Tapping dude killing it on Yardbird Suite.

Michael Johnstone turned me on to this cat who also did a great version of Recado Bossa Nova. Lots of great walking lines, solid left hand chords throughout and tasteful melodic accompaniment.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaPYvir0CWo[/youtube]

That's great! Do we know who he is?

-Eric

Very good; thanks for turning the rest of us on to this! Tapping Dude does a great job. Now, I don't mean to sully a cool video, especially from a player several times more advanced than myself, but the drummer in me wants to say: Now all he needs to do is work a bit with a metronome and get his 8th-note accents in place. This happens with many players of every instrument: those accents are often rushed and the time gets herky-jerky. The result is that the audience loses their ability to tap their feet or dance along. Then you risk losing them entirely.
All are welcome to call me a nit-picky snob, of course.

I shall call you a drummer. I have a daughter who is getting quite good on drums and she comments on my time all the time, so to speak. I think that is actually very valuable and I hope to get your input when I post my next non-classical video. (Whenever that may be.)

Oh, and if you come to Interlochen any chance of bringing a drum set?

-Eric

(Note to 15-year-old self: Play drums and bass you fool!)

He's French and he's quite good. He nails Bernie's Tune too.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwnkviZbPro[/youtube]

This 8th note issue comes up a lot with Stickists, part of a larger issue with timing on the Stick. The immediacy of the Stick is unforgiving. If ever you have had to sit down and record, you know what I speak of. Tom G shared some insight with me on a recording engineers perspective on it - it's a big challenge playing drums, bass and guitar at the same time - which is essentially what you are doing as a Stick player.

In my experience, drummers love the idea of playing with a Stick player until they do. At which point, there are some questions...

Thanks, Gene. Those videos are 3 years old. I wonder what he's doing now.

This Stick timing issue is one I'm working on hard right now. I'm thinking of taking a few lessons with my daughter's drum teacher. I will attempt to play for him and get tips on improving my rhythm and timing. I'm prepared for a scowl and some basic exercises a beginning drummer would get.

TappingDude's music is still very enjoyable to this non-drummer's ears, thanks for the tip.

-Eric

I know right? Where is he now? I might bop over to the AFSTG and see if they know anything about this cat.

Great idea of getting some practice / rehearsal time with a drum teacher. We could all benefit from good rhythm.

...any resemblance to Leon Redbone is purely coincidental.

Seriously though, that performance was about as good as I ever hope to be.

I've seen this guy before. Not easy to play jazz on a stick. I guess Steve A. can do it. I agree with Luc about these 8th notes feeling in jazz. It's a special accent and not easy to play it the right way. To come back to this stickist...maybe he should play at least with a drum machine...I know it's not the best but...

Very cool. Hope someone can find his name.