Welcome brave drummers! If you've ever thought to yourself, "man I wish I could play Bleed", then this is the place to be! At first glance this song will seem incredibly technical and possibly extremely difficult, but I assure you it will be time well spent.
Plus, here is the breakdown of the whole song, just for you!
Pattern 1:
0:00-0:50
The Feet:
The first pattern begins with two 32nd notes coming in every 3rd 16th note on the double bass. Although this pattern may take time to build up speed and endurance, once this pattern is locked in, it usually somewhat easy to maintain.
The Hands:
The right hand is playing 8th notes on the crash/hi-hat while accenting the down beat. The left hand is hitting the snare on 3 while feathering in ghost notes here and there or perhaps a stick twirl.
Pattern 2:
0:51-1:09
The Feet:
The second pattern for the feet is now two 32nd notes coming in every 5th 16th note on the double bass. This pattern is fairly similar to pattern 1 and will also not be a huge mental stress once achieved.
The Hands:
The right hand is playing 8th notes on the hi-hat while accenting the down beat. The left hand is hitting the snare on 3 while feathering in ghost notes here and there or perhaps a stick twirl.
Pattern 3:
1:09-1:24
The Feet:
The third pattern is bit trickier, it is actually a combination of patterns 1 and 2. The segment is 8 measures total with the first 2 measures being pattern 1, the next 3 measures pattern 2, 1 measure pattern 1, and last 4 measures pattern 2. Now, at first glance this seems like an incredibly random pattern, but I have a few suggestions to make this process easier. First off, sit back and listen, really listen to everything that's going on. Try and grasp the flow of the piece by singing it to yourself and you should start to see how the drums compliment the musical flow.
The Hands:
The right hand is playing 8th notes on the crash while accenting the down beat. The left hand is hitting the snare on 3 while feathering in ghost notes here and there or perhaps a stick twirl.
Pattern 4:
1:25-1:40
The Feet:
This pattern is very similar to pattern 1 in that the double bass plays two 32nd notes every 3rd 16th note, however this time the bass drum is not continuous.
The Hands:
The right hand is still playing 8th notes on the crash, however this time the hits are not accented in any particular way. The left hand is playing the snares every 3rd 16th note starting on the "e" of the first measure.
Pattern 5:
1:41-2:31
The Feet:
This pattern is 5 and half beats (quarter notes) long, though still not a very difficult beat once the pattern gets locked in. This another one of those patterns that requires a little bit of listening to really feel the groove.
The Hands:
The right hand is playing the accents with the rest of the band between a few different cymbals. The left hand is playing a bit of ghost notes, but I found the ghost notes came very naturally and actually helped me with the beat overall.
Special Note:
2:14-2:15
In the middle of this strange funky pattern, there is this weird addition of 32nd notes that makes one of the patterns in the chain feel slightly longer. There is a tad more "Umph" so to speak. Fear not! I found that all you have to do is add the extra 32nd notes and hit the first crash with the left hand and the second crash with the right hand. It should feel somewhat naturally to place your left hand first as it is placed where a ghost note normally would. (You can see this in the video at: 2:10)
Pattern 6:
2:32-3:20
The Feet:
This is the pattern that separates the men from the boys. If you're not used to good foot control, then you're in for one hell of a treat! This patterns features 5 different injections of 32nd notes spaced in different intervals as follows:
Notice how the spacing of 16th notes in between is always even. This is very important because it means your left foot will never have to lead on one of the blips! Practice this pattern very slow at first, the most frustrating part is feeling like the pattern is never the same. It can be very difficult to split your brain into keeping track of the 4/4 feel with your hands on top while focusing in on your feet. For this reason I suggest playing only the feet until you feel the pattern is comfortable.
The Hands:
The hands have it pretty easy here: The right hand is playing 8th notes on the crash accenting on the downbeats, then it switches to a closed hi-hat with accents still on the downbeat. The left hand is just playing the 3, but feel free to add in ghost notes if it helps, or if you just wanna feel cool!
Pattern 7:
3:21-3:37
The Feet:
I found this next pattern to be much simpler than most, so if you've made it this far, pat yourself and the back and consider this your reward: This pattern 5 quarter notes long, with 2 "blips" in the first beat, and 3 "blips" in the 3 and 4 beat. This music will be able to reveal this pattern more clearly below.
The Hands:
The right hand is basically just playing quarter notes. The exception is if you prefer to hit all of the crashes with the right hand, then you may play a few extra notes. However, if not, then the left hand will take over the crashes as well as keeping the snare on 3.
Pattern 8:
3:37-4:11
The Feet:
This is my favorite groove in the song! And thankfully, once again it is not a very complicated pattern! The "blips" are phrased in groupings of either "1" or "3" (it'll make sense when you see the music). The pattern is as follows:
1 3
1 3
1 3 3
1 3
1 3 3
1 3
1 3 3
1 3
etc..
The Hands:
The right hand is on a crash or china playing 8th notes with accents on the down beat. The left hand is playing the 3 with occasional ghost notes.
Pattern 9:
4:44-5:52
The Feet:
This pattern is conceptually easy, but is a bit of a challenge coordination wise. The "blips" alternate in groups of 3 then 4, however there are two "6"s thrown in there. The 6's are a bit random but if you've heard the song a few times you may already have it subconsciously memorized.
The Hands:
The right hand is playing 8th notes on the hi-hat with accents on the down beat. The left hand is playing the 3 with ghost notes as you please.
Pattern 10:
5:53-6:26
The Feet:
This is the same as pattern 6 except it starts the pattern on the 2nd 6 in the sequence. Thus producing:
The right hand is playing 8th notes on the crash with accents on the downbeat. The left hand is playing the snare on 3 and is crashing on the first beat of every other measure.
Pattern 11:
6:27-7:23
The Feet:
This pattern is very similar to pattern 4 (which is also similar to pattern 1) in that the double bass plays two 32nd notes every 3rd 16th note, however this time the bass drum is not continuous.
The Hands:
The right hand is still playing 8th notes on the crash, however this time the hits are not accented in any particular way. The left hand is playing the snares every 3rd 16th note starting on the "e" of the first measure. There are also more crashes in this segment that the left hand can help out with.
And that's it! Congratulations! If you make it through all of this you will be so happy you pushed yourself to do it. It can be incredibly frustrating at times but it leads to developing skills you never knew you had!
Time Signature:Two numbers which dictate to the reader how many of a certain type of note fit into each measure. (Figure 1)
Figure 1
Measure: A measure is described by the time signature and has vertical lines to section off each measure. (Figure 2)
Odd Time Signature: A time signature other than a number over itself as in 4/4, 8/8, 16/16, etc. (Examples of odd time signatures are in Figure 3)
A very high percent of music is written in 4/4 which means 4 quarter notes per measure. Of course one can look at this as 8/8 or 16/16, however we most commonly refer to the time signature as 4/4. The numbers in a time signature are always whole numbers, meaning there can be no 4.5/4. Instead, 4.5/4 would be written as 9/8. Although the top number can be any whole number, the bottom number can only be certain numbers which represent the different types of notes we have (Figure 4).
Below is the basic beat first in 4/4, then adapted to some stranger time signatures (Figure 5).
Exploring different time signatures and trying all different kinds of beats and fills will increase your overall archive of beats/fills. It will give you different perspectives on music and hopefully allow you to incorporate some of these interesting ideas for yourself!
Listed below are some basic examples of odd time signatures, hope you enjoy!
I'd like to start off with a disclaimer: I do not think I am the first to come up with any of these ideas, they simply came from my experience in drumming.
So what are blast beats? If you take a look at Figure 1, you'll see some very typical blast beats. Blast beats consist of multiple snare hits in a row usually done with either the right or left hand while the other free hand plays a cymbal rhythm to support it. The bass drum often follows the speed of the snare drum but also can be played double the speed; as in 16th note snares - 16th note bass drums or 16th note snares - 32th note bass drums.
Growing up I was never really much of an advocate for blast beats. To me, it always felt like a drummer's excuse for not coming up with a more rhythmically interesting pattern. Over the years I began to discover more bands and finally started to see blast beats in a different light. Drummers are doing all kinds of awesome rhythms now underneath blast beats with their feet, or in some cases accenting cymbal hits for certain rhythms. In any case it was clear to me I was going to have to step up my game on blast beats.
So I hit the studio to go practice and early on I decided to develop a certain way of practicing my blast beats (Figure 2). When I practiced this it occurred to me that while playing measure 7 I had a clear advantage to playing blast beats as the energy is now being more evenly divided between my hands versus making one hand do all of the work. For those who have studied rudiments, it is basically a flam tap without the flam (hopefully). I began to work more with this technique and I have found it makes for some very interesting patterns! If you continue to practice the exercises in Figure 2, you can also combine them to make different patterns.
Example: Measure 6 has a snare hit every 3 16th notes where as measure 7 has a snare hit every 2 16th notes. If we play two beats of measure 6 and 1 beat of measure 7, we add up to 8 16th notes. This is great for breaking simple rhythms into slightly more sophisticated ones.
I give a brief example of this technique in my video but I hope to add more to it soon!
Linear Drumming: A drum pattern that consists of only one "voice" (meaning cymbals, drums, or any kind of sound) per strike.
The most basic example is to take the basic beat and remove the hi-hats on the 1, 2, 3, and 4. (Figure 1) Many of you will recognize this beat as the generic "dance beat" or "techno beat".
So what's great about linear playing? If you had a chance to read the previous blog, you understand that incorporating more limbs disperses the energy making it much easier to play stronger and faster. This is assuming of course that we are playing one note at a time which just happens to be the definition of linear playing! So in a sense, linear playing is one of the most efficient ways you can play! Of course the most efficient way isn't always necessarily the sound you are looking for, but it's a good start.
Figure 2 displays some simple examples of linear grooves:
There are a couple important notes to make here:
1. There is always an accented snare on 2 and 4, or only 3.
2. The other snare hits are ghost notes.
By following these simple two rules, you will find all kinds of way to writes awesome grooves!
All of us drummers are constantly trying fills and beats in different ways which usually help us play with more ease. By different ways I mean trying different kinds of sticking (right or left hand), different kinds of limbs (hands or feet or both), and different kinds of techniques. An example of sticking might be playing a paradiddle (RLRR) between the hi-hat and snare rather than playing single strokes (RLRL) to achieve the same sound. (Figure 1).
But ultimately, we usually end up asking ourselves; what is the most energy efficient way to play?
Well first off, to be energy efficient you're going to want to incorporate all of your limbs as much as you can. To get a feel for why extra limbs help, start with doing a 16th note exercise (Figure 2) with just the right hand, then the right and left, then the right the left and your right foot, then finally all 4 limbs. You'll find that when playing (RLFG; R = Right hand, L = Left hand, F = Right foot, G = Left foot) that it is much easier on your body, rather than stressing one limb.
This application is so relevant in metal and heavy styles of drumming that I can't think of a single metal album that doesn't have at least a few of these patterns containing RLFG. There are many variations of this pattern of course, you can find these in Figure 3.
You may have noticed by now I have left out what may seem like a very simple variation; RFLG. The amazing part is where as this pattern may seem as easy as the other, I can assure you it is light years more difficult. The bright side is that this patterns unlocks huge potential for all kinds of styles and patterns. This is because your hands end up evenly spaced almost as if you were just playing RLRL (Figure 4) which allows for easy manipulation of rhythms. This differs from RLFG in that in this pattern your hands are playing the first 2 16th notes, 1 and e.
