So, lemme get this straight - you are one of the top tier drummers, know 4 foreign languages, AND are managing to find time to learn touch guitar - ever thought about writing a book on time management or smth like that? Because honestly, I'd by the shit out of that book.
This channel is criminally underrated. Shawn, you're a machine at time management and dedication, it's very inspiring. I'd love to know your approach to keep yourself motivated
Mike mangini on dream theater was one of my main inspirations to get better at drumming and to see you (my current favourite drummer) mention him really makes everything come full circle for me :)
Hey Shawn, had no idea you lived in Germany. Curious how you manage gigs & tours in the US? Shipping gear vs renting? Lots of flights or extended stays abroad? Thanks!
Seriously dude, you are really inspiring! Just that you know so many languages, and learning a new instrument, while kickin it on the drums. It shows that it is possible! Cheers
Hey Shawn :) What is your philosophy on taking a break of the instrument, the management of mental health and its importance in making music, as much as the role of drums for you as an outlet?
I loved the bit about swing percentage relating to the golden ratio. I completely agree. It makes the rhythm feel like it has just the right amount of motion pushing you forward into the next beat.
Hey, for what it's worth: a lot of those "mind = blown golden ratio in nature" things aren't meaningfully expressing the golden ratio specifically. At best, they're exploring some logarithmic spiral, of which there are an infinite number and you can build easily. When the golden ratio is meaningfully expressed in nature, it's often because it's demonstrating how natural processes place cyclical, repeating things "maximally apart", or I suppose would be useful in a musical context, "maximally out of sync", because φ can be understood as the "least rational number", i.e. the polyrhythm farthest away from ever lining up, if you'd like to think about it that way.
It's still really really cool how these things turn up, though! I have to admit, the idea of a "maximally out of sync" polyrhythm has been knocking around in my head since I wrote this comment...
quick comment on the golden ratio: most natural things that we associate with golden ratio spirals don't actually follow a golden spiral, instead following an arbitrary spiral. of course, people just pick the ones that happen to follow a golden spiral because the other ones are totally unremarkable. some plants *will* approach a golden spiral because it works really well for filling in leaves in a way where they overlap minimally, and the golden ratio is an important mathematical constant for sure and does appear in nature, but the notions of beauty and kind of transcendent reputation it has isn't really justified. i think the main reason is that using golden rectangles in visual composition approximates a rule of thirds, just as the golden ratio here approximates a simpler ratio. perfect fifths would not sound perfect if they were built from the golden ratio instead of something closer to 3:2! that aside, fantastic video!
Yes they do exist. It's hard. But being introverted doesn't imply social anxiety. It's just that beeing around and communicating with people is mentally very exhausting. And it is even worse if the people are strangers because (at least I am) constantly overanalysing the situation. The advice Shawn gives here is actually great for introverts. It helps a lot to be around people you know and trust.
Thanks Shawn, all very useful answers. I been for the last three years trying to use my left feet to keep time al almost all time and improved a bit, any thoughts?
サンゲイザーのファンであなたを知ったんですが、まさか日本語を勉強されていたとは知りませんでした。 ドラマー視点で音楽の専門的な話が聞けるので、いつも楽しみに観ています。 いつかタッチギターも携えて日本にライブに来てくださいね！ Hi. I am huge fan of you and sungazer. I enjoy your videos cuz the perspective of you as a professional drummer is very interesting. Therefore, I was surprised when you speak Japanese so smoothly. I hope you come to Japan and play many tuplets (with your touch-guitar) in the near future!
I agree with the above comment. Also try coming up with some sort of syllables to represent each note instead of just counting 12345. For example I say ta-ka-ti-ta-ka where the tas are the accents
very random question, but have you ever thought of doing a "Freaky Friday" on your drums with the triggers and making, say, the kick drum trigger a snare sound, or a cymbal trigger a cross-stick sound, etc? Feels like it could generate some weird beats.
Cool thing for me to practice internal time keeping is switching the metronome off and on and seeing if you can keep the time on your own without it, over longer and longer periods. (At least I think so, I am a newb so maybe it's not good practice)
Oh my god, pls, tell me that the video about exploring tuplets is the one about Wormhole🥺. Other than this, amazing job as always man, really, you're incredible❤️
rushing and dragging come from bpms that aren't quite matched up to the feel. slow down or speed up the click until you no longer "want" to drag or rush, and that's the bpm that that groove "wants" to be played at.
Yes, kind of true in some sens, but if you are on a gig playing Billie Jean at 140bpm because of the adrenaline, that's where you want to groove but that's not where the song is suppose to be hahaha
@@louisnadeau1 to be honest I've never played a gig, I'm purely a home studio person, playing drums for my own songs and sometimes as a colab with other people, I often record slightly above or below the final tempo and just resample it to match up
That's great advice for writing but poor advice for performing, especially if you'll be playing with other people or in settings where you don't dictate the music. In any case that avoids dealing with the actual issue and it's not like learning to play in time with a specific tempo if ever required is going to somehow make you worse even in situations where you can freely add or subtract BPM until it "feels right" to you.
@@TheSquareOnes thank goodness I'm never in any of those situations. while I'm giving bad advice the only reason to improve your timing is to save time manually quantizing later ;)
Super fun and jagged, probably going to turn most people off though if they aren't actively looking for odd rhythms. One of the main benefits of "traditional" quintuplet swing is that while it sounds "off" it sounds off in a way that most casual listeners can still groove to, it's a feel rather than a spectacle. 4+1 is also a feel, but it's a very abnormal one that not everyone will immediately appreciate.
chocolate stout or coffe porter.... you really are a men of knowlege hahaha love that question. but living in germany is kinda hard to choose, cause of the Reinheitsgebot hahaha. beer is laike music, its evolve and break laws
re the golden ratio I'm guessing that has nothing to do with it. - Experts on nautilus shells, the Parthenon, Da Vinci paintings etc don't find the golden ratio in these things. - Studies show that people don't find golden rectangles especially pleasing or recognizable. - The idea of golden ratio as key to aesthetics comes from a 19th century psychologist, not science or ancient wisdom. - The ratio (1+sqrt(5))/2 as a musical interval doesn't sound like anything in particular. I predict the same goes for swing ratio although I haven't tried. - When superimposing a golden spiral or rectangle over an image you have enough degrees of freedom to always make things line up pretty well; it has nothing to do with beauty or great art (see xkcd [dot] com/spiral). Outside of a few very specific applications in math and science the golden ratio is just a meme.
I saw you guys for the first show in Chicago, and it was incredible. I was hype as hell to finally get to see you guys live (and go to my first concert since COVID). I had a question about one of the songs, where you had the audience count along. It felt like what was being counted was being influenced by what was being played. It felt like the accented snare hit would always happen after what I thought the 1 count should be (like, a sixteenth note after I thought "one", I'd hear the snare) Was I miscounting? Or was there some trickery going on to lead/rush the audience?
5:17 SHHHH
"Does jazz good." Ah y e s classic Adam Neely.
TH-camr friends joining in making him have to take up these dumb submissions he'd probably usually skip xD
So, lemme get this straight - you are one of the top tier drummers, know 4 foreign languages, AND are managing to find time to learn touch guitar - ever thought about writing a book on time management or smth like that? Because honestly, I'd by the shit out of that book.
Agreed
each time i watch one of your videos i feel like picking up a drum and playing
facts
I don't wanna work, I just wanna bang on the drum all day
Yeah, I don't even play drums, but I feel reach for my instrument immediately!
You're not supossed to pick it up 😎
This channel is criminally underrated. Shawn, you're a machine at time management and dedication, it's very inspiring. I'd love to know your approach to keep yourself motivated
A metronome is like a calculator: it's useful for checking your work, but doesn't replace your own knowledge, technique, approach, etc.
Mike mangini on dream theater was one of my main inspirations to get better at drumming and to see you (my current favourite drummer) mention him really makes everything come full circle for me :)
Hey Shawn, had no idea you lived in Germany. Curious how you manage gigs & tours in the US? Shipping gear vs renting? Lots of flights or extended stays abroad? Thanks!
yo thank you for sticking the answer right at the start of the video... just what i needed to hear!!
Seriously dude, you are really inspiring! Just that you know so many languages, and learning a new instrument, while kickin it on the drums. It shows that it is possible! Cheers
Hey Shawn :)
What is your philosophy on taking a break of the instrument, the management of mental health and its importance in making music, as much as the role of drums for you as an outlet?
7:33 Based on polyrhythms I have actually tried to play (which are 2:3, 3:4, and 5:3), I love a good 5:3. It sounds and feels great to play.
I loved the bit about swing percentage relating to the golden ratio. I completely agree. It makes the rhythm feel like it has just the right amount of motion pushing you forward into the next beat.
Seriously thought you were going to say, "Heavy Jazz sticks - they're heavy, but they're also JAZZ"
Ascent never fails to call upon a deep desire to practice all day and get good at music.
Love your vids as always Shawn!
Question, what is that metronome app?
Hey, for what it's worth: a lot of those "mind = blown golden ratio in nature" things aren't meaningfully expressing the golden ratio specifically. At best, they're exploring some logarithmic spiral, of which there are an infinite number and you can build easily.
When the golden ratio is meaningfully expressed in nature, it's often because it's demonstrating how natural processes place cyclical, repeating things "maximally apart", or I suppose would be useful in a musical context, "maximally out of sync", because φ can be understood as the "least rational number", i.e. the polyrhythm farthest away from ever lining up, if you'd like to think about it that way.
damn, I knew it was too good to be true!
It's still really really cool how these things turn up, though! I have to admit, the idea of a "maximally out of sync" polyrhythm has been knocking around in my head since I wrote this comment...
So glad to have seen you play in Chicago. Best concert I've been to in a long while.
quick comment on the golden ratio: most natural things that we associate with golden ratio spirals don't actually follow a golden spiral, instead following an arbitrary spiral. of course, people just pick the ones that happen to follow a golden spiral because the other ones are totally unremarkable. some plants *will* approach a golden spiral because it works really well for filling in leaves in a way where they overlap minimally, and the golden ratio is an important mathematical constant for sure and does appear in nature, but the notions of beauty and kind of transcendent reputation it has isn't really justified. i think the main reason is that using golden rectangles in visual composition approximates a rule of thirds, just as the golden ratio here approximates a simpler ratio. perfect fifths would not sound perfect if they were built from the golden ratio instead of something closer to 3:2!
that aside, fantastic video!
I so wanted the Don't Stop Believin' answer to be true, because it would be so randomly awesome
Do you know any songs using undetuplets?
Nailed the smirk in the thumbnail!
I’m super glad I found out you’re also a polyglot!
Je suis aussi apprendre le français und allemand.
Ich liebe es auch, Sprachen zu lernen.
Hey Shawn! Guitarist fan here. Will you try to play your band's tunes on your touch guitar eventually?
I've attempted a few. I actually played a couple of melodies on the upcoming album!
I'm Japanese. His Japanese is so good.
on the year anniversary of this video :D
what is the cable coming off your stack? is it a contact mic?? 18:40 for convenience.
Next time you're in Hamburg, I'll make sure to drop by :)
What can be a better thing ever, when you go on TH-cam and here's a video directed to you 😯😯😯
You deserve WAAAAAYyYyyyYYy more subs
...about networking - do introverted musicians exist? How do they deal with life?
Yes they do exist. It's hard. But being introverted doesn't imply social anxiety. It's just that beeing around and communicating with people is mentally very exhausting. And it is even worse if the people are strangers because (at least I am) constantly overanalysing the situation.
The advice Shawn gives here is actually great for introverts. It helps a lot to be around people you know and trust.
Man, I love to see you chop out to some recent DCI beats, the technical demand was no joke.
Thanks Shawn, all very useful answers. I been for the last three years trying to use my left feet to keep time al almost all time and improved a bit, any thoughts?
Awesome you're learning Japanese! Careful on conjugation though: the negative of 話す is 話さない not 話しない
Yo the drum part to Don't Stop Believing is so low key but super groovy and interesting
Steve Smith 🤘
サンゲイザーのファンであなたを知ったんですが、まさか日本語を勉強されていたとは知りませんでした。
ドラマー視点で音楽の専門的な話が聞けるので、いつも楽しみに観ています。
いつかタッチギターも携えて日本にライブに来てくださいね！
Hi. I am huge fan of you and sungazer.
I enjoy your videos cuz the perspective of you as a professional drummer is very interesting. Therefore, I was surprised when you speak Japanese so smoothly.
I hope you come to Japan and play many tuplets (with your touch-guitar) in the near future!
great to see another video from you Shawn! always there to get me motivated to improve :)
holy crap you speak 5 languages and you’re fluent with any tuplet between 1 and 20…
I always fall to triplet swing when trying quintuplet
Try starting by including the inner notes-- something like L+kick r r L l R (snare) l r L r and then taking them out
I agree with the above comment. Also try coming up with some sort of syllables to represent each note instead of just counting 12345. For example I say ta-ka-ti-ta-ka where the tas are the accents
very random question, but have you ever thought of doing a "Freaky Friday" on your drums with the triggers and making, say, the kick drum trigger a snare sound, or a cymbal trigger a cross-stick sound, etc? Feels like it could generate some weird beats.
Cool thing for me to practice internal time keeping is switching the metronome off and on and seeing if you can keep the time on your own without it, over longer and longer periods.
(At least I think so, I am a newb so maybe it's not good practice)
I would imagine thats helping a lot. A similar excercise i'll do is only puting the metronome on one and you have to fill in the last 3 quarters.
Awesome Japanese skills. And only after one year. Wow.
Can you give us some german, italian and french?
Oh my god, pls, tell me that the video about exploring tuplets is the one about Wormhole🥺. Other than this, amazing job as always man, really, you're incredible❤️
Hey man, i've been thinking of moving to Berlin too, in a few years. Is there any reason why you chose Berlin over fx LA or New York?
rushing and dragging come from bpms that aren't quite matched up to the feel. slow down or speed up the click until you no longer "want" to drag or rush, and that's the bpm that that groove "wants" to be played at.
Yes, kind of true in some sens, but if you are on a gig playing Billie Jean at 140bpm because of the adrenaline, that's where you want to groove but that's not where the song is suppose to be hahaha
@@louisnadeau1 to be honest I've never played a gig, I'm purely a home studio person, playing drums for my own songs and sometimes as a colab with other people, I often record slightly above or below the final tempo and just resample it to match up
incidentally 140 is one of the bpms I feel is kinda "artificial" and most 140 songs kinda want to slide down to 138 or up to 143
That's great advice for writing but poor advice for performing, especially if you'll be playing with other people or in settings where you don't dictate the music. In any case that avoids dealing with the actual issue and it's not like learning to play in time with a specific tempo if ever required is going to somehow make you worse even in situations where you can freely add or subtract BPM until it "feels right" to you.
@@TheSquareOnes thank goodness I'm never in any of those situations. while I'm giving bad advice the only reason to improve your timing is to save time manually quantizing later ;)
ah yes, the formal and informal music theory languages of adam and shawn.
Waves by Owane = Quintuplet heaven!
Jetzt will ich dich Deutsch, Italienisch und Französisch sprechen hören.
Now I want to hear you speak German, Italian, and French.
Lol holy shit that Japanese was badass! 🔥🔥🔥
What do you think about a quintuplet swing formatted in a 4+1 configuration?
Super fun and jagged, probably going to turn most people off though if they aren't actively looking for odd rhythms. One of the main benefits of "traditional" quintuplet swing is that while it sounds "off" it sounds off in a way that most casual listeners can still groove to, it's a feel rather than a spectacle. 4+1 is also a feel, but it's a very abnormal one that not everyone will immediately appreciate.
Hey Shawn! What app is that you're using? Seems more useful for learning tuplets than the one I'm using.
Tempo Advance
you know the weird thing about my drumming is, i can play sequence start fairly well, but im not very good at playing quintuplets like at all
I shot my metronome......it ticked me off 😁
how to get gigs?
Shawn: Make legitimate friendships
Me: How do I make friends? :'v
Et une place pour apprendre le français dans tout ça, c'est super!
I'm sure I've typed the title of this video out almost a dozen times.
Funny, my most followed channels are either drumming and learning Japanese. Thought the YT algo was messing with me in this description.
Jazz good does, jazz good does indeed
anyone know what metronome shawn's using when he's demonstrating rhythms?
Tempo Advance
@@ShawnCrowder dammit only ios... haha thanks anyway, shawn. appreciate it!
So you moved away from Honshu to the land of the Handschuh?
What metronome app is that?!
wie geht's dir? ich hoffe dass du Berlin schön findest. :)
I’m learning German and I’m so happy I understood this lol
chocolate stout or coffe porter.... you really are a men of knowlege hahaha love that question. but living in germany is kinda hard to choose, cause of the Reinheitsgebot hahaha. beer is laike music, its evolve and break laws
The correct answer is coffee stout
The metronome was never meant to be the source of your power. Merely a tool to channel it😂
still living in germany?
what is that metronome app
its called tempo advanced, its only for ios
@@therealstick7430 thanks!
re the golden ratio I'm guessing that has nothing to do with it.
- Experts on nautilus shells, the Parthenon, Da Vinci paintings etc don't find the golden ratio in these things.
- Studies show that people don't find golden rectangles especially pleasing or recognizable.
- The idea of golden ratio as key to aesthetics comes from a 19th century psychologist, not science or ancient wisdom.
- The ratio (1+sqrt(5))/2 as a musical interval doesn't sound like anything in particular. I predict the same goes for swing ratio although I haven't tried.
- When superimposing a golden spiral or rectangle over an image you have enough degrees of freedom to always make things line up pretty well; it has nothing to do with beauty or great art (see xkcd [dot] com/spiral).
Outside of a few very specific applications in math and science the golden ratio is just a meme.
Nice 8-string in the back there, dude! Is there something we don’t know about you? Lol
Im a dragger😊
Yeh je savais pas que tu parlais français ! Je vais pouvoir spammer de commentaires dans cette langue si insensée
d r u m b s
You still doing Japanese?
Guess you didn't finish the video 🤷♂️
@@ShawnCrowder Got any Kanji tips?
Grass don't grow on a busy street. Just saying.
I saw you guys for the first show in Chicago, and it was incredible. I was hype as hell to finally get to see you guys live (and go to my first concert since COVID).
I had a question about one of the songs, where you had the audience count along.
It felt like what was being counted was being influenced by what was being played. It felt like the accented snare hit would always happen after what I thought the 1 count should be (like, a sixteenth note after I thought "one", I'd hear the snare)
Was I miscounting? Or was there some trickery going on to lead/rush the audience?