4/10/2023 0 Comments Summertime madness midi![]() The clinician was Dave Weckl and of course it was great. Neither of us knew anything about the clinician or whether the clinic would be any good. Interesting side note, when I was only 14, my father took me to a Yamaha-sponsored drum clinic at the high school I would later attend. My study of Dave Weckl led me to other greats, including Vinnie Colaiuta, Dennis Chambers and Will Kennedy, and they in turn led to other influences as well. I listened to every CD I could get my hands on and transcribed everything I could. ![]() So for almost all of college, the majority of my studies centered around Dave Weckl. I didn’t know drumming like this existed. It was the same experience of hearing/seeing Buddy Rich for the first time. The same thing happened my freshman year of college when someone introduced me to Dave Weckl’s “Back to Basics” VHS video. Seeing him perform on video for the first time was truly inspiring. I even purchased the “Jazz Legends” VHS series with video performances of Buddy Rich. For the next couple years, it was a Buddy Rich obsession where I had to have every Buddy Rich CD I could find. Of course, when I listened to it, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I reluctantly took it because I knew it was jazz and I wasn’t really interested. This was quite a journey, but it started when I was a junior in high school and my band instructor (who was a drummer) gave me a tape of Buddy Rich to listen to. How come you gravitated towards fusion, and why does this genre appeal to you as a musician? ![]() I started listening to jazz in high school and eventually started listening to busier drumming styles like fusion in college. I wasn’t into jazz when I was younger, so I practiced anything that was popular at the time, which was a lot of ’90s pop and alternative. Growing up, what style did you start out aspiring to play?Īs a novice, I basically played a lot of pop/rock. Although I continued to play trumpet in school for the next two years, I switched to the drums exclusively in the ninth grade, studied in college and have continued to practice and study to this day. As stated above, I started playing in the church band a few months later which was a great (and scary) experience for me at that age. ![]() My parents eventually purchased a kit for me after seeing how interested I was and how much I was practicing. I was playing trumpet at the time, but all of my interest moved to the drums that summer. Aware of my interest in drums, they asked if they could store the kit in my parents’ basement for a summer. When I was twelve, some family friends moved back into town and didn’t have room for their drum set while they were getting settled. I’ve been playing in bands and working on my craft ever since. Any spare time was spent practicing – and the rest is history. I started playing in church during junior high and really enjoyed the experience of playing in a band. I started on piano and moved to trumpet in fifth grade, but it wasn’t until I started playing the drums at the age of twelve that I really got excited about music. ![]() When and how did you realize your passion for music? Works with EZdrummer, EZdrummer 2, EZdrummer 3, Superior Drummer 2 and Superior Drummer 3. In simpler terms: this is drum MIDI – as busy as can be. If you’re in the market for complex rhythms riddled with syncopations, rudiments, ostinato patterns, punctuations and whatever else that may fit within the confines of eight bars of drums, you’re in for a treat. Expect a broad palette of grooves and fills inspired by some of the greatest drummers in the field: Vinnie Colaiuta, Gavin Harrison, Billy Cobham and Simon Phillips – to name but a few. The Progressive Fusion MIDI pack is the third title in Luke Oswald’s series of fusion MIDI packs and presents a logic continuation down the path of this tricky genre. I even introduced some double bass drum work, which is new compared to the earlier MIDI packs I’ve done.” You’ll get all the fusion elements, such as linear- and rudimental-based playing, but you’ll find everything has more edge to it. “I pulled ideas from drummers whose styles fit within the fusion label but who also have more of a progressive temperament to their playing. “In this MIDI pack, I tried to cover more of an aggressive side of the fusion genre,” says drummer Luke Oswald. This collection of MIDI is a homage not only to the music but also the bands, the drummers and the dedication that goes into perfecting the craft of playing at the very apex of what’s humanly possible – and still make every note count and be there for a reason. It has the drummer in the driver’s seat, steering the entire band at breakneck speed through the tricky passages, hairpin bends and serpentine roads that often make up the songs. Much like jazz, both progressive rock and fusion definitely belong to that latter category. In others, quite the opposite is what’s required. In some genres, a repetitive and sturdy backbeat is all a song calls for. ![]()
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