Sizzling the Hi-Hats - FreeDrumLessons.com on Howcast
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Learn To Play Drums
Learn To Play Drums
Do you want to learn to play drums for the very first time? Watch Mike Michalkow's step-by-step training video on this page to get started. It will guide you through four simple patterns that form a basic rock drum beat.
The Drum Patterns
Exercise one is to be played on the hi-hats alone. The hi-hats are notated with the "x" symbols above the top line of the measure. The numbers 1-4 are there to indicate how you are to count these out loud. Simply put your foot down on the hi-hat pedal, and play the edge of the hi-hats with your stick on all four counts.
The second exercise includes the bass drum being played on counts one and three. Focus on keeping the four hi-hat strokes steady, and then add in the bass drum. The bass drum should be synced up perfectly with the hi-hat strokes as you continue to count out loud.
Exercise three brings the snare drum into the mix. Here you will no longer be playing the bass drum, but you'll hit the snare drum on beats two and four. Again, focus on playing overlapping shots in perfect sync. The two and four counts include two voices, but they should sound like one combined shot.
In exercise four, you will learn to play the first three patterns simultaniously. The hi-hats will continue on all four counts, while the bass drum and snare drum alternate. Focus on keeping everything steady and in time. Many beginners will have a tendency to start playing a little choppy. Be sure the hi-hat strokes continue to be even and continous while you bring in the other two voices.
If this is a little tricky, you can always go back and practice exercises 1-3 a little longer. Then come back and give exercise four another try. If you are able to play it continously - congratulations! You are ready to move on to more challenging drum beats!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Developing Independence 3: Counting In Five
In our last lesson, we added bass drum permutations of a three/sixteenth-note pattern to our established and well-known snare drum rudiments while counting in three sixteenth-notes – a logical progression from our first lesson. The bass drum permutations were in the same time signature as our counting pattern, so you didn’t have to absorb too much at once – just had to make sure that all permutations happened four times before moving on.
It’s time to step it up.
This time we’re going to count sixteenth-notes in groups of five on top of our snare drum patterns. We will also play bass drum permutations of a four/sixteenth-note pattern. Keep the bass drum on each beat four times before moving it over by sixteenth-note.
This approach is yet another step toward engaging our hearing and mind back into what we physically do. Our snare drum patterns should be controlled by muscle memory, and so should counting in five, by pronouncing each number. Try to process your counting in the back of your mind. It helps that all counting is done in the same sixteenth-note pulse as our snare drum patterns.
Now we have to figure out how to play four sixteenth-note bass drum permutations and keep track as we play each four times. The best way to approach this is to penetrate both of these layers of muscle memory by listening. Our snare drum patterns are purposely kept on snare drum, and now will help us. You can hear them as a flow of sixteenth-notes. Group them in your mind by four, and all permutations of the four/sixteenth-note pattern are just a little “ear training” step away. It will get easier after a while, because it’s based on listening it in this specific way.
You will notice that some snare drum patterns are in a four/sixteenth-note pattern. Please don’t match bass drum permutations to these patterns. My system is designed to work at all times regardless of the different patterns employed (whether they are snare drum, bass drum, or counting patterns). Remember, exercises have to be in relationship to time, “the master code,” not to each other.
Just like in our previous lessons you will notice certain notes line up with your counting or bass drum pattern. Please do not force them to line up. Do not accent any notes. All snare drum, bass drum, and counting patterns should be even in volume.
Snare Drum Sticking Patterns
RLRL*
LRLR
RRLL*
LLRR
RLRR LRLL*
RLRLRR LRLRLL*
RLRRLL*
LRLLRR
RRRRLLLL*
RRR LLL*
[*] = Patterns used in the video, but you should practice all of them regardless of how similar they seem to you.
Please spend a lot of time on these exercises. There are no shortcuts, only hard work. But the results are priceless and absolutely worth it. See you next time.
Fleshing Out Your Funk
Sometimes all that’s needed is a fat backbeat on the snare and a bass drum pattern that complements the bass line — something like Ex. 1. But other times the groove can be a little thicker or seasoned in a slightly different way that can powerfully affect the music. Exs. 2 and 3 take the same groove and change the feel by changing the hi-hat pattern. This is subtle but very effective. Exs. 4—6 change the ride pattern to fill in the cracks a bit. These can be helpful to lock in the feel at different tempos. And Exs. 7 and 8 flesh out the snare pattern with some ghost notes. Be careful to keep these low and subtle, as they can be distracting when they get too loud, and the power of your groove may suffer. And of course, all of these ideas can and should be combined in a myriad of ways.
Ralph Humphrey: Intensive Technique
Phrase Development And Practice
By Ralph Humphrey Originally Published in DRUM! Magazine's October 1997 IssueAn important and practical way to build your technical vocabulary is to use hand exercises, as well as foot patterns, and apply them as orchestrated phrases on the drum set.
The application of accents, combined with unaccented notes, begins to give shape to a series of notes that we call a phrase. An important part of phrase development is the understanding of the note groupings that are used to make a phrase, including duple groupings (twos) and their compounds (fours, eights, sixteens, and so on) as well as odd groupings of fives, sevens, elevens, thirteens, and so on.
Practice the notated phrases in the following ways, leading right and left:
1. On the snare drum.
2. Apply the accents to the tom toms.
3. Apply the accents to cymbals with bass drum support.
4. Apply the hi-hat on the quarter-note pulse of 2 and 4 for Ex. 1 through Ex. 3 and on the dotted quarter-note pulse for Ex. 4 and Ex. 5.
5. Then apply an appropriate ostinato foot pattern (Ex. 6 through Ex. 11) to steps 1 and 2 above. This will help develop your sense of balance and four-way capability.
You may choose to use two-part counting (1&2&) or recognize and count the accent note of each group as being the 1 of a group. For example, Ex. 1 has a grouping of 3+4+3+2+4. which equals sixteen eighth-notes over two bars of 4/4.
Have fun and good luck.
Ralph Humphrey has toured and recorded with such artists as Frank Zappa, Akiyoshi-Tabakin Big Band, Al Jarreau, Free Flight, Manhattan Transfer, Chick Corea, Bette Midler, Wayne Shorter, and Larry Carlton. He is the author of Even In the Odds and is currently a department head at the Los Angeles Music Academy.
Giovanni Durst: Paradiddle Inversions Over An Ostinato
Giovanni Durst: Paradiddle Inversions Over An Ostinato
By Giovanni DurstPublished November 29, 2011
White Wizzard drummer Giovanni Durst demonstrates an exercise that will help build independence between your hands and feet. First he sets up an ostinato with his hi-hat and bass drum based on a Brazilian baião pattern, and then plays the three inversions of the single paraddidle on the snare drum with his hands. Finally, he shows how to move your hands around the kit to orchestrate any number of rhythms using the same trio of paradiddle inversions.
By Giovanni DurstPublished November 29, 2011
White Wizzard drummer Giovanni Durst demonstrates an exercise that will help build independence between your hands and feet. First he sets up an ostinato with his hi-hat and bass drum based on a Brazilian baião pattern, and then plays the three inversions of the single paraddidle on the snare drum with his hands. Finally, he shows how to move your hands around the kit to orchestrate any number of rhythms using the same trio of paradiddle inversions.
Total Drum Set Independence, Pt. 5
In our previous lesson we added eighth-note triplets with our feet to our established snare drum patterns while counting in seven sixteenth-notes.
There are many more ways to practice this approach, but I believe it’s time to look at independence from a slightly different angle.
Now we’ll begin to assign one of our snare drum patterns to our feet while playing the rest of them in time with our hands. We will also, for the first time, take our snare drum patterns and split them between two different sound sources.
In this video lesson I play each pattern on the snare drum and then divide it between my floor tom and snare drum while playing paradiddles (RLRR LRLL) with my feet. I use two hi-hats so that you can really hear the difference between the hands and feet.
It will take some time to go over all possible combinations in this new approach. To succeed and take your independence to another level play through all patterns without skipping any combinations. Failure to do so will eventually catch up with you.
Start with a RLRL pattern with your feet and practice all snare drum pattern combinations on top. Keep both hands on the snare drum at first before splitting your pattern between two sound sources – it’s a lot harder than it might seem at first. Playing a steady flow of sixteenth-notes on one sound source (the same sound characteristics regardless of pattern) will help our ears understand the different patterns. Once you split your pattern to different sound sources (different sound characteristics) that luxury is gone – it is just up to your muscle memory at that point.
Start by playing each pattern with your feet over and over again to develop muscle memory for each individual one. Once you’re comfortable, start playing each pattern on top with your hands. Spend a lot of time playing each snare drum pattern just on snare drum.
In this lesson, more than ever before, you will experience overlapping patterns, where your hands match your feet, and vice versa. Muscle memory is far more powerful than following occasional subsystems you might find in each combination of patterns.
My “Developing Absolute Independence” system is designed to work at all times regardless of patterns or logical groupings. Remember all exercises have to be in relationship to time, “the master code,” not to each other.
Since we have a new approach to independence in this lesson, we may as well add several new patterns.
Snare Drum/Feet Patterns
RLRL*
LRLR
RRLL*
LLRR
RLRR LRLL*
Bonus pattern page #5 (fifth through eighth exercise out of Stick Control book)
(RLRR LRLL RLLR LRRL RRLR LLRL RLRL LRLR)*
RLRLRR LRLRLL*
RLRRLL*
LRLLRR
RRRRLLLL
RRR LLL*
RLRL*
LRLR
RRLL*
LLRR
RLRR LRLL*
Bonus pattern page #5 (fifth through eighth exercise out of Stick Control book)
(RLRR LRLL RLLR LRRL RRLR LLRL RLRL LRLR)*
RLRLRR LRLRLL*
RLRRLL*
LRLLRR
RRRRLLLL
RRR LLL*
Extra combinations used at the end of the video
RLR*
RLRLR*
RLRLRLR*
RLR*
RLRLR*
RLRLRLR*
[*] = Patterns used in the video, but practice all of them regardless of how similar they seem to you.
Repetition is the key to great success, therefore I will remind you that all layers of our independence exercises must be in relationship to time, “the master code,” not to each other. Only then will they come out truly independent of each other.
Please spend a lot of time on these exercises. Once you are very comfortable (then and only then) you might try to experiment with some embellishments to patterns or systems. For example, I splashed every ah out of my paradiddle in my feet but the possibilities are endless. Have fun.
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