One of the magical things about playing a musical instrument is that the possibilities are endless. That certainly seems to be true when it comes to drumming. Developing independence against a cymbal pattern that goes over the barline is just one idea that I’ve been working on that makes me feel that drumming and music have no limits.
The idea presented here comes from Dave DiCenso, who is very fluent with the cymbal ostinato that we’re dealing with in this article. Here it is below:
The reason for presenting the above in a three bar segment is to demonstrate how the pattern resolves back to beat one. You’ll notice that if you repeat those three bars, you’ll have an endless repeating and flowing pattern.
The PDF offered here will give you 17 exercises to begin developing independence with this cymbal pattern. We start our work by using eighth note grooves and patterns as the basis and working on developing independence against them using the cymbal ostinato above.
Here is the PDF: “1e-a2-and-a” Cymbal Independence Part One
I have been working on this for a while and I think it sounds really cool and different. I’ll add a video shortly so you can see and hear it.
By the way, DiCenso also has great fluency with this pattern with the addition of the hi-hat placed in between the cymbal notes. If you play the hi-hat with your left foot after each set of two cymbal notes, you’ll have a continuous pattern of 16th notes. Imagine being able to have independence with that! Dave does. I’ve addressed this in another blog post, and you can check that out here: A New Kind of Rock Drumming Independence, Part 1
Let me know what you think by leaving comments!
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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Hi Mark,
Just came upon your site and love the material throughout. Having been a student of Dave DiCenso in the past I can really appreciate the exercises that you present here. He is a great player and teacher. The inverted paradiddle ideas are great too. Having done many different variations in the Syncopation book over the years, the variation that you got from your friend is really nice. I have never done that one before. Good stuff! Anyway, I just wanted to reach out to you and I hope to see future material on this great site.
Hi Emil!
Thanks man!!!
I really appreciate that.
You will definitely keep seeing more…. that’s a promise.
Thanks again.
Mark F
PS– 1) How did you find the blog? 2) Please spread the word on social media. 🙂