Jazz Drums/Norah Jones' Drummer/Brushes

spencer · #1 06-15-2008, 10:58 AM

I left bass and the bass community for a good while, as I had no job for 7 months and had to sell alot o stuff, my amplifier went but I kept my bass, well its not fun playing bass without a amp so I began playing drums and have gotten much better at rock style,

I have always been into norah jones, and the style of drums I love them, Especially the tracks on:
Don't Know Why
Come Away With Me
One Flight Down
The Long Day is Over

Anyways I found that these songs were all playing with brushes, or do you call them brush sticks lol. So I went to guitar center told them I was looking to learn to play some jazz stuff and was looking for some type of brush sticks.. Got them came home and watched a few videos on how to use them.

Well does anyone have any pointers on how to use them, I can't figure out how he gets all thoes tones. My favorite sound and Im still not sure how he does it, it sounds like a symbol but it rings FOREVER, this is what it sounds like to me. I learned to differentiate the brush on the snare, and the symbol. I hope anyways, It just sounds like his symbols ring forever...

I watched a video and saw that he flips his sticks around to play the ride which helped alot cause I couldn't figure out how he would do brushes and sticks at the same time..

Anything that differentiate a jazz drum set from a rock set? I currently use my sisters drum set, its really mine since she never did play it. Its a pdp. 21-22" kick floor tom and high tom, I replaced the mid tom position with a ride cymbal, 1 crash and 1 highhat. I changed the cymbals to ziljian and they sound 100x better than the pdp..

So any tips to jazz drums, specific to norah jones or not..

cheesemonkey · #2 06-15-2008, 05:50 PM

well i know two different type of brushes... there are kind with are just a bunch of small wooden sticks taped together at the bottom and middle and are kind of spread out at the end... the others are plastic sticks half the size of normal sticks with really tiny metal strings sticking out from the side... with both of them i just use them like normal drumsticks... they just make a different sound...

Marcus Johnson · #3 06-15-2008, 06:20 PM

Why ask on a bass guitar forum? Not flamin', just curious about the logic.

**SoComSurfing** · #4 06-15-2008, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus Johnson

Why ask on a bass guitar forum? Not flamin', just curious about the logic.

+1.

Regarding the cymbals ringing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizzle_cymbal

spencer · #5 06-16-2008, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus Johnson

Why ask on a bass guitar forum? Not flamin', just curious about the logic.

Because I play bass and know of no drum forums, plus I find bassists are nicer than drummers and guitariss.

Marcus Johnson · #6 06-16-2008, 06:18 PM

Hmmm... well, that's nice to hear, but an hour of sitting down with a jazz drummer will get you closer to the answers you're looking for than any forum will. Barring that, a quick Google just showed a bunch of jazz drumming forums.

Best way to learn something is always one on one, though, whether it's bass, drums, plumbing, whatever.

Having said that, the TBBG group is a diverse bunch of people. Much more so than I've found on other types of forums. So maybe you'll get lucky, and some BG player with some wicked drum chops will chime in. You might also have some luck posting in the DB forums, since brush playing is a common technique in jazz, and a lot of us are pro jazz musicians down there. My dad is a great brush player, he's tried to show me stuff a few times. Without much success.