Third lesson, jazz drum set

Listening

Horace Silver (1928-), Song for my Father. I have yet to receive this CD

Chick Webb (1905-39), jazz and swing drummer, band leader, including Stomping at the Savoy, Harlem Congo, Liza, others. Died at 34 years old of spinal tuberculosis, kept band in employment because of depression, despite dying at the time. This impresses me, given the faceless people we have on this planet today.

Doing

With the paradiddle, my shortfall on the left hand is not containing the stick sufficiently and not allowing the stick to rise enough, through wrist movement. My right hand also does not allow the stick to rise enough. Use a tempo of 100bpm with metronome set for 50bpm on second and fourth beats, on visual, audio or on phones, check.

Using a tempo of 100bpm with a metronome set on 50bpm to count the second and fourth beat, playing ride cymbal and snare drum together with the bass drum on quarter notes and the hi-hat on second and fourth beat. My main challenges are to keep the snare drum quiet in comparison with the ride cymbal and to allow the ride cymbal stick to rise enough, or at all really! This is actually okay, I can nearly manage!

Now, here is the challenge! Maintain this rhythm but introduce a swing on the ride cymbal, a quarter note followed by two sixteen notes, the whole repeated. The first note is to the right of the normal position, the first sixteen note has the accent and is to the left of the normal position, moving across the cymbal to the right. First, do this without the snare drum. This is challenging!

A final word

The chance of any drummer being remotely close to the calibre of Jason visiting Zambia at any time and being available for teaching is slim. If you want to learn jazz drum set, take advantage of this opportunity.

A big message about what we the voiceless think of politicians

I just love this picture. While maybe not subtle, it extends from ordinary but well-educated (in bookshop) woman with no voice to ordinary but well-educated person with no voice. It sums up the desperate frustration we all face with our increasingly pathetic politicians worldwide. It is very much of our times and suggests perhaps the end of democracy, or at least increasing intolerance to political incompetence. It ought to be in a gallery. (Sorry to move it Nats but Facebook is not always very useful.)

Carmina Burana, Lusaka, front page of the Times Entertainment section

Front page of Entertainment section of the Times shows Lulu and children performing in Carmina Burana.

Les Promenades Musicales at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

The final concert of the Promenades Musicales was to a packed Alliance Francaise de Lusaka last night. The concert featured a 36-piece orchestra and the finale was Carl Orff's spectacular Carmina Burana. It was a fabulous evening.

Royalty free photographs of the Lusaka International Music Festival at the Alliance Francaise de Lusaka, 28 September to 5 October, 2013 are available here. Click on an image to enlarge, and then right click to download. Please acknowledge copyright to Langmead & Baker Ltd 2013 if used in the press or on the internet. Please contact if you need a larger file.

Carmina Burana rehearsal at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

This is the Carmina Burana rehearsal: two pianos, definite and indefinite pitched percussion with voices. The profane songs about wine, women and love are in medieval Latin and will be performed tonight at the 'last night of the proms' at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka at 19:30hrs, together with other well-loved pieces.

Damyna, Damyna, my opera, which is in rehearsals for December performances, is in the Daily Times today. #Lusaka

A rice farmer with his son in Lambwe Chomba, Zambia

The first attempt to photograph Mosi-oa-Tunya was by hunter, trader and photographer James Chapman, on an 1859-63 expedition with Thomas Baines, after the latter had been dismissed from Livingstone’s expedition (Ryan, 42). This attempt failed. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia