Week 8 2nd - 5th November 2009

Firstly, welcome back after our week off for half term. This term, running up to Christmas (and the Christmas Concert on the 20th of December - more on that later!) promises to be very busy and packed full of new and exciting lessons for you all.

This week we looked at playing Jazz and dropping some 'Be-Bop Bombs' on the snare drum.

Work through the sheets below, as we did in class - but remember with Jazz Drumming LESS IS MORE - you DO need to be able to play them all but NEVER put them all in one bar.

Week 7 19th - 22nd October 2009

The best fills you"ll ever play ......

All of these fills are based on the standard 16 16th note fill - 1-E-and-a, 2-E-and-a, 3-E-and-a, 4-E-and-a. Try to play a few bars of an 8th note groove  before launching into the fill - remember to make sure the tempos match. The 'numbers' and the 'ands' in the groove are the same as in the fill.

Week 6 12th - 15th October 2009

6 Weeks already! Again apologies for not posting up everything from last week, I'll try to cover everything in this post but if anything gets left out do let me know.

Firstly, 16th note triplets and 16th note triplet shuffle. With regular 16th notes, we would sub-divide each quarter note pulse into 4 beats and count it 1-E-and-a, 2-E-and-a etc. With 16th note triplets we are dividing each beat into 6 even beats with a count of 1-2-3-4-5-6, 2-2-3-4-5-6 etc. To play a shuffle but in 16th note triplet form we would play the pattern like this :- (Bold = notes to be played)

1-2-3-4-5-6    2-2-3-4-5-6    3-2-3-4-5-6    4-2-3-4-5-6

The best exponent of this style of playing is a drummer called Bernard Purdie. He has worked with many recording artists such as Aretha Franklin and Steely Dan. His version of this groove is now well known as the 'Purdie Shuffle' which incorporates 'ghost' notes played on the snare drum with your following hand (example below) as well as a back beat. This can be heard on 'Home at Last' and 'Babylon Sisters' by Steely Dan. This idea was taken even further by another drummer called Jeff Porcaro who often played this groove pattern over 2 bars incorporating a 'clave' pattern on the bass drum - examples of this groove can be found on 'Rosanna' by Toto and 'Any Foolish Thing' by Micheal MacDonald.

An example of this groove can be found at the bottom of this post.

Work through the sheets below at your own pace and if you can have a listen to a few examples.

Our second subject was 8th and 16th note grooves played one-handed and hand-to-hand on the hi hat - with 8th and 16th notes on the bass drum.

The first pattern we played was the 1 and-a, 2 and-a, 3 and-a, 4 and-a,  on the hi hat with on hand as show here or hand-to-hand as shown here.

The second pattern was 1-E-and, 2-E-and, etc on the hi hat again played with one hand as shown here or hand-to-hand as shown here.

The third pattern (the one you didn't like!) was playing 1-E a, 2-E a, 3-E a, 4-E a on the hi hat with one hand as shown here and hand-to-hand as shown as here.

The Purdie Shuffle :-

Week 5 : 5th - 9th October 2009

Again two topics were covered this week, but I think it's worth everyone having a look at the 16th notes under 8th note groove exercises below.

Week 4 : 28th Sept - 1st Oct 2009

Swing is the thing this week!

This week we looked at playing in a swing style - taking a straight groove and applying some basic principles to play it in a more swung, jazzy, blues-ie, funky way.

The first two sheets below cover all that we discussed in class - how you have two options when it comes to changing what you play to make it swing. Option 1 is to 'dot' the first played note, which adds half it's value to itself to make it 'last' longer. Now for us drummers that doesn't mean a great deal but it does mean that the next note that you'll play will be 'pushed' slightly to the right, closer to the next note, which in turn will be dotted an so on. This will give you that 'shuffle' feel that you hear in Jazz and Blues. Option 2 essentially does that same thing but this time you're going to change those straight hi hat beats to triplets with the middle one missing.

Work through the two sheets making sure you're OK with the concept then have a go at the sheet below.

Week 3 : 21st - 24th September 2009

This week's lessons were split between two ends of the same subject, bass drum placement within a groove.

Some classes were doing ALL of the 8th Note and Quarter Note grooves, working between the 8th Note and Quarter Note versions of the same grooves, paying attention to where the bass drum beats fall once the 'ands' have been removed in the Quarter Note version.

Below are a few exercises to work through in your own time. I've written then over 2 and 4 bar sections to get you used to reading multiple bars.

Other classes were introduced to my technique of using the 'up' part of your hi hat stroke to identify where the 16th notes fall in between the 8th notes on the hi hat. This then lead into playing the same patterns but in a more relaxed, laid-back 'swing' style. Below is an exercise demonstrating what we worked on and how the same groove can be written and played three separate ways.

Tuesday and Wednesday Classes

Monday and Thursday Classes

Week 2 : 14th - 17th Sept 2009

Our second week this term and we're looking at the application of rudiments around the drum kit. This serves several purposes. It makes practicing rudiments a bit more fun (rather than just playing rudiments on one practice pad or snare drum over and over again!) but it also gets you thinking of the whole drum kit as your instrument.

We started looking at Paradiddles ( singles, doubles, and triples ) around the kit. Work through the exercises below in your own time. Remember to make all of the beats even, in terms of strength and speed and to 'keep your eye on the ball' watch where you're hitting - your hands will follow your eyes.

In the last exercise we'll look, we're going to play a Bounce Triplet exercise around the kit. Again, make sure that all of the beats are even.

Video at last!

Ok, here's the first of our videos.

Week 1 : 7th - 11th Sept 2009

Ok, here we go!

So, in our first lesson together this term we looked at playing a basic warm-up exercise, which is detailed here and a basic 8th note groove with your lead hand on the hi hat playing (1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and). Remember to emphasis the hi hats on the beat and to hold back a little on the 'ands' just to give it some movement. We're going to do this for 3 bars and then fill on the 4th bar.

To play the fills, you're going to continue playing all of the 8th notes with your lead hand but add other (16th) notes with your following hand.

REMEMBER : YOUR LEAD HAND WILL BE 'KEEPING TIME' by continually playing 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and during the groove and the fill.

9 Stroke Roll

7 Stroke Roll

5 Stroke Roll

Single Stroke Roll

Double Stroke Roll

Bounce Triplets

Intro into - Linear Grooves

Linear Grooves are grooves where no two limbs are playing at the same time. 

The examples below are based on a full bar of 16th notes (1-E-and-a, 2-E-and-a, 3-E-and-a, 4-E-and-a). Each 16th note is played on a different drum or hi hat.

HINT : It is easier to keep your lead hand on the hi hat and play the snare drum beats with your following hand.

Click on the sheet below to work through the grooves one by one and in your own time. Remember that accuracy is far more important than speed with these grooves. It is important to make each one smooth with good 'back beats' either one 2 and 4 or 3 depending on the groove.

9 Stroke Roll - Bounce

7 Stroke Roll - Bounce

5 Stroke Roll - Bounce

Flam

Inverted Paradiddle

Triple Paradiddle

Double Paradiddle

Single Paradiddle

Intro into - Heavy Rock / Metal

This lesson is an introduction into playing Heavy Rock or Metal on the drum kit. Click on the sheet below to work through each style in your own time.

REMEMBER : This is a basic an introduction into this styles of music. We will, as the weeks go on, look further into this style.

Intro into - New Wave, Punk and 2 Tone

This lesson is an introduction into playing 80s style New Wave / Punk and Ska or 2-Tone music on the drum kit.

Click on the sheet below to work through each style in your own time.

REMEMBER : This is a basic an introduction into these styles of music. We will, as the weeks go on, look further into each of these styles one by

Intro into - Soul, Funk and Disco

This lesson is an introduction into playing Soul, Funk and Disco on the drum kit. Click on the sheet below to work through each style in your own time.

REMEMBER : This is a basic an introduction into these styles of music. We will, as the weeks go on, look further into each of these styles one by one.

Drum Notation

8th and 16th Note Grooves - Hand to Hand (3)

This is the final 8th and 16th Note Groove to cover. In this one, we are going to play the hi hat pattern (1-E a, 2-E a, 3-E a, 4-E a etc ... ) again using both hands. For right-handers the sticking is going to be R-L L, R-L L - left-handed guys are going to be sticking L-R-L, L-R-L etc...

REMEMBER : The sticking above will mean that the 1, 2, 3 and 4 and the 'ands' will again be on your lead hand with your following hand playing the 'E' and the 'a' of each beat. This will still mean that the back-beat on '2' and '4' will be on your lead hand.

NOTE : With this groove, the bass drum beats falling on the 'ands' will not coincide with a hi hat beat.

Click through the sheets below to work through the exercises in your own time.

8th and 16th Note Grooves - Hand to Hand (2)

We have previously looked at 8th and 16th Note Grooves, once again this time we are going to play the hi hat pattern (1-E-a, 2-E-a etc ... or Lemon-ade, lemon-ade!) with both hands. For right-handers the sticking is going to be R-L-R, R-L-R - left-handed guys are going to be sticking L-R-L, L-R-L etc...

REMEMBER : The sticking above will mean that the 1, 2, 3 and 4 and the 'ands' will again be on your lead hand with your following hand only playing the 'Es' of each beat. This will still mean that the back-beat on '2' and '4' will be on your lead hand.

Click through the sheets below to work through the exercises in your own time.

8th and 16th Note Grooves - Hand to Hand (1)

We have looked at 8th and 16th Note Grooves before, however this time we are going to play the hi hat pattern (1 and-a, 2 and-a etc ... or ham burg-er, ham burg-er!) with both hands. For right-handers the sticking is going to be R R-L, R R-L - left-handed guys are going to be sticking L L-R, L L-R.

REMEMBER : The sticking above will mean that the 1, 2, 3 and 4 and the 'ands' will be on your lead hand with your following hand only playing the '-a' of each beat. This will also mean that the back-beat on '2' and '4' will also be on your lead hand.

Click through the sheets below to work through the exercises in your own time.