Bobby Jarzombek.com

I've been playing barefooted all my life. As a kid growing up in San Antonio, my brothers and I were always into sports. We spent a lot of time outdoors in the yard playing football, basketball, and baseball. For some reason in the heat of S.A. it was always more comfortable (for me) to run around barefooted. Depending on the season (and the weather), I would play a sport outside, then I'd run inside and play drums, then I would run back outside and play again. I got used to playing drums barefooted and so when I started playing gigs it felt very uncomfortable to play with shoes on. I have a few early pictures of myself when I was about 13 where I'm playing with only socks on. From then on, it was barefooted for me. Read More ...

I get asked this one a lot. Years ago (1990, maybe) a friend of mine, Billy White, was playing guitar with Don Dokken. I was talking with him on the phone about the drummer auditions that they were holding. He mentioned that they had a guy audition that had a cymbal way back behind his floor tom and he had to reach way back to hit it. I said, "Wow, a cymbal behind him?!" He said, "No, not behind him but he definitely had to reach for it". I thought about it for a bit and went to my practice room and set up a cymbal behind me on the right. It wasn't difficult at all to hit and use it in patterns. I thought, "Cool, I'll put one on the left, too". The left one was a bit strange. It didn't feel comfortable at head level the way the right one did. I experimented with it and found out that it felt better quite a bit higher. Read More ...

I am predominantly right-handed although I do a few things lefty, including throwing a frisbee and bouncing a basketball. I started out playing the drums the conventional way with the right hand on the hi-hat and the left hand on the snare. I switched to playing open-handed around 1991. For me it began when I was experimenting with patterns which involved moving my left hand around the toms while keeping time on the hi-hat. My left hand kept getting caught up under my right so I switched over just to challenge myself to learn the coordination of these particular patterns. After learning the patterns I thought about it a bit and then I decided to try and make the switch completely. Of course it was difficult at first and initially I only played lefty in my personal practice but still played right-handed for band practice and gigs. It's hard to say how long it took to completely switch over. Little by little, I just learned as I played. Another thing I need to mention is that when I was growing up Simon Phillips was a huge influence on me. His approach and musical ideas gave me inspiration to forge ahead. There are several other popular drummers that play open-handed, including Mike Bordin (Faith No More/Ozzy) and Carter Beauford (Dave Matthews Band). Read More ...

I like to practice 4-6 days a week, 3-4 hours a day, when I'm not on the road. Of course it's not how much you practice that matters - it's WHAT you practice and if you are learning something and progressing. I don't have a specific regiment that I follow every day but I think there are few essentials of drumming that every drummer should include in their practice routine. Read More ...

Over the years I've had patterns that I thought were ‘break-through exercises’ that were taking me to the next level. I don't know if I believe that anymore. For instance: If you want to play cleaner/faster singles (I think) you need to work on dozens of different exercises to bring your hands to the next level - not just playing one or two patterns over and over. There are plenty of books out there that contain numerous sticking patterns which are difficult to play - no matter what your playing level. Read More ...

I go through phases where (every day for months) I'll work on sticking exercises on a practice pad for an hour and then sit down at the kit and work on patterns with my feet for half an hour before I do any drum set playing. Then there are also times that I'll just sit down at the kit and just start warming up by playing a groove and building upon it. I would say that any grouping of singles, doubles, paradiddles, inverted paradiddles, accents, dynamics, etc... are all good for warm-ups. The most important thing is to make sure you're holding your sticks correctly, concentrating on your technique, and working with a metronome. Read More ...

I pretty much sit with my hips to my knees, to my legs, at a 90% angle, sometimes a bit higher. It's fine if you sit a bit higher or lower than that. I don't believe there is an optimal seating height for playing drums. Just make sure you don't go to extremes. Read More ...

For years I played "on the head" meaning: When you perform a bass drum stroke and the beater makes contact with the bass drum head, you keep the beater stuck up against the bass drum head and you don't release it until you begin to perform the next stroke. Due to the volume of the music and hitting hard, playing "on the head" can be typical for heavy metal drummers while playing slow, but when playing quick, obviously you can't hold the beater to the head.A few years ago when I was recording a CD I noticed during playback that the bass drums sounded different on the slow strokes when I was burying the beater "on the head" than on the fast strokes when I played "off the head". I decided to learn to always play "off the head" by practicing very slow grooves and concentrating on pulling my foot back off the pedal after each stroke. Read More ...

First of all I'll define the two. "Heel-Up" is playing the bass drum with your heel always up and using the front part (ball) of your foot coming down on the pedal to create the stroke. "Heel-Down" is playing the bass drum with your entire foot flat on the pedal and coming down with the front part of your foot to create the stroke. Read More ...

I never did any isolation practice for my left foot. I know some guys say, "practice playing everything with your left foot that you would normally play with your right". I never did that. I learned by playing along to my favorite recordings, making up my own exercises, and studying with Joe Franco's book "Double Bass Drumming". The sixteenth note sections of "DBD" utilizes the system where all numbers (1, 2, 3, 4) and &'s are played with the right foot and all E's and A's are played with the left foot. The beat sections of "DBD" contain many syncopated patterns using this system. I worked out of this book until I was able to improvise patterns freely without having to think about whether I was using my right foot or left foot. I grew up learning this system and it works best for me.There are a few great books out there that use a different approach including Jeff Bowders’ book "The Mirror System" where all the double bass drum strokes are alternated. Read More ...

This requires a long answer because almost every single drummer that emails me asks this question - and I don't even consider myself a speed metal drummer. Sorry, but I don't have any secrets for quick results. The only answer I can give is that it takes lots of time and practice. I also get tons of questions asking if my pedal springs are tight or loose. The wrong thing to assume is that if you change your pedal tension you are going to play twice as fast. Depending on whether you play heel-up, heel-down, or heel-stroke your pedal tension could make a difference but the difference will be small. There are no quick fix answers. And even though I've mentioned that my spring tension is set tight, that doesn't mean that if you increase your pedal tension that you'll play faster. Read More ...

I use DW5000 pedals. The spring tension on my pedals is set up very tight. I adjust my footboards so that they are very low and they almost make contact with the footplate when the beater strikes the bass drum head. I've changed my technique over the last couple of years and now my toes are usually at the very front of the pedals. I've also recently incorporated doubles strokes into my playing, RRLLRRLLRRLL etc... To more easily perform the double strokes I've shortened the throw of the beaters. When the pedals are stationary the beaters are 4" away from the bass drum head. Read More ...

First of all, these thoughts on tuning and muffling are geared towards heavy metal playing and a heavy metal sound. For jazz and a few other styles this approach and sound wouldn't necessarily be appropriate. My theories on tuning come from a basic "what sounds good to my ear" approach, not the "I tune my toms in fourths or fifths depending on what key the song is in"-method.

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Before I go into the studio to record, I chart out all the drum parts that I'm going to play. There are a few occasions where the producer or artist will ask me to play something differently for a few sections (and I play those pieces off the top of my head) but for the most part I save those charts and put them away in folders for future reference. Occasionally, fellow drummers will ask me if I can send them my transcriptions for songs from my DVD, Halford, Spastic Ink, etc... I have no problem doing that as long as they send me a few bucks for shipping. I don't have "Music Minus Drums" types of recordings for sale. Some drummers like to have these types of recordings so they can put themselves "in the drummer's seat" and play the songs without hearing the original drum track. Read More ...

I definitely want to do another one. I think "Performance & Technique" turned out great considering that I pretty much did the whole thing by myself. After the DVD was done I presented it to Warner Bros and they agreed to distribute it. Soon after, WB Publications was bought out by Alfred Publishing so now they are the manufacturer/distributor. Anyway, I'm proud that I did it my way. I do wish that we (me and my buddy Vince at "Allie Kat Productions") had better editing equipment at that time but with my budget it was the best we could do. Today I hear horror stories from friends of mine that have done DVDs - about the director rushing them saying that a particular performance was fine and that they're on a schedule and need to move on, etc... That would be tough for me. Read More ...

The songs "Peppered" Cancer" and "School' were co-written by me and my brother, Ron, exclusively for my DVD. The Latin flavored "So It Ain't!" I co-wrote with Andy Lagham, a friend of mine from San Antonio, Texas. These 3 tracks were never released on a CD. Actually, "Peppered Cancer" was....later! We needed a bonus track for the Japanese version of the second SPASTIC INK CD, "Ink Compatible", so Ron reworked "Peppered Cancer" a bit and re-titled it "A Quick Affix". Both Spastic Ink CDs are available on Ron's website at www.ronjarzombek.com. While you're there check out the "A Wild Hare" video clips. You'll see the insane musical genius of Ron's brain at work. Read More ...

I don't know if SI will ever put out another CD. That depends upon Ron's and my schedule and whether we feel we want to attempt that lengthy process once again. If we never work on another SI CD, that's OK with me because I know that Ron and I will work together on something in the future. Naturally, we have great chemistry together. In the past, we've talked briefly about doing some live shows but we always knew that it would be a huge undertaking. The music is very difficult to play and would require many weeks of rehearsal. And then there was always the thought that we would have to rehearse a lot for only one or a few dates (it's not like we would score a major tour playing this kind of music). And, there's the fact that I live in L.A. now and Ron's in San Antonio. And, what about Pete's (or whatever bass player's) schedule and situation? - OK, I know, I'm just making a bunch of excuses. Read More ...

It's sort of a strange personal timeline how I got the Sebastian Bach gig. In the summer of '04 I was playing with Iced Earth when we headlined the "Bang Your Head!!!" festival. Sebastian Bach and Testament also played the BYH!!! festival earlier that evening. When the festival was over, Sebastian approached IE bandmate guitarist Ralph Santolla with an offer to be his lead guitarist and musical director. Ralph accepted the offer. As musical director for Baz, Ralph brought in bassist Steve DiGiorgio, guitarist Johnny Chromatic, and drummer Mark Prator. As a band they continued playing throughout '04/'05 and began writing material for Sebastian's new CD. During the writing process, Steve called on Testament buddy Metal Mike to offer a couple song ideas. Baz and Metal Mike began collaborating. At this same time, Ralph received an offer to join the death metal band Deicide. Ralph decided to join Deicide, which left the Sebastian live guitarist spot open. Metal Mike agreed to fill the vacated spot. At this time, summer '05 festival dates were booked and drummer Mark Prator had a couple prior commitments. Sebastian then sought out a drummer to sub for Mark - Mike and Steve suggested me. If you know anything about Sebastian, one thing is for sure: He's a huge Rob Halford fan. He was very excited about having 2 of the guys that played on "Resurrection" in his band. The Sebastian gig is very cool.... and pretty wild as you can probably imagine. When it's great, it's awesome. When things go bad, it's interesting, ha ha! Sebastian is a great guy and he's full of life.  It's refreshing to be involved with an artist that is so enthusiastic about creating music and playing live. Read More ...

When I joined IE, it was what turned out to be the end of the touring cycle for "The Glorious Burden"; I had a great time working with Jon, Tim, and the rest of the guys. I was also excited about being part of all future IE plans as Jon and I had several conversations about the upcoming recordings and live shows. However, during the downtime between IE activities, I began recording and touring with Sebastian Bach. In order to make his deadlines, Jon proposed a schedule for me to record my drum tracks for the next IE CD. Read More ...

I became friends with IE drummer Richard Christy when he ordered my drum video, "Performance & Technique", from me. We had a couple conversations where we expressed a mutual admiration for each other’s drumming. We stayed in contact over the next few months before he called me with a proposal to replace him as the drummer for IE. He was considering auditioning for (the vacated spot left by Stuttering John on) the Howard Stern Show. Richard has comedy in his blood and was excited about the opportunity to work on the HSS. I told him I was available for the remaining IE US tour and overseas festival dates. After that, I had a couple of conversations with Jon about the IE material and received a few CDs in the mail and began working on the songs. We rehearsed in L.A. for about a week before went out on the road. Read More ...

Go to www.robhalford.com for the latest info. Read More ...

I was recommended to Rob (and his management) by a good friend of mine (heavy metal journalist and record label talent scout), Chris Leibundgut. They had asked Chris to help them in their search for musicians when they were putting together the HALFORD band. Chris (originally from Switzerland) and I first met way back in '87 when he came through Texas on his way to L.A. Through the years we stayed in touch and every so often he would call me about drummer auditions for major label recording artists in L.A. Nothing ever interested me during that time and I was staying busy recording and touring with New York based band RIOT and also making a decent living playing music and teaching in San Antonio. Then in 1999 Chris called about the Halford audition. Read More ...

1. Deen Castronovo: WILD DOGS - "Reign Of Terror"; MARTY FRIEDMAN - "Dragon's Kiss""Reign Of Terror" is a classic heavy metal drum record that was released in 1987. When I first heard it I was totally blown away. I charted most of the songs note-for-note and used to play along with this record everyday for months. Deen was in his early 20's when he recorded it. There were no click tracks used on these songs and his drumming isn't perfect but there's so much fire and power in his playing - it's incredible. His innovation and ideas that he comes up with over typical metal guitar riffs is amazing! Read More ...