Paradiddle Inversions and Combinations

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Everyone whose played that first page of Stick Control knows the paradiddle inversions. I love these things. To review, there are three inversions of a single paradiddle (4 including the original):

R L R R L R L L

R L L R L R R L

R R L R L L R L

R L R L L R L R

Things get interesting when you start combining two. Here’s the first and second one: (written twice for clarity)

|| R L R R L R R L | R L R R L R R L ||

Since you play the first version of the first variation, and the second version of the second variation. You end up playing both doubles in the same hand. This will likely cause you rudimentalists’ left hand to start to itch. The solution reverse (invert?) them:

|| R L L R L R L L | R L L R L R L L ||

That’s the first version of the second variation with the second version of the first. Got it?

Here’s an exercise that goes through them. I know it’s just a beginning. Feel free to explore this further:

R L R R L R L L 4x
R L L R L R R L 4x
R L R R L R R L 4x
R L L R L R L L 4x

R L R R L R L L 4x
R R L R L L R L 4x
R L R R L L R L 4x
R R L R L R L L 4x

R L R R L R L L 4x
R L R L L R L R 4x
R L R R L R L R 4x
R L R L L R L L 4x

Audition Process: Getting a Job the Army Way

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People have been asking me a lot about the audition process I went through for Army Bands. In a lot of ways, it was a lot like my college and grad-school auditions.

After the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps turned me down, I submitted an online form to “request an audition” at the main Army Bands website: bands.army.mil

Then I got an email from Master Sergeant (MSG) James Donahue, the Army Band Liaison for the 3rd Recruiting Battalion at Ft. Knox. The email had some basic info and instructed me to call for a phone interview.

When I called, I had questions concerning the job as a drummer like How much drum set is required? He answered all my questions and I told him about my background and skills. It was very informal. By the end of the call, he seemed to think that I would be perfect for the job. I know, he’s a recruiter. Still, I was feeling pretty great.

Before I could do a live audition, he needed a couple of things: some videos of my playing, a resume with references, and I needed to see a regular Army recruiter to start the processing. So I went back to the local office and started the endless paperwork. It’s basically just a background questionnaire. They want to know where you went to school, where you worked, who your relatives were, where you lived. But they want that for the last 10 years. I remember thinking, this would be a lot easier if I were a senior in high school.

Then I had to go to MEPS, the Military Entrance Processing Station. I had never taken the aptitude test, so I did that the night before. There was also a lengthy physical exam. There were a couple dozen the day I went. We all stayed in a hotel that night and they bussed us over to MEPS at 0600. This was long and tedious, but not at all bad. Since I had not taken an audition, I couldn’t enlist that day, so I was done by 1100.

Then, I got the audition packet. For percussion it was some basic rudimental drumming including a march, a cadence, and some rolls, plus a march for concert snare and bells (Stars and Stripes Forever). This stuff was a breeze.

Then there was the drum set portion. I was instructed to pick 3-4 pieces to play with backing tracks that show a variety of styles. One had to be a “patriotic” song. I picked American Soldier, Summertime, and a Samba chart from Groove Essentials. MSG Donahue said I should add a current, popular song so I picked Runaway Baby.

The night before the audition, he sent me a packet with more concert and rudimental snare, bells, and drum set with backing tracks; two of each.

The fourth part of the audition was my extras. I was told that if I had any skills related to music, to show them. Some people sing or double on another instrument or showcase composition or arranging, recording or tech, etc. As a percussionist, I just threw in all the other percussion things I do: a classical transcription for marimba, a 4-mallet marimba solo, a xylophone rag, a timpani excerpt, an advanced rudimental solo, and a steel pan solo.

MSG Donahue came to me for the live audition, so I booked a space at ETHS. On that day, I was prepared and played my best. I got a great response from MSG Donahue and the two local recruiters who came. He couldn’t tell me if I passed or not, but he hinted that I did. I just needed to wait for the next selection cycle and see if my score was good enough to make one of however many spots were available. It turned out they took 3 percussionists and I was one of them. They also took 6 other musicians that month and 4 passed but were not offered jobs. With that letter, I went back to MEPS to sign my contract to enlist for 4 years.

It was a strange, and sometimes frustrating process which is still going on. There are dozens of things to take care of before I ship out to do my training. Things are going to be very different, and I can’t wait.

Making time for Army Band Training

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I’m working on a couple of things to get ready for Army Band training:

Jazz Vibes:
Paco and Dave
Autumn Leaves

Rudimental Snare Drum:
Pass in Review

Drumset:
Take me to the Other Side
Runaway Baby

Multiple Percussion:
Cold Pressed

Marimba:
Rotation 2

So far, I need about six more hours in every day. I’ll be adding new tunes as I clear out my schedule. You gotta make time for what’s important.

Say Word Press

Things have been a little (ok, a lot busy) and I have been neglecting my blog. Looking at saygotit.com, I realized that I was sick of trying to get Drupal to work for me. Issues never got dealt with, so I wasn’t writing as much as I could have.

So, I decided to migrate over to Word Press. So far, the transition has been very smooth. I’m still getting the hang of it and more functionality will come as I dive deeper.

Saygotit is still about percussion and it is still a central resource for me. So, look out for new articles and updated info about my career and projects as well as tips, jokes, and media.

This is how I work (on iOS)

Even though there is no apple shaved to the back of my head, I use my iPhone and iPad all the time in my career as a musician. So here are my favorite iOS apps that I actually use. I am in no way connected to Apple or any of the developers mentioned here.

For a while I used palm devices for my PDA until 2008 when my wife gave me an iPhone for christmas. I bought an iPad last spring and it’s been extremely useful.

Productivity

Things is a to do list app that I really like. It is extremely flexible with no required fields and many sorted views. It stays in sync through its own cloud with all my devices and makes it easier for me to organize my mind. I open Things each morning and I’m greeted with a list of items I’ve put off (scheduled actually). I use it to schedule my day, setting aside time for tasks or areas, and moving items to the future if there’s no way to get them done today. Things just works.

I also use the new Reminders in iOS 6 since it works with Siri, notifies my much more effectively on my iPhone, and can notify me when I arrive or leave a location. When a task requires one of these special actions I use this app.

Lately I’ve started using a new app Lift to keep track of tasks I want to do every day, like practice an hour before noon or sync my lesson databases. Unlike the other todos, it’s more like a social app than a list. What makes it really useful is the “meter” of how many times I do a task in a week and the calendar for each task that shows each day I did it. For the annoying little things that go a long time without any action, this really helps me.

Of course I use iOS Calendar and Contacts which, thanks to iCloud, have strong syncs across my devices.

Music

The iPad is a great score reader and I use two different apps for this. The first is forScore which is a simple pdf viewer designed for sheet music. Paging around is easy as is annotations and other metadata.

iReal b started out as a real book. But it became a chord changes app. You can create charts with changes and it can play them back with a selection of styles. You can add repeats, endings, rehearsal marks. For jazz and pop players it’s a great way to see chord charts and the playback makes improve practice much more fun. And you also can share charts so not only the real book of jazz standards but hundreds of charts are available to download.

Tempo is my metronome app and does everything we expect a modern digital metronome to do.

Data

Dropbox has changed the way I move files around. It’s just so easy and I use it for most documents, scores, and recordings.

Bento is a database app from the makers of FileMaker. I use it to do so much, I’m going to have to write a whole article about it. I keep track of all aspects of my private lessons, high school students, gigs, library, inventory, taxes, and loads of other things that have nothing to do with music.

Documents

I’ve found Pages and Numbers, Apple’s word processor and spreadsheet apps, to be great, easy to use, especially on the iPad, and I don’t have any problems working with Microsoft users. I use lots of documents and I can’t understand why people still use Word and Excel.

Other stuff

Coach’s Eye is an app for making annotated videos which are very useful for showing students what they’re doing wrong (and right).

eBay app helps me search for vintage drums and vintage motorcycle parts (maybe not so productive).

If you haven’t checked out iTunes U, do it. Easy to find college courses complete with lectures, projects, feedback all for free. There is some music content, but I’ve studied marketing and other useful subjects too.

For musicians Facebook and Twitter are really important and I also use Spotify for music discovery and sharing playlists with a group as in marching band show design.

Trip Cubby is no longer supported, but I haven’t found a better way to track my mileage for tax deductions.

The way I use my devices is always evolving and I’m sure I won’t always use these apps but for now, they’ve been a fun tool to help me as a musician and teacher.