Welcome back to the Chops Blog! Here at Chops we love a good drum solo, and today we’re going to take a closer look at a classic.

In 1996 Tool released their classic album Aenima. The aggressive and conceptually innovative music was the perfect showcase for drummer Danny Carey. His powerful, but cerebral drumming helped him quickly become one of the most respected drummers to emerge in the 1990s.

One of the radio signals from the album was the brooding “Forty Six & 2”. In the bridge, which is primarily in seven, Carey plays a powerful solo. It is a perfect showcase of his and his bandmate’s rhythmic prowess. Check out the pdf HERE , and listen to the solo with the tempo reduced by one third HERE.

Take time to study the music, and listen to the reduced version many times. Then practice the solo by breaking it down into small pieces. After you are comfortable performing it slowly, gradually speed it up until you can perform it at the original tempo.

Get to work, it isn’t easy!

Note: We posted this about this time last year, but thought it was important enough to bring up again.  Make sure you’re protecting your ears whenever you play music live, and that goes double for indoor season.

Have you ever gone to bed at night after your indoor percussion rehearsal and had an incessant ringing in your ears? If you have, that is your body telling you that you’ve done some damage to your hearing. Please know that hearing loss is irreversible, so you need to start protecting your ears NOW! How, you ask? There are a couple of great ways to do so.

• Earplugs – These should be essential to your playing and performing. Many of the percussion instruments used in an indoor show are played at a high volume for long periods of time, so you need to be protecting your ears. Do yourself a favor and start using earplugs now. Tell yourself that ear protection is just as essential as the sticks and mallets you use to play. If you’re a cymbal player and execute many loud crashes at ear level, this advice applies to you as well.
• Headphones – Not so great if you’re trying to make a fashion statement while playing, but hearing is way more important than looking cool! These are great if you have hypersensitive ears and they allow you to hear the music you’re playing while cutting out all of the dangerous frequencies. A great option if earplugs are uncomfortable for you to wear.

A gym is a very tough listening environment for percussionists, so hearing protection not only safeguards your hearing, but it may allow you to hear more of what you need (the music that you and your group perform) and less of what you don’t (the unwanted high frequencies associated with loud music).

You can buy your earplugs here: https://www.chopspercussion.com/run?id=8
Feel free to e-mail us at chops@chopspercussion.com or call 877-900-DRUM if you have more specific questions regarding hearing protection.

You only get one good set of ears in your life, so take care of them!!!

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