#13.00

Here's a bit of a longer lick, a whopping 8 counts! I've been experimenting with a lot of paradiddly-type patterns lately with a lot of left handed accents and the second bar in this figure is a result of some of that.

#13.00

I really enjoy the accents on the "e"s in the first measure, the alternating Check 4's (1e&- 2e&- pattern). To play these evenly, you'll probably want to isolate the figure and build up the rhythm by paying extra attention to the skeleton pattern of low eighth notes underneath- play just the eighths first (r r l l r r l l), then insert the accented "e"s (try to insert one at a time). Listening for the low eighth notes while playing the whole bar on a loop is fun.

#16.11 "Spiritual State"

I've got another Nujabes track for you to go along with this one, #16.11. This is another 3-beat pattern looped over a 4-beat track, which makes it easy to loop the excerpt without breaks while alternating which hand the pattern starts on each time.

#16.11 || Track Rec: "Spiritual State"

This is a great exercise to work on controlling multiple low notes in a row as well as feeling the dotted eighth note space between the accented notes on beats 2.

Nujabes - Spiritual State @ YouTube

#16.17 "Sky is Tumbling"

This afternoon I found myself drumming along to a little bit of Nujabes and thought a couple licks that I came to were worth writing down in the yellow book. I looped the #16.17 lick for a bit on top of the recommended track "Sky is Tumbling".

#16.17 || Track Rec: "Sky is Tumbling"

Note: this is a 3/4 pattern, and the song is obviously not- but if you're reading this blog, I'll assume that you know how to loop a 3-beat pattern over a 4-beat track. If not, well, figure it out!

Also, this is a lick that should be played at "double time" along with the Nujabes track- again, I'm assuming that you can experiment with lining up the eighth notes in #16.17 to either the eighth notes ("normal time") or the sixteenth notes ("double time") on "Sky is Tumbling". As always, it should be pretty intuitive how you should feel these little excerpts relative to whatever the beat is on the Track Rec. [For the record, I, like most people, would probably interpret the bass drum in the Nujabes track to be playing "1--a 2--a 3--a 4--a" etc., making #16.17 most appropriate to play in / feel as "double time"]

The two accented flams back-to-back are helpful with listening to consistency of your grace note placement (in time) as well as consistency of grace note height/sound quality/feel.

Nujabes - Sky is Tumbling @ YouTube

#11.30

And with this post, I'll start going backwards in time a bit through the Yellow Books. I'll probably end up alternating posts with new content and backlog posts like this one.

#11.30 || the short buzz is fun, eh!

Not sure what tune it was that inspired this rhythm, but I felt the need to write this down after playing it. My intention was probably to explore this idea further later.

#18.20b "Monkey Riches"

Here are two variations I was inspired to deviate towards as I played along with the previous post, let's call them "A" and "B":

#18.20b || Track Rec: "Monkey Riches" (see #18.20a)

• "A" || this 2/4 pattern is simply the last beat of the previous pattern (#18.20a) repeated twice, inverting the sticking every beat. It's funky - be diligent about stroke types
• "B" || isolated/"hands apart" rhythm from "A", as double-stops

How to Use Yellow Book posts || Mindfully play the excerpt for as many continuous, productive reps as possible, with or without using the Track Recommendation instead of a metronome, alternating stickings in a logical way (if not notated otherwise)

#18.20a "Monkey Riches"

This is a more accurate representation of a typical post. In honor of seeing Animal Collective in Atlanta last night (INCREDBILE.), I spent a few minutes drumming today and ended up playing along with a few of the tracks on their latest album, "Centipede Hz" (which has really grown on me, especially after seeing it live).

So, basically the story with this type of Yellow Book post is I'll tell you what I was drumming along to, and provide a quick snapshot of the rhythm / lick / whatever that I happened to feel was "important enough" to write down (in this case, #18.20a). If you're ever having trouble figuring out how to translate the notation, how to fit the excerpt/rhythm to the Track Rec (track recommendation), have any feedback whatsoever, or would like to explore the excerpts further with me, then please leave comments and let me know how I can help.

#18.20a || Track Rec: "Monkey Riches"
*note the invert motion required to complete the 2-beat loop

I'll try to include a Track Rec as often as possible for you to use to drum along with, as well as providing a link to the track (usually a YouTube link) in the post, so that you can keep the lick on the same page that the track plays from.

Animal Collective - Monkey Riches @ YouTube

---

About the "Yellow Book" Posts || While I'll certainly filter what content from my Yellow Book I end up posting here, in general, I write whatever I feel like writing in there as it comes to me in whatever format makes the most sense at that point in time. Most of the time, I'll leave it up to the viewer to interpret whether to play something at "half time", "normal time", or "double time", and this is generally be heavily implied by the Track Rec (if I think what I wrote is confusing I may try to preemptively explain how to line up excerpt/track, otherwise I'll leave it up to you to comment and ask questions if you have any)