Zach Hill Licks VOL. 2 "The Things People Do When They Think No One is Looking"

This is one of my favorite beats, so many cool pockets contained within this. Sorry for the couple flubs in here, I don't edit, but I make it clear what it should be. Also had some wine and beers before recording this at 1am. I recorded a nicer version earlier but the transcription was covered in glare so this is what I came up with. Thanks for checking this out and let me know if there are anythings that you want covered.

[@ImSoAngel]

this is one of the first things im learning on drums and i have a feeling that might be a mistake but im commited so fk it

[@hingeslevers]

Awesome!

[@owen0566]

Why does KZbin recommend me drumming videos at 11:00 at night when I can’t play

[@halcyonrain463]

You're a fantastic teacher. Love your earnest demeanor and the way in which you break down these RATHER challenging beats.

[@sorelbaid]

Kind of you to say so. Thanks for watching

[@greatstuffs]

This is a great song

[@fakienightmareflip]

More please!!! I used this video and your other one for practice. It is amazing, you're amazing! Keep 'em coming!

[@megamatt1915]

Love these vids. Trying to explore how Zach drums as much as I can so I can apply that to how I play.

[@frankiemanzanarez3827]

I still have that mars volta shirt wen hella , tha mars volta , SOAD tour in fresno ca. Dayum good show!

[@sorelbaid]

I bought three at that show: the black footstep (still going strong)n a yellow one "the evil spirits must choose evil" (now a grease rag for working on bikes, and the red one with the weird german? story (retired to position as a Holy garment). Thanks for listening and sharing!

[@kalaharisaint1930]

One of my favourite intro beats and you got it nailed man! Going to have to practice that one. Thanks for the break down.

[@sorelbaid]

Thanks!

[@Eveandwolf]

Snare sounds spaaaankin

[@kalaharisaint1930]

Nice one :) love this track

[@benjaminglass4922]

Request: could you work out some sort of lesson plan on techniques and approaches (moeller, linear beat, odd timing) that could help you improvise your own zach hill esque weirdo grooves? sort of a set of techniques to practice as a model to get your brain working like that?

[@sorelbaid]

Thank you for watching and commenting, Benjamin. That is a fantastic idea, and I would love to put together a few things that could help in the vein of playing weird beats. Stay tuned!

[@ShadesWade]

the way i started out is just trying to hand tap the whole rhythm. then from there try and mime out the kick drum hits with your foot , and the open hats with the other foot. definitely a good non traditional way to start your approach maybe.

[@mlodyimbir]

someone finally made it, thanks dude

[@sorelbaid]

Just doing my part! Thanks for checking it out and I hope you subscribe for more coming soon..

[@larvaserrote]

cheers from brasil, always wanted to see a breakdown of this mesmerizing beat

[@motocops5946]

Your videos are awesome !

[@sorelbaid]

Thank you! Stay tuned for more and feel free to share with your friends.

[@EarthWorms77]

You're a legend, bro

[@EarthWorms77]

Bruh you're the goat, holy shit

[@kailiw.8462]

I'm pretty sure he used that lick a lot in pictures in the dictionary with crime in choir.

[@Pepto_Dismal]

I would love to see a breakdown of The Devil isnt red

[@benjaminglass4922]

this is really fuckin cool thanks for your work.

[@ultrashmutz93]

Keys thrown out of pocket.. drummer recognize drummer.

[@alpacaking8184]

Hey man, amazing content, very straight forward. But I’ve been on the hunt for at least 4-5 years now to learn Zach Hill’s signature roll he always does in the majority of videos recorded of him playing/rehearsing. Could you possibly decipher this blindingly fast pattern once and for all? The internet will thank you!!!

[@sorelbaid]

Thanks for the kind words. Can you share an example of what you mean by signature roll? I am intrigued. I have a couple ideas of what you mean.

[@Sutona]

@@sorelbaid not sure if anyone ever got back to you on this one so ill go ahead and post a link, would really love to see a breakdown of this and some of the other licks he does in necromancer if you have time. watch?v=nCWiogdCMY0

[@Sutona]

@@sorelbaid Andy recently decided to thanos snap the a2b2 channel for whatever reason, so the best practicing video we had of zach is now gone unless someone has it archived. so, in place of my original link, here's another one (with less clean audio unfortunately) of him playing practically the same thing, albeit slower. watch?v=EjtFMWOZBJw (cutting the first half of the link so youtube doesnt shit bricks about me posting a link)

[@sorelbaid]

@@Sutona thx. New phone haven't been able to keep up with channel for awhile. I cant copy those links but I will try it manually. Thanks again

[@kalaharisaint1930]

Thank you :)

[@ShadesWade]

a few things... 1- fuck yes nice mars volta shirt!!!! 2-there's no 666 in outer space fuck yes!!! 3- peugeot bicycle OG! and 4- fucking get it!!!!!!!

[@sorelbaid]

Shades you crack me up lol...1) TMV is a HUGE reason that I play drums, and I got this shirt at the same concert where I first saw Zach Hill with Hella and System of a Down. 2) I didn't like the album as much as Hella's duo stuff at first, but man, it is one of my favorite albums ever now, and I really do think it is AN ACHIEVEMENT FOR THE DRUMS! 3) 1983 Peugeot Canyon Express MTB is fuckin sick 4) You rock

[@ShadesWade]

thats awesome to hear we are both rhythm fueled by TMV. i started drumming close to 15 years ago and they were the fuel on the fire that was lit under me for sure. i didn't discover zach hill until around 2008ish and was fortunate enough to see him live with the Boredoms performing BOADRUM with 9 drummers. i dont think i'll ever be the same haha. i love your formal side of breaking down the rhythms. your theory is strong for sure. i play everything i do by ear and couldnt break shit down as well as you do ever! i can only phrase things in onomatopoeia language haha

[@linda-g7x6e4]

DAMN DADDY!

[@jaysonwilson2697]

Martin Starr!!

[@genesis4206]

I knew you were the one that stole my dogs bandana

[@benjaminglass4922]

so I guess what I'm really wondering is : what sort of drills and practice regimen would you recommend as a foundation for innovative "weird" drumming?

[@HysterS-FT]

I think there’s some interview somewhere in which Zach talks about how he doesn’t really use or care about the theory side of things; he just “feels” out shit, and it seems to work well for him. Just play shit until you find something cool you like.

[@zvonimirmikic2932]

lol you a g

[@Insaneinthemembraine69]

What snare is that?

[@sorelbaid]

It's an old slingerland my high school band director gave me. Frankensteined with Ludwig strainer, puresound snares, and replacement bottom hoop. Top hoop is the stick saver model from slingerland. I think this is a gene krupa radio king but I'm not positive. It's always been a good one!

[@Insaneinthemembraine69]

@@sorelbaid Very nice sounding snare, I have a brass Tama Artstar ES with mighty hoops I think they're called but it sounds so good when it's tuned highly.

[@AquaAnim]

Awesome as always. You ever listened to Rashied Ali? Or Milford Graves? I know there stuff is in that weird free jazz "avant garde" type shit, but i love the open playing.

[@sorelbaid]

Thank you, yeah I like Rashied Ali, definitely influenced by Interstellar Space. I didn't even realize it was just a duo when I first heard it, I was so enthralled. Haven't checked out Milford Graves as much, but I know he is well respected in that arena. As for contemporary free or avant garde drummers, I like Paal Nilssen Love, Frank Rosaly and Chris Corsano-I really dig Corsano's The Young Cricketer album and all the weird sounds he gets out of his drumkit. I dig Zach's free playing too, like the Shred Earthship cd and some of his solo stuff. I used to do a lot of avant garde solo drumset gigs, it would be cool to get back in to that stuff!

[@AquaAnim]

As someone who loves just open free solo's not really focused on rhythm just being free or sometimes allowing some rhythm. How do you deal with criticism? Every time I show someone "free jazz" (I dont really like genres) they just call it noise. And I can always understand someone not liking a certain way of music, but with that open style of playing a lot of people just assume its uppity random bs. But when I listen to it, I can still hear the rhythm, and all the counter play between players. Is it just something to ignore and keep going? It seems hard to deal with, and want to play when no one seems to respect it. Cheers man!

[@sorelbaid]

You bring up an interesting point. Free music is often something that people are just into or not. Personally, my mood changes so sometimes I can stand to listen to free stuff and be open to it, but then other times I really don't want to; when I first got into "out there" music in college, I ate up anything and everything, just totally open to whatever I could find. Free music can be in 4/4 (a point Zach brings up in his interview in Modern Drummer), but it can also be totally free rhythmically. I really can't offer any advice to get folks into it if they aren't open to it already, maybe have them smoke a joint? Or meditate? I can relate tho, because there have been times when I'm listening to free jazz drummers or band improvisations and its just killing me, I'm like "come on dude, just play a beat." My moods live on the swings ha.

[@AquaAnim]

SORELBAID Gotcha totally understand. My mood definitely swings on my practice regiment. I will go in and be like "time for a free form solo" and I will stop halfway through, and be like "what the hell am i doing, this will never pay any bills!". But i guess thats the whole "artist" integrity thing, you're either in it for the art, or other aspects of what make music up as a whole. I usually stop and then decide it would be better to work with a metronome, and grooves. I think this comes down to the basis that very few people in my area, are even interested in making free form music. I swear I switch up every other week, wanting to work on metal blast beats, and then somehow fusing them with jazz idioms. Then i just end up in this indecisive stupor trying to figure out what my mind wants. Sometimes i wish I was less open minded so I could focus haha!

[@sorelbaid]

I hardly ever get to practice the way I used to anymore, where I could commit a few solid hours each day, so usually I am lucky to grab a few minutes on the kit before a lesson or after I drop the kid off at school. Usually I just sit down and play whatever I feel like but I'm usually staying in tempo as best I can and then making a conscious decision to shift gears. I think a good example of some completely improvised stuff that just doesn't do it for me most of the time, but not all the time, is Greg Saunier's improv stuff with various artists, not Deerhoof. For me, it often feels like "ok, i get it, you are challenging what it means to be a listener, to be a performer, what is music? etc." Sort of the John Cage-esque vibe. Eh, enough rambling I got a free form jazz improv video to upload lol

[@ReciPeatsOrg]

I thought you were Weev at first

[@burnhitsforlove3317]

Yo I must be autistic cause I never found THIS as the drums for the things that people do when they think no one's looking. PS I had a few beers to but RT.

[@sorelbaid]

It's a little slow but that's what it sounds like to me. This is just the first bar? Post a video of what u think and let's compare notes? 😘

[@simonbarth110]

The big cymbal your are crashing sounds terrible

[@sorelbaid]

It doesn't sound that bad! lol But I guess that is what you get when you buy a beat down old Zildjian "Marching Band" 20" cymbal that has a huge crack in it from Goodwill for $10. Let me hear your wonderful cymbals plz

[@simonbarth110]

@@sorelbaid I play two complitly broken zildjian zbt. They are both half missing, but they sound amazing... im not advertising expansive equipment here. maybe i just dont like the sound of heavy large cymbals beeing crashed. Your video is cool btw