#22.31

This is a companion post to go with #22.30. After developing spot-on treble/duple interpretation (especially rapidly changing between the two, beat by beat), the next step is to naturally combine the two and form a new rhythm.

A fivelet isn't duple or treble, but as you probably guessed, it's 5 evenly distributed notes (in the case of #22.31, distributed evenly across 2 beats). Slower than triplets (6 notes per 2 beats), faster than eighth notes (4 notes per 2 beats).

#22.31

In this four-bar exercise you're given 2 bars of triplet check in between 2 different fivelet patterns. The first fivelet pattern (measure 2) is grouped in 2+3, the second fivelet pattern (measure 4) is grouped in 3+2.

For measure 2, be sure to start off the rhythm with a little more juice than you would a beat of eighth notes. For measure 4, be sure to put on the brakes right away and play the first 3-note grouping slower than the triplets before it. With enough practice and experimentation, you'll get the hang of the fives and be able to navigate back and forth between triplets and fivelets fairly easily.

Notation note: there aren't "3"s or "5"s written above the rhythms in this example, so just pay attention to how many notes are beamed together.

#22.30

Here's some more rudimental drumming for you. These two short exercises go along with the next post, #22.31, and are meant to build up triplet<->fivelet interpretation/feel (though you won't find any fivelets in this one).

For these two exercises, #22.30a and b, the accents should really be written as tenuto ( - ) marks, or "half-accents"- don't think 2 rigid and super differentiated heights, think more egogic stress on the downbeats and think flow.

#22.30a and b

Notation note: I didn't write "3"s above the triplets, or "2"s above the eighth notes, to differentiate the triplets and eighths. It should be exceptionally clear what rhythms are what though if you pay attention to how many notes are beamed together.

#13.08 "Everything in its Right Place"

Been laying into the kit pretty heavily lately, trying to investigate further any patterns I can think of that for whatever reason throw a wrench into things, and this foot pattern for whatever reason is one of them.

#13.08 || Track Rec: "Everything in its Right Place"

As is marked on the image, "Everything in its Right Place" is made up of 10-count phrases, which you could think of as two 5/4 bars (5+5) or (as the example is written) two 4/4 bars followed by a 2/4 bar (4+4+2). In the example above, #13.08, make sure to repeat the first bar twice (as marked) followed by the second bar. A little left foot control never hurt anyone!

Radiohead - Everything in its Right Place @ YouTube

1-Note Independence

Back to the basics! There are certain exercises that I've found I should really play every day ("DAILIES") if I want to improve my skills on any instrument. Since my drumset playing is rather... unpolished... right now, it's time to go back to the basics of moving notes around on top of a stock swing pattern (not as easy as it sounds!).

1-Note Independence

I think the chart speaks for itself- you maintain a basic swing pattern check between your RH (ride cymbal) and your LF (hi-hat) THE ENTIRE TIME YOU'RE PLAYING -- breaking all over the place isn't a good habit to develop timing skills, so play with a met, and if you notice the check deviating AT ALL, remove the fancier elements (SD(LH)/BD(RF)) and make sure your check is solid.

Once you have a solid check, start playing through the patterns as indicated on the page (and come up with your own exercises, as well- don't be a bore.). The patterns I wrote down are all 4-bar phrases with a bar at the end to check in on your check (or insert a fill if you're feeling saucy), but somebody just starting out with an independence study like this would benefit more from 8-bar phrases of only one pattern at a time.

Work all the patterns every day if you want to see results.

Then prioritize the ones that don't "feel right" until they do feel right.

Just imagine how much control you would have if you spent the first 30 minutes of your practice time every day on basic independence studies like this! I'll let you know how it goes.

#12.59

So I recently retrieved my drum set from the depths of my mom's spare room and brought it back to school to see how upset I can make the neighbors as I pursue the lofty endeavor of beat creation. The result- now that I've added feet back into the equation, I'm VERY AWARE of how poor my independence is!

I'll likely be experimenting with funky foot patterns until I can actually be comfortable enough to commit brain power to doing anything interesting with my hands- until then, enjoy some patterns like the following...

#12.59 || Independence A

Welcome to the world of 4-limb drumset independence - the final frontier!

Notation note: All notes for hands will have up stems (in this case, ride cymbal and snare drum), all notes for feet will have down stems (in all cases, bass drum and hi-hat). Feel free to experiment with adding tom notes and those sorts of things once you really get the hang of the patterns (that's what I'll be doing!)

Comments/questions are welcome, as always!

#22.35 "Circling"

Some more Four Tet for you this evening with the lovely tune "Circling" off of the There is Love in You (2010) album.

This is a fairly advanced two-bar lick that I arrived at after experimenting with fubars and inverted cheeses for a few minutes. And finally, we have a post in "treble" (as opposed to all the "duple" licks I've posted so far)- not to be confused with the famous clef! [Why "treble" instead of "triple"? Why not?]

Notation note: if I have something like this that's quite obviously in 12/8, I won't bother to mark it (again, these posts are coming directly from my personal notes, where I wouldn't bother wasting the time writing any obvious time signatures). Along those lines, you could also read this as 4/4 with all triplets missing the "3"s above them. If you can't figure it out, just check out how many notes are beamed together, in this case groupings of 3.

#22.35 || Track Rec: "Circling"

If you ever have difficulty with a lick like this, try breaking it down into its components and working on each of those individually (single flams, multiple flams, single and multiple flams with diddles ("cheeses" "fubars"), etc.).

Have a try at isolating beats 2 and 3 of the second bar- then isolate just the left hand rhythm (drop the constant right hand notes to focus on the left). Naturally, if it's worth doing with one hand, invert the stickings of the whole isolated selection and get it down with the other hand as well.

"Circling" is excellent to use to practice any sort of treble rhythms that you can come up with as well as a lick like #22.35 - try it out for a half hour or so on 1-track repeat.

Four Tet - Circling @ YouTube

#14.27 "Wing Body Wing"

This is the first post here that I would officially consider funky, mainly because of the way it's written (in an "odd meter", 5/16). Guess what though? It's a 4-bar pattern that repeats in 5/16, so really you can consider all 4 bars together as "20/16", which is really just "5/4" a fairly common meter. I could have written the thing out as a 5/4 bar, but that would have taken up too much time, and that wasn't the direction I was thinking at the time.

Don't be confused by the "nested" (one inside the other) repeat brackets- I'm aware that these aren't a common music notation convention, but it should be pretty self-explanatory that the small repeat applies to the first bar only ("repeat this one bar 3 times") and the large repeat applies to everything ("continuously loop the whole 4-bar phrase").

#14.27 || Track Rec: "Wing Body Wing" (see #14.31)

Whew! Now, to explain the sticking- this is definitely the vaguest I'll ever be with stickings on the actual image that I've written down, so sorry about that, but again, you're smart- likely these words will get you there (if not, contact me/comment/etc.)

#14.27 Sticking

• m1- repeat 3 times starting off the right and alternate hands each repeat (RH... LH.... RH...)
• m2- the first time through, use the marked [L.ll R] sticking on this "turnaround" bar
• when looping the 4 bars back on themselves, you'll have to play the exact opposite stickings ("invert" them)- (m1) LH... RH... LH...  (m2) RH turnaround [R.rr L]