Test Your Drumming Independence: the “1e-a2-and-a” Ostinato, Part 2

I write about sounding different all the time. I’m always searching for drumming stuff that I’ve never heard before. Having your own unique voice is the holy grail for musicians. Sure, it’s great to copy your favorite players, but what didn’t they do? If you can find something that sounds cool that you don’t hear anyone playing, that’s a good sign you’re onto something.

And you don’t often hear cymbal patterns that go over the bar line. So, of course, when I first heard someone do this, I was excited by it. I heard Dave DiCenso playing the pattern we’re going to work on here several times. I know, I know, some of you are saying “stop talking about DiCenso already,” but Dave’s playing is so unique and so good! I’m always discovering new cool ideas by listening to him.

And this idea is a good one.

Last time, we began the work of developing independence with this “revolving” cymbal ostinato by playing eighth note drum beats against it. If you missed that post, here is a link to it: Advanced Drumming Independence: the “1e-a2-and-a” Cymbal Ostinato, Part One.

By the way, the cynbal pattern looks like this:

It’s a bit tricky because the pattern shifts every three beats, which is why it takes three measures of 4/4 time for it to resolve. But the weirdness is what makes it fun…

This time, we’re going to work on 16th notes. I’ve taken a bit of a Gary Chaffee approach in the method. The 16 exercises here are organized around every possible version of the 16th note grid, just like the “Fat Back” exercises in Chaffee’s “Patterns: Time Functioning” book. You can read more about that book and why I think it’s so important HERE.

So, without further adieu, here are two pages with 16 exercises of madness for you to try and challenge your independence skills: The 1e–a2–and–a–cymbal ostinato Part 2

Have fun! Let me know how it goes by commenting on this post.