This is a Brazilian bossa nova, broken down. It includes a partito alto pattern on the snare with a cross-stick. Enjoy!
Bossa nova
March 24, 2010
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Posted by Dave Owen
springing forward
March 24, 2010
Now that my brain has adjusted to daylight savings, I’m back on track. It’s been a busy couple weeks playing gigs and recording. The Jake and the Neverland Pirates sessions went well, nailing down my parts for 7 tracks. That’s beyond the halfway point for the album, so it seems to be on pace for a timely completion.
Skoolyard played a fun show at The Gypsy, in NW Portland for their St. Patrick’s day celebration (I guess he drove the snakes away;) The stage (I mean drum riser) was so small, I couldn’t fit my floor tom on my right side. It wasn’t going to work on the left either, so I made do without it. It always makes me play differently when I don’t have my whole kit, but it was a good challenge.
I filled in for a country band called, The Sons of Bitches, a week ago last Saturday and it was awesome! I never knew I’d dig playing country, but these country cats write some pretty witty stuff. And I could stand to learn a thing or two about some country music from these boys. I think they’ll be calling on me for future gigs. This band is not for the easily offended.
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Posted by Dave Owen
Skoolyard is playing this week at The Thirsty Lion
March 9, 2010It’s been awhile, but Skoolyard is back in action and playing a set of originals, mixed with dub, funk, rock and soul tunes and interspersed with the cool sounds of Redi Jedi on the turntables. You never know what he’s going to bring to the tables. I always have a great time playing with these guys in this relaxed forum. If anyone wants to jump on stage for a number, they are usually welcome and we typically have a few surprise guests.
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Posted by Dave Owen
Neverland Pirates
March 4, 2010I had a fantastic day today. I met Tony, from Allegra drums and got educated on everything from Dave Lombardo’s drums that they’re building, to effectively cutting a bearing edge on a drum. I got the full tour of the Allegra shop and watched as he cut an edge on my snare drum and tuned our production engineer’s snare drum, making the two drums some of the best sounding snare drums this drummer has ever heard.
After all that running around, I finally got back to the studio to put them to the test. We recorded two tracks today and used both snare drums. My DW snare (14×6) was used on the first track and his Allegra (14×7) was used for the “big rocker” track. Both tracks will be used on the upcoming weekly cartoon on Playhouse Disney, “Jake and the Neverland Pirates.” I’m not sure if I’m at liberty to name the songs, so I won’t, but they should be unveiled this fall. I love working in the studio.
There is pressure to produce a good drum track while the clock is ticking. It takes an incredible amount of focus and I feel like I had a productive day. I knew the energy was good, but I wasn’t sure I nailed the last cut we did until Loren gave me a text later that said “it’s in the bag.” Sweet!
I start again in the morning with two fresh songs. Looking forward to it!
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Posted by Dave Owen
