To Swing or Not To Swing.....!!!!!!

Other Snare Accents Within A Groove

This is a basic collection of exercises (using the same grooves in my previous post on ghost note studies) to give students some ideas on other possible snare placements within a 4/4 rock/pop/funk groove. All snare notes are played with the left hand (or right hand if you are left handed).

For a start, focus on getting all snare notes to play at equal volume. Always count out loud in the beginning as this adds to the awareness of your note placements. Start out slowly with the metronome set at 50 BPM (or slower if need be) with 16th note subdivisions switched on (try to nail the clicks as accurately as possible). This will help develop accuracy in note placements.

Also, I always try to practice applying a similar concept the great Max Roach did. That is to practice playing all right hand notes soft, left hand loud, bass drum loud. Then right hand loud, left hand soft and bass drum loud. Followed by right hand loud, left hand loud and bass drum soft. This should give you enough basic flexibility to play dynamically in a rock/pop/funk setting.

All the best!

Basic Ghost Note Studies For The Drum Kit

This is a collection of some basic exercises for ghost note placements in a pop/rock setting. Have fun!!

How to Practice with a Metronome

The metronome is probably the single most important device that every musician should practice with but somehow, so many fear and even hate it! 

Honestly, I was once the same but I have since found an interesting practice method (suggested by one of my mentors, Darryn Farrugia of DrumTech) that is just so logical and effective. Since I have been asked this question countless times in classes/workshops, I thought this might be the perfect 1st musical exercise to post on the blog....so here goes:-

Most of the time we start off our practice WAY TOO FAST!! Fast playing rely on trained reflexes that is embedded in the muscle memory so if we have none to begin with, how can we expect ourselves to play a certain lick or musical phrase at its original recorded speed at the instance? We need to first slow the lick or phrase down and work our way up. I generally like to slow most things down to crotchet = 50 BPM. So for example, if the lick I want to learn is played in a song that is 80BPM, I will slow it down to 50BPM and tackle it from there.

Next, this is where the breakthrough happened for me....we need to practice with SUBDIVISIONS!!! Most of the time when we rush or drag, it is due to our unfamiliarity towards the spaces in between each beat (pulse). So, instead of always guessing when each beat might fall (click) next, we try to familiarize ourselves with the spaces in between by practicing to smaller subdivisions clicking in the metronome. At 50-79BPM, the goal is to be able to practice to 16th-note (semi-quavers) subdivisions clicking in the metronome. For a start, if you find it too difficult to focus (especially when playing triplet phrases), try to first nail the phrase you are practicing with just 8th- notes (quavers) clicking. One you are comfortable playing to the 8th-note subdivisions, turn on the 16th note subdivisions. At 80-100BPM, I would primarily practice with 8th-note subdivisions.

Now that you have understood the concept (hopefully I am clear enough), you might want to first go through a simple warm-up exercise which I practice to help prep the ears and mind before a full blown practice session.

At 50BPM, with 16th-note subdivisions clicking (8th notes first if you find 16th-notes too much too handle) I will play a bar of quarter-notes followed by a bar of 8th-notes then a bar of 8th-note triplets and finally a bar of 16th-notes. From here, without stopping, go through the bars backwards; start with 16th-notes then 8th-note triplets then 8th-notes and finally quarter-notes. Try to do this non-stop for at least 5 minutes. This exercise is really useful since it adds/subtracts only 1 note per beat in every new bar and this helps you to learn the spaces in between each beat in a steady fashion.

Warm Up Ex. :- Quarter Notes - 8th Notes - 8th Note Triplets - 16th Notes - 8th Note Triplets - 8th Notes - Quarter Notes

When you feel up to it, you can challenge yourself by adding more bars in between those already suggested above....such as quintuplets (5 notes in each beat), sextuplets (6 notes in each beat), septuplets (7 notes in each beat) and of course, 32nd-notes (8 notes in each beat).

Warm Up Ex. 2 :- Quarter Notes - 8th Notes - 8th Note Triplets - 16th Notes - Quintuplets - Sextuplets - Septuplets - 32nd Notes - Septuplets - Sextuplets - Quintuplets - 16th Notes - 8th Note Triplets - 8th Notes - Quarter Notes

Give this a try and let me know if there are any questions!!

Cheers,

Alvin Tan

The Music Lab

www.themusiclab.com.sg

About This Blog!!

This blog is created in hope to collate some of the best musical ideas and exercises I can lay my hands on and share it with as may people as I possibly can......