Hi, thanks for visiting!
I thought it was about time for a change so I've spent a few days coding instead of drumming.
New to the site is the Forum - a place to discuss all things drum related. You can sign up here, then in future you can simply log in on the right hand side of this page.
Please note: If you signed up for a MasterClass account prior to 27th May 09 you'll need to sign up for a Forum account in order to log in to the MasterClass. Please make sure you use the same username and email address that you used for your MasterClass account.
Signing up for the Forum automatically registers you for a MasterClass account where you can get access to 12+ hours of in depth drum lessons. At the moment the Forum is geared up to discuss those lessons, ask questions about them and leave feedback about what you'd like to see in future lessons. It's brand new though so come and let me know what else you'd like to see in there and we can build it together!
Also new is this - the blog. I've moved it from the depths of the website to the home page. The idea is to encourage me to update more frequently. It'll probably be to do with what I'm working on at the moment so come back often for practice tips!
That's all for now.
Hope to see you in the Forum soon...
Joe
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Practice thoughts
My approach to practising the drums has always been to try and find something I can't do, break it down to its simplest form and work on that. I figure that as long as you're working on things you can't do then you're getting better.
In my early twenties the "things I can't do" would consist of playing 19 over 7, or strange bass drum ostinatos. Later I began to realise that, not only are these things not particularly useful in music but there were countless things that were pretty basic that I couldn't do.
So, my focus moved to finding the simplest things that I struggled with. I'd find something, work on it for a while, create exercises to work on it and write them down. The problem was that I'd move on before I really nailed it, assuming that I'd come back to it later because I'd written it down. All that happened was that it got added to a pile of books and other exercises that I never got round to working with.
Starting today I've decided to keep a practise book and my aim is to find a new thing each practise session and work with it until I've nailed it. The session can include various methods of breaking it down to help me work on it, but whatever it is will be my focus until I'm happy that I have it under my belt. Hopefully this will accelerate my learning. We'll see....
In my early twenties the "things I can't do" would consist of playing 19 over 7, or strange bass drum ostinatos. Later I began to realise that, not only are these things not particularly useful in music but there were countless things that were pretty basic that I couldn't do.
So, my focus moved to finding the simplest things that I struggled with. I'd find something, work on it for a while, create exercises to work on it and write them down. The problem was that I'd move on before I really nailed it, assuming that I'd come back to it later because I'd written it down. All that happened was that it got added to a pile of books and other exercises that I never got round to working with.
Starting today I've decided to keep a practise book and my aim is to find a new thing each practise session and work with it until I've nailed it. The session can include various methods of breaking it down to help me work on it, but whatever it is will be my focus until I'm happy that I have it under my belt. Hopefully this will accelerate my learning. We'll see....
Friday, July 18, 2008
MasterClasses are go!
I'm really excited to be able to present you with six 'hour long' instructional videos! I've worked really hard on them and hope they help to inspire you and help you develop your playing.
You can register for free at
www.joecrabtree.com/masterclass
You can register for free at
www.joecrabtree.com/masterclass
Once you've set up your account you'll be able to log in and see
upcoming lesson slots and downloadable lessons.
* The downloads are different to the free videos on the lessons page -
they're much more detailed and last around an hour each.
* The lesson slots are basically times I'm available for private
lessons via skype. They're one-on-one so it works on a first come
first served basis. The lesson is just like a regular drum lesson but
conducted over the internet. You'll need a mic and headphones, a
decent internet connection and skype (download for free at skype.com).
The private lessons are the chance for you to ask all the questions
you want - I'll do my best to cover whatever topics interest you.
You'll get the download for free after the lesson has finished.
When you're logged into your account you can select times that you'd
be available to take a lesson. When I add new lessons you'll receive
an email if any of the slots coincide with times you're available.
Some of the downloads will be free, others will have a small charge.
Sign up now to see what's available. There'll be more on the way
soon!
Joe
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Update for March 2008
Wow, it's more difficult than I thought to keep this updated.
Christmas and New Year was a nice family affair. 15th Jan came around and it was off on tour with Wishbone Ash again. We did 30 dates in Germany, Holland, France, Belgium and Switzerland and I blogged a lot on the Wishbone site (www.wishboneash.com/blog.asp)
I have March off from touring. I have some projects to record drums for, some new lesson videos in the works and a new Sonor Delite kit to do it all with!
More updates soon - I promise....
Joe
Christmas and New Year was a nice family affair. 15th Jan came around and it was off on tour with Wishbone Ash again. We did 30 dates in Germany, Holland, France, Belgium and Switzerland and I blogged a lot on the Wishbone site (www.wishboneash.com/blog.asp)
I have March off from touring. I have some projects to record drums for, some new lesson videos in the works and a new Sonor Delite kit to do it all with!
More updates soon - I promise....
Joe
Monday, December 10, 2007
What's been going on?
I seem to have neglected my website in recent months but have been very active posting blogs on the Wishbone Ash site (www.wishboneash.com/blog.asp).
Today was a day off. I haven't left the hotel. Instead I spent all day in front of my laptop updating my website. I've added the "Ask Joe" page to answer any questions you might have. There's no navigation link at the moment but you can get there via the link on the main page.
Touring has been full on for a few months now. I had about 10 days off between finishing the UK tour and starting the US tour. In those 10 days I had to get a US visa and do a Pendragon gig in Portugal.
The few days I had at home I spent testing out the new Sonor Force 3007 kit I'll be using on the next European tour. It's a white sparkle kit with 22" kick, 10" & 12" toms and 14" and 16" floor toms. It sounds great with the heads it came with.
I'm taking a full monitoring set up on the road. I'll be using the Audix D7 mic set (www.audixusa.com). I compared the Audix D6 kick mic with the Shure Beta 52 and Beta 91 and Sennheiser E602 and E901. The Audix was my favourite. The D7 set comes with tom mics and a snare mic. The snare mic was indistinguishable in sound from the SM57 and the tom mics sounded great too. One of my favourite things about the Audix mics is actually the clips. They're spring loaded and very sturdy once they're mounted. You can position the mics wherever you want (the clips for Sennheiser mics are well known for being painful to position)
I'm running all the mics (drums and the rest of the band) through a custom splitter box into my Yamaha O1V desk. From there I'm taking the ADAT output and running it into a Hear Back system ( www.heartechnologies.com). This is used to feed personal 8 channel mixers for the rest of the guys in the band. It's a very compact and effective set up which gives everyone the control they need.
I have my T2 headphones (from www.hearingprotection.co.uk) wired to the desk. The sound of these things is great. The odd gig where I've had to use wedges I've missed them like crazy.
I used a new set of Zildjians on the US dates. In the UK I usually use K rides and A Custom crashes. I decided to go the other way in America and used a 22" A custom ride (which I love) and 18" and 19" K dark crashes. I sometimes wish I had a roadie and bigger stages so I could use all the cymbals Bozzio style!
The US tour is coming to an end. The hotels have been great, the gigs pretty good, and the drives long. It's a first for me having to sit in a van for 8 or 9 hours a day. I managed to catch up on season 3 of Prison Break and watched lots of TED lectures ( www.ted.com). I'm looking forward to 3 weeks off over christmas to catch up with family, then it's off to Europe in January.
That's all for now,
Joe
Today was a day off. I haven't left the hotel. Instead I spent all day in front of my laptop updating my website. I've added the "Ask Joe" page to answer any questions you might have. There's no navigation link at the moment but you can get there via the link on the main page.
Touring has been full on for a few months now. I had about 10 days off between finishing the UK tour and starting the US tour. In those 10 days I had to get a US visa and do a Pendragon gig in Portugal.
The few days I had at home I spent testing out the new Sonor Force 3007 kit I'll be using on the next European tour. It's a white sparkle kit with 22" kick, 10" & 12" toms and 14" and 16" floor toms. It sounds great with the heads it came with.
I'm taking a full monitoring set up on the road. I'll be using the Audix D7 mic set (www.audixusa.com). I compared the Audix D6 kick mic with the Shure Beta 52 and Beta 91 and Sennheiser E602 and E901. The Audix was my favourite. The D7 set comes with tom mics and a snare mic. The snare mic was indistinguishable in sound from the SM57 and the tom mics sounded great too. One of my favourite things about the Audix mics is actually the clips. They're spring loaded and very sturdy once they're mounted. You can position the mics wherever you want (the clips for Sennheiser mics are well known for being painful to position)
I'm running all the mics (drums and the rest of the band) through a custom splitter box into my Yamaha O1V desk. From there I'm taking the ADAT output and running it into a Hear Back system ( www.heartechnologies.com). This is used to feed personal 8 channel mixers for the rest of the guys in the band. It's a very compact and effective set up which gives everyone the control they need.
I have my T2 headphones (from www.hearingprotection.co.uk) wired to the desk. The sound of these things is great. The odd gig where I've had to use wedges I've missed them like crazy.
I used a new set of Zildjians on the US dates. In the UK I usually use K rides and A Custom crashes. I decided to go the other way in America and used a 22" A custom ride (which I love) and 18" and 19" K dark crashes. I sometimes wish I had a roadie and bigger stages so I could use all the cymbals Bozzio style!
The US tour is coming to an end. The hotels have been great, the gigs pretty good, and the drives long. It's a first for me having to sit in a van for 8 or 9 hours a day. I managed to catch up on season 3 of Prison Break and watched lots of TED lectures ( www.ted.com). I'm looking forward to 3 weeks off over christmas to catch up with family, then it's off to Europe in January.
That's all for now,
Joe
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
A little music video...
New Wishbone Ash album is now out with yours truly on drums. You can buy it through the Wishbone Ash website (www.wishboneash.com). Here's a little taster...
Hearing Protection
Since early on in my drumming career I've been a big promoter of looking after your ears. Behind a drum kit it's very easy to wreck your hearing on a single gig. I know so many 'macho' musicians who complain about the sound degradation when wearing ear plugs and I know what they mean, but I also know many musicians with tinnitus (a constant ringing or white noise) and once they have it they regret not being more careful.
Today Andy and I drove over to Banbury to the headquarters of ACS (www.hearingprotection.co.uk) to get fitted for some Dogs Bollocks in ear monitors (that's not what they're called - just what they are.)
For the first three gigs of this tour I used my own little in ear monitor system instead of the regular drum wedges. It made a huge difference to my playing and made the gig so much more enjoyable. For the first time I could hear what was going on. In the past I've put up with whatever monitor sound we can manage but unless it's an open air gig it nearly always ends up sounding like mud. With in ear monitoring it's like playing to the record.
I heard about ACS through some drumming friends. I'd always used cheap ear plugs figuring that as long as they reduced the noise level it was fine. The problem for me as a drummer was that most ear plugs aren't very even in what they cut out. Foam plugs kill all the top end so it ends up sounding like your drums are in another room. The triple flanged rubber things that I've used for the last few years were an improvement but they still cut out more of the higher frequencies. The problem with that is that you never hear the attack of the cymbals. As a result I'd find myself over playing the cymbals to try and compensate and that's no fun for the rest of the band.
When I did RoSFest last year I got talking to Jimmy Keegan from Spock's Beard. He told me that he took a monitor feed from the desk and an input from an overhead and ran them through a little mixer into his in-ear monitors. The benefit of this is that you can hear the top end of the cymbals but you can control the level. I was excited by the concept and invested in a small mixer and a body pack from Shure (for limiting the output so I don't go deaf)
Where ACS came in was with the custom fit ear moulds. I went to an audiologist and they took an impression of my ear. A week later I had some custom fit ear plugs (which are very even in reduction across the whole spectrum) and some sleeves for my Shure headphones. The latter are what I used on the first dates of this tour.
Two nights ago the right side of my Shure headphones stopped working. Last night I had to play with wedges again and it was like going back to the dark ages. I was desperate to get my in-ear system back up and running. I contacted ACS and arranged to go and get some of their top of the line in-ear headphones. These things have two separate drivers in each ear piece so you get amazing bass response. They're not cheap but the sound quality and isolation is worth it. They supply these things to pretty much everyone who needs this kind of thing - Pink Floyd, Phil Collins, Kim Wilde (yep - she's still going)
Anyway, mine should be here in the next day or two and I'm tremendously excited about using them on the gig. Andy got some too - I'm sure he'll post his thoughts when he's tried them out.
My advice to ALL drummers and music lovers is to get some custom fit ear plugs (I use the ER15s.) I always take mine to gigs even when I'm a spectator. I find it much easier to hear what's going on with them in as most gigs are a little too loud. The ones I have are clear and barely noticeable when you have them in. They're very comfortable and it's basically just like turning the volume down on the world.
If you're an audiophile with an iPod it's worth checking out the headphones they do. If you fly or take the tube a lot they're amazing as they cut out all the background noise.
Before I got mine done I had no idea about where to get ear impressions done or how it all worked. You can find most of what you need to know on their website - www.hearingprotection.com. In short I went to a SpecSavers where they had a hearing department (for people wanting hearing aids). The audiologist squirted some fast setting goo in my ears to take the impressions. It was painless and took about 20 minutes out of my day. He sent the impressions off to ACS and I got my ear plugs in the post a week later.
Joe
Today Andy and I drove over to Banbury to the headquarters of ACS (www.hearingprotection.co.uk) to get fitted for some Dogs Bollocks in ear monitors (that's not what they're called - just what they are.)
For the first three gigs of this tour I used my own little in ear monitor system instead of the regular drum wedges. It made a huge difference to my playing and made the gig so much more enjoyable. For the first time I could hear what was going on. In the past I've put up with whatever monitor sound we can manage but unless it's an open air gig it nearly always ends up sounding like mud. With in ear monitoring it's like playing to the record.
I heard about ACS through some drumming friends. I'd always used cheap ear plugs figuring that as long as they reduced the noise level it was fine. The problem for me as a drummer was that most ear plugs aren't very even in what they cut out. Foam plugs kill all the top end so it ends up sounding like your drums are in another room. The triple flanged rubber things that I've used for the last few years were an improvement but they still cut out more of the higher frequencies. The problem with that is that you never hear the attack of the cymbals. As a result I'd find myself over playing the cymbals to try and compensate and that's no fun for the rest of the band.
When I did RoSFest last year I got talking to Jimmy Keegan from Spock's Beard. He told me that he took a monitor feed from the desk and an input from an overhead and ran them through a little mixer into his in-ear monitors. The benefit of this is that you can hear the top end of the cymbals but you can control the level. I was excited by the concept and invested in a small mixer and a body pack from Shure (for limiting the output so I don't go deaf)
Where ACS came in was with the custom fit ear moulds. I went to an audiologist and they took an impression of my ear. A week later I had some custom fit ear plugs (which are very even in reduction across the whole spectrum) and some sleeves for my Shure headphones. The latter are what I used on the first dates of this tour.
Two nights ago the right side of my Shure headphones stopped working. Last night I had to play with wedges again and it was like going back to the dark ages. I was desperate to get my in-ear system back up and running. I contacted ACS and arranged to go and get some of their top of the line in-ear headphones. These things have two separate drivers in each ear piece so you get amazing bass response. They're not cheap but the sound quality and isolation is worth it. They supply these things to pretty much everyone who needs this kind of thing - Pink Floyd, Phil Collins, Kim Wilde (yep - she's still going)
Anyway, mine should be here in the next day or two and I'm tremendously excited about using them on the gig. Andy got some too - I'm sure he'll post his thoughts when he's tried them out.
My advice to ALL drummers and music lovers is to get some custom fit ear plugs (I use the ER15s.) I always take mine to gigs even when I'm a spectator. I find it much easier to hear what's going on with them in as most gigs are a little too loud. The ones I have are clear and barely noticeable when you have them in. They're very comfortable and it's basically just like turning the volume down on the world.
If you're an audiophile with an iPod it's worth checking out the headphones they do. If you fly or take the tube a lot they're amazing as they cut out all the background noise.
Before I got mine done I had no idea about where to get ear impressions done or how it all worked. You can find most of what you need to know on their website - www.hearingprotection.com. In short I went to a SpecSavers where they had a hearing department (for people wanting hearing aids). The audiologist squirted some fast setting goo in my ears to take the impressions. It was painless and took about 20 minutes out of my day. He sent the impressions off to ACS and I got my ear plugs in the post a week later.
Joe
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