Peter Erskine: Oops mp3

[benrand]

I remember trying to figure out what in the hell he was playing...very tasty stuff! I like the short, to the point drum intro.

Oops

[drumgod1]

I think Steve Smith put this on one of his earlier videos, as to how he played it when he was with Steps Ahead. The main groove was just a 5 beat pattern repeated (2+3). Pretty cool tune! I also enjoyed "Pools" from the album called Steps Ahead. Great playing by Erskine on all of them!

Mike

[Klemme]

I love that tune. Thanks!

[FuseU1]

Agreed, what a great tune. I also have the SA Live Tokyo '86 version w Smith also, which is great AW, & a little brighter in tempo...

Ahhhhh...Ersko's playing on there is like kickin' back on a mediterranean/island beach, light-aqua-colored clear water, toes in sand, cool breeze, umbrella overhead, sippin' a 'bev of choice'...[& every N&T the natives will run up on ya or you'll get shanghai'd on a pirate ship] [img]wink.gif[/img] ...

Or a convertable ride in the mountains of Wyoming/Montana/Dakotas... [img]cool.gif[/img]

...I "wax romantic-poetic"... [img]graemlins/sure.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/gulp.gif[/img] ;c)

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 20, 2004 01:12 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

[jonthibault]

Yeah, Steve Smith explains it and plays it live in Steve Smith Part II. Very cool. The main groove is basically a grouping of five sixteenth notes. It sounds particularly weird because he's accenting the fifth stroke on the left hand: R-L-R-L-L, repeated. For a further explanation on "fives," see Steve Holmes' video [img]wink.gif[/img]

[erskoman]

Thanks for posting that ... fun to listen to that song again! That album "Modern Times" was always one of my favorites; Mike Mainieri write some great tunes. Steps Ahead was a cool band ...

The story behind that intro: we were rehearsing for the album in some barn in Woodstock, NY, and at the first playing of "Oops," I was pretty much just playing time with backbeats on 2 + 4 ... Mike commented that the beat I was playing sounded and seemed "too ordinary" ... so, I came up with "well, how about something like this?" (the repeating pattern of 5s) which came about/was inspired by

1. a Don Ellis rhythmic idea (where he uses repeating groups of 5s within a 7-based meter!)
2. it seemed like something Bill Bruford might have done! (King Krimson had just played a concert in New York, and we were all pretty impressed, as I recall)

To be honest, I didn't think that it was such a clever solution and thought that Mike might regard it as a tad too obvious ... but, he liked it, and we cut the tune shortly afterwards ...

Cheers,

PE

[FuseU1]

PETER
[img]biggrin.gif[/img] [img]cool.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 22, 2004 02:35 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

[Flamaque]

I loved that album.

I saw Steps play when they came into Cleveland (twice?).

Peter...I wanted that Gray Yamaha Recording Custom Kit!...I don't know, just something totally cool about gray Yamahas. [img]wink.gif[/img]

You were very nice in talking with me and the other drummers.

Your style and finesse was a big influence on me.....thank you.

[ladanny]

I've never heard 5s groove so deep!

Peter, when you play that, are you ghosting the spaces on the snare? If so, are you playing it like this:

RLRLL RLRLL RLRLL RLRLL

where the last L of the 5 is accented for the back beat?

Or are you leaving the spaces open? Sorry, listening on a computer an can't hear all the detail.

Thanks!

Danny

[erskoman]

Danny,

Exactly ... RLRLL RLRLL, etc.

Kind of like a 3-dimensional chess board, keeping the bigger-picture backbeat in mind while plugging away at the 5's, and so on ... this kind of stuff can make music-making really interesting and fun.

The other reason it works is that it only goes on for a (relatively) short while ... provides a nice bit of tension-release ... a few more bars of that, and everyone would wind up hating it.

[img]wink.gif[/img]

PE