add little extras into the song as I went through even though they weren’t planned. This gave the song that little bit extra, and it was all thanks to seeing how the ‘audience reacted’. This NPR Tiny Desk below is a hug inspiration to me and showed me what even the power of a smaller audience can do.
All I can really say for this video below, is it is one, my favourite live performance and two, it’s just perfect. There is no other word for it because it’s just that good. I know that is cringe as most people just know this as a typical karaoke song and a ‘classic’ which it is, but to me it’s a lot more. This performance below is one of the reasons I love to do it myself. Tina Turner has the most amazing energy throughout her set, but this song really tops it off. It has a lengthy introduction, maybe around 4/5 minutes? But every second amazes me. When she says “Nice and Rough” during the intro (twice), the crowd go absolutely crazy and it mesmerizes me. The crowds vibe completely changes when the music builds up and explodes for that 5ish seconds and it brings a tear to my eye. Sounds silly but it does because it makes me want to be there. I envy the crowd so much and would pay any amount of money to have seen her live. The reason this inspired me is because of the way it made me feel. I experience a frisson of excitement and it has massively helped to inspire me to become a musician. One of my goals in the future is to make a crowd feel this excited about music, even if it’s only like 100 people, it will still be such an accomplishment. That’s why I love the song ‘Grace’ by Jeff Buckley so much (one of the songs I am doing for Unit 8). I chose this because there is breaks in the song where it is just guitar )like the intro to the song) and we all of a sudden come in with a big crash. It isn’t the exact same of course, but the energy is similar and it is something that would make the crowd go crazy if it was the right audience. This video below is one of my biggest inspirations and the thing is, I’m not a massive fan of the actual recorded version, it’s just the live ones as they’re so much better in my opinion. But yes, this is my last video that inspired me for my context as to why I have done the songs I have below for my Unit 8.
The biggest challenge I am going to face when carrying out the goals I have set, is actually learning how to create a beat that will stick, or how I will make someone dance to my music and my performances. It’s because this is actually a rather hard thing to master in my opinion as you just genuinely need to be a really good musician I think, but you also need to understand the audiences point of view when they’re watching you too. You need to take into consideration how you would want to feel when listening to music or watching a live gig, but also have to multitask by giving a god show too ad making yourself happy too. This is where the research I will do below comes in handy. I will hopefully use this for what I plan to do in my Unit 8 and I will do my best to overcome the challenges.
Unit 8 – Research
The first part of researching that I did, was about memorable drum beats. I found this article that is attached above and it shows the top 20 most recognizable drum beats. I knew pretty much the majority of these songs and the drum lines are iconic. This gave me good insights to what I want to add to the songs I’ve been given where I am writing my own drum piece. For example, the number one song on there is obviously ‘We Will Rock You’ by Queen. That is so memorable and everybody knows it, just hearing the beat without the music behind it, you instantly know. Other songs on there are ‘Superstition’ by Stevie Wonder, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana, and ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles. All these songs are extremely famous and I can guarantee the vast majority of people will know all these songs inside and out. One thing that is similar in all these songs, is not only is the groove the same throughout the song and not much changes, they are also really simple grooves, considering the level of talent the drummer has. It makes sense as I suppose memorising a hard beat would be much more difficult and not everyone would be able to remember. For Queen, their beat was a simple bass drum, bass drum and clap. So easy. Nirvanas was a little more difficult but it had the memorable, fast snare fill going into each chorus which is always very fun to play and peoples favourite part of the song. For Stevie’s ‘Superstitious’, it is a groove that involves a loose hi-hat and a very unique and tight snare sound. Because of the snare sound being different from most, it makes it easy to identify, especially in the intro too as it starts off as the snare playing four notes before the groove actually starts. The reason I researched this is because I would love to be able to captivate with the listeners of the songs I do for Unit 8. Reading this has helped give me an idea for what I’d like to involve in the drum pieces I write.
For my second part of research, I wanted to see how I could learn a song quickly. Not so that it’s rushed, but so I can get to grips with what I’m learning, quicker then normal because if I want to become a session musician, this will benefit me in the future as well as now. This website seemed good and the steps were simple and made a lot of sense. I will be using this technique to learn the song ‘Grace’ by Jeff Buckley, as I want to try and learn it reasonably quick so I can get rehearsing. Step 1 is to read the score, I did this as my drum teacher wrote out a drum score for me and I read through it to roughly understand what I needed to play. Step 2 is to listen to recordings. I started by listening to the actual song via Spotify and got to know it quite well after a few listens. I then listened to live versions to see how different they sounded and if they did any alternate grooves that sounded better and I could incorporate it with my playing of the song. Step 3/4/5 is to play through the piece slowly and break it down into chunks, learning each part individually and taking my time on any specific sections that are harder. Then step 6 is to play it all together slowly and then gradually keep practicing until you think it is ready. I think this website has a great guide to learning songs if you aren’t up to a high level of sight-reading and are talented enough to learn most songs with ease. I am glad I found this article as it will be really useful for me when learning ‘Grace’ with my band for this unit.
https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/141/tips-for-writing-the-drum-notes-to-a-song-in-a-band
^ This is the link for the next article.
The article above is what I will talk about for my third part of research. It’s a chat forum but I though that what was mentioned was really interesting and it contained some useful information. The question basically asked how to write drums for a song where the whole song has already been done but is just needing their percussion. This is similar to ‘Saturday Night’ by Emma Sampson, as she has already written the song, and Sean Blake had written his bass part for it. The same also goes for the song I helped do with Harry Collins and Dylan Lewzy. They came to me with a complete song, all it needed was drums. The person who answered this question said ‘ I find it much easier to play along with the band and see where I can fit in and add to the overall feeling of the song.’ This makes a lot of sense to me and I think I will take this into account when working it out with Emma, Harry and Dylan as it has made me feel less stressed. I will ask them to send me the track or to play along with me in person so I can work out what sounds good by experimenting with different grooves. I will also ask them what sounds good so they can give their opinion and I can work around what they might want for their song. This little chat forum helped me a lot as I am now feeling less pressured and I am also going about the song a different way to what I usually would. This way is definitely better.
Overall the research has helped me so much and I am definitely going to put it to use.
Unit 8 – Practical Skills
The only practical skill I have used is this warmup above. I practice it once everyday and it helps loosen up my hands and just makes everything easier to play. I originally learnt this just over a year ago but it took me a while to master the whole thing as I wasn’t used to doing technical skills. However, now I find this, not easy, but very helpful as it lets me practice my doubles, 5 stroke rolls etc…
Unit 8 – Evaluation
- Week 1 (12th – 18th April)
This week I gathered some ideas with my college friends as to what I should do for Unit 8. Ive decided that I want to do two performances that will show a range of skills. One song is going to be a drum piece that I have to write for my friend Emma’s song called ‘Saturday Night’ as she asked for me to help her do. I will get to work on this over the next few weeks after she shows me what it will sound like, and then how she wants the drums to sound. I have spoken to Lewis Hollidge and Harvey Bullard who are also on my course and we have agreed we will all choose a song to perform together that is out of our skill level to really push ourselves. This is a great way to see what we can really do because in only a few weeks, we will hopefully be able to play a song that we’d never even thought of attempting before. This will be discussed via social media over the weekend as at college we were performing another song so were more concentrated on that for the time being.
- Week 2 (19th – 25th April)
In week 2, we have discussed what song I will be playing with Lewis and Harvey! After what was probably three days of disagreeing on songs, we narrowed it down to three and then eventually all agreed on the same one. The song we decided on was ‘Grace’ by Jeff Buckley as I had never heard it before and gave it a listen and was instantly intrigued by its sound and vibe. It has 6/8 time signature which is already a difference for me as I usually stick to playing in 4/4, therefore making it slightly challenging already. The song is over 5 minutes long so there is a lot to study and I have asked my drum teacher (outside of college) to help me with any part I will get stuck on. With the song ‘Saturday Night’, Emma Sampson will be singing and playing guitar, she has shown me what it will sound like and given me a basic beat to work off. Sean Blake will play bass on the song and I think he has already sorted that out. I will be working on this over the weekend and playing around with grooves that suit the beat she has given me.
- Week 3 (26th April – 2nd May)
This week a lot happened! I went to a practice room outside of college called Unit One Studios with Emma and Sean to attempt a rehearsal of ‘Saturday Night’ and I have attached a video below of what we have so far. We managed to put together the whole song and play through it with a rough idea of what we want. I will be asking my teacher Jim Read if I can improve on anything to make it sound even better. I am happy with how it sounds for the moment, but I know I will most likely be changing it in the next few weeks before the final performance. There is definitely plenty of room for improvement for all of us and I will be working hard on it for the final performance as I want it to sound the best it possibly can. With the boys, we started working on ‘Grace’ and have all started learning it at home. When we came into college on the Friday, we were able to play the into, and this happens I think three/four times in the song, I am currently working on the verses as they involve a groove on the toms which is hard to understand for me so I have got in touch with my drum teacher and he is going to give me some advice on how to play that section. Overall, I’d say this has been a pretty successful week and I am excited to get to work properly on both these songs.
- Week 4 (3rd – 9th May)
This week (Wednesday) on ‘Grace’, we managed to get through the verses as I have now worked out how to play the tom sequence and I have practiced it so much that I don’t find it as challenging anymore. I can vary it too if I make a mistake and it will still sound pretty good. Harvey needs to practice a little more as he is still confused on the timing and when it changes from the intros to the chorus, but he will be practicing at home too so hopefully we can get that finished within the next week. On the Friday of this week, I rehearsed with the boys more on the song ‘Grace’ and there has been a massive improvement! Harvey can now play and get the timings right, and we are able to play through to the second choruses with only a few minor mistakes. The mistakes being a wrong note played or me hitting a crash cymbal at the start of the wrong bar because I have forgotten what bar we are on. We performed ‘Saturday Night’ this week in workshop with Steve (one of the teachers) and he seemed to really like it and gave all of us many tips which have given us a great idea on how to improve. This is the performance we did, I didn’t have access to any toms apart from the lower so it doesn’t sound as good. We performed as if it was a tiny desk and used barely any mics so this is why. I think it went well:
- Week 5 (10th – 16th May)
This week we rehearsed Grace again, and have now managed to get to the bridge without any mistakes which is amazing! I am struggling to remember when it changes from crash cymbals back to the tom sequence still but I know I will get there with more practice and listening closely to the song. The reason tis is taking longer then normal is because the song is 5 minutes and 22 seconds, which is almost double the average song. There is a lot more detail then most songs too which is another great reason for why we chose it as it is different and displays our abilities better as it is a more intricate song. Since this week, I have definitely become more confident with the song as I was originally nervous because I had never heard it and had only been performing songs I’d listened to a crazy amount of times. With Saturday Night, Emma and Sean have been busy with their own projects too so we haven’t been able to rehearse together, but I have been practicing to a click at home so I can keep working on the song until it becomes second nature. I will continue to practice both these songs at home as well as college.
- Week 6 (17th – 23rd May)
I got some feedback from Jim on the Wednesday of this week when me, Emma and Sean played it through for him. He has given me many tips as he is a drummer himself and I trust his judgement a lot. We have decided to change the ending so we build it up and then just end on a loud crash and strum of chords. We’ve basically added 3 more bars and are building it up with more complex fills each time. I have a video that I will attach here of the latest update on how I am playing the song. I have added a different bass drum pattern in the verses to make it sound more funky, and have also added more crashes which will hopefully sound cool. I am just playing along to Emma’s guitar in my air pods so you will only hear the drums. I am much happier with this piece now and I am confident with it. It’s enjoyable to play and I think I have achieved how I wanted it to sound originally.
With ‘Grace’ we have now worked out how to play the bridge and I am remembering when the switch from playing on the crash to the ride is as it is a weird timing and doesn’t feel natural so it’s been hard to practice it but now I think I’ve got it. I will be working hard on this over the next week as I know time is getting shorter so most of my time will be spent on it.
- Week 7 (24th – 30th May)
More news! I have been asked to supply a drum track to a song that Harry Collins and Dylan Lewzy have created. They are on the tech course and have sent me a track to be recorded on, and I have recorded that this week. It went well and I think they are happy with the results. It was a chilled bluesy track and I loved it. I gave what was a boring/simple beat, more variation and fills to suit the track better and make it more interesting. I will supply a link if I can as it will hopefully be released before the due date, if not I will send a copy but it won’t be the final cut. It was pretty much improvisation as I had barely anytime to practice, however my improvisational practicing in past units has come in handy and I made the track sound super groovy and cool. With Saturday Night, I have just kept going through it so its constantly fresh in my mind, but with Grace, there has been massive improvements. I have learnt the song the whole way through and so have the others. We even managed to get a recording for it which will be shown below. I find it difficult to remember the timing still but hearing Lewis’ guitar is helpful and I am usually able to work it out. I am happy with how it’s going so far and I am hoping we will be able to get it videoed for next week and be able to post it below as the final product.
- Week 8 (31st May – 6th June)
These are the final videos I have below and these are the final products:
Grace – Jeff Buckley
My POV
Whole Band POV
Saturday Night – Emma Sampson (drum piece created by me)
- Unfortunately we were unable to perform this song as there wasn’t much time due to Emma and Sean being quite busy with their own units, however the song was definitely performance ready. I am disappointed that we didn’t get to do it, but I still worked hard for it and will continue to practice it so we can perform it in the future.
Recorded Original Song – Harry Collins, Dylan Lewzy and Myself (drum piece created by me)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EGcz-cuSbwKUIRGARCjg9PdvT4yh5ROY/view?usp=sharing
Fran Adams Drums 