WHY?
The idea for this came from playing a lot of blues recently. For a drummer, playing a lot of blues means playing a lot of shuffles and a lot of 6/8. Shuffles are deceptively difficult. It takes a lot of time to make them groove. There are also a million ways to play them. I finally figured out what my “go-to” shuffle is. It’s #1 on the attached worksheet. It grooves like crazy.The thing is, as great as that shuffle sounds, when I was backing a soloist, I felt stuck. I wanted to do something more to lift things up and propel the music forward. But I didn’t want to play a lot of fills or disturb the groove in order to get that “lift.”
I started to think that it would sound great if I could vary the ride cymbal pattern just like you do in Jazz, but while maintaining the left hand pattern and bass drum as the foundation.
But I couldn’t do it.
HOW!
Hence, these 7 exercises to develop the necessary independence.Here’ the PDF: shuffle cymbal independence part one
I’m going to start working on these…
Mark Feldman is a session drummer from NYC.
He first gained attention as one of the winners of Modern Drummer magazine's very first drum solo contest, judged by Rush's Neil Peart.
He's played with Oz Noy, Will Lee, Alison Krauss, Curtis Stigers, Emily Remler, Joel Hoekstra, GE Smith, Andy York, Marshall Crenshaw, Tony Shanahan, The Drifters, The Marvelettes, Big Brother and The Holding Company, and many other artists.
For more info: onlinesessiondrummer.com
He first gained attention as one of the winners of Modern Drummer magazine's very first drum solo contest, judged by Rush's Neil Peart.
He's played with Oz Noy, Will Lee, Alison Krauss, Curtis Stigers, Emily Remler, Joel Hoekstra, GE Smith, Andy York, Marshall Crenshaw, Tony Shanahan, The Drifters, The Marvelettes, Big Brother and The Holding Company, and many other artists.
For more info: onlinesessiondrummer.com
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That’s some cool ideas. Have you worked from Benny Grebs language of drumming book? He does some permutation exercises which really helped my shuffles. Though like anything doing it is where the real magic happens.
I think every drummer should get in a blues band for a while it helps your groove so so much
Don’t really know the Greb book…..maybe I should check it out. I think he’s a great drummer.