On Sunday, November 19th, I recorded Christian music in the morning, then went to see Dennis Chambers hold a workshop in the evening.
That morning, I woke up and warmed up on the violin before heading to Richard's studio to lay down some tracks for a singer by the name of Janis Clarke. Janis is just wrapping up an album of Christian songs that showcases at times choir boys, a priest and/or even herself singing. Richard brought me in to add a touch of Judaism to her mix. I told Janis that she was making quite a controversial decision by bringing me in and letting me lay down tracks of weeping eastern europeean mystery/misery sounds (aluding to Klezmer) on top of teenage choir boys singing Piejesu. All the more, I agreed with her decision...after all - Judaism, Islam and Christianity have one thing in common...and I'll let you guess what that is.
Once the session was done, I hurried on over to Theatre Corona to see the amazing drummer Denis Chambers give a workshop. Being oblivious to my "violin player" demeanor (probrably due to the instrument hanging off of my shoulder), I was teased by the doormen. "Hey! No violins allowed!" and "Hey! You ain't got rhythm - so don't bother" were the cat calls I got. But I couldn't figure out why they were teasing me so extensively, until Michael, Anes and I sat down. Then I realized that almost all 800 of the spectators were rockers, metal heads, progressive rock lovers and downright nerdy drummers! Holy shit! I had just infiltrated the secret masonry of drummers. And on top of that, the only thing on stage was one massive drum kit! Dennis came on stage and blew us away with a one hour drum solo. Although most of the male spectators were cumming in their pants during his amazing drum rolls and double pedaling,
I was turned on when I saw him play 64th notes on the snare for 6 straight minutes, alternating between ppp and fff within a split second without the metric mesurement of the 64th notes wavering one bit, and at the same time switching from traditional snare grip to today's modern ambidextrous grip. All this to subtly change the sound, texture, tone and dynamics of one snare drum. That really impressed my inner violinist nerd.
And the one word of advice that I retained from Denis and that I will use in my own personal practice: When asked how to develop speed and power, he replied "Practice on pillows".
