# Chopin - etude opus 10 #4



## tedk

Hey - Love this forum! I'm a total classical enthusiast with season tx to the Milwaukee Symphony. I am the drummer/songwriter in the band Tourniquet. I just released my solo drumming album called IN THE SHADOW OF THE MASTERS - here's a couple tracks.... hope you enjoy them!











http://tourniquet.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-shadow-of-the-masters


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## Rasa

Nice drumming, but very distasteful says the conservationist.


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## tedk

Thanks for the comment Rasa. Just FYI – I am an avid classical enthusiast – not just a casual fan who’s faves are Pachelbel’s Canon and Mozart's eine kleine nachtmusik. I only played aggressively on this because this is an aggressive wild Chopin Etude. My goal was to match the intensity of the piece. Now if you feel a drum set should never be incorporated into classical music, I respect that. 
I do have a long history in drumming with treating the drums as a musical instrument – not just a noisy timekeeper. I have been blessed in the music industry as others have recognized that. The album is full of sections where there is no drumming at all to let the music breathe – plus many sections of quiet drumming, like the Barrios guitar piece on YouTube. 
I have also written more than 60 songs – every note, every harmony - with my band Tourniquet. This includes parts for violin and cello. Our band has been described as “Beethoven Meets Frankenstein”, which is endearing to our fans but maybe not on a classical forum! I have the utmost respect for the composers I love, which are many – I apologize for offending anyone – thanks for checking it out anyways!


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## Rasa

> My goal was to match the intensity of the piece.


I'm afraid that from a pianistic perspective, you're not even close. This an étude of quite high technical difficulty. Often enough you match the pianists subdivision on drums, which is very fast 16th notes. Except the pianist has to play different keys, have enourmous finger strenght and control to give an accent on every 1st of 4, control the movements of his arm, master the jumps, have a pin-point pivot (dim 7 progressions) and so on and so on. On top of mastering the technical aspects, it still comes to taking all those aspect and mold them into musical phrases, and THEN playing it with intensity.

I guess that while I recognise the effort, it doesn't in any way match up to what the track you're playing to is doing.



> Now if you feel a drum set should never be incorporated into classical music, I respect that.


I also gandered a listen to your other pieces, such as the one where you drum along with Beethoven's 5th Finale.

I don't think what you do is incorporating the drums into the music. A classical composer puts a lot of thought in effort in the structure of themes, melodic developement andsoforth. A big part of the work is thinking of orchestral colours. While doing this, the composer does incorporate percussions, fitting with the style of the period or his own tastes. Percussions are alreay part of the compositional consideration of the composer.

The way you present the incoporation of novel percussions into an old work, seems to me as though you're using the classical work as a mere metronome, and some indication as when to change what percussion you're using at the time.


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## Colourless

I'm afraid I am going to have to agree with Rasa about this.
You're a very good drummer, but drumming like this to classical works is very distasteful and unnecessary...


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