[dtxtremeiiispecial]

There's a new drummer in town. A heavyweight. Female heavyweight.

Jazz and rock drummer Hannah Ford chose drumming in third grade. "I’ve known what I wanted to do ever since I was seven.”

It happened the day she was introduced to the drums in her third grade music class. According to her, it was love at first sight. Since then she has pursued her passion with a passion.

Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Hannah’s third-grade music class was the precursor of “Fabulous Leopard Percussionists of Louisville” and, as a member of the renowned group, the youngster had the privilege of working with some of the world’s greatest drummers and teachers, including Diane Downs, Louie Bellson, Ruben Alvarez, Jerry Steinholtz and Ndugu Chancler. After moving to Chicago when she was 12, Hannah took advantage of new opportunities to study and perform with mentors such as Paul Wertico, Peter Erskine, Stanton Moore, Danny Seraphine and Johnny Rabb.

In 2008, following high school, Hannah accepted a scholarship to attend the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. She credits college with helping to expand her knowledge of music and allowing her to become a better, more versatile musician. Her assessment must be accurate because, in addition to playing in the school orchestral, percussion and Jazz ensembles, she’s also been picking up work with major touring musicians like Ignacio Berroa, Wynton Marsalis, Butch Miles, Jeff Berlin and others.

And, along with her schoolwork and a calendar full of live and studio sessions for top pro’s as well as her own projects, “Pandorum” and “The Hannah Ford Band” and its upcoming debut CD, Happier With Me, Hannah also manages to find time to do a bit of writing and teaching, herself.

All this has led to sponsorships and endorsements from some of the biggest companies in the business, including Zildjian, Gretsch, Toca, Vater and Evans.

Hannah Ford listens to and enjoys a wide variety of music— jazz, rock, pop, country, R&B, Latin and metal, to name just a few. Her favorite drummers range from legends such as Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson, Tony Williams, Jo Jones, Art Blakey and John Bonham to contemporary players like Paul Wertico, Peter Erskine, Stanton Moore, Neil Peart, Steve Smith and Vinnie Colaiuta as well as newcomers Chad Smith, John Blackwell and Jason Bittner.

Check her out. http://s843.photobucket.com/albums/z...hford09756.jpg

YOUTUBE VIDEO

YouTube- PANDORUM's "Showdown" Hannah...

[mgsrush]

For me, it started when I was 7. My mom bought me a snare drum after my step father put me behind a drumset for the drummer in his group.

I actually didn't sit behind a real drumset again until 8 years later, after extensive private lessons for just the snare drum.

Since that time, almost 3 decades ago, I have extensively modified my kit, my tastes and my skills as a drummer. Obviously, I was heavily influenced by Peart, and I find I gravitate towards complex poly-rhythms and poly-tempo style music.

[XanderJ]

It all started for me when I was in the 8-10 yrs range. I grew up with parents that liked to party and their music of choice was hard rock ( I guess we call it 80s rock now). I remember grabbing a pair of unsharpened pencils after school and start bangin away to Ozzy, Ratt, and Motley Crue.

In middle school I got into marching band and played every drum they had.
Then in high school it was the same I played bass drum, moved up to snare, and then the QUADS!

Then it was on to the symphony band where I got to play tympany and a drum kit.
I guess the kit had me hooked. It was addicting and thats all I wanted to do.
Then there was growing up. Roommates, partying, girlfriends, work, blah, blah.
I didn't have time for drums or a place to put them.
But I always knew I was a drummer deep inside.

About a 7 year break from drums, I came across a cheap CB set at a garage sale and put em in MY garage. I played on those for about 5 years off and on.

And just recently I said screw it and bought a new kit (Ludwig). Now I play every day and love it!

So I guess it was just meant to be that I get behind a drumset

[dtxtremeiiispecial]

NEIL PEART: FROM CHOPSTICKS TO RUSH
snakes-and-arrows-28-s.jpg picture by dtxtremeiiispecial - Photobucket

Young Neil Peart was living in St. Catherines, Canada, in the early ‘60’s, taking piano lessons, when he watched a movie that changed his life.

“. . . before I ever touched a pair of drumsticks or knew what a snare drum was, I saw The Gene Krupa Story on late-night TV. To the boy I was then, the notion of being a drummer seemed exciting, glamorous, elegant, and dangerous, and my eyes must have been shining with inspiration and desire. I remember thinking, “I wanna do that!”

He developed the habit of drumming on various objects around the house with a pair of chopsticks, so for his 13th birthday, his parents bought him a pair of drum sticks, a practice pad and some lessons, with the promise that if he stuck with it for a year, they would buy him a kit.

Good to their word, his parents bought him a drum kit for his 14th birthday, and he began taking lessons at a music conservatory.

By his late teens, Peart had played in local bands such as Mumblin’ Sumpthin’, the Majority, and JR Flood. These bands practiced in basement recreation rooms and garages and played church halls, high schools and roller rinks in towns across Southern Ontario.

"When I was starting out", Peart later said, "if I broke the tips off my sticks, I couldn't afford to buy new ones, so I would just turn them around and use the other end. I got used to it, and I continue to use the heavy end of lighter sticks -- it gives me a solid impact, but with less 'dead weight' to sling around.” So Peart became known for playing "butt-end out", reversing stick orientation for greater impact and rimshot force.
neil_peart-001.jpg picture by dtxtremeiiispecial - Photobucket

At eighteen, after struggling as a drummer in Canada, Peart dropped out of high school and traveled to London hoping to find greater success. But he was forced to support himself by selling trinkets to tourists in a souvenir shop called The Great Frog. After a year and a half of dead-end musical gigs, disillusioned by his lack of progress in the music business, Peart returned to Canada, leaving his hopes of British musical success behind. Upon returning to St. Catharines, he worked for his father selling tractor parts at Dalziel Equipment.

Soon Peart was recruited to play drums for the St. Catharines bar band Hush, who played the South Ontario bar circuit. Then, an acquaintance of a different band convinced Peart to audition for the Toronto-based Rush, which was replacing its original drummer.

His future bandmates describe his arrival on audition day as somewhat humorous. He arrived in shorts, driving a battered old car with his drums stored in trashcans.

Peart felt the entire audition was a complete disaster, but after some discussion, Geddy Lee convinced Alex Lifeson that Peart's maniacal Keith Moon-style of drumming was what the band needed.

Peart officially joined the band in July 1974, two weeks before the group's first U.S. tour. He got a silver Slingerland kit which he played at his first gig with the band, opening for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann in front of over 11,000 people at the Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
snakes-and-arrows-94-s.jpg picture by dtxtremeiiispecial - Photobucket


Sources: Wikipedia, Modern Drummer, etc.

[drumgiirl16]

woot!! i back on DSC ....

i was actually in church one day and no one was in the church so i went to the drums and started banging on it like nothing and then realized that I was playing an actual beat... then everyday after church when everyone was eating and out of the church I'd secretly go on and try to come up with something new .... then one day I got caught by the church;s drummer and he waslike " your playing for tommorow" .. omg!!! i was like no!!!.. but he forced me too and well now im hooked

[dtxtremeiiispecial]

JOHN BONHAM: POTS AND PANS LAUNCH A LEGEND
http://s843.photobucket.com/albums/z...ohnbonham1.jpg

John Bonham described his entry into drumming this way:

"I'd wanted to be a drummer since I was about five years old. I used to play on a bath-salts container with wires on the bottom, and on a round coffee tin with a loose wire attached to it to give a snare drum effect. Plus there were always my mum's pots and pans." On these kits Bonham copied the moves of his idols Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich.

"When I was ten, my mum bought me a snare drum. I've always been fascinated by drums--I felt nothing for any other instrument. Later I played a bit of acoustic guitar, but it was always drums, first and foremost."

"My dad had bought me my first [Premier] drum kit... It was almost prehistoric--most of the metal had rusted. Later I learned how to properly look after my drums. People who don't care for their drums really annoy me."

Bonham never took a single drum lesson, though as a teen he would knock on the doors of local drummers he knew and ask for advice.

Bonham started playing with A Way of Life at age 17 and soon married Pat Phillips. The couple lived in a 15 foot trailer, and Bonham had to quit smoking to pay the rent.

"I swore to Pat that I'd give up drumming when we got married. But every night I'd come home and sit down at the drums and play. I'd be miserable if I didn't."

Bonham joined Robert Plant's band, the Crawling King Snakes. During this period, Bonham developed a reputation of being the loudest drummer in England.

"Well, yeah, I was always breaking drum heads when I first started playing. Later on I learned how to play louder, but without hitting the drums so hard. It has all to do with the swing of the stick."

Bonham used the longest and heaviest sticks available, which he referred to as "trees".

"I've always liked drums to be big and powerful. I've never been into using cymbals overmuch. I use them to crash into a solo and out of it, but basically I prefer the actual drum sound. To me drums sound better than cymbals."

According to Ed Pilling, "Bonham was just great--he was the strongest, loudest drummer I'd ever seen. He was the first local drummer to line his bass drum with aluminum to give it a cannon-like sound. The sound he got was just unreal . . . John broke his bass drum head during a gig. Band members said that was typical. Actually several other groups told me that certain clubs wouldn't book bands in which John Bonham played drums, because he was too loud.” Sometimes clubs actually asked Bonham to stop playing.
JOHN BONHAM :: johnbonham50.jpg picture by dtxtremeiiispecial - Photobucket

Bonham played many solos hitting the drums with his bare hands. This was inspired by a jazz drummer Bonham saw doing it.

"It wasn't so much what you could play with your hands--you got a lovely little tone out of the drums that you couldn't get with sticks. I thought it would be a good thing to do, so I've been doing it ever since. You really get an absolutely true drum sound because there's no wood involved. It hurts your hands at first, but then the skin hardens. I think I can hit a drum harder with my hands than with sticks."

"In the old big band era, a drummer was a backing musician and nothing else. Gene Krupa was the first big band drummer to be really noticed. He came right out into the front, and he played drums much louder than they had ever been played before. And much better. People hadn't taken much notice of drums until Krupa came along.

“Ginger [Baker] was responsible for the same sort of thing in rock . . . he was the first to come out with this "new" attitude--that a drummer could be a forward part of a rock band...not something that was stuck in the background and forgotten about.

“I do think it's great to be able to write down ideas in music form. But I also think that feeling is a lot more important in drumming than mere technique.

“It's all very well to be playing a triple paradiddle--but who's going to know you're actually doing it? If you pay too much attention to technique, you start to sound like every other drummer does.

“I think that being original is what counts. When I listen to other drummers, I like to be able to say, 'Oh, that's nice, I haven't heard that before.' I think that being yourself as a drummer is so much better than sounding like anyone else."
JOHN BONHAM :: Man and Legend picture by dtxtremeiiispecial - Photobucket


Source: Alex Risner’s Led Zeppelin site, et. al.

[butter]

nice post, xtreme. thats some good stuff.

going back a little bit, i forgot to say this, but sometimes i think dream theater sounds a bit like circus music...

[dtxtremeiiispecial]

Thanks, Butter. I appreciate it.

Ya know, I'm getting back into listening to drummers. Just ordered some Who and Led Zepplin CD's. I'll have to get into Dream Theater in the near future, but I am intrigued by your "circus music" observation.

[mudshark]

I received my first drum, according to my Mom,I was too young to remember, from my Aunt in an (almost successful) attempt to drive my Mom nuts. The first drums I can remember, however, were a toy set w/ the Beatles on the front. I was around 4 or 5 yo. I destroyed them quickly, but continued to want to play. On my birthday & Christmas that was all I asked for. Finally when I was 10, I got my first set of "real" drums (Starlight, top quality Japanese crap) I practiced & took lessons @11 yo, but @ 15 I got turned on to Frank Zappa. He changed my life & whole way of thinking. Thanks, Frank (RIP). Now some 35 years later, I still get inspired whenever I listen to his ( & ZPZ's) music. It was & is truly awe inspiring.

[dtxtremeiiispecial]

NICKO MCBRAIN OF IRON MAIDEN
http://s843.photobucket.com/albums/z...McBrain1-1.jpg


Nicko was born Michael Henry McBrain in Hackney, East London, on the 5th of June 1952. Nicky was a childhood nickname which his parents bestowed on him in honour of Nicholas, the somewhat battered teddy bear he insisted on carting around.

“Most kids wanted a bicycle," he says. "But all I ever wanted was a drum set."

As far as inspiration goes, Nicko insists, "It was all Joe Morello's fault. I first saw Joe playing in 1961, when Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five' was number six in the charts. My father had an old black and white TV.
I can remember it was bath night. We had to heat the water in a copper kettle, and it took forever.

“On the TV comes this great BBC show with Brubeck live. Joe Morello did this solo, and I could not believe what I was hearing. I shouted, 'Thats what I want to do!' I was ten years old.
Image7.jpg picture by dtxtremeiiispecial - Photobucket


"I went out in the kitchen and started playing everything in sight with me mum's knives and forks. My parents went spare: 'What do you think you're doing?!'

"I asked my dad who the man was on the telly, and he told me it was Joe Morello. I said, 'I want to be as good as him one day.’ It took many years, but I finally met Joe at the Frankfurt Music Fair in 1992. We made friends and we got on famously."

Nicko spent months driving his mother mad playing pots and pans. He then went on a pilgrimage to his local music store to ogle the glittery drum kits. He also built a vast collection of catalogues.

When he was eleven and a half, his parents finally gave in and bought him his first kit for Christmas. It was a John Grey “Broadway” outfit, with a 20" bass drum, a 10" single head tom, a snare drum, and a splash cymbal, with no hi-hat or floor tom. He played this kit "for ages" and gradually built it up, adding Super Zyn cymbals. Now he was all set for his first gig.
NICKO MCBRAIN :: nickomcbrain450.jpg picture by dtxtremeiiispecial - Photobucket


"My mum used to make me go ballroom dancing on Saturday mornings. My chums at school were Tony Baxtet who played guitar and Michael Davidson, who was a singer. We had this ten-watt Selmer amplifier for the guitars and the vocals. So we went to the dance school, and they said they'd give us a chocolate bar if we'd perform for the boys and girls.

"We did “The Shadows' Apache,” and I could never play that properly! I put my bass drum on this parquet floor, and as soon as I hit the pedal, it skated across the floor.
I learnt to use a carpet after that!

"It was so funny, my first ever performance. But we got more and more serious, and eventually, I joined another band."

The young Nicko taught himself to play and ran home from school each day to practice. He was allowed to play until 5.30pm, when his mum shouted, 'Okay, that's enough of that noise. Now pack it up!'

He played along to records, and his father who was a singer and trumpet player encouraged him to play with brushes as well as sticks, and to learn all styles of music.

"I learned how to play 'Take Five' but never performed it with a band. I didn't really want to be a jazz drummer, although my father was a big Benny Goodman fan, so I heard guys like Gene Krupa.

“I really wanted to be Ringo Starr! I had a picture of Ringo playing a hi-hat with a big smile on his face.
I used to stare at that picture and think, 'I'm going to be a famous drummer one day. That's what I want to be.”
NICKO MCBRAIN :: nickomcbrainREX_450x300.jpg picture by dtxtremeiiispecial - Photobucket

Source: anglefire.com