This is a great lick that Keith uses a lot. It sounds huge and sweeping and awesome. It requires great technique to execute properly. Your double strokes and foot technique must be in great shape for this to work. Getting your paradiddle-diddle in order will help you too.
The idea for this transcription came from me running into a great drummer, Paul Davis, who has a drum practice space near me. If you don’t know who Paul is, you should—he is a fantastic drummer and currently holds the chair for the Broadway show “Newsies.”
We were talking about drumming, as usual, and we somehow started talking about Keith, and this lick came up. Paul had a copy of the DVD “Fills and Chops” in his practice room, and we went up there to take a look at this lick. A couple of days later, we compared notes and Presto! Here is your transcription.
If you have the DVD, the transcription comes right after Keith explains that he is going to “Try a few examples,” and then he plays three measures of groove, followed by what is transcribed on the included PDF. The tempo is approximately 103 bpm.
Here’s the PDF: Keith Carlock Lick 1
Have fun….it’s a great lick.
Rudiments CAN be used for cool sounding stuff. Nasty Lick #49 is proof of that…because really, Nasty Lick #49 is just a Paradiddle – Diddle.
I’ve always loved Gadd’s and Colaiuta’s hi hat licks. My favorites usually included some kind of 32nd note ideas, and they always flowed within a rock solid groove. That’s what I was thinking of when I worked out some of the ideas here using Nasty Lick #49.
Everything here is based on Paradiddle – Diddles (arguably my favorite rudiment), and in the video above, I demonstrate all of the ideas included on the PDF worksheet (downloadable below).
The worksheet has only three voices: hi hat (x’s above the top line), snare drum (second space from the top), and bass drum (bottom space). Here’s the PDF: Nasty Lick 49. Have at it.
Think of this one as an addendum to my previous post, Nasty Lick 47.
The basis is still the five note pattern: Right Left Right Foot Foot. However, I was practicing today and I came up with a new way of ending the phrase, which I really like.
That being said, I want you to have it too. Hope you like it.
Here’s the PDF: Nasty Lick 47 A
More 16ths. All singles, moving around the 4 piece kit in an interesting way. There’s not that much more to say about this one, except for the fact that it sounds great. Try it out and see what you think.
And it occurs to me as I write this that you can repeat this phrase as a loop for as long as you want…..I haven’t tried it this way yet, but you can bet I’m going to tomorrow when I get to the studio…..
Here’s the PDF: nasty lick 48
Here’s an old favorite of mine. It’s a five note pattern: three with the hands (RLR) and two with bass drum (FF). In this instance, we apply the five notes as 16th notes. The pattern is distributed around the kit like so: Right hand on the snare, Left hand on the hi tom, Right hand on the floor tom, and then two bass drum notes with your foot.
The work sheet contains four different applications of the pattern, each of which is designed for you to play as a fill or a break and be able to begin the next measure of time playing with a right hand.
Note that 1 and 3 are almost exactly the same; the only difference is that the “and” and “a” of “three” are moved from the hi tom to the snare in #3. That small change makes a big difference, but I love the way both versions sound.
In 2, we start the pattern with the foot, but that allows us to gracefully exit with one of my favorite four note 16th patterns beginning on beat “four.”
Finally, in 4, we go over the bar line with a two measure fill. Note that you have to begin the last seven single strokes with your left hand in order to get out of the fill gracefully.
Nasty Lick 47 sounds better at tempos of 130 or higher. Try it as 32nd’s too.
Here’s the PDF: Nasty Lick 47
Just another day in the office, working on nasty licks. You’re going to like this one, I promise. Let me know. Here’s the PDF: nasty lick 46
A prospective student asked me about adding some Latin patterns to his rock playing. The first thing I thought of was this highly useful and amazing sounding Mozambique pattern, brought to the mainstream pop world courtesy of Steve Gadd. I’ve been using it in my playing for a long time, and it never disappoints. Check out Steve demonstrating the Mozambique at this drum clinic.
Now check out the PDF, with a transcription of the basic pattern, plus a few variations. You can open the PDF here: Nasty Lick 45
Inspired by the Vinnie lick that I blogged about last time (#43), I was messing around in the practice room and I came up with a new variation that I would like to share with you. It sounds great, is easy to play…..those are all the hallmarks of a great lick. I hope you like it.
Here’s the PDF if you need it: Nasty Lick 44
This is a great lick that Vinnie plays on “Dong Work for Yuda” from the Frank Zappa album, “Joe’s Garage.” I immediately loved it because it sounded a lot like a famous Gadd lick I love.
The Gadd lick is a well known pattern, very similar to this one. (See example #2 from “Seven Gadd Licks,” else where in this blog). I am fairly certain that the first appearance of Gadd’s use of this lick was on Tom Scott’s tune, “Dirty Old Man,” from Scott’s 1975 album, “New York Connection.”
“Joe’s Garage” was released in 1979 and at the time, it is pretty well documented that Colaiuta was very heavily influenced by Steve Gadd’s playing. I believe that this “Dong Work” lick was inspired by the “Dirty Old Man” lick.
The basic premise here is to take 32nd notes, weave them between the hi hat, snare and bass drum and incorporate them into a groove. What makes these kind of patterns sound cool is that they are fully integrated into the groove of the song….they have a pocket.
Another great thing about licks like this is that they are distributed between multiple limbs in such a way that playing fast becomes very easy.
In order for this to sound good, you have to make sure that all the unaccented snare drum notes are ghosted.
So, have a look at the worksheet, and try this out. It’s sick. I promise. Here’s the link: Nasty Lick 43
This time it’s about getting around the drums in a hurry. No, I don’t mean rushing the time, but I mean roundhouse type licks that make me think of Buddy Rich or Steve Gadd. Each of these three licks will get you around the drums in triplets.
Licks #40 and 42 are played as alternating single strokes beginning with your right hand, while #41 begins as alternating singles, but throws a paradiddlediddle in for good measure.
The first lick, #40 is one I’ve heard Gadd play. Repeat it a bunch of times continuously. It will sound great that way. Notice the repeat signs around the measure. The lick itself is two beats long and the one measure example shows the lick played twice…but keep it going even longer.
Moving on, #41 is kind of Max Roach-ish.
Finally, #42 is one I came up with to go around the drums clockwise, and then come back in the other direction. Repeat the two measures over and over. The trick here is to play one additional note on the floor tom in order to allow you to come back around the drums counter clockwise (see beat 3 in measure 2!). Have fun and please use them for good instead of evil (ie use them musically and in good taste).
Print out the PDF here: Nasty Licks 40 through 42