Live Zendrum And Guitar Duet

-Paul DeStefano,
Live and Studio Zendrummer

Too Hip For The Room plays live as a duo, even though our studio CDs have more musicians. Playing a duo with guitar and Zendrum can be very different than a trio with added bass. It took a while for us to figure out how to make it so your casual listener wouldn't stop and say "say, that was good, but needs more bass." After all, bars often have the entertainment of one guy on a guitar anyway, and no one complains about him not playing bass. Add a Zendum, and you're much more than that soloist. But not quite the trio.

The biggest changes we had to make was for the guitarist to STOP STRUMMING. I'm not kidding. He had to change his style to do about 70% of our songs fingerpicking. This was done out of a need to fill in some missing action and also basically because he can. The is no bass to interfere with and a lot more room to play. Strumming guitar and Zendrum gets pretty boring otherwise, and you get that same feel as the guy who goes to a cafe with his acoustic and just sings. And he might be OK, but forgettable because the songs all merge into one.

Use the Zen to change the style of the music. Change kit sounds OFTEN and people will notice. Even if you just change from a traditional rock sounding kit to a slightly electric sounding one to a boomier metal sounding one, people will notice.

You should also both sing. Otherwise, you may as well be a drum machine.

Yes, we've done work with me playing bass or orchestral hits. It takes a lot of planning and programming. We do a lot of stuff on the fly, taking shouted requests from the audience and not stopping what we're playing and changing what song it is. It's kind of part of our gimmick - we'll play a jazz song and someone shouts "OZZY!" and we then do an Ozzy song to the jazz beat. We have a following that knows this. This ability is lost if you have to get to a kit with the proper bass notes (or synth pads or whatever). Be very selective about what songs NEED bass and program kits for the notes you'll need. Then figure what other songs can use the same kits. 1-4-5 bass patterns for 50s songs allow you to use that kit for a few dozen songs. However, it you're going to play a Rush song, very few other songs will allow you to use the same bass layout.

Speaking of bass layout, some songs my left plays bass, some my right. Some cross. As with all things Zen you have to find your own path.

 

Back to

or