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.
Most people consider the 6 stroke roll to be a rudiment that is played with an 8th note, followed by 4 16th notes, and then finished with another 8th note. This produces the rhythm 1 - & - a - 2 - e - &; which is played R LLRR L. (R = Right Hand; L = Left Hand) This rudiment itself is great to practice for help with double strokes as it involves doubles with each hand.
Now that we have an understanding of the 6 stroke roll in 16th notes and 8th notes, I want to change the rhythm of the roll to introduce a new feel. This time I am going to count my strokes as 16th note triplets. This produces the rhythm 1 - Trip - let - & - Trip - let. This is also played RLLRRL, except that now every hit is evenly spaced out rhythmically. This roll is great for flashy applications as it is relatively easy to speed up and does not require a lot of energy to keep going. However although it is easy to be flashy with, you will also find tons of practical uses for it.
If you feel you have a good understanding of the 6 stroke roll in triplets, then it's time to move on to the 9 stroke roll! This roll is the same 6 strokes as the last, except now we are going to add a "RLL" to the end. This results in the pattern: RLLRRLRLL or RLLRRL-RLL. Notice that the ending 3 strokes and the beginning 3 strokes are the same. My advice is to accent the single strokes first while playing all the doubles as taps.
You're in the car driving to wherever when you hear your favorite song come on. All the sudden a light comes on in your head that tells you that you know this song and before you know it your hands are on their way tapping and dancing along with your favorite tune. Everyone is a natural drummer to some extent and the best part is it's a great way to exercise and relieve stress!
BBC News did an excellent article on the amount of calories burned per hour. BBC News shows that some drummers who are performing fast paced songs can burn up to 400-600 calories an hour. Although when checking sites MyFitnessPal.com and FitDay.com, they estimated around 200 calories burned per hour. According to the same site, MyFitnessPal.com, the estimated amount of calories is about equal to running a 6-min mile. Twice.
Regardless of where you look you may find yourself surprised at just how hard drummers are working. (even when they have big grins on their faces!) And it doesn't stop there, these previous numbers are not inclusive to the drummers who are perfecting double bass techniques. If you really wanted to turn up the heat and burn some serious calories, you could look into double bass techniques to get all 4 of your limbs moving and grooving to your favorite tunes while burning some serious calories.
By now I can only assume you are calculating the costs for a drum kit and thinking about how to deal with all the noise that comes with it. The solution?
The Drum Work Out only requires the basic low costing tools any drummer would have! Sticks (Duh), a practice pad, a stand for the practice pad, and a seat (throne). These tools allow anyone to learn how to use their hands to groove out to their favorite songs and rhythms, all at a reasonable volume. Of course, noise will always come from banging a hard wood stick onto a surface of anything, but try dampening your practice pads with a towel if the noise is still too much!
The Drum Work Out will incorporate physical exercises, guided technique, and most importantly a fun time while working out! Feel good about burning off calories and building progress towards mastering the rhythms of your favorite songs.
Sign up now, the GRAND OPENING is this Wednesday, Dec. 4th.
Schedule
Monday and Wednesday from 6pm–7pm Saturday from 1pm–2pm
Location 2663 Crest Drive Carlsbad, CA 92008
Materials To Bring: - Practice Pad (With Stand) - Throne - Sticks - Gym Wear (Shorts, Shoes and a Shirt) - Positive Attitude
Pricing 1 work out - $25/week 2 work outs - $40/week 3 work outs - $60/week
We have limited space! Please contact me ASAP to reserve your spot now!
I often find people carry a very negative connotation with the word "programming" when it comes to anything musical. It seems we always want our art to be "pure" and free from machine. However, with the recent drastic improvements in technology, it appears art has a new place with machine. In terms of programming drums, I suggest throwing out the negative connotations or negative stereotypes you may have heard and suggest pondering the alternative, how can I use this?
To really understand how to use today's equipment, I'd like you to think back to the most basic technology a drummer could want; a metronome. What benefits come with this? An incredible increase in drummers' overall timing. This is the first step in developing a technological tool to help us advance our timing skills. The metronome eventually gained more and more precision and became more and more widely accessible. The overall affect? Drummers are now expected to have great timing, as are all musicians! But again, another step towards trying to further perfect our mastery of timing with the use of technology.
In today's world, with programs such as Garage Band, Logic, Guitar Pro, Pro Tools, or Cubase, we are allowed extreme precision and tools that were unfathomable to those who had only a simple metronome of the past. These programs offer the ability to change the click tone, how loud the tone is, all kinds of different speeds, and so much more. But really, it's just a fancy metronome. So how can we use this in the most effective way in today's world?
First off, learn to program drums! It's very easy to learn if you spend some time with whichever program you happen to have. Once you've learned to program, you know right off the bat that writing drums on the computer is vastly different than writing drums in your studio. At first this seems obvious because you can obviously program things that are unplayable. Where as this is one way in which the writing process differs, I find that programming drums forces me to think further ahead and construct my drumming in a more organized fashion. In any case, you'll likely find new ideas quickly in programming as the patterns almost create themselves!
Once you have concocted some crazy programmed drums, my suggestion is to try and learn what you've wrote! It sounds crazy -and in many cases it absolutely is! But that's not the point; by practicing things that you program, you're likely to push yourself to play in ways you had never really thought of before. We tend to fall into the same fills and patterns as drummers when we get comfortable with them. This is a great way to force you into thinking differently and possibly constructing fills/beats you may not have otherwise thought of.
Speaking from experience, I've programmed drums to many video game songs and learned many of the parts. It affected my playing so much I completely switched up the way I set up my kit and my entire approach to my current kit. (I'll post a link to video game songs at the bottom)
The other amazing advantage you have over your drummer ancestors is the ability to have a drummer companion playing exercises with you, note for note. Programming drums gives you this ability and by being able to slow it down to any speed, it allows you to play anything your mind could ever think of. This ability has led tons of musicians to become true masters of their craft and challenge themselves into extremely complicated drum beats and fills.
The other side to programming drums is being able to present something to someone digitally in a quick and coherent manner. Programming drums allows you to work with musicians all over the world! Not to mention you get to write your own stuff whenever you want. It also works great for putting together the framework for an album or EP.
Overall I hope that you see the competitive edge that programming drums gives to drummers and why we shouldn't just scoff at the idea.
