“Slithery and powerful”. That’s how my other half describes
the feeling of operating a chainsaw while wearing an all-spandex outfit. It’s
also the feeling I go for when I’m playing rocksteady music on the drumkit. Coming
from a rock background, I’ve had to reverse the beat and layer my approach
differently.
Your basic rock beat: kick-snare-kick-snare, fast and heavy.
Closed, muffled “kick” sound with heel-up pedal technique and mashing the
beater into the head. Snares on, striking right in the centre of the snare and
toms. 2B drumsticks, or even the Ralph Hardimon signatures for fast and hard
tom beats. Articulating on the front side of the beat as I’m naturally wont to
do.
Your basic one-drop as used in rocksteady: walking
left-right-left-right, steady and soulful. A lot of it is like a basic swing
beat with the order of the feet reversed. The bass drum open, heel-down and “pitchy”.
Snare drum a stick-butt rim-click, or a timbale sound. Slithering on the hats
and cymbals – I call it “bothering” the hi-hat -- with AJ2 sticks that keep the
momentum back a little from the stick tip. Asymmetrical ratamacues with one
tip, one butt. Using the edge of the drumhead for a ringing and pitchy tone. Dropping
the occasional powerful stick-butt bomb on the floor tom or rack.
Distance running turns out to be a lot more like rocksteady
than rock. “Light and right” works as a mantra for both; on a pre-gig 10K this
weekend I enjoyed the distance by slithering along in the mid-to-back of the
beat-bubble (and the “pack”). A “rock” approach to road running – slamming into
the surfaces really fast and hard – doesn’t work.
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| not my feet. |
I’ll bear this in mind on the Long Trail – try to hike in the
centre of the beat, take it easy for a smoother “flow”, and keep it slithery
yet powerful.
Meantime, I have a 3-hour gig tonight with 7-piece rocksteady crew Steady Betty. Burlington, Vermont, 7-10pm at Red Square.
Hopefully out of doors.
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| Steady Betty |
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