Derek Munson :: Jazz Drum Solo

Website: http://www.derekmunson.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/drumology2001

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This is me soloing over a bass ostinato while playing at Ivory Jazz Club in Kennewick, Washington on May 19th, 2007.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• drum
• solo
• drumset
• derek
• munson
• jumpin
• gemini
• brian
• blade
• dave
• weckl
• jeff
• hamilton
• ivory
• jazz

[DanDjembe]

only wish I could hear this with that bass ostinato mixed up. Records of your playing in studio? Where I find?

[drumology2001]

Do you mean records of this group? Or just me? I have played on some studio recordings, but not all of them are straight-ahead like this.

[DanDjembe]

@drumology2001 you with group!

[drumology2001]

@DanDjembe With this group, no. We only played a handful of gigs together one summer, so this is all I have on tape. Sorry!

[drumology2001]

How am I supposed to answer that one!?!? That's a pretty loaded question! ;)

If I say "no", then I'm not acknowledging decades of hard work and I sound like I'm playing dumb.

If I say "yes", then I sound arrogant and narcissistic.

So, I guess my answer is..."maybe"? Not sure what to say. :D

[drumology2001]

Sure thing! Most of the lick, which is just sixtuplets, happens with the right hand going between snare drum and floor tom, with a bass drum hit in between each, like this: S-B-F-B-S-B | F-B-S-B-F-B | S-B-F-B-S-B (where S is Snare, B is Bass Drum, and F is Floor Tom). Since this is a 1 bar fill in 4/4 time, I do that for beats 1, 2, and 3...and for beat 4, I play a crash on the china with my right hand and a hit with my left hand on the snare. Does that all make sense? Hope so! :D

[marionetas]

malo el solo

[drumology2001]

You're right - it IS hard! Let me rephrase that: it's hard to *learn* to play it. Jazz isn't something you can learn from reading a textbook. It's like learning a new language: you have to learn a few basics to get started, and then dive in and immerse yourself in it - and start trying to speak with the natives! It takes some time to get fluent, but I'll say this: I've been working at it for 15 years, and I STILL feel like I'm way off the mark! Gotta' keep practicing and listening even more. :)

[Merazzo228]

@drumology2001 wow thats a lot haha i only have 5 years.. but i only play rock and metal and a little bit of latin... but jazz seems to have nice grooves and also very hard to play haha..

[drumology2001]

Well, I started when I was 3, and I just turned 30 in July, so...27 years? Something like that? :)

[Merazzo228]

@drumology2001 woah improvised?? thats amazing.. how long have you been playing drums??

[drumology2001]

Oh, I get'cha now. Yeah, this is all improvised, so everything I did was made up on the spot. I think there's one little Dave Weckl lick in there that I've adopted, but the rest is just off the top of my head.  :)