The introductory exercises on Samba Independence (Part One), were meant to get the beginning drummer used to the samba bass drum pattern and the majority of common snare drum variations that could be played against that pattern. The cymbal pattern used in that introductory set of exercises was simple eighth notes….a “straight” pattern of continuous eighth notes.
In our follow up, Part Two, we introduce the ride cymbal pattern that is more likely to be required on a real gig. It’s the flattened-out, latin or funk equivalent of the jazz ride cymbal pattern. Playing the left hand/snare drum variations is a little trickier with this cymbal pattern, but that is the whole point of the exercises…..to develop the desired independence. The independence developed through the practice of these exercises will give you the necessary coordination to play bossa novas as well. As an extra side benefit, your ability to play doubles with your bass drum foot will be improve too. If you are working towards playing jazz, I would strongly recommend working through these exercises using the “heel down” bass drum pedal technique….you’ll have more control over your volume this way.
Go slow at first if you need to…..precision is more important than speed.
Here is the PDF for you to download: Samba Independence Part Two
Samba independence is an essential skill for a well rounded drummer. I came up with these two pages of exercises to help you develop the required independence to play these types of grooves on the drum set. For those of you new to Samba, these grooves are adapted for drumset from what Brazilian percussion ensembles play on multiple percussion instruments. I don’t really want to get into the details of how this translation occurred in this post, but if you would like to read up on it, you can check out an excellent book on the subject, “Brazilian Rhythms For Drumset,” by Duduka Da Fonseca and Bob Weiner available from CPP Media.
The essence of the groove for drumset revolves around a repeating rhythm with the bass drum–a dotted eighth sixteenth note figure repeated over and over–while the left hand freely plays accents on the snare or other drums, and the cymbal hand plays either a repeating cymbal pattern or sometimes in unison with the left hand (I am assuming you’re right handed). Finally, the hi-hat foot often plays all the upbeats (“ands”) simultaneously.
To get you started on the road to playing Samba, these two pages–download them here: Samba Independence Part One PDF — take you through various common possibilities with your left hand while maintaining eighth notes with the cymbal hand. The bass drum and hi-hat patterns that are mentioned above are played simultaneously. There are other commonly used cymbal variations, but for now, the eighth note pattern is enough to get you started…..after all, this is “Part 1.”
The worksheet gives you 27 independence exercises followed by 7 grooves. The Samba grooves on page 2 will allow you to test out your new independence skills. If you wish, try the exercises without the left foot hi-hat pattern at first…just playing the bass drum pattern against all the hand variations will be hard enough in the beginning. You can add the left foot in later, once you are comfortable with the exercises with just the bass drum.
A side benefit to working on these exercises is the development of your bass drum technique. I originally wrote these exercises in order to help a student who was having trouble playing doubles on the bass drum…..after only an hour with these sheets her bass drum doubles technique had improved.
Have fun and feel free to ask any questions.
The Tumbao bass drum pattern is a common figure, frequenty played by the drummer to match the rhythm of the bassist when playing Latin music. In this version of the pattern the bass drum plays on beat one, the “a” of beat one and on the “and” of beat two. The pattern repeats again on beat three (as you’ll see on the sheet). Another common way to play the rhythm is to omit beat one, as the bass player frequently does in this music. Having independence with your hands while your foot maintains this bass drum pattern is an important skill to have in your tool box if you are pursuing playing playing jazz in a modern setting. I was inspired to work on this after hearing Vinnie Colaiuta play this while playing with Chick Corea.
The method is completely logical, as you will see by looking at the worksheet that is attached. You can download the worksheet by clicking on the link here: Tumbao Independence Part One
The method is to maintain a common ride pattern with the right hand (here, the jazz ride cymbal pattern in a sixteenth note form), while systematically working through the common possibilities with your left hand.
Try it out….it’s hard work, but the pay off is big. A little further down the road, I’ll post some of the musical patterns you can play off the top of your head once you’ve locked down this independence concept.
Have fun, and please feel free to comment or ask questions.