Son Clave Displacement – Rhythm Exercise

Hi Everyone.

It has been a bit mental in the last few weeks that included some serious jetlag travelling between Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, Germany and France.  It was nice to be in new places, seeing some nature and meeting a lot of nice people on the way.

In this chunk of tour we got back to do some rhythm sessions in the dressing room before the shows. Good stuff. Andy brought an idea of a displacement of the clave, which I developed into 16 different versions of the Son clave by using all the 16^th notes of a 4/4 bar as a starting point…. Ahhhhhh!!!!! Sounds a bit complicated but it ‘s not. It’s actually a really good rhythm exercise.

I was surprised to see how many displacements of the clave are actually being used in many types of music. At the same time some of the patterns sound completely different and new so there is a lot of interesting rhythms to explore here.

For a pdf version of the exercise click here: Son Clave Displacement

For previous exercises visit the exercises page

Enjoy.

Yaron

Photos of the drummers at the Barbican

I received this week some nice pictures of the great bunch of people that took part in the crazy drumming section that we did in Survivor at the Barbican. It brings out nice memories of dancing on a chair…

Far Far East

A new and exotic tour is coming up this weekend as I am traveling with the Hofesh Shechter Company for 3 weeks to New Zealand, Taiwan and Korea to do both Political Mother and In Your Rooms.

It is going to be another one of those heavy jetleged tours but I’ll try to recover well and have a good time. It will be the first time for me in NZ which is very exciting, and it would be the 2nd visit to Taipei and Seoul in less than two years which is quite amazing as I never really thought I will be in these places…

I am ready for some spicy kimchi!!!

Kindle Trails – new website and video

Hi everyone.I am very happy to present Kindle Trails!!!

We have just launched the new website http://kindletrails.co.uk/ and a video, which gives a little taste of three of the songs. I hope you enjoy!

Berlin, Brighton and some relax…

The 25th of November was the last day of the previous tour with Hofesh and tomorrow, exactly two months later, we are back with the suitcases to do the Choreographer´s Cut of Political Mother in Berlin. If the level of excitement will be the same as the previous performances in Montpelier and London this is going to be a great fun. 24 musicians, 16 dancers on a massive stage – exciting!

Straight after Berlin we will be in Brighton with the tour version of Political Mother with James K who is rejoining us again.

I am also very excited about February – after this very crazy month it would be nice to hopefully have some time off and recharge the batteries.

Nice critic about the performances from last week with Hofesh and Antony Gormley

Well… that was almost like running a marathon but we finally made it – 4 sold out shows in the Barbican and some very good time on stage with many (!!!) great people.

I would like to say a very big thanks to Hofesh and Antony for the confidence and the space that I was given, and for allowing me to be myself on stage. It was a true pleasure.

In the photo below you can read a very nice review about the show. Just click on the image below:

Ian and I on Cympad front page

I am proud to share the front page of Cympad with Ian Froman, a great teacher and definitely someone who has made a massive difference on the way I play drums.

Thank you Ian and thank you Cympad!

Survivor – soon on the Barbican stage

After a month of rehearsals things are starting to sound exciting! I´m making the most of what´s left of the Christmas holidays as next week we are finally on stage combining all the elements of the show (and there are many…) Exciting and scary at the same time… 

Show dates are 12 – 14 of January and there are still some tickets left. Not many though, so if you are interested here is the link:  Survivor

Here are some photos from the rehearsal period: 

 a moment of silence

 

My very sexy haircut that appears these days all over the London Underground

 

Enlightened musicians

Hofesh and I showing our skills on the cello

Dom demonstrates another way to play the drums

Moshik taking a spiritual rest

James Keane and Dom memorizing

Drum workshop in Japan on the news

While being on the tour with Hofesh I have been doing several drumming workshops. The last one was 3 weeks ago in L.A. in front of 500 UCLA students as part of our performances in Royce Hall. That was a great experience having to improvise for two hours and have so many people take part in a creative process of making music. Pure pleasure.

The video above is a news report about a small workshop in YCAM Japan last year. It was a challenging experience and a good fun working with the language barrier and create a short percussion piece with people with different level of experience and a completely different mentality. The week in Yamaguchi was definitely one of the best tour weeks in the last few years and I would love to go back there.

You have some more photos and exercises on the web so feel free to explore.

Good day!

Yaron

200 Drummers Needed

Hi everyone.

We want to make some noise on stage and we are looking for 200 drummers who are interested to perform a short section in Survivor – the next production of the Hofesh Shechter Company  on the Barbican stage in London this coming January.

If you know anyone who has an intermediate level or more on drums and owns a drum that they can move with please pass them the following link: 200 drummers

I will soon post a video of the last production we did in the summer to give a better idea about what we are doing.

Thank you all!

Yaron