Ross McDonald
by Andy Brown
B&F April 2008
I had the opportunity to listen to the Forres A&F Club’s 30th Anniversary CD recently and on Track 4 heard a drummer playing in a fresh, rhythmic and interpretative manner with a precise snare sound and after playing the track over and over again, I HAD to find out who the drummer was.
That was my introduction to Ross McDonald.
Ross is the eldest son of respected Inverness musician and accordionist, John McDonald, and was asked by Bill Brian (first winner of the Golden Fiddle Award) to make up the quartet for the recording in the absence of Bill’s regular drummer.
The other members of the quartet were leader Bill Brian on violin, Ross’s dad on piano accordion and Ena Brian on keyboard.
The track is a medley – The Drunken Piper, The Jiggernaut and Bill soloing on his arrangement of The Mason’s Apron.
Ross, as a cadet in the Queen’s Own Highlanders Army Cadet Force was tutored in pipe band drumming at the age of 13 by Drum Sergeant Davy O’Toole of the Queen’s Own Highlanders and by the age of 15, Ross was Drum Sergeant in the Army Cadet Pipe Band, where he had the opportunity to parade along with the amalgamated regimental pipe bands to form The Highlanders at Dreghorn Barracks, Edinburgh and again in Brabant, Holland for the 50th Anniversary of the liberation of Holland.
As a drummer with the Queen’s Own Highlanders Association Pipe Band, he played at the 60th Anniversary of the capture of the 51st Highland Division during WWII at St Valery in Northern France.
Ross is now a member of The Inverness RBL Pipe Band, along with lead drummer Billy Nelson of the Jock Fraser SDB.
From such a background I asked Ross how he got involved in Scottish dance band drumming. “I accompanied my dad to the Grantown A&F Club and, as there were no local players the band (Jock Fraser, Billy Nelson and my dad) had to play for the entire evening. I was fascinated by Billy’s style of drumming and in the second half he asked if I would like to play along with Jock and, after playing a 2/4 march and a couple of 6/8s in reasonable fashion, I was hooked on Scottish dance band drumming.
“My first snare drum was a 14” x 5” Premier metal shell which resembles a Ludwig and I spent nearly every day listening and playing along with Billy Tom on John Carmichael’s cassettes and CDs. However, it took me nearly six months to be able to concentrate on the sticks and keep the hi-hat cymbals going on the off-beat at the same time.
My second, and present, snare drum is a 14” x 6½” maple shell Sonor Force 3000 with outer laminate of natural bird’s eye maple. It has the original snare head but I replaced the batter head with an Evans G1 skin. As my dad’s day job is in acoustic consultancy, he helped me tune it to eliminate unwanted overtones and allow the first and second order of harmonics to produce this very rich and crisp snare drum sound.”
Ross is not content to play only Scottish dance music and he has received valuable tuition from Frank Miller, the well known Inverness drummer and percussionist, in modern drum-kit techniques and rhythms.
I asked Ross which drummer had inspired him. “Listening to Billy Thom was definitely the inspiration for my interest and progress in Scottish dance band drumming where the rudiments of pipe band drumming are heard in his remarkable and unique interpretation and expression of tunes. Buddy Rich was possibly the greatest big band drummer and I enjoy repeatedly watching and hearing him on video, especially his left hand singles and roll.
For the last decade, Scottish dance band drumming heard on stage, recordings and radio has suffered from a “loud, dull, off-beat hi-hat cymbal” syndrome where the snare drum appears to be incidental in the rhythm section and I very much appreciated Ross’s hi-hat sound on the recording which produced a ‘ch’ rather than the usual ‘chaa’ sound.
How did he produce his hi-hat sound? “Frank Miller is rather fastidious on tonal sound and his tutoring has enabled me to play the hi-hat in his style, which I think gives more lift in the rhythm section rather than the heavy monotone off-beat which masks the snare drum.”
Was Ross the drummer on tracks 12 and 15 of the CD as I could detect a ‘signature’? “Track 12 was with Charlie and Ian Armour (fiddle and accordion) accompanied by Ena Brian on keyboard and Track 15 was accompanying the Forres Club’s fiddlers using brushes which gave me the opportunity to play brush singles to represent stick rolls.”
Does he adapt his style when playing with different bands? “The late Alex Duthart, possibly the greatest pipe band drummer, is quoted as saying, ‘The drummer is not complete until he knows something about the value of notes’, and I keep this in mind when playing with some excellent musicians and bands, and I adapt as necessary to suit their arrangement of tunes.
“ I do not play with a regular band, and playing with different bands gives me some interesting gigs throughout the country where the rapport and ‘craic’ between musicians does influence your playing.
“Possibly the best gig was on the MV Oriana 2006/7 New Year Cruise with accordionist Alan Roy, his wife Jan, and fiddler Ruaridh MacMillan. For the last four years I have played at The Elgin S&R Society’s Rally in the Town Hall, Elgin, where I have to discipline myself to play from the music arrangements which I find challenging and yet enjoyable. Last year, one arrangement required me to play eight single hi-hat strokes with syncopated accents per bar. The set lasted four and a half minutes – that was some concentration!”
Ross McDonald is a young man dedicated to his art form and I am sure, as a musician or listener, you will enjoy and appreciate his talent and that he may have some influence in furthering our music in the future.
That was my introduction to Ross McDonald.
Ross is the eldest son of respected Inverness musician and accordionist, John McDonald, and was asked by Bill Brian (first winner of the Golden Fiddle Award) to make up the quartet for the recording in the absence of Bill’s regular drummer.
The other members of the quartet were leader Bill Brian on violin, Ross’s dad on piano accordion and Ena Brian on keyboard.
The track is a medley – The Drunken Piper, The Jiggernaut and Bill soloing on his arrangement of The Mason’s Apron.
Ross, as a cadet in the Queen’s Own Highlanders Army Cadet Force was tutored in pipe band drumming at the age of 13 by Drum Sergeant Davy O’Toole of the Queen’s Own Highlanders and by the age of 15, Ross was Drum Sergeant in the Army Cadet Pipe Band, where he had the opportunity to parade along with the amalgamated regimental pipe bands to form The Highlanders at Dreghorn Barracks, Edinburgh and again in Brabant, Holland for the 50th Anniversary of the liberation of Holland.
As a drummer with the Queen’s Own Highlanders Association Pipe Band, he played at the 60th Anniversary of the capture of the 51st Highland Division during WWII at St Valery in Northern France.
Ross is now a member of The Inverness RBL Pipe Band, along with lead drummer Billy Nelson of the Jock Fraser SDB.
From such a background I asked Ross how he got involved in Scottish dance band drumming. “I accompanied my dad to the Grantown A&F Club and, as there were no local players the band (Jock Fraser, Billy Nelson and my dad) had to play for the entire evening. I was fascinated by Billy’s style of drumming and in the second half he asked if I would like to play along with Jock and, after playing a 2/4 march and a couple of 6/8s in reasonable fashion, I was hooked on Scottish dance band drumming.
“My first snare drum was a 14” x 5” Premier metal shell which resembles a Ludwig and I spent nearly every day listening and playing along with Billy Tom on John Carmichael’s cassettes and CDs. However, it took me nearly six months to be able to concentrate on the sticks and keep the hi-hat cymbals going on the off-beat at the same time.
My second, and present, snare drum is a 14” x 6½” maple shell Sonor Force 3000 with outer laminate of natural bird’s eye maple. It has the original snare head but I replaced the batter head with an Evans G1 skin. As my dad’s day job is in acoustic consultancy, he helped me tune it to eliminate unwanted overtones and allow the first and second order of harmonics to produce this very rich and crisp snare drum sound.”
Ross is not content to play only Scottish dance music and he has received valuable tuition from Frank Miller, the well known Inverness drummer and percussionist, in modern drum-kit techniques and rhythms.
I asked Ross which drummer had inspired him. “Listening to Billy Thom was definitely the inspiration for my interest and progress in Scottish dance band drumming where the rudiments of pipe band drumming are heard in his remarkable and unique interpretation and expression of tunes. Buddy Rich was possibly the greatest big band drummer and I enjoy repeatedly watching and hearing him on video, especially his left hand singles and roll.
For the last decade, Scottish dance band drumming heard on stage, recordings and radio has suffered from a “loud, dull, off-beat hi-hat cymbal” syndrome where the snare drum appears to be incidental in the rhythm section and I very much appreciated Ross’s hi-hat sound on the recording which produced a ‘ch’ rather than the usual ‘chaa’ sound.
How did he produce his hi-hat sound? “Frank Miller is rather fastidious on tonal sound and his tutoring has enabled me to play the hi-hat in his style, which I think gives more lift in the rhythm section rather than the heavy monotone off-beat which masks the snare drum.”
Was Ross the drummer on tracks 12 and 15 of the CD as I could detect a ‘signature’? “Track 12 was with Charlie and Ian Armour (fiddle and accordion) accompanied by Ena Brian on keyboard and Track 15 was accompanying the Forres Club’s fiddlers using brushes which gave me the opportunity to play brush singles to represent stick rolls.”
Does he adapt his style when playing with different bands? “The late Alex Duthart, possibly the greatest pipe band drummer, is quoted as saying, ‘The drummer is not complete until he knows something about the value of notes’, and I keep this in mind when playing with some excellent musicians and bands, and I adapt as necessary to suit their arrangement of tunes.
“ I do not play with a regular band, and playing with different bands gives me some interesting gigs throughout the country where the rapport and ‘craic’ between musicians does influence your playing.
“Possibly the best gig was on the MV Oriana 2006/7 New Year Cruise with accordionist Alan Roy, his wife Jan, and fiddler Ruaridh MacMillan. For the last four years I have played at The Elgin S&R Society’s Rally in the Town Hall, Elgin, where I have to discipline myself to play from the music arrangements which I find challenging and yet enjoyable. Last year, one arrangement required me to play eight single hi-hat strokes with syncopated accents per bar. The set lasted four and a half minutes – that was some concentration!”
Ross McDonald is a young man dedicated to his art form and I am sure, as a musician or listener, you will enjoy and appreciate his talent and that he may have some influence in furthering our music in the future.