Natalie: Hi there Gigajamers, welcome to the show. This is the essential drum skills course, part one. I am Natalie Barrass, and this is Brian Green. Brian, how are you today?
Brian: Very well thank you, and you?
N: I'm very well, yes. I'm gonna call you our Gigajam guru, if that's alright?
B: If that helps, yes
N: Our dynamite drummer
B: (Laughs) Over the top, but thank you
N: Alright, okay. Gigajam. it says two things to me. Well it says many things to me
B: Right
N: Achievement and objectives
B: Yes
N: We've achieved a lot
B: I think we have done in the, the last sort of four or five shows, absolutely
N: Mmm
B: Hence our viewers out there can be called Gigajamers
N: Exactly, Gigajamers, it's a good title, I like it
B: Yes
N: Our objectives?
B: Yeah. As always, we're going to set out what we're going to try and achieve in these thirty minutes or so, and then get on with it and do it
N: (Laughs)
B: Hopefully
N: In your words then…
B: Okay
N: …let's get on with it and do it
B: Yeah, okay. Let's have a look at the learning objectives for today. So, just to remind myself, we've got, yeah we've gotta develop the control of subdivisions in groove playing…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …is the big heading today. And then what we're gonna do is create new grooves, by employing new patterns on the hi-hat
N: Mmmhmm
B: Which is a new one. And then we're going to extend our three-way coordination, the skill of being able to control our limbs…
N: (Laughs)
B: …through the use of the hi-hat
N: Alright so subdivisions
B: Subdivision, let's just have a quick chat about that
N: Yeah
B: So again, just to reiterate. Quarter notes, eight notes and sixteenth notes. A quarter note is worth one beat, and what we've done over the last few weeks or so, is we've looked at eighth notes, which are subdividing that beat. So we've taken one beat and subdivided it into two…
N: Mmm
B: …to give us eighth notes
N: Yeah
B: And we've subdivided it again, into four notes, to give us sixteenth notes
N: Mmmhmm
B: Okay? So that's what subdividing is about. And it's at the core of time keeping. Okay? So what we're going to do today is study that further. But where we, where we started off earlier, we subdivided using the single stroke roll on the snare drum
N: Yeah
B: Then we took the single stroke roll of subdivisions with eighth notes and sixteenth notes and moved it around the kit as fills
N: Mmmhmm
B: Now what we're going to do is something a little bit different. We're introducing the hi-hat so that we can play more patterns on the hi-hat, other than the quarter note that we've got as our example in our groove playing thus far
N: Yeah I was gonna say. Previously it's just almost been a time keeper hasn't it?
B: Yeah
N: Just every beat, there it was, constant and steady
B: Well one would hope so!
N: (Laughs)
B: These are going to remain a time keeping constant and steady, but in these new subdivisions of eighth notes and sixteenth notes. And to be able to play them, we actually have to have control of the time. It's a little bit different now because we're going to, instead of playing a single stroke roll between two hands…
N: Yeah
B: …we're going to play quarter notes, eighth notes and sixteenth notes with just our right hand, our right hand in this particular instance
N: Being a right handed player?
B: Correct
N: Alright, this sounds tricky, but doable
B: Yeah it's definitely doable. Shall we have a look at our first exercise?
N: Indeed let's
B: And then perhaps we'll even employ the video so that I can just talk through what's going on here. So we've got the exercise here. We've got a bar of quarter notes, a bar of eighth notes and a bar of sixteenth notes. The difference though is that they're played on the hi-hat
N: Alright
B: Okay? Let's have a little…
N: Let's have a little look
B: Great
(Video starts)
B: Okay, so just a steady pulse on the hi-hat, here's the eighth notes, and those are the sixteenth notes
N: Yeah
B: Okay, so we're just going to play that pattern with one hand on the hi-hat.
N: Mmmhmm
B: Okay? Shall we go for it?
N: I say good luck to you Brian, but I know you can do it
B: Absolutely. I'm going to use the Xtractor to play along with. The reason being that's going to give me a steady pulse. So when I change subdivisions, I've got to bear in mind that I've got to keep my pulse steady
N: Mmmhmm
B: Okay? So all we're gonna do is play along with the track here. I'm going to jump on the acoustic kit and play it on the hi-hat singles
N: Alright and this is with the hi-hat closed?
B: Absolutely, yeah. I want us to talk about that. Make sure you get a nice tight sound by just having a nice even pressure from your foot. You don't wanna lean into it to keep it tight, you should just be able to keep the weight of your leg on it to keep a nice tight chippy sound there
N: Or heavy shoes?
B: Or very heavy shoes
N: (Laughs)
B: Here we go. Let's have a go
(Xtractor starts)
B: Two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one and, two and, three and, four and, one e and a, two e and a….four e and a, one, two, try and keep breathing…
N: Mmmhmm
(laughs)
B: …whilst counting one and, two and, three and, four and, one e and a, two….three e and a, four e and a. Now just one of the things, this will help in your overall playing, is just a little bit of concentrated time on your right hand movements
N: Mmmhmm
B: So in itself it's going to improve your flexibility and motion in the right hand
N: Alright. Talk me through the sort of positioning of the arm then, and the movement in it
B: Okay, so quite as it always is. Down by your side, with a, pretty much a ninety degree thing going on. Quite low on the hi-hat and making sure that you're not holding your elbow up…
N: Right
B: …creating tension from the shoulders. Just nice and relaxed down by your side, so that when you're playing just using your wrist. I mean you're not going to get into that position…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …where you're going to have to hold your shoulders up. It's good to be relaxed, shoulders down by your side, and just playing quite a low straight arm…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …elbow not tucked in, in there, but just relaxed down by your side
N: It's all about being comfortable isn't it?
B: It's all about being comfortable. It's all about being relaxed. And of course, you know, different people have got different relaxed positions, you know sort of…
N: (Laughs) Mine's usually lying down in bed actually!
B: Well not good for playing the drums, but..
N: Mmmhmm, yeah
B: Okay, but, you know, as I was saying before in previous shows is that it's important that you find your position where you're relaxed. But the general rules are relax your shoulders, arms down by your side, sitting, you know, with your feet evenly spaced apart in that kind of position
N: Mmmhmm
B: So you don't wanna be holding anything up here. And that'll help you stay relaxed. So if you play that exercise as such, you can now with your right hand, move between quarter notes, eighth notes and sixteenth notes
N: Mmmhmm
B: Now we're going to use those, to play grooves in both this lesson and the lesson afterwards
N: Alright, in lesson six
B: Correct, so, you know, spend some time making sure you understand the timing of that and how it feels and relaxing the motion
N: Mmmhmm
B: But we're gonna move on quite quickly of course
N: As always
B: As usual I'm afraid, because of the time constraints, and we're gonna look at building a rock groove with eighth notes on the hi-hat. Okay, so what we're got here, if we just look at the exercise. We're gonna take you back to the principles that we set out at the very beginning of the course, which is when you're building new grooves, when you're building any pattern whatsoever, understanding the individual components. Now what we've got here, if I just look at the screen, we're going to play eighth notes on the hi-hat…
N: Yes
B: …as part of our rock groove. And what we're going to do is play the very first bass drum and snare drum pattern, with the bass drum on beats one and three
N: Yes
B: So no fancy nonsense
N: (Laughs)
B: Bass drum on one and three and then the snare drum on two and four.
N: Right
B: But we're going to build that up over two exercises to give us a full three-way coordination
N: Alright
B: So as always building to three-way coordinates, through one-way, understanding the hi-hat pattern
N: Yeah
B: Two-way, with the bass drum, with the snare drum, and then putting the whole package together. Okay, so let's have a…let me intro...let me play along with the track
N: Yes
B: And then I'll build the part through
N: Alright
B: Okay? Showing you how you should do that
N: I mean it is so important isn't it? To not run straight in there, not to try and do everything at once, just to let your body get used to it?
B: Definitely
N: In your brain and with your muscle memory?
B: Correct. Make sure you're understanding what you're doing. Build the parts up bit by bit. Use lots of thinking time, don't, exactly, don't just rush into it. Let's give it a spin here with the support of the track
(Xtractor starts)
B: Okay, a bit quicker. So the hi-hat, one and, two and, three and…and, two and, three and four and. So I've gotta put the bass drum on one and three
N: Yeah
B: Okay? One and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and,…..four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and. Again, d'you know, just try and get the flow going
N: Mmmhmm
B: Try and stay nice and relaxed. Just use your wrists
N: For you, does that feel like a big, sort of, step up from the original rock grooves that we had?
B: Yeah, you're playing twice as many notes on the hi-hat. So it's quite a development. Okay, so I think we've probably demonstrated that quite nicely
(Xtractor stops)
B: Now that's two-way coordination with the hi-hat and the bass drum. What we need, now need to do, is introduce the hi-hat and the snare drum
N: Yeah
B: So it's the same, it's absolutely the same concept. It's just the other part of the equation. So I'm going to play hi-hat and snare drum now
N: Okay
B: Again I'm going to use the support of the track. Just keeps it a little bit more interesting. I think the viewers at home might find it, you know, it's supportive playing with a little bit of a backing band going on there
(Xtractor starts)
N: Mmmhmm
B: Helps with the count, keeps it nice and even. So one and, two and, three and, four so you can hear that's what I'm supposed to play, snare drum on two and four. So hi-hat in. One and, two and, three, okay a few bars with the snare drum. One and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and. Now just one common thing…
(Xtractor stops)
B: …that students will do. They're coordination thus far has taught them to go one, two, so there's a great temptation for students to go one and
N: Yes
B: That's a little trick we might, a little trap they might fall into
N: Yeah because you might want to do what, maybe what the right hand's doing
B: Yes exactly. And that's what they're muscle memory has taught them to learn to do
N: Okay. Are you going to give us an example of how it sounds all together, or are we gonna leave that until part two?
B: No, I think we can probably just play this, show it how it's supposed to sound, in this first part…
(Xtractor starts)
B: …and then we'll move on to sixteenths in the second half
N: Okay
B: See how it goes, one and, two and, three and, four and. Two-way coordination, then bring in the snare drum, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and….one and, two and, three…
N: Okay. Brian I'm gonna leave you playing, no carry on
B: Carry on?
N: Carry on please
B: Okay
N: I want to listen to you in the break. And we'll see you back here for part two
B: Thank you, one and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and…
N: Hello and welcome back to part two of episode five. If you've just joined us, where have you been? Where have you been? We need to recap
B: We do, absolutely. So in the first half what we looked at is introducing subdivisions onto the hi-hat so we can build more varied grooves
N: Mmmhmm
B: We got as far as playing three-way coordination, playing eighth notes on the hi-hat, two and four on the snare drum, one and three on the bass drum
N: Mmm
B: What I want to do now in the second half, is build up the sixteenth note hi-hat pattern, so we've got yet another groove
N: Yeah
B: And then we'll go on to put it all together, which is quite a tricky timing thing
N: It's gonna get quick isn't it?
B: It's gonna be quick so when you're practising bear that in mind, and probably ratchet down the tempo of the exercises. You know, so..
N: Really? Okay, so if you're, you know, if you're jamming along to one of your tracks choose a slow one. If you've got the Gigajam software…
B: Slow it down
N: …take it right down
B: Yeah definitely. I mean we'll get straight into exercise five here.
N: Mmmhmm
B: Which is, what we're going to do here is we're going to play sixteenth notes on the hi-hat. Typical two-way coordination building the thing
N: Yeah
B: I'm going to introduce the bass drum on one and three
N: Okay
B: But remember we're playing even more notes on the hi-hat now
N: Alright
B: So our right hand will be going quite quickly
N: Mmmhmm
B: It's probably worth just slowing your exercise down, give yourself some counting time, some thinking time as well to make sure that you're getting it right. So this is set at seventy. I'm going to drop this down to sixty
N: Okay, this is sixty BPM?
B: Sixty beats in a minute, okay? And then, cos I'm getting pretty old these days….
N: (Laughs)
B: …so here we go
(Xtractor starts)
N: One a second
B: Correct. Okay so sixteenth notes, you can hear the hi-hat going there, so it's reasonably quick, bring the bass drum in on one and three
N: Yeah
B: Usual thing, build it up. One e and a, two e and a, three e and a, four e and a. Get all the posture and tempos going. Keep your hand nice and even. Introduce the bass drum
N: You're looking relaxed there Brian
B: I'm trying to be! Three e and a, four e and a, one e and a, two e and a, three e and a, four e and a, one e and a, two e and a, three e and a, four e and a
N: Counting out loud to keep your tempo
B: Yes, counting out loud to keep your tempo. Try and keep your concentration up as well
N: Don't get distracted by girls with red spiky hair
B: Definitely not! Oooh I think I was there
N: (Laughs)
B: Four e and a. But of course I'm just playing this exercise, you know, round and round here….
N: Yeah
B: …just to give the viewers at home the idea that, just don't play it once or twice…
N: No
B: …you've really got to play it quite a lot
(Xtractor stops)
N: This is all about the muscle memory isn't it?
B: Yes, it's about, you know, teaching your hand, teaching your arm and your foot what the motion is. And the repetition of that motion is what will make the muscles remember the motion, and make it relaxed when you repeat it. So the more you repeat it the more relaxed it gets
N: Mmm
B: So what we've done there, as I've said before, we've built, we've built the two-way coordination up with the hi-hat pattern introducing the bass drum. That's how I tend to work
N: Yeah
B: The right hand then the foot, you can do it the other way round but…
N: Why is that?
B: It's just it feels quite natural for me to come from the right hand. Some people get the foot in first and then bring the hi-hat in
N: Mmmhmm
B: You should be able to do both, but when you're learning just do the one that gets you there
N: Mmm the one that feels most good for you
B: Absolutely. So what we're going to do now, is do the other side of the two-way coordination, which is, probably you're going to tell me
N: Er, with the snare drum
B: Very good, so you're on the case
N: Few!
B: That was a close call wasn't it?
N: Yes
(laughs)
B: Okay, let's dive straight into it. So we're going to do exactly the same thing again, but hi-hat with the snare drum
N: Yeah
B: Bring the hi-hat in first, bring the snare drum in second. Count, concentrate. Again it's sixteenth notes, so I'm going to just drop the tempo down a little bit
N: Mmmhmm
B: To help the old man out here
N: (Laughs) Take it down to sixty BPM
B: Drop it down to sixty
N: Does it go slower than that?
B: It does, yeah, it goes as slow as you'd like it to
N: Good
B: But sixty's quite comfortable. Here we go
(Xtractor starts)
B: Two e and a, three e and a, so you've got your count in. Get yourself sitting comfortably
N: Yeah
B: Make sure you know what you're doing, then go for it when you're ready, and a, four e and a, one e and a, two e and a, three e and a, four e and a.
N: How are you feeling with that?
B: Not too bad
N: Good
B: So I'm gonna bring in the snare drum now
N: Mmmhmm
B: Three, four
N: On two and four
B: Correct, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one. When you become more comfortable…
N: Mmmhmm
B: …you don't have to count all of the sixteenth notes
N: Oh really?
B: Well, when you become more and more familiar you naturally remember what's going on. Your hand gets into a pattern
N: Mmmmhmm
B: But it's well worth counting them. Make sure you're playing what you think you're supposed to be playing
N: (Laughs)
B: One e and a, two e and a, three e and a, four e and a, one e and a, two e and a, three e and a, four e and a, one e…, two e and a, three e and a, four e and a, one e and a, two e and a, three e and a, four e and a
(Xtractor stops)
N: One. Oh, it's stopped!
B: Yes
N: Just as I was getting into the groove
B: Hey
N: (Laughs)
B: Often like that
N: Indeed it is
B: Just a little technical point, if I may introduce that?
N: Yeah
B: When you're playing your sixteenth notes, there probably is a tendency to play slightly lower on the hi-hat in terms of your arm pattern. You haven't got as much time to move away and make larger motions
N: You mean playing closer to it?
B: Exactly
N: Right
B: So the stick is more likely, more likely to be coming a shorter distance away from the hi-hat each time
N: Mmmhmm
B: Now that can give you the impression of feeling a little bit cramped, with the hand underneath…
N: Yes
B: …now you, quite a lot of students, and when you're playing, get stick knocking
N: Well I had that in practice, didn't I?
B: Absolutely
N: Thankfully you didn't see it
B: Yes you're just trying to convince everybody that you've been practising
N: No I did!
B: But, you know, moving on
N: (Laughs)
B: So you can get that, thing going on
N: Yeah
B: I find it a little difficult to reproduce now
N: Well…
B: Errr
N: (Laughs)
B: But anyway, so that sort of cramped sensation is one that students come up with. That's fine, work with it, get used the to height of the stick. I'll just play a couple of bars…
N: Yeah
B: …and you'll just see a slight adjustment to give myself a little bit more space under the hand
N: So you're just moving it up slightly when it comes to that…
B: Yeah
N: …second and fourth beat?
B: Yeah. I'm aware that, you know, there's a limited amount of space, and it's what, you know, one of those, there's a big discussion point in drumming circles with how you deal with that. But I just, I just take a little bit of movement out. Also creates a bit of lopiness in the hi-hat pattern and instead of having tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, you end up with more of a too, to, to, to, too, to, to, to, kind of sound
N: Giving it an accent?
B: Yeah, it gives a bit of an accent, gives a bit of a wave to the performance as well, so that actually helps your sound to a large degree
N: Mmm
B: Okay, so moving on, I want to put the whole thing together, and then we've got a final exercise which focuses on time keeping. So, two-way coordination, just to recap, hi-hat bass drum…
N: Yes
B: …two-way coordination, hi-hat snare drum. Let's put the whole thing together
N: Three-way coordination
B: Correct, in exercise seven here. So again, I'm going to play along with the track to keep me in time
N: (Laughs)
B: It's for the best, quite frankly
N: Any excuse!
B: Any excuse. And what I'm going to do here is again build up through my two-way coordination, up to my three-way coordination, okay
N: Mmmhmm. Starting on the hi-hat
B: Yeah
N: Then bringing in the bass?
B: I'll bring in the bass and then the snare. Any combination of those two is absolutely fine. I'm gonna drop it down to sixty, so I don't embarrass myself
N: (Laughs)
B: And here we go
(Xtractor starts)
B: Two, three e and a, four e and a. So bring in the hi-hat
N: Yeah
B: With a good sense of the tempo. Three, four, one, two, three, that feels good. In with the bass drum, three, four, one, two, three, four. Okay, feeling settled
N: Yeah
B: I think I'll bring in the snare drum next bar
N: Looking relaxed as well
B: One, two, you're very kind…
N: Thank you
B: …three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. Feel okay?
N: Yeah. I feel fine
(laughs)
B: Okay, great. So again, as always what you would do…
(Xtractor stops)
B: …is practise that exercise round and round and round. And then get some examples of music that you could play along with
N: Yeah
B: Again, because you've got some sixteenth notes in there, try and find some slow tracks from your record collection, so that you can play along with those. And again, most, most music in common time, that patterns going to fit
N: Mmmhmm
B: Right, I'm going to get a wriggle on here, if I may?
N: You may
B: Because I really want to get the, this last exercise in, which is developing control of subdivisions on the hi-hat
N: Alright
B: Now this is where, this is quite advanced really. And I'm going to introduce it now because I think it's very important that people can play different, the different subdivision and the grooves on the hi-hat. We're going to play exercise eight. You're going to play a bar of a rock groove…
N: Yes
B: …with quarter notes…
N: Okay
B: …on the hi-hat. Then we're gonna play the same bar of rock groove but with eighth notes
N: Alright
B: Then we're gonna play the same bar of rock groove with sixteenth notes
N: And then are we gonna loop it round and keep going?
B: We're gonna loop it round and round and keep going, and that is great time keeping exercise. Now, we're going to play it at around sixty beats per minute
N: Few
B: So it's gonna sound slow in the first bar, but by the time we get to the last one it's gonna sound pretty quick
N: Alright then
B: Okay? So knock it down to sixty, I'll give you about thirty or forty seconds of this, and see if you can hear it
(Xtractor starts)
B: Here we go. Bar of quarter notes, eighth notes, then sixteenths
N: Good luck
B: Two, three, four, one and, two and, three and, four and, one e and a, two e and a, three e and a, four….and again, one, two…
N: That's our quarter notes
B: …three, quarter notes, eighths
B & N: two and, three and,
N: four and
B: one e and a, two e and a, three e and a
N: This is the sixteenths
B: There you go, back again round to the quarter notes. And you'd practise that around and around.
(Xtractor stops)
B: You'd get used to those changes, so the change from the quarters to the eighths, the eighths to the sixteenths, the sixteenths back to the quarters
N: Keeping it going round
B: Absolutely
N: Practice makes perfect
B: As always
N: Indeed. Now, you like to practise to the theme tune don't you?
B: Yeah, but not at these tempos
(Theme tune starts to play)
B: Not sixteenths, I'll try the quarters and eighths, yeah?
N: No, I want you to go all the way there Brian!
B: Yeah I'm sure you do. It ain't gonna happen!
N: Come one
B: (Laughs)
N: That is it from us for today. Episode five is over. We are half way through our course. Half way to achieving grade one in the drums. Very exciting. Join us again, here, the Gigajam essential drum skills course part one, where we'll be back for episode six