And not a drum was seen!

Slightly odd title I know, but I will explain!

I took a look at my library of music on i-tunes and realised that for the past six months or so, I've been listening to music that has little to no conventional drum tracks. By that I mean that the drums have either been sampled and processed, or have been completley synthesised. Music by artists such as; Thom Yorke, Boards of Canada, Radiohead Chris Clark and Ulrich Schnauss.

This got me thinking about the role of timbre and the acoustic properties of the drums/instruments and propensity to assume (in some people) that because it doesn't sound like a "real" drum played by a "real" drummer, or a "real" guitar played by a "real" guitarist, that it is illegitimate...or somehow not worthy of being called "real" music. The fact is that since the ninteen-fifties, the format of bands and music has nearly always been tied to the same basic format; vocals, guitar, bass and acoustic drumset. It's only in the past two decades that we've seen music being produced that is artificial (and I use that word cautiously), where the old format has been swapped for synthesisers, software and technology.


A lot of the negativity directed towards this format might be found in a perceived purity in producing music with a physical instrument. The value we have to find however is not in purity or having a physical connection with an instrument rather the music it's self! It's the musical ideas we connect to when we listen to a piece, they may be produced by an instrument but looking past the means of communication, it's the message that is key. It might be true to say that music in it's purest form is inside the composers head and then once it leaves the mind and is channeled through and instrument, the qualities, timbre and sound of that instrument forever tarnish the idea. 

I don't know about you but when I start looking at purity within music in that way, the only logical conclusion that can be drawn is that purity cannot be found when communicating music, you're always going to tarnish the "idea", no matter which means you choose.


Hope everyone is well,


Casey

Recording Photos

Thought I'd share with some pictures taken by Nina Chung, whilst recording drums at "Brickbeat Studios" in Lincoln for The Treehouse during November last year (click to see in full size if you wish):

Hope everyone is well!


Casey

"Feeling it"

Imagine a person gives you a hug, in the first instant they can’t really be bothered with it and are simply giving you a hug out of formality. Now take the exact same situation and imagine the person giving you that hug invested some emotion into it...the exact same hug no less! but a difference in intention...of course you’d enjoy the second one more wouldn’t you?

Believe it or not emotion, intent and feeling are all perceived by the people listening to you play, these things are what give music it’s feeling, but it’s something that is often times overlooked or ignored. I’ve heard this for myself at gigs and when overhearing some drummers at rehearsal studios; the drummer is playing the notes of the song or beat...it’s all technically correct but that’s as far as it goes, there’s no feeling to what they’re doing.

“Feel” is one of those transient and somewhat vague terms that is often hard to express in words, but when heard is instantly recognisable. For a lot of drummers it is considered the holy grail, and for them to be told they have feel is second only to being told they’ve won the lottery. It’s something I never appreciated myself until a couple of years ago; I was always concerned with the technical aspects of my drumming and always looking for the next beat or fill I could add to my bag.

Playing music should always be about the emotion of the song, so next time you’re rehearsing or playing a gig, think to yourself “what is this song trying to convey?”. Approaching not only the technical aspects of your parts but also thinking about the way you play the notes and the spaces between the notes and how they affect the song is just as important. When you start to get your head around this you’ll find that your playing/parts will blend with the rest of the band and become part of the song rather than something you play on top of the song.

Remember this; just because people don’t notice you it doesn’t always mean it’s a bad thing. After all the audience have come to hear the music and the songs, not any one member of the band in particular. People listen to music because there is an emotional draw or connection to be gained, if you can play with feel and become part of the song more people will connect with what you and your band are doing and that connection is absolutely priceless!

Hope everyone is well,

Casey x

"The Approach"

Having played my fair share of gigs over the past seven years I’ve had a great opportunity to listen to many different bands, musicians and pertaining to my end of the scale; drummers. What I’ve found fascinating over this time is listening to and hearing how other drummers approach the music they play, and how they place themselves within in the song.

With a lot of talk of technique, groove vocabulary, licks and even gear within the drumming community there never seems to be much discussion or conversation on the topic of “approach”. I don’t know if it’s something that comes from being self-taught but when learning to play, I always picked up on and tried to understand how a drummer was placing themselves within the music...in other words it was the mindset of who I was listening to that fascinated me rather than their technique.

The big revelation for me through all of this was learning how to compose melody and harmony for other instruments. At first my compositions were all about fitting the music to the drum parts but eventually something clicked and I began to write the music first and then see how the drum parts could interact in a musical way. In essence I began to see the fabric and weave of the song with all of it’s spaces rather than the notes themselves and to carry on with the textile analogies; I treated my drum parts as the needle and thread travelling through these spaces and converging at the necessary points to hold the music together.

Once I had got to grips with this approach in composition I then started to bring it into real-life playing, applying this approach to the bands I was in at in at the time and to songs that they had composed as opposed to songs that I had composed. At first it was all a bit frustrating, the same flow and feel that I had achieved in my compositions was not translating into the live writing sessions and that’s where I realised it’s all in the listening! Sitting back and letting the band play the songs through over and over allowed me to hear the fabric of the song and really get to understand those same spaces that I needed to fit into and the points where I needed to converge with, articulate and support the music.

The point I’m trying to get across with all of this is that it’s not the technique you use or the grooves and licks you know that are the fundamental in finding your place within a song, of course they are important, but it’s the way you take your approach and how you listen the song beyond the notes themselves. In no way am I saying that my approach is the only approach to creating and playing drum parts, but what I am saying is that focusing on how you approach music can open up many areas for you and will ultimately help you to understand who you are as a musician.

Hope we're all keeping well,

Casey x

Introductions!

Hi there, how are we?

My name is Kevin Christopher Howden otherwise known as Casey. I've been playing drumset and writing music for almost nine years and have been playing live for seven of those years in various bands and musical outfits and I've been playing for an alt-acoustic act called The Treehouse since October 2010.

Percussion has always been something that has excited me and inspired me, I've been told my first encounter with live band happened when I was around seven or eight years old at a village festival in Leadenham and by all accounts I was mesmerised by the drummer and even starting drawing pictures of drummers and tapping on anything I could find constantly! Alas, this passion never pushed itself towards learning to play and it wasn't until age fifteen that I took the plunge and got a friend of mine to teach me some basics on the drumset and it was an instant love. 


Since then I've studied, explored and developed my playing, retaining a healthy balance between informality in approach and good technique. My ethos has always been that music should be a personal exploration, not void of guidance but always a journey that one's self holds the map to. It's this approach that has made me the player I am today and has hopefully helped me to develop a style and sound that is individual to me.


Through my blogs here I hope to offer some insight into how I view and approach drumming, composition and music in general and hopefully help people find the guidance they're looking for along their own journey or just to get a different view on the vast realm that is music. 


Hope you enjoy reading what I have say and if so stick around, there will be plenty on it's way!


Much love to all


Casey x

p.s. no idea what has happened to the formatting of the spaces between paragraphs but I can't seem to fix it!