Nashville Number System

Jim Riley, the touring drummer for country artists Rascal Flatts, wrote a book a few years back on the mysterious “Nashville Number System” for writing song charts. He explains an example of this in a short article over at Woodshed Percussion. I’ve used my own version of song charts for many years, but Riley’s explanation is compelling. I might need to switch over to this… but the jury is still out. Here’s the excerpt that really got me:

2 reasons why I stopped writing simpler “drummer cheat sheets”:
1) I wrote the chart and used it but the keyboard player and guitarist also used the same chart.
2) What else are my options? If I write a chart that says “play 8 bars” then what am I doing? Counting bars…BUT, if I read a number chart then instead of counting bars I’m listening to changes…listening for me is a better option.

Sam Hanson fire sale

Hey friends. My friend and former student Sam Hanson is selling a bunch of his gear. Check out his craigslist post and see if you need anything. He will probably give you the “Steve Goold Super Blog Discount” if you tell him you found out about his gear through me. I made that last part up just now but it’s worth a shot.

 

Steve Jordannnnnnnn

It’s very difficult for me to overstate how much I admire Steve Jordan.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Music: Loving and Hating

This is my friend Adam Young in a stream of consciousness commentary on genre-ism. Reading it will help you understand why I appreciate him and enjoy playing music with him.

The Drumset and the Kingdom

This year’s clinic…

Details and registration info can be found here. Please spread the word!

The Onion

A poll of America’s bands on whether their drummer is good enough…

HT: Mark Stepro

Al Foster on NPR

Do yourself a favor and set aside 80 minutes to listen to this superb quality recording of the great Al Foster’s current quartet. A full live performance, recorded just two days ago at the Village Vanguard, is now streaming on NPR. I love living in the future.

HT: Stanoch

Brady Snare Drums

Obviously I’m a Risen Drums guy, but the Australian drum manufacturer Brady Drums has had my attention for a few years now because of their artist endorsement policy. Namely, they don’t have endorsing artists. They don’t give anything away to anybody… not even a discount. Instead, they simply publish all the info on pros who buy their gear and what products they buy.

It’s worth spending some time scrolling this list to see all the names that have purchased Brady Drums over the years. It’s also worth noting how many of them specifically purchased 12×7 and 16×6.5 snares… which are not exactly common sizes.

Good vs Great

A quote from my friend Jesse Norell on Facebook just now…

“Good music is the kind you can choose when you are in a particular mood and it can provide a soundtrack of sorts. It can give life, words, feeling and validation to an emotion like an understanding companion. Great music can do all of those things but has the power to bend the listener to its will; transcending your current mood for its own, putting you in the frame of mind it designed for you.”