new drum solo material

[chmiller912]

working on some new drum solo material for this years Guitar Center Drum Off challenge. I got 1st place in the store finals 2 years ago and am hoping to do even better this year! Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions, I know its a little sloppy but there are a couple parts I like so far. Cheers!

[late8]

First of all, I give you tons of credit for asking for advice and opinions of your solo. It takes alot of courage to open yourself up to strangers and asked to be critiqued. Let me give you my thoughts as if I were one of the judges sitting at the store and I just watched this solo.

I applaude the effort you put forward on the intro to feature your stick control. The soft dynamics and the fast fills created a nice contrast between each other but my ears and eyes were yearning for some type of groove or pocket to develop a little earlier than you planned it.

I did a search to see if there were any other videos of you soloing or playing to a soundtrack and I came up with this good clip of you on your e-kit. You immediately start out with a tasty 'lil groove and you kept me interested the entire time you played.

I'm my humble opinion, I rather hear a tasty groove or pocket than have to sit through a bunch of fast fills that are strung together with no rhyme or reason and that's what I felt was going on at the beginning of your solo. I felt you did try to create a beginning, middle and end but maybe with a little fine tuning, you can define those moments to where it's in segments to add some 'movement' or "flow' to the journey you're trying to take me on with your kit and your skills. Good luck and let us know how it went.

Remember this?

[chmiller912]

Thanks for the feedback Late8! I agree I think I did get carried away with the beginning part. I think I will definitely try and include some more interesting grooves to start things off and then maybe save the fast fills for just the ending. This was just a brainstorming jam really and thanks for the feedback it will help me structure a better solo. I'll post a vid and get some more feedback in the next few weeks.

[Warren Wright]

I was watching a Dave Weckl solo he did with Vinnie and Steve at one of the Buddy Rich memorial jams...and I was impressed with how he grouped his solo in sections, with dynamics being used throughout the solo. You might pick up a few pointers from those 3 drummers as well as a number of other pro drummer solo's as how to arrange the different parts of your solo so that you have a dynamically variable based solo as well as several different sections to fully showcase your obvious skills.
Just Sayin ~~~

[Ray on the Drums]

I use to be able to take my shirt off.


LOL Edited due to wrong pic!

[slinky]

LoL me too Ray, as a matter of fact I did last year at a place we were playing and the other guys said if I ever do that again they'll kick me out of the band. I think they were just jealous

[chmiller912]

Good ideas Warren! Do any other Guitar Center drum off veterans have any videos of their solos?

[Bish]

I use to be able to take my shirt off.

I still can but results are less than desirable.

[slinglander]

Sounded great to me...after the 2 min. mark! Then you seem to have found your "pocket" or at least the basis for the solo. I would take the first 2 min. and fit/ build up to those rhythms into the second 2 minutes somehow.