Here’s yet another set of exercises to help you with your singles. These focus on short bursts of singles that are triplet and sixteenth note based. Check the upper left hand corner of the worksheet for information on what tempos you should be working towards. There’s not that much else to say, except: PRACTICE!
Download the PDF here: Developing The Single Stroke Roll Part 3 PDF
For the latest “Nasty Lick,” feast your eyes and ears on a great hand/foot combination that sounds thunderously big…..RLF (right, left, bass).
Check out this video of me using this lick live. You can “fast forward” to 2:51 into the video to hear just the lick…
A note for note transcription of the lick, which includes more details about the pattern and how to play it correctly can be found on the worksheet, “Nasty Lick 33,” which you can download by clicking on the following link: “Nasty Lick 33″
Hope you find this useful.
The follow up to “The Ladder” Part One? You guessed it. Part Two. In this version of The Ladder—a single stroke roll exercise we introduced last week—we add 16th note triplets to the mix. It’s good for your rhythmic control and it’s important to develop a triplet roll as well as an eighth note/16th note based roll, and that’s one of the things that this exercise will help you do. The concept is the same as in Part One: the systematic increase and then decrease in the density of the notes allows you to practice speeding up and slowing down your hands while still maintaining a steady pulse. Your hands are speeding up and slowing down, but you are still playing in time. To download “The Ladder Part Two,” as a pdf file, click on the following link: The Ladder Part Two
As a bonus, we’ve also included “Developing The Single Stroke Roll” Part One and Part Two. These exercises focus on the individual development of each hand, and then putting them together to create a roll. Basic, but important stuff for the development of the hands. Part One will help you with your 16th note roll and Part Two will help you develop your triplet based roll.
You can download the pdf of “Developing the Single Stroke Roll, Part One” by clicking the following link: Developing The Single Stroke Roll Part One
Finally, you can download the pdf of “Developing the Single Stroke Roll, Part Two” by clicking on this link: Developing The Single Stroke Roll Part Two
Hope this is helpful.
“The Ladder” is a technique building exercise created to help drummers work on the development of the single stroke roll. Download the pdf of this exercise by clicking here: The Ladder Part One
By continually moving up and down the rhythmic ladder, the drummer is forced to speed up and slow down, but all while playing precise rhythmic figures and while still playing in time. I find it an interesting exercise because it also tests one’s control over rhythmic figures that are constantly changing. As drummers, we absolutely must have control over these different figures, so the exercise is helpful on that score in addition to it’s usefulness in developing physical hand technique. The exercise is called “Part One” because it is limited to quarter notes, eighth notes, eighth note triplets and sixteenth notes, while later versions of this exercise will include more “advanced” figures.
The way to get the most use out of this worksheet is to pick a comfortable tempo to begin working and then to continually record your metronome markings as your technical facility improves. Having a log with dates and metronome markings will help you see your progress and keep you motivated.
Technique takes a long time to develop so be patient and keep working hard…..the work WILL result in progress…
“Tony Williams in New York” is a great DVD document of Tony’s Blue Note era band. This was when Tony was playinig his big yellow Gretsch kit with two mounted toms and three floor toms. He had a big sound and of course, Tony played very aggressively, as he always did. This DVD is full of great Tony solos, but I always liked this eight bar break from the tune “City of Lights.” It happens at around 4:30 into the tune. At the bottom of this post is a clip of the song you can have a look and listen. If you would like to download the pdf of this Tony Williams drum solo transcription, just click on the following link: Tony Williams City of Lights Break
For me, it was initially about rock….John Bonham. But when I first discovered Steve Gadd, a whole new world opened up. The first solo of his that knocked me out was on Steely Dan’s “Aja,” and then I was hooked. I had to hear it all. Steve’s playing on Chick’s stuff was always great. Gadd’s solo from “Cappucino” (from the album “Friends”) is short and sweet. Just 16 bars, it is action packed and full of many great Gadd licks. Some of the patterns here are detailed in the “Seven Gadd Licks” post found elsewhere on this blog. Download the PDF by clicking on the following link: Steve Gadd Solo from Cappuccino
Check it out. It’s classic Gadd.
Steve Gadd is one of the most imitated and revered drum soloists—and with good reason—his solos are always exciting.
Steve has a number of great signature licks, seven of which are included here. Click on the link to the right to download the PDF:Seven Gadd Licks
Take ‘em to the practice room, then to the bandstand. Enjoy!
Welcome back to the BANG! The Drum School blog. Today, I’m posting a worksheet of 7 fills from none other than the grandaddy of rock drumming himself, John Bonham. If you’re new to drumming and you don’t know about Bonham, I urge you to check him out. Most, if not all, of today’s rock drummers will profess a love for the groove, chops and fills of the great Bonham. I myself am a disciple.
Even if you’re already a fan, perhaps you don’t know all of the fills included here. These 7 fills are just a few of my favorites. Not all of them are super difficult, but they are all super musical. Don’t forget to check out the recordings….these fills are best learned by looking at the transcriptions AND by listening to the recordings….and then by trying them out.
Certainly a few of these licks belong in your fill vocabulary if they are not already in your “tool box.”
You can download the PDF of this worksheet by clicking on the link to the right: Seven Bonham Fills
Have fun, check em out, and please, feel free to ask any questions or make any comments.
No doubt about it, Jim Chapin’s ground-breaking book, Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer, is an important tool for a beginning jazz drummer. I worked my way through a lot of it when I was first trying to learn jazz. However, I do think there are parts of the book that are confusing, and I would even go so far as to say that some of the book is a waste of time. Sorry if this sounds like blasphemy, but it is the truth.
That being said, I have updated what we used to be call “Lucky 13,” a worksheet that I had published on the previous edition of the BANG! website, to reflect my current thinking on what the beginning jazz drumming student should be working on when it comes to independence.
This sheet of 9 independence exercises, called “Essential Jazz Independence Part One,” gets right to the heart of the matter by focusing on learning to play triplet figures with one’s left hand vs the triplet jazz ride cymbal pattern that is played with the right hand (of course, reverse the hands if you are a lefty).
Here is the sheet for you to download. Just click this link to the right: Essential Jazz Independence Pt. 1
Have a look at the sheet….bring it into the practice room. Feel free to ask any questions. There are detailed instructions on the sheet itself that you can follow to help you along. Hope this is helpful.
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.