Ever sit behind the kit, wishing that you had one more limb to pull off that crazy polyrhythm with? Well, the possibility of that may not be too far away. A team at Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology is currently developing robotic prosthetics that can not only be useful to drummers who have lost a limb, but could also allow two-armed percussionists to add a third, fully controlled by the performer’s brain activity.
Tag: music
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“How VIP do we gotta get?”
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, Sir Paul McCartney of the Beatles AND Beck . . . sounds like the start of either an amazing band or a bad joke, right?! Well, no joke here (yet still possibly a bit funny) – the rockstars were turned away from a post-Grammy party on Monday night.
The three showed up at Argyle in Hollywood, where rapper Tyga was throwing a bash after the awards show. Some playful bickering back and forth went down at the front door, including Sir McCartney exclaiming: “How VIP do we gotta get? We need another hit, guys!” Then he turned and pointed at Beck, saying, “Work on that!”
With that, they loaded back into a nearby SUV, and scooted off to Hyde Lounge to attend Mark Ronson’s Republic Records party.
See for yourself:
Better luck next time, boys!
Read the full story on TMZ
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Nashville Drummer Falls Through Window, Breaks Rib At Gig
Ty Anderson and his wife were enjoying the Don Kelley Band at Robert’s Western World on Broadway in Nashville, Tennessee this past Friday . . . when the most unexpected of events took place. At the end of a song, drummer Stan Saxon stood up from his drums to thank the audience, and toppled over backwards – falling straight through the glass window behind him!
On top of that, Ty caught it all on camera:
The resilient Saxon not only finished his set of music with the band, but he also performed another four hours elsewhere nearby that same day. It wasn’t until the next morning that he learned that he’d actually broken a rib.
But that still didn’t stop him from drumming at a gig again already that night. Talk about dedication to the music!
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John Beck’s story-filled percussion collection
Teaching percussion at Rochester, New York’s Eastman School of Music since 1959, John H. Beck has amassed quite the incredible collection of instruments, method books and other items. Beck, technically now retired, spoke recently with the Democrat & Chronicle about gradually sorting through the items and the memories.“Almost everything in here has a story,” says Beck. “The stories are what hold me back from getting this done. I open that door and walk in here, and there’s memorabilia all over the place.
He taught hundreds of students in his years at Eastman, one of the most popular being the legendary Steve Gadd. But about his time with Gadd, he says, “”I didn’t really teach him . . . I just guided him.”
Read the full D&C story here.