Are you ready?
I am about to give you one of my Nastiest of the Nasty Licks!!! Nasty Lick #38 is one of my favorites. It pretty much ALWAYS gets a reaction. Just check out the screams from the audience when I launch into it in the video below. It’s a live video of my rock band MANCIE playing at Spike Hill in Brooklyn, NY in November of 2011.
It’s a cool song and the band is great, so check it out. But if you want to go right to the drum solo, it begins at around 2:52 in the video.
I begin with some rudimental type stuff on the snare, work in some hand/foot combinations, and then launch into Nasty Lick #38. You can skip directly to Nasty Lick #38 by going to 3:03 in the video.
The Video: MANCIE, Live at Spike Hill
The Transcription
Alright! Want to know how to do that? Just print out the PDF by clicking here: Nasty Lick 38 PDF
Analysis of Example #1
The lick as played in the video is written out in example #1. The pattern—three groups of five notes–is played a total of five times. I move counter clockwise around the drums, with the first note of each group of five on a different drum: 1) snare, 2) floor tom, 3) high tom.
That accented note is followed by two ghost notes with the left hand and then two fast bass drum notes. Note that at this part of the solo, the time is “free.” I’m just going off, playing the lick a bunch of times and then improvising as I see fit. It’s an open solo, so playing “freely” is always an option. I cue the band to come back in, so I don’t have to worry about the pulse.
Analysis of Example #2
Example #2 is another way to use the lick that I rely on frequently. This time, we play completely in time. In this case, each group of five takes up the space of three 16th notes. I’ve included a measure of accented 16th notes below the lick so you can see how the phrasing lines up. The first note of each group of five lines up with the 16th notes shown below example #2 as follows: 1) the “1,”2) the “a” of “1,” 3) the “and” of “2,” 4) the “e” of “3.” Finally, you can easily resolve the lick by playing an accented note on beat four with your right hand.
Let Me Know What You Think!
I want to hear from you! Please leave comments here on the blog so you can ask questions, give your opinion, or tell me how you are using this lick….
PS – Imagine that you could regularly get these Nasty Licks delivered to your email inbox every time we post one. Great drumming vocabulary to raise your drumming level–free. Go do it–just type your email addy into the form below, and click that button.
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Hey Mark,
that solo was pretty tasty. enjoyed playing with yall back at DBA, hope to catch you soon!
Jim,
Drummer for WOJCIK
@SirYim
Hey Jim! Thanks for your kind words. It was fun playing that show at death by audio with you. hope we get to do it again soon!
-MF
It tells me “That video is private” and will not play. What’s up with that?
Hey, sorry about that. Let me go fix that. Give me a minute.
OK….Nasty Lick 38’s video should be fine now. Sorry about that.
Why would you ever use such crappy video…can’t see what the hell you’re doing. The drum part sounded great but if you really want to teach and help others, upgrade your quality standards and produce a video that is helpful
Hey Steve –
there is a transcription included that has the lick written out note-for-note …..so I think the information for people to learn the lick I’m putting forth is here. However, the quality of the video….noted! I get it. Sorry about that. Don’t want to disappoint anyone. Mark F