This marks the beginning of a new series: Nasty Grooves.
“Nasty Groove #1″ is a linear funk beat, inspired by the likes of Dennis Chambers, David Garibaldi, Vinnie Colaiuta and Mike Clark.
It’s a very funky beat…make sure that the ghosted notes are very quiet…that is one of the keys to making these types of grooves sound great.
Here’s the PDF: Nasty Groove 1.
Have at it. Below are two videos: the first is me playing the groove at a “normal” tempo, followed by a very slooooowww version.
This week I’ve been practicing, as I have been for months now, heel-down doubles with the bass drum. It’s been driving me crazy. But, I’m on the right track. The Perfect Balance Pedal has helped a lot.
Sometimes, when I’m working on some technical skill like this, I need some way to keep things fresh. So, I came up with this.
It comes from an idea that I heard Vinnie Colaiuta play on the track “Ben Casey” from the “Unreel” album by Randy Waldman. It’s during the solo, and it is very fast, but Vinnie plays this combination at the peak of the solo.
I just took the pattern he plays between the snare and bass drum, subtracted the ride notes he played, and added the jazz ride cymbal pattern on top for this exercise. Try it.
Here’s the PDF: a triplet independence exercise
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 marks a new feature, “DrumSpeak,” where we get some great thoughts from the words of great drummers…
“As a teenager I could assimilate information quickly but, what I didn’t realize until later is that you have to let that information gestate. When you’re young you think you’re a hot-shot, ready for everything because you’ve played along to records and learnt all those little tricks. But, here’s the thing–you don’t know how and why those drummers played what they did until you have the benefit of experience. I’ve sweated blood–literally–and put a lot of work into what I do, and these days so many people are not prepared to put that time and effort in. Everybody wants to be Superman overnight, and that’s encouraged by a media where everything is instantly available–be that visually or audibly. And please don’t just break everything down to chops and groove either, because that means you are only looking at two dimensions when there are so many more. Basically, the whole thing is process, but life is process. Forgive me for sounding clichéd, but the joy is in that process and the fact that there is always something new to aspire to.”
–Vinnie Colaiuta
from Rhythm Magazine, July 2012It seems like a lot of you are interested in more information about Vinnie’s switch from Zildjian to Paiste. Here it is, in his own words. Have a look and listen.
You know if you read this blog that I rarely post about this kind of thing. But, seriously, this is pretty big news. Legendary drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, arguably one of the greatest drummers alive, has moved from Gretsch Drums to Ludwig and from Zildjian Cymbals to Paiste.
At first, I did not believe it. I thought it was some sort of April Fool’s joke. But I checked out Ludwig’s Facebook page and they posted a photo of Vinnie playing Ludwig drums (see photo, above left) with the caption, “welcome home.” Then I went to Vinnie’s website and looked at the link section. The Ludwig and Paiste logos are displayed on that page (see the link here: Vinnie’s Website: Links Page)
Looks pretty legitimate to me. Huge business move for Ludwig and Paiste. Exciting change.