Natalie: Hello and welcome to Gigajam. We are on episode two of the essential drum skills course, with me Natalie Barrass and Brian Greene. Brian how are you today?
Brian: Very well thank you very much, you Natalie?
N: I'm pretty tickety-boo, I think…
B: Excellent
N: …the word I'm looking for is
B: (Laughs)
N: Right, let's crack straight on
B: Please
N: Obviously episode one…
B: Yeah
N: …we had a very structured pathway…
B: Yes
N: …that we were following
B: Yes
N: Had our learning objectives
B: Yes
N: What are our learning objectives for today?
B: Well, the same process again today, but new learning outcomes and objectives…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …that we're looking for. We're going to introduce the eighth note, and we're going to do some more three-way coordination,…
N: Yeah
B: …which will result in us, in probably part two of the lesson, looking at more rock grooves
N: Excellent
B: And then to help us understand eighth notes we're going to look at the single stroke roll
N: The single stroke roll
B: Yeah, absolutely
N: Alright, that's not a term that I'm familiar with
B: Okay, well you will be by the end of the lesson obviously
N: Lovely. Alright, what are we starting with first then?
B: Okay, firstly what I'd like to do is explain eighth notes. In lesson one you will recall that we started to study quarter notes?
N: Yep
B: And that you get four quarter notes in a bar of common time
N: Mmmhmm
B: Okay. Now each of those quarter notes is worth one beat each. Okay? Eighth notes, probably not entirely unsurprisingly, therefore divide a bar of common time into eight notes
N: Exactly what I was going to say there Brian
B: Okay, let's have a little look at the devils, and here they are. We have a bar of quarter notes…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …which, for this particular example, we've got on the middle space…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …on the snare drum. So we've got one, two, three, four, in our first bar
N: Yes
B: In our second bar we have eighth notes, and you can see that we've got two notes per beat
N: Mmmhmm
B: Now each of these notes is worth half of a quarter note
N: Right, okay
B: So therefore an eighth note is worth half a beat
N: Alright, and they look slightly different as well don't they?
B: Yes. Quarter notes have got a note head and a stem, and eighth notes have a note head, a stem and a tail. And what we've, what is commonly done when writing eighth notes, is that we've joined the tails of the eighth notes together to form a beam
N: Mmmhmm
B: Okay? So what we should explore is that, how these are counted, and how they sound…
N: Exactly
B: …and that will lead us on to single stroke rolls in a moment. So what we've got is four beats in the first bar, one, two, three, four. Second bar, one and, two and, three and, four and
N: Mmmhmm
B: So what's happening here is the second note is halfway between beat one and beat two, but we're not going to say one and a half, two and a half,…
N: (Laughs)
B: …it's a bit of a mouthful for obvious reasons
N: Yes
B: For flow purposes we say 'and'
N: Mmmhmm
B: So it's a well accepted term. So what I'd like to do now is actually put the knowledge of eighth notes into some kind of practice. So what we're gonna do now is look at the single stroke roll, which is a technique that's used widely in drumming, but I think is a lovely way of introducing eighth notes into our playing
N: Mmmhmm
B: Okay. So, a single stroke roll comes from a very simple fact that you play a single stroke,…
N: Mmmm
B: …or a single strike of the drum, with either hand, alternating hands. So in this particular example we're going to start with the right hand, so right, left, right, left, creates a single stroke roll
N: And what does a roll mean?
B: A roll, that's a term used for when you're playing a series of notes with your hands. Historically it comes from lots of snare drum playing, but now, generally speaking, people use it as sort of fills, rolls and fills around the kit
N: Yeah
B: Often with, often the most exciting part of playing. It's the bit that catches everybody's eyes when they're first interested in drumming
N: Do me an exciting roll
B: You want an exciting roll?
N: Yes I want an exciting roll. Obviously we're jumping way ahead now, but..
B: Well I'll give you a simple exciting roll so you can see what's going on
N: Alright
B: Single stroke roll around the kit, most people will recognise this
N: Very good
B: Very exciting, I know!
N: (Laughs)
B: Have to be careful not to get off the beaten track here
N: No
B: Keep on focus. But that's where single stroke rolls will, will be able to articulate our technique…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …around the kit. And they'll help enormously when we get the coordination going
N: And that's what that will progress to
B: Absolutely,…
N: Alright…
B: …yeah great
N: …so then let's keep it simple with our single stroke roll
B: Yes
N: Which hand do you start with first?
B: Well you start with the right hand. What I'd like to do is show the video
N: Yeah
B: And then I'll be able to explain what's going on in the video, and then I'll do some playing myself,…
N: Alright
B: …show people how to practice. So for exercise one, I'd just like to talk through the video that we've got on screen here. And what I'm doing is I'm playing the exercise…
(Exercise starts playing)
B: …and I'm playing a bar of quarter notes, followed by a bar of eighth notes
N: Yeah
B: And here it is here. So you can see that I'm alternating hands, one, two, three, four,…
(Exercise stops playing)
B: …one and, two and, three and, four and. So what we're looking for is to try and create a nice even roll between the hands, It's, it's, it's called hand coordination
N: Yeah
B: Now there are lot's of different rolls, which we'll get on to as the course progresses, but this is the most fundamental and most important. So let me, now we've seen the video, let's actually try that for ourselves
N: Let's put it into practice
B: Okay? What I'm going to do is bring up our extractor here so I can play along with this to see whether or not I'm playing in time…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …and give a demonstration of, not only the evenness that we need to achieve between the hands, but also making sure we're controlling time and getting a good sound of our eighth notes in relationship to quarter notes
N: Alright
B: Okay great. Here we go
(Xtractor starts playing)
B: Three, four. One, two, three, four, one and, two and, three and, four and, one, two, three, four, one and, two and, three and, four and, one, two, three, four, one and, two and, three and, four and, one, two, three, four, one and, two and, three and, four and. Okay
N: See my untrained ear…
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: …would say that you did that perfectly
B: You could be right…it would be a first
B & N: (Laughs)
B: But let's have a look at the Analyser. So the whole idea is, you know, you're trying to play as evenly and as consistently as possible. You're trying to play…
N: Yeah
B: …what the exercise is asking you to play
N: Mmmhmm
B: The Analyser, it helps you do that. Now we only played part of that exercise, so as not to bore the viewers too much,…
N: (Laughs)
B: …but when you're practising, you're gonna have to practise that exercise a lot
N: How much is a lot?
B: Well I mean, you know, every day, ten or fifteen minutes a day on your lessons…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …as a minimum. And I think it's a good point about practising in general just to mention very briefly that it's better to do small amounts of practice, five, ten, fifteen minutes, every single day, than it is to do an hour on a Saturday because your lesson's coming up
N: Yeah
B: It's much better just to do a little bit of practice cos the repetition, and going back to it, is extremely beneficial. So yeah we, I did pretty well here which is, which is kind of cool
N: (Laughs)
B: Kind of pleased about that
N: I'll say, you being our teacher and everything
B: Well, trying to concentrate a little bit. Yeah we've got all black notes which is fine. So what we're doing here is we're reproducing what's going on. So I got up to bar nine, so, I…
N: Mmmhmm. So the top line is the computer, effectively, and the bottom line is you?
B: Yeah, very good. Yes, what we're doing here is just reminding ourselves that the lesson is on the top stave, and our performance, is what we have recorded, is on the bottom stave
N: Mmmhmm
B: So it's comparing the notes
N: Alright, so…
B: Cool
N: …let's talk about technique, and how to get those even kind of notes. Just quickly tell me where we should be holding our hands?
B: Yeah. Again, without getting overly technical, you're looking at holding the sticks loosely in your hands. I tend to use a back of the hand grip…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …where you use those three fingers to hold the stick. It goes gently across the palm…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …and then your thumb here, and your fore-finger, this third joint, the little crease…
N: Yes
B: …is where you would hold the front of the, of the stick…
N: Ah, right
B: …and that gives you a nice, solid grip. But it needs also to be able to, sort of, move a little bit so that you can respond to the bounce…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …because, you know, when you're hitting a drum you're actually creating some friction…
N: Yeah
B: …so you need to be able to ride what's going on there and get a nice bounce. So you need some flexibility in here. Most of the time you would play with a wrist action so that the stick and the hand can respond to the bounce of the pad…
N: Yeah
B: …the bounciness that's in there. You can play with your fingers but that tends to be for more gentle, closer playing
N: Mmm
B: You can use your forearm as well, and in conjunction with your wrist, to create quite a chopping action. And then when you're really going for it, you can use your shoulder and your upper arm to create a very large stroke. But that's for, generally speaking for very loud, playing for very loud accents
N: Mmmhmm
B: But that gives you a huge range, a huge dynamic range, in which to articulate your playing
N: Okay
B: What I'd like to do is, in exercise one, it signals in there that you can play both left-handed and right-handed. Now we've started everything with our right hand…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …it's a bit of a right-handed world out there I'm afraid
N: (Laughs) But there's nothing we can do to change it
B: We cannot, but you should also be aware that, of left-handed players should be practising their single stroke rolls as well
N: Yeah
B: And of course they should start with their left hand
N: Is that because that feels the most natural…
B: Absolutely
N: …or it's the easiest because of the layout, our?
B: Well, good point. There's two reasons. Fundamentally it's because it's the most natural way for a left-hander, in the same way that a right-hander's most natural for a right-handed player
N: Alright
B: And in terms of layout, a left-handed kit player will have the kit, the exact mirror image round. So the hi-hat will be over there,…
N: Yeah
B: …snare drum over here, and vice versa
N: Why is that?
B: Well that's because…
N: (Laughs)
B: …we play this way using our right foot…
N: Yeah
B: …and left-hander, left-handed players will play across themselves, left hand. Just mirror image cos that's comfortable to play
N: Alright, okay
B: A la Phil Collins, people like that
N: Oh really?
B: Left-handed, absolutely. Now the other thing is, is you're not, you're not kept out of the equation if you're left-handed and you own an electronic kit
N: Okay
B: Now what you can do is assign the pads to change the kit round
N: What do you mean assign the pads?
B: Good question. It means you can change the sounds…
N: Yeah
B: …which are on each of these drums. So you can change the floor-tom, low-tom, to this pad…
N: Yeah
B: …and put the snare drum here, and hi and mid there
N: Ahh. Clever
B: Yeah, absolutely
N: Alright, so the exercise, if you're right-handed, start with the right
B: Yes
N: Go through it, do your quarters, then do your eighths
B: Yes
N: And then if you're left-handed start with your left
B: Yes
N: And again do your quarters, and do your eighths
B: That's correct
N: Just very quickly, and I mean very quickly…
B: Yes
N: …tell me what's coming up after the break
B: Well coming up after the break, what we're then going to do, is move on to incorporate eighth notes into playing more rock grooves using eighth notes on the bass drum
N: Brian that was beautiful
B: Thank you
N: You've heard it here. That is what's coming up after the break so stay tuned and we will see you back here in part two
N: Hello and welcome back to part two of episode two. Bri is still here
B: I am still here
N: Yes you are. I'm still here as well
B: Marvellous
N: Lovely. Ok, at the beginning, in part one….
B: Yes
N: …we had our objectives, there were four objectives
B: Yes
N: We've conquered two of them
B: We have indeed
N: Eighth notes, single stroke rolls
B: That's correct
N: What are the rest? What are the other two?
B: Well what we're gonna do is build on the knowledge that we've gleaned by looking at eighth notes. And we now want to use that to create slightly more interesting rock grooves, and we're going to do that by applying it to three-way coordination, and to the drum kit
N: Mmmhmm
B: So our eighth notes were really applied to just hand control, we're now going to apply it to the drum kit to build up more rock grooves
N: I like the sound of it
B: Good, okay
N: What do we need to do first?
B: Right, what we need to do first is understand how we actually can create grooves by changing notes around. So we're gonna have a look at exercise two for this lesson
N: Mmmhmm
B: And what we've got here on the screen is you see what looks like, very similar to, part of the pattern that we learnt for our rock groove in lesson one. So we've got bass drum on beat one,…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …snare drum, but here we've got two notes where there were one note in the first exercise. We've cut what was the quarter note for beat three…
N: Yes
B: …into two eighth notes
N: And this is on the bass
B: This is on the bass drum, that's correct. And we finish off with the snare drum on the four. So snare drum on two and four, bass drum on one and three, but we've got an additional note on the 'and' of three
N: Mmmhmm
B: Now, what I think we should do here is what a student would be doing at home. Let's have a look at the video…
N: Yeah
B: …to make sure we understand what's going on, and then we can compare that to the exercise and make sure we're understanding it clearly
(Video starts)
B: Okay, great. So what I'm doing there is I'm using two-way coordination so as not to clutter the whole pattern…
N: Yeah
B: …to start with. But you can see that we've got this groove going one, two, three and, four. Split between bass drum and snare drum. So what we should do is have a look at being able to play that ourselves. So, just moving to the kit, just using the two-way coordination, I'll repeat that exercise
N: Yeah
B: So get, get sat in position, and then we'll go for the, we'll go for the exercise. So the bass drum is going to be playing on beat one and three, and the 'and' of three
N: Mmmhmm
B: So I'm just gonna do that on its own. One, two, three and, four, one, two, three and, four. Just once more, one, two, three and, four. Now the snare drum for our backbeat is on two and four
N: Yes
B: So I'll slot that straight in if I may? So we're gonna go one, two, three and, four, one, two, three and, four, one, two, three and, four. Make sense?
N: Yeah
B: Okay, great. Now of course to get good at that you need to repeat that over and over and over, and you'd be looking to play it along with your Xtractor file so that you've got some support
N: Mmmhmm
B: So what I'm going to do now though, is I'm just gonna jump a little bit to the next exercise, because this is where it all starts to get a little bit tricky. You noticed I just used the bass drum and the snare drum?
N: Yes I did
B: Now the coordination there isn't too difficult, particularly if you've got your rock groove from lesson one all sorted out
N: Mmmhmm
B: Now this is where the coordination can be a little tough to start with, but master this and you've actually got the basis of all your coordination sorted out
N: Wow
B: Now it seems like a bit of a bold statement but I….
N: I was gonna say, say that again!
B: Well, I'll explore it and explain it for you. What we've got here in exercise three, is we've got the hi-hat and the bass drum
N: Mmmhmm
B: So we've dropped the snare drum out so we can think clearly. So we've got the hi-hat on beats one, two, three, and four
N: As with our first rock groove that we learnt in episode one
B: Correct. The only thing that has changed in this, in this new rock groove is that we've changed the bass drum on beat three into two notes
N: Yes
B: Okay, so we've got the bass drum on beat one, not playing anything on beat two, and then we've got the bass drum on beat three and the 'and' of three
N: Well that to me sounds quite easy
B: Okay, now it does sound quite easy, but this is one of the, the big problems where I've noticed that students fall over immediately, and I'll explain why it is…
N: Alright
B: …there's a very good reason for this. On beat three you're playing the bass drum and the hi-hat together. Now that's called unison…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …in other words, two things being played at exactly the same time. Now also imagine, it's on the same side of the body, so it's quite natural…
N: Yes
B: …for us to move like so
N: Mmmhmm. Like when you're playing guitar and you strum down with your foot, everything's going…
B: Yes
N: …from top to bottom
B: Correct. It's all on the same side of the body, the signal's coming from the same part of the brain, and it all works
N: Mmmhmm
B: And where it starts to fall over, is the problem is immediately after that unison, on the 'and' of three, you're asked to play the bass drum on it's own with no right hand over the top. So you see here no hi-hat being played on the 'and' of three
N: Right
B: What most students will find, is when they first try to do this, the right hand will follow the right foot
N: Yes
B: And that's what we've got to try and avoid. Okay? So I'm going to demonstrate this, but I'll do that whilst playing along with the exercise
N: Alright
B: Is that okay? Okay so I'll just launch up the Xtractor, get it playing, and then I'll get on the kit
N: How can you stop yourself wanting to follow that tendency to come down with the right hand?
B: Well it's, it's a bit of mind over matter to a large extent. What will help you is to really, really focus and count on the exercise. Watch what you're doing, so watch your hand for flickers, of triggers of motion…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …which, which will almost be a very natural reaction when, when you bring you're left foot up to play the 'and' of three, you're right hand will almost certainly go with it. And what you have to do is learn to keep it absolutely still, and I'll try and demonstrate that here whilst I play along with the Xtractor. So let's get the exercise firing up, we'll listen to it…
(Exercise starts playing)
B: There's our click of course. One, two, three and, four, but only one hi-hat, two, three and, four. And I'll try and join in now, we'll get the hi-hat going, one, two, three and, four. Bass drum, one, two, three and, four, one, two, three and, four, one, two, three and, four, one, two, three and, four. Now I always really try not to move the hand at all when I'm not playing
N: Mmmhmm
B: The only time I move the hand is to bring it up when it's ready to play the next stroke
N: Okay, so that's almost like conscious movement in your head
B: Absolutely, keep, in fact when you're not playing, don't move
N: (Laughs)
B: So you notice my left heel, you may notice that my left heel on my hi-hat foot is not moving at all
N: Yeah
(Exercise stops playing)
B: Exercise has run out, but the idea being there is that if I'm not using my foot there is no need for it to move
N: Mmmhmm. Even if you've got a feeling that you wanna to tap along?
B: Yeah absolutely…
N: Okay
B: …cos that is a, that's an uncontrollable motion that you have to control. One of the biggest things about being a drummer, or any musician where you have a, a physical performance, is that you, you have to be in charge of what your limbs do…
N: (Laughs)
B: …and often, yeah it seems bizarre, but often….
N: I can't control my limbs!!
(Laughs)
B: …you know, musicians are playing, by playing something it has a reaction somewhere else in the body, and the heel moves and…what you should do is actually really try to avoid that motion, absolutely try to avoid that motion
N: Mmmhmm
B: Okay, so we've learnt that groove. What you should then do is move on to the next exercise to complete the groove and that will give us three-way coordination and a brand new rock groove. So let's just watch it quickly
N: Yeah
B: I'll talk you through it, and then we'll get into playing it. So we've got me here, I think, playing along with the…
(Exercise starts playing)
B: …just a little piece of music. Yeah. Notice again how the hi-hat here is not moving…
(Exercise stops playing)
N: Mmmhmm
B: …unless it's ready to play
N: Play that one more time
B: You want that one more time?
N: And I just want to see your left hand. That's rock steady isn't it?
(Laughs)
B: The right hand's rock steady, yeah, on the hi-hat…
N: Yeah
B: …and then the left hand again…
(Exercise starts playing)
B: …only moves when it's ready to move
N: Yeah
B: So there's…
(Exercise stops playing)
B: …only the bass drum moving on the 'and' of three. Cool
N: Excellent
B: So what we should do is put this all together and show you how you practise this with the Gigajam Xtractor to make sure that you, you know, you get the necessary repetition…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …into your performance. What I'll do again is, like I did in lesson one, is that I will actually play the exercise
N: Mmmhmm
B: I'll play the exercise by building the hi-hat, then the bass drum, and then the snare drum in, as I did in, in lesson one
N: Yeah
B: That's the way you should always be building your exercises up when you're playing them for the first time. Great, let's have a listen
(Xtractor starts to play)
B: Three and, four, one, two, three and, four, that's what we're supposed to be doing. Yeah?
N: Yeah
B: So I'm gonna build the pattern up. In fact I'll bring the bass drum in first yeah?
N: Alright
B: One, two, three and, four, one, two, three and four, one, two, three and four. Hi-hat, one, two, three and four. No flicking…
N: (Laughs)
B: …when the bass drum goes. Let's get that snare drum in, one, two, three and, four, one, I'm going for it now
N: Do it
B: One, two, three and, four. Couple more bars, three and, four, one, two, three and, four.
(Xtractor stops playing)
B: Oh, perfect timing
N: (Laughs)
B: Now of course that exercise, and like many others that follow on, you should practise with the music examples, and then put it to your favourite music. Anything in common time, your ACD's, ACDC, Nirvana
N: ACD's that new band!
B: The ACD's, a well known band in my house
N: (Laughs)
B: Foo fighter's, all of those bands, you'll be able to practise these new rock grooves to using eighth notes
N: It's like, it's like you're hearing the voices because right now it's time for this…
(Theme tune starts to play)
N: …do you like the way I did that?
B: Yeah, very good actually
N: Magic. Unfortunately that is if, that is it rather, from us today. That is the end of episode two. Brian is playing us out there beautifully. All I need to say to you is to come back again for episode three and to keep listening to find out how you can get hold of your Gigajam course notes
B: Here we go