Musicality

Too many people have been asking me what my influences are, what drumming videos I watch and where I get groove from.

Don’t get me wrong, its great to have influences from great drummers. Personally I really dig Dennis Chambers, Teddy Campbell and Gordon Campbell for their groove, Thomas Lang for his insane chops and Carter Beauford for being the most natural drummer ever.

But imo, that should end there. Just pure influences. Don’t imitate their style, or copy their chops… by all means, use their chops but infuse your own style into it. That’s where your groove comes from.

Groove isn’t about taking multiple chops and styles and hybridising it into one… groove is self developed. It’s when you create your own music, your own beat and your own style. That’s groove.

Groove on guys.

Role of a drummer…?

Stumbled upon this article that’s quite worth reading. Check it out guys

---

First off, I think that I’ve just read some very good general observations of the drummer, but I think alot of them aren’t aimed directly at the question. The question was what is the purpose, not what does the drummer typically do; so what *should* the goal of the drummer idealistically bo?

I know there are many assumptions about the drummer, both traditionally (he’s supposed to be the one keeping time and ‘anchoring’ for the rest of the band..I’ll talk about that later), from other members (ex the bassist assumption that the drummer must line up the kick to almost every major bass note) and from the drummer himself (ex from above post, that we have to be cocky and egotistical). It’s easy to see how this can create alot of confusion for the band, the audience and especially us, the drummers.

Some of the drummer’s job description is standard and expected, however I think that most of it is up to the drummer and band. For example, I think the largest responsABILITY is to set the pace of the song. Ever double your highhat speed or cut it in half to the same guitar piece? I think of the drummer as the legs, the bass as the body, the guitar as the arms and hands, and the vocals are of course the face.

The non-standard optional part of the drummer’s job description is whether or not to be responsible for the abovementioned assumptions – will he be the anchoring, rhythm keeping stablizer for the rest of the band to platform from and return to? Will he be the cocky one or decide where to put his kicks based on the bassist’s notation? These depend on the rest of the band members as much as the drummer – yes they are necessary most of the time, but the responsibilities can be shared, and also like mentioned above, not everybody wants that sound.

Example: spag from Mudvayne (experimental math metal) infrequently lines up his kick to the bass guitar but it sounds amazing. Mudvayne’s guitarist is the one ‘anchoring’ – he keeps a simple constant pattern that allows the others to go off tangent and know how to get back, and it sounds tight. Their bassist is the cocky one, and makes it fit without being arrogant. The shares part of the responsibility in setting pace at times where the drummer adds to the feeling.

It’s a give and take between the personalities of the band, and although the members must reach an understanding of eachother before anything good can surface, its a sure safe bet that the drummer will be keeping the pace more than anything (not discluding the good observations from above, like transition accents). Frantic Bleep – Curtainraiser is the perfect example to any drummer of their goals, in my opinion

get the album LD-50 by Mudvayne, and if you’re like ‘im too important to hear a whole album i don’t already know about’ then just listen to any tool song you can get your hands on

Kenny Rogers – She Believes In Me

While she lays sleeping, I stay out late at night and play my songs
And sometimes all the nights can be so long
And its good when I finally make it home, all alone
While she lays dreaming, I try to get undressed without the light
And quietly she says how was your night?
And I come to her and say, it was all right, and I hold her tight

And she believes in me, Ill never know just what she sees in me
I told her someday if she was my girl, I could change the world
With my little songs, I was wrong
But she has faith in me, and so I go on trying faithfully
And who knows maybe on some special night, if my song is right
I will find a way, find a way…

While she lays waiting, I stumble to the kitchen for a bite
Then I see my old guitar in the night
Just waiting for me like a secret friend, and theres no end
While she lays crying, I fumble with a melody or two
And Im torn between the things that I should do
And she says to wake her up when I am through,
God her love is true…

And she believes in me, Ill never know just what she sees in me
I told her someday if she was my girl, I could change the world
With my little songs, I was wrong
But she has faith in me, and so I go on trying faithfully
And who knows maybe on some special night, if my song is right
I will find a way, while she waits… while she waits for me…

Flu

I’m down with flu.

I’m coughing.

I’ve got a stuffy nose.

I feel feverish.

So fuck off and don’t irritate me or I’ll bite your fucking head off.

Simi wako

Knn I actually tried to cut down on using too much vulgarities on my blog because I realised that a whole shit load of people read my blog, and since everybody thinks I’m a chao ah beng, I tried to cut down on vulgarities so people would think that I’m just some witty mofugger online.

But Jay Tay you motherfucking gay slut you made me use vulgarities on my blog. Just for you, you cumstained chickenshit pencil-dicked son-of-a-bitch, I’ll not bother about what everyone else thinks of me.

You have no leadership abilities whatsoever. You are just an arrogant stumpy piece of shit that happened to be ******’s manager, or store-man, seeing how you spend your time cooped up in your pathetic little store-room, trying to figure out ways to “cut costs” and cut our working timings.

Good luck on trying to solve your fucking discrepancies for drumsticks, accessories and whatever else that’s missing because you can get your gay-pet to help you while I spend the remaining 30 days of my work talking to the others, playing on the drumset, playing on the practice pad, or smoking and taking really long breaks.

Have fun, because you ain’t getting free fucking labour no more you son-of-a-bitch and good luck trying to get your drumsticks back in order because guess what? I’m not gonna help out with the drumsticks, as a matter of fact, before I leave, I’m gonna remove 25% of the sleeves and mess them all up, just so you’ll have one hell of a time trying to rearrange them.

Senior executive? Fuck off you don’t fool anybody. At the end of the day, you’re just a storeman, and you’re still gay.

Gay.

This ain’t a love song

Baby, I thought you and me would stand the test of time
Like we got away with the perfect crime but
We were just a legend in my mind
I guess that I was blind
Remember those nights dancing at the masquerade
The clowns wore smiles that wouldnt fade
You and I were the renegades, some things never change

New desktop photo

Beatrix people…. drop me an email or msg me on msn if you want me to send the photos over… photos are 654mb in total, so if you don’t wish to spend 30 mins or more downloading them, let me know and I’ll zip them up and send them to you.

Some decent looking photos. For some reason the photographer doesn’t really like me… either I’m yawning in the photo, or I look like an absolute idiot guffawing. Kinda comical actually when combined together with my oh-so-cute hair.

p/s: for some reason the last 2 photos can’t be resized so i’ll just link em this way

Perlynn getting a free piggyback ride

Valerie getting her free piggyback ride

My not-so-secret-pal (haha winnie )

Update

Hello kids, its Uncle Alvyn again!

It’s not that Uncle Alvyn lost interest in blogging…. don’t be too sad because Uncle Alvyn’s back and meaner than before! (literally.)

Ok I want to rant about a few things. First up, fucked up customers. In a nutshell, we, or I (read: limpeh, me.) am providing you a free service by helping you fix your drumset – be it acoustic or electric. I am NOT taking money from you. I am claiming the money from my fucking company, which means I have to wait for a whole fucking month. I setup your fucking kit, tune your fucking bass drum, snare and toms (or fix all your fucking messy wires), unpack all the shit and setup your stands. So don’t make noise and complain that I didn’t “setup the throne properly” or “placed the cymbals at the correct places” because FUCK YOU adjust your own fucking throne and there isn’t a specific place to place your fucking cheap-ass ZXTs. If I had it my way, I’d just throw it out of the window because the sound of your pathetic beginner SHEET cymbals make me wanna puke my guts out and quit drumming. Bottomline – drum setup and tuning is a free complimentary service that Yamaha provides, limpeh is nice enough to go down to help you setup and tune your kit, so don’t fucking complain about nitty gritty stupid stuff. Kthxdie.

Number two. Let’s whine and rant about little kids, and JC kids who’re attracted to drumsticks.

Let’s start with the more provocative one – JC kids. In a nutshell (again), I don’t understand why you people bother studying. I see RJC, HCJC, NJC…. (endless list shall not continue) kids come in, take out drumsticks and fool around on the practice pad, either trying to show off (and failing) or trying to figure out the difference between the drumsticks. Then when they’re done (or bored), just happily shove the sticks back into a different pigeon hole, conveniently ignoring the sign that says “For the convenience of other customers, please put the sticks back in their respective compartments.” The fucking huge-ass sign that limpeh typed out. So what confuzzles me is the apparant failure to read and understand simple English phrases. My theory’s that they’re too burnt out from burning the midnight oil, or trying to mug, which rendered their brains a little slow.

SO MUCH SO THAT THE FUCKING ASSFLUTES CAN’T EVEN UNDERSTAND MY SIMPLE REQUEST OF PUTTING THE FUCKING LABELLED STICKS BACK INTO THE MOTHERJIBAI LABELLED PIGEON HOLES SIMILANJIAO STUDY SO MUCH ALSO DUNNO HOW TO MATCH STICKS TO HOLES GO FUG YOURSELVES LAR NUBMUFFIN HAPPY MEAL SHITFLAKES EAT SHIT AND BARK AT THE MOON PLS PENCIL DICKS.

Ok #3 is simpler, because I’m tired.

Fuck taxi drivers who think it’s funny to just stop their taxis right in front of you, after just overtaking you, all to pick up a passenger. I don’t care if you don’t value your life, but I value my life, I value my friends’ lives, and I value my fucking car. It’s irritating and annoying that they’d put their own lives (and everybody elses’) at risk all for a $10-$20 fare.

Sigh. Fuck. Sleep. Must, hit, 70, for, rogue. zzz.