Half-time feel rock using Syncopation

Extending my previous series on making rock/pop beats using Ted Reed's Syncopation, here is a way of making a half time feel using the same concept, except we play quarter notes on the hihat, and catch beat 3 on the snare drum, instead of 2 and 4. The tempo of the quarter note pulse should be bright:

Many of the resulting beats will be useful as conditioners and for gaining familiarity with the feel as anything else; some of them have very dense bass drum parts, and this has a much lower percentage of ordinarily usable beats than the regular rock piece did. You'll have to play a lot of exercises and find the ones that work for you musically.

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Listening example and explanation after the break:

Inversions of Three Camps

So I have basically a one-track mind. Maybe a two-track mind. Three closely-related tracks. Right now it's all  the Elvin waltz and Three Camps. What we have here is a little thing I improvised while playing the latter on the drums- it's an easy way to get a little more mileage out of it. What I've done is simply to offset it by one 8th note (or one triplet partial, if you're thinking of it that way) each time through; so the first time is the piece in its regular form, then it is displaced so the primary accents fall on the middle note, and then the last note of the triplet:

I've written it with the modern fp long roll at the end, rather than with the traditional ending. I think this is most effective played on the drumset, with the hihat on 2 and 4, and the bass drum either doubling the accented notes, or playing (lightly!) on 1 and 3, or on all four beats. You can also play the accented notes on the cymbals. This is easy enough that you should be able to toss the print out after two or three times through it.

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5s around the drums

I've enjoying practicing my previous around-the-drums things so much, I thought I'd run it through a few iterations- similar to my multi-page paradiddle exercise- and see what we get. Today it's 16th note 5s, using  the easily-flowing RLLRR/LRRLL sticking:

As I've outlined previously, once the single measures are happening, start combining measures- the notes in parentheses are to facilitate that without having to do a crossover. On the second page I've also given some formats for playing these as 8th notes or 16th notes in 5/4 or 5/8.

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Todd's methods: triplet funk with Reed

I guess it's going to be nothing but Todd's-this/Todd's-that this week. Fine. This is preparation for an old thing of mine I was just working through with a returning student, and I realized I had never written it up. I like using the easy parts of Syncopation- this uses the opening quarter note section to make a half-time feel triplet funk groove:

Play that until you can read exercises 1-15 plus the 16 bar exercises without stopping, and then improvise; I'll get to work on the second part, which sounds much hipper.

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Basic solo vocabulary with Syncopation

Hey, it's been awhile since I've posted anything downloadable of my own, and you don't want to hear me prattle on about cymbals and crap, so here's a basic solo vocabulary builder I've been working through with a couple of students. Use lesson 6 out of the new edition of Syncopation, or pp. 14-15 from the old version:

You have to apply the variations with a vengeance to make these sound like anything. Especially vary the accents- give the thing some shape. 

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You knew this was coming...

Here's the latest stupidly-named iteration of my basic paradiddle exercise, this time using 16th note 7s, septuplets, or whatever you want to call them. As always, play through the entire page, then play combinations of exercises in 1, 2, or 4 measure repetitions. The sequence I use for combinations is 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, etc... 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, etc... 3-4, 3-5, 3-6, etc... and so on.

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Coordination "kernels" - further examples

You may have noticed I've been on rather light posting this last week. Expect that to continue for the next several days; this week I'll be recording my new CD for the Origin label, Little Played Little Bird (the music of Ornette Coleman; stay tuned for info on pre-ordering!), and have been very busy with pre-production stuff. Mainly obsessing over my charts- transcribed off the record and arranged by me- and practicing.

Today at least I have some examples relating to my earlier coordination kernels post. These are taken from Jim Chapin's Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer, plus a couple of generic versions of the Afro-Cuban cascara, which you can read more about in Malabe & Weiner's Afro-Cuban Rhythms for Drumset, among other places:

Refer back to the original post for instruction on how to apply my method. Note that each cascara groove is composed of three "kernels". Learn each one individually, and then put them together as outlined previously; first with open space between each kernel, then gradually flowing from one to the next until they make the desired rhythm of the complete groove.

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Todd's methods: Son of Daku-daku-paradiddle

Right, I'm starting to regret the name I made up for this thing- until I think of the alternative, long-winded description for this very common pattern. Now if I can just bring myself to call it that without an equally long-winded exploration of why it's embarrassing to do so, we're golden.

Anyhoo, this is a simpler version of this earlier piece, using my old favorite, Lesson 4/pp.10-11 from Syncopation. I conceived it for practicing at fast tempos in jazz, with even 8ths, but there's no reason you can't play it at moderate tempos and swing it, or apply it to other styles of music. 

A good format for practicing these would be four measures time/four measures exercise. Once you're comfortable playing ex. 1-15 that way, you can experiment with moving around the drums, and adding accents/embellishments, and finally, improvising with this concept. 

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Todd's methods: Afro-Cuban in 6/8 and 3/4

Here's something I wrote strictly for my own use, which I thought I would share for you to make of what you will. The Afro 6/8 has been one of my stronger vehicles for a long time; my approach has always been very Elvin-like- very whole-instrument- and I've recently been working towards more jazz-like freedom with my left hand and right foot. The coordination is an order of magnitude more difficult than in jazz, but just working with it should allow some new things to happen spontaneously even if it takes some time to get full conscious control over it.

One of the major features of African rhythm is that one pattern or one piece of music can be subject to a number of different primary pulses. What I've done here is present the same patterns as 8th notes in 6/8 and as 8ths and 16ths in 3/4, which puts the pulse on the "big" 3- equivalent to half notes in the original 6/8, or a half-note triplet if we were dealing with triplets in 4/4. It's difficult to conceive in the original 6/8, but very straightforward when we put it in a single measure of 3/4.

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Umdaga, part 1

This is a very simple pattern I use a lot- I'd go so far as to say it's one of the basic DNA instructions of my playing: right/left/bass. I didn't exactly make it up, but as far as I know it has no name, so I gave it one that fits with the way I conceive it. I pronounce it oom-DA-ga. I don't know why I named it inverted from the way I think it; it sings better, I guess, and maybe it encourages something other than the usual rock & roll "floogada-floogada-floogada" thing. When you say it over and over it's got the little diphthong from the ga to the um, so I say the 'oo' in the um a little under my voice: m-daga-m-daga-m-daga-m.

So what I've done here is write up some four measure solo phrases that are neither easy nor hard, using that pattern over a variety of quarter/8th note rhythms. There are one or two deviations from the pattern because that's the way I heard the phrase, and to keep you on your toes.

Play these with both swing and straight 8th interpretation; tempo can range anywhere from quarter note = 72 to half note = 150+. Recommended stickings for the hand parts are RL RL, LR LR, single-handed, hands together, improvised. You can and should move your hands around the drums, and add accents and embellishments. You can play the hihat on 2 and 4, or play some other ostinato, or you can substitute the hihat for the bass drum, or play both feet together.

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Simple variations on Syncopation, Lesson 4

That's pages 10-11 for those of you with the old edition- as you can see I've given up completely and started referring to the parts by their new edition names. I've been working with this section of the book a lot with my students, for rock (and another), jazz, and Latin, and have developed a few methods for my own practice for it.

These variations require just a little selective reading, and are very good for making this underused section of the book a little more interesting. I'll outline later the exact method I've been using with my students; I've found it's very helpful in getting them accustomed to reading figures, and manipulating some of the basic elements of ensemble playing in jazz drumming.

This is a good companion to my piece using this same section for making big band kicks/set-ups.

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Matt's paradiddle thing, pt. 2

As I've mentioned, I've been working a bunch with the paradiddle page I wrote up for my student Matt F, usually combining single repetitions of each exercise, as described in the post. Last night I played through it combining single beats, which is fairly easy to do on the fly, but I thought I would write it up anyway. I'm trying to keep it on one page these days, so I've just given some examples. If you want to be a nut about it, go ahead and play through all of the 16th note combinations from the original pdf.

Lately I've been all about playing through a lot of patterns- my idea of a lot being a single page- so unless you're really struggling, try not to get bogged down in repetitions (or variations, if you're applying some creativity). Playing the entire page RH and LH lead at maybe two different tempos- moderate and bright- a few repetitions per exercise is plenty.

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Stick Control expander - Rhythm, part 1

One of the things I'm working on getting together is an array of stuff to do with Stick Control, that do not make more sense to do by the melody-interpreting Reed/Syncopation method. I know that may not make a hell of a lot of sense to people not deeply involved with both books, but I don't have time to go into it now.

Whatever- our first entry, then, is a series of rhythmic variations for the 4, 8, and 16-note sticking patterns at the front of the book, and for the 16th note flam section- what you do is apply the stickings from those exercises to the rhythms on this sheet. I've written in some sample stickings from p. 5, ex. 5 so you can see how it works.

The notes in parentheses do not get played the first time through the exercise- they complete the pattern on the repeats. Rest during those notes the first time, coming in on the first non-parentheses notes.

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Todd's methods: bongo beat

Here's an easy system I developed for playing a generic Latin feel very bright tempos:

A few notes there weren't room for on the pdf:
- Can be played very fast and very light.
- Also combine exercise measures to make two measure phrases.
- Pay attention to the sound of your rim clicks and rim shots.
- When applying the floor tom variation, play the FT on the & of two of the second measure.
- Also play right hand part on cymbal or bell.
- Improvise your own variations.

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Todd's methods: same-handed flam accents

This is something that came organically out of my own playing- it came up again and again in improvising for years before I finally analyzed it. The only place I've seen it mentioned since is in the wadrumline.org  list of 128 hybrid rudiments. As it says in the explanation, this is a hands-only pattern for me, and I play it at a pretty even volume- little or no accent on the flammed note, and the grace note is not particularly soft.

I've included a version with a bass drum substitution, though it basically turns it into a completely different lick.

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Todd's Methods: Samba builder

Here's a little method I improvised for developing some flexibility with the samba- I put this together pretty quickly away from the drums, so I'm sure I'll add to it as I work with it in my own practice. The idea here is to get comfortable with bringing the feet in and out, making changes in dynamics, and using the bass drum independently, like a surdo player, instead of being locked into the usual dotted-8th/16th pattern. Check out the notes at the end for some fairly important things about interpretation. A good first approach is to work from a base of the most comfortable hand part, and practice making adds and changes to that.

 

Update: my man Boomka over at the Drummerworld.com forum offered a couple of excellent links- an interview with Duduka da Fonseca where he discusses the importance of a sensitive approach to the bass drum, plus a video demonstrating the feel of the repinicado part (video embedded after the break).

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Todd's Methods, pt. 3: Rock beats with Syncopation

Most drum books present their stuff fully written out verbatim for the drum set, which is fine for learning patterns, but not for thinking like a musician. This is something I made up to introduce the idea of taking a melody line (which could be the melody of the tune, the bass line, or a rhythm part) and making a drum part of it. It's simple enough that it probably exists elsewhere, though I've never seen it.

It's a good idea to already be able to play at least a few basic rock beats; that will isolate this as a thinking problem rather than a technical one. As always, we'll be using Ted Reed's Syncopation:

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Todd's Methods, Pt. 2: triplet partials in Syncopation

The second in a series of quick, sketchily-outlined demonstrations of my practice methods. Here I give a couple of my variations on common ways of using Ted Reed's Syncopation. If you've worked with that book much, you're aware that it can yield some very dense results. What I've done is simplify them a little to make them more musically appealing (and more Elvin-like), and to allow them to be used at faster tempos.

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