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Welcome to the debut edition of "The Drum Corner" I am Sulli - founding member/drummer for Seventh Rize. I have spent over 25 years in the music industry, working at various capacities and on all levels! I began drumming at the ripe young age of 5 after witnessing KISS during their "Dynasty" tour- n experience that changed my life. Massive obsession with music and drums from then on! By the age of 14 I was playing professionally on a regional basis and a few years later, began touring nationally. I have a career long endorsement with Sonor Drums, Aquarian Drumheads, Ahead Drumsticks and Sabian Cymbals. In addition to Seventh Rize, I have had the privilege to tour and record with a wide variety of artists - Texas Country Star "Aaron Watson", America's Got Talent Season 1 Winner "Terry Fator", Mark Slaughter of "Slaughter", Jeff LaBar of "Cinderella", Bruce Turgon of "Foreigner"...to name a few. To be a working musician, it's of the upmost importance to have your basic "tools" ready to go. A basic set of skills along with a strong work ethic will keep your co-workers happy, the listener moving and YOU drumming!! My plan for this series is to go back to the basics, but with a little twist and build from there. I practice what I preach and these very ideas and concepts that will be covered are in my regular rehearsal routine. Tried and true techniques that have helped build my career and will help strengthen yours!
This month's lesson is centered around what I would call "the money groove". A basic rock pattern that has been used more times than can be counted - but once mastered, it will improve your time keeping abilities, endurance and build a stronger foundation to build everything else upon. This exercise also illustrates another important element - the space within the groove! Drums are drums, what separates us apart is our individual soul, feel and passion for playing. As drummers, we are a very unique breed and what is produced through our playing is a combination of so many factors. This is why you can have 10 drummers all play this groove and each one of the them will "sound" slightly different from one another.
So, the basic pattern is in standard 4/4 time (4 beats per measure)broken down you have the hi hat doing eight notes hitting "1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and", the kick drum will impact on "1" and "3" and finally the snare will nail it home on "2" and "4". Very basic, right? Well, now here is what I challenge you to do. In awareness of time keeping, get a click track - set it to a desired starting tempo say 120 beats per minute (bpm). Begin playing this pattern and only this pattern, no cymbal or tom hits AT ALL staying restricted to the 3 "voices" (kick, snare, hi hat). Repeat the pattern over and over for a minimum of 3 minutes to start, more advanced players jump it to 5 or 6 minutes. Once complete, rev up the tempo, possibly at 5 or 10 bpm intervals. Continue doing so until your get to a tempo that will only allow you a few minutes to play. Be sure to make either mental notes or physically write your progress down. That way you can reference back to what you accomplished on previous rehearsals and grow!
Some other ideas, accent the "1, 2, 3, 4" (downbeats) on the hi hat with a harder hit, keep the "and's" (upbeats) on the lighter side, play with the dynamics have fun! Explore keeping the hi hat closed tightly for half of the time and then loosen the hi hat slightly for the second half. Be sure that when the hi hat and snare and/or hi hat and kick hit together that it is nice and tight, don't slug your way through it. Regarding tempo...once you are done with the faster tempos slow it down - playing this groove at slower tempos can be a challenge!
Side note - when looking at the drum tab- the kick drum is the first space from the bottom, the snare is the third space from the bottom and the hi hat is on the top.
This "back to basics" approach will improve your overall confidence on the kit. Whatever your current rehearsal routine is composed of, at the moment keep it in place. Having these three elements in your "skill set" or "bag of tricks" will only make you a better musician. I want to thank you for your time and hope that you find this first lesson informative, it is my honor to be with you over the next year! I encourage you to reach out to me anytime with any questions or shoot me an update on your progress, as I would love to brag about you during the next lesson! In the coming issues, we will expand on this basic idea with additional patterns and how it impacts your ability to construct the "right" drum part when writing original material or when cramming to learn material for other artists gigs. Plus, we will throw in some really cool drum licks to spice it up! Thanks again - make people move to the groove and Happy Drumming!!!
Best, Sulli thedrumcorner@gmail.com