Drum Lesson 7 - Alternated Patterns Part 3

Hello again fellow drummers, musicians and followers. This is the seventh edition of my drum lesson series which covers the third and final part of the Alternating Patterns that introduces Ghost Notes. This notes are created from my lesson occurred on May 8, 2013 at my instructor's studio at Willis Music Store on Hurstbourne Lane here Louisville Ky. This lesson builds upon playing on the Hi-Hat and snare (Alternating Patterns Part 1) and playing on two surface patterns (Alternating Patterns 2); I recommend that you take a look at those to lessons before tackling this one.

Some great news! 

Starting with this lesson, I am going to provide a link to a PDF document that has all the practice measures for the lesson.  I believe this is valuable and easier for anyone that wants to practice the exercises at the drum kit; you will be able to print it or pull it up on screen.  I am using Google Docs to share these documents, so it's safe and secure.  The link will be provided in the Lesson Objectives section.

What are Ghost Notes? 

Ghost notes are notes that are played around the drum knit just as you would normally, but you play them at a lower volume. This is done by tapping the voice (cymbal, snare, kick, etc) such as in the case of the snare, hitting it more toward the outside of the head. This is one way of adding another dimension to your playing.  Ghost notes are indicated in music notation by placing parenthesis around the note that is to be played ghosted.

Lesson objectives: 

Play alternating strokes with the left and right hand's with ghost notes on the snare drum and improve coordination between the left hand and the right-foot.

PDF document is now available for downloading: Alternated Patterns Part 3 - Ghost Notes

Practice Tips: 

Play slowly, with a metronome, one measure at a time until you're able to play the measure without errors, then move on to the next measure and repeat the process. Once all measures have been completed, start over and increase the tempo of the metronome. Also, if you have not worked with sixteenth notes, please take the time to review this lesson: Applying the Theory.

Exercises: 

The first measure that is presented below starts out with a hi-hat and kick drum on 1, ghost note on the snare on e, hi-hat on & and ghost note on the a. The count of 2 has a snare hit at normal volume followed by a ghost note on the e, hi-hat on & and a ghost note on the snare drum a. The measure is sub-divided so that this repeats on the 3 and 4 counts.

Note:

The right hand will play the hi-hat and the left hand will play the ghosted snare drum parts, but the right hand will need to drop down on the count of 2 and 4 to play a full stroke on the snare drum and then move back up to the hi-hat for the count of &.

The second measure is the same as the first but a second kick drum is added to the & of 1, the & of two the & of 3 and the & of 4. Nothing special here, but again be mindful of the sticking in that you will be dropping down the right hand to the snare drum on the counts of 2 and 4.

The third measure again just adds another kick drum, this time on the e of 1 and the e of 3.

The forth measure is where we move a couple of things, we move the kick from the & of 2 and 4 to the e of 2 and 4; you will notice that they are now converted to an eighth note. This helps to work and build the coordination between the left hand and right-foot.

The fifth measure builds upon the changes that occurred in forth measure by adding back the kick on the & of 2 and 4.

The sixth measure moves the kick drum again on the 2 and 4 beats this time to the a of 2 and the a of 4. This again exercises the left hand and right-foot coordination.

The seven measure, the kick on the beat of 1 is removed and likewise the one of the beat of 3.

The final measure (eight), the kick is added back to the beat of 1 and 3, but we removed the one on the count of e and a of 2 and 4 and move it to the beat of & for 2 and 4.

And there you have it, the seventh edition of my lessons in which Ghost Notes are introduced along with accompanying exercises. Like I mentioned in the Practice Tips above, start playing slowly, with a metronome, one measure at a time until able to play the measure without errors, then move on to the next and repeat the process. Once all measures have been completed, start over and increase the tempo of the metronome. Then try playing all the measures in succession. I hope that each of you were able to take away something useful from this lesson and to add yet another set of exercises to you drumming toolkit. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me and I will provide any assistance that I can to help you with this lesson. Keep it real and keep on making it about the music.