Linear Patterns - Do you have Independence and coordination?

Independence you maybe asking? You may have answered, "Sure, I have independence!" I'm sure that you do, you can independently do things on your own such as putting in practice toward your art (drums) and maybe able to play basic drum beats, among other things.  But do you truly have "Drum Independence?"  This maybe one of the important, if not the one the most, aspects of being a drummer.  Is your left hand as good at playing the hi-hat as your right hand, is your left foot as strong as your right in playing a rhythm on the hi-hat or kick drum? Independence, or coordination, with drummers is about limb development so that each is as strong as the other.

Marvin Dahlgren said in the introduction of his book (4-Way Coordination by Marvin Dahlgren and Elliot Fine), "This book was written for the drummer interested in developing coordination between both hands and both feet.  The development of this technique will lead to complete independence."

In today's world of drumming, it is vital to the drummer that he have independence in order to play the best that he can and be as versatile as possible.

Jack Hall, my drum instructor told it to me like this, "You may have to continue to play a rhythm with your right hand and right foot, but you may also have to move over to play a tambourine with your left hand, or hit electronic sensor that will play an audio track. All while not interrupting the current groove of the song."

Today fellow drummers, musicians and followers, I present the eighth drum lesson that covers the topic of Linear Patterns that when practiced the right way will increase your technique, independence and coordination between your hands and feet.  The exercises presented here are re-produced from the lesson taught to me by my drum instructor, Jack Hall, at his studio on May 22nd, 2013 at the Willis Music Store on Hurstbourne Land here in Louisville KY. Also check out the resource section of this article that includes some great books on drum independence / coordination. 

What are Linear Patterns?

Linear, as I was informed by my drum instructor, means "One" and by definition it says, "Having only one dimension".  

Patterns, I know what this is, something that repeats in a predictable manner.

So Linear Patterns for the drummer is a set of patterns that will focus on one limb beats.

Lesson objectives:

Present a group of exercises that when applied, will work the limb independence. The below exercises, use the right hand on the hi-hat and left hand on the snare drum.  After completing a measure and getting accustomed to the pattern to be played, you will want to play the it a second time without stopping, but this time switch the right hand to play the snare part and the left hand to play the hi-hat. For me, this took some time to get accustomed too and still working on.

Notes: "Speed Kills" is the warning that my instructor provided to me with these exercises and I can testify to this fact working through the exercises so far.  I normally recommend that you work with a metronome with the work that I present, but this has been the exception so far, work on just getting the patterns down with the right hand as the lead, then work on trying to do them with the right hand as the lead then switching to the left hand as the lead.

PDF document is now available for downloading: Drum Lesson 8 - Linear Patterns

Exercises:

The first measure starts off with a kick drum on the 1, hi-hat on the e, snare on the & and another hi-hat on the a.   On the beat of two, there is a snare drum, followed by a hi-hat, snare on & and hi-hat on a. For three and four, one and two repeat to end the measure.  If you don't know how to read sixteenth notes, take a look at this lesson as each of the measures are in sixteenth notes: Drum Lesson 1 - Musical Theory.

Linear Patterns - Exercise 1

The second measure starts off like the first, except there are changes to the second and forth beats.  The & of 2 changes from a snare drum to a kick drum and same applies to the & of 4.

Linear Patterns - Exercise 2

The third measure maintains the first and second sections of the measure and replaces the e of 2 and 4 with a kick drum.

Linear Patterns - Exercise 3

The forth measure we change up the whole measure by replacing the hi-hat on the e of 1 and e of 3 with a snare drum and replacing the snare that was on the & of 1 and & of 3 with a kick drum.  On the second and forth beats, the kick drum on the e of 2 is moved to the & and replaced with a hi-hat on the e; same changes apply to the beat of 4.

Linear Patterns - Exercise 4

The fifth measure carries forward some of the notes from the above such as the first and third beat phrase. The second set of notes the kick drum is moved to the e of 2 and replaced with a hi-hat on the &; same applies to the forth beats.

Linear Patterns - Exercise 5

The sixth measure we mix it up again, this time we move the hi-hat from the a of 1 to the e of 1, move the snare to the & of 1 and the kick drum to the a of 1; same applies to the 3rd set of beats.  The second and forth set of beats, the kick drum in moved to the & and the hi-hat that was on the & is moved to the e.

Linear Patterns - Exercise 6

The seventh measure keeps the setup of the first and third beats, but moves the kick to the e of 2 and replace it with a hi-hat; same applies to the forth set of beats.

Linear Patterns - Exercise 7

The eighth measure keeps the same first and third measures that the previous two introduced, but again changes the second and forth to replace the kick on the e of 2 with a hi-hat and the hi-hat & of 2 is now has a snare drum replacement.

Linear Patterns - Exercise 8

The ninth measure mixes things up again.  The measure starts out with a snare on 1 and 3, hi-hat on e, snare on & and kick on a; same applies to the third set of sixteenth notes.  The second and forth have a snare on the 2 and 4, hi-hat on e, kick drum on & and hi-hat on a.

Linear Patterns - Exercise 9

The final measure is a slight modification of the ninth measure.  The second and forth set of notes say the same.  The first and third measures start out with a hi-hat, kick on the e, hi-hat on the & and another kick on the e.

Linear Patterns - Exercise 10

This is a challenging lesson!  I was introduced to this set of exercises about three weeks ago and I have only gotten through the first six exercises with both the right hand as the lead and then switching to the left hand as the lead.  As I mentioned before, "Speed Kills" and should not be the focus of doing these exercises, speed will come in time, this is about developing independence.

My challenge to you know is to download the Linear Patterns for Drums PDF that includes the exercises presented above, take this take this to your kit and get started today on improving your independence and coordination!

Also, take a look at the resource section below and see about getting one or more of these great resources for more exercises to assist you.

If you have any questions, reach out to me through the various ways that I have listed on my Contact page.  Remember to have fun, keep it real and about the music!

Resources:

Here are some great resources that will assist you in developing more independence within your drumming.  Each of these books have been listed as essentials to learning to play the drums and to take your skills to the next level.

Gary Chaffee - Linear Time Playing

An introduction to linear time playing. The first section contains basic exercises for linear playing skills: voice coordination, dynamic balance, accenting, and more. The second section deals with the development of time feels in the linear style, including 4/4, half-time, shuffle, and odd meter feels.

4-Way Coordination by Marvin Dahlgren and Elliot Fine


Proficiency as a drummer has always come from great hand dexterity. However, with the introduction of modern drumming techniques, it has become increasingly necessary to gain complete independence of both the hands and feet. With various rhythmic exercises in easy-to-read notation, 4-way Coordination is designed to guide the drummer from simple patterns to advanced polyrhythms. Through the study of this method book, the student will gain invaluable listening skills and techniques that will provide insight to drumming in all styles.

 Master Studies by Joe Morello

This is the book on hand development and drumstick control. Master Studies focuses on these important aspects: accent studies, buzz-roll exercises, single and double-stroke patterns, control studies, flam patterns, dynamic development, endurance studies, and much more!

The New Breed by Gary Chester

This is not just another drum book, but rather a system that will help you develop the skills needed to master today's studio requirements. By working with this book, you'll improve your reading, concentration, coordination, right and left-hand lead, and awareness of the click.

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Technique - Take Your Stick Control to the Next Level

Hello again fellow drummers, musicians and followers. I came across something that I had to include in my daily practice routine and thought so highly of it that I wanted to pass a long to you as well.  I hope that it will assist in improving your drumming technique and allow you to get the best out of the time that you are spending during your practice sessions. 

This technique improvement is based on the book Stick Control for Snare Drummers written by George L. Stone published originally back in 1935.  You can order a copy of the book from Willis Music Store or from Amazon.com: Stick Control for Snare Drummers written by George L. Stone. 

This book is one of the most highly recommended drum books ever written in order to improve your technique; no matter what type of drummer you are. Here is the description of the book on Amazon:

"George Lawrence Stone's Stick Control is the original classic, often called the bible of drumming. In 1993, Modern Drummer magazine named the book one of the top 25 books of all-time. In the words of the author, it is the ideal book for improving ""control, speed, flexibility, touch, rhythm, lightness, delicacy, power, endurance, preciseness of execution and muscular coordination,"" with extra attention given to the development of the weak hand. This indispensable book for drummers of all types includes hundreds of basic to advanced-level rhythms, moving through categories of single-beat combinations, triplets, short roll combinations, flam beats, flam triplets and dotted notes, and short roll progressions."

My drum instructor informed me that I will be working out of this book in the future. Okay, enough about the book, lets get to the meat and potatoes of why I'm writing this, the exercise that inspired me.  This repost is from jazzsnob on the DrummersMagazine.com Official Discussion Form posted on 09/08/2006 (see resource STICK CONTROL (george L stone) your experiences and suggestions) in which he describes how he was taught to use the exercises that are in the book:

"This is an awesome thread, and I hope it gets stickied. I'll add the way I learned.

This is by no means the only way to do stick control, but this is a proven way to get some serious technique together. It requires A LOT of patience, and I don’t suggest starting it if you aren’t going to finish it. It’s EXTREMELY difficult sometimes. And also, the method takes about 3-5 years to complete. And you only practice the first page of the book. 

THE JIMMY SAGE/CHUCK BROWN/BILLY GLADSTONE METHOD FOR STICK CONTROL. 
Set your metronome to an 8th note of about 100. Most drummers should be able to do anything on the first page at that tempo after a few minutes of messing around. Now spend an entire week working(I’m sorry, I don’t have my book with me, so I don’t have exact numbers) on the . Just singles, doubles, and the first paradiddle exercise. Only those two , extremely slow. The doubles and paradiddles should sound EXACTLY like singles. It’s good to go over this method with a teacher, or to record yourself doing it on a snare drum to make sure everything is perfect. Then, one week later, you practice single, doubles, and the next exercise, inverted paradiddles(RLLRLRRL). If it takes you two weeks to get it perfect, fine. Give youself time on these excercises.

Another difficult part of the exercise is that every minute or so you should raise your stick to at least a 12-16 inch height and play at that height for 8 measures. Then you bring in back down. You must do this perfectly in time and make sure all the strokes are still uniform in dynamic and tonal quality and all that jibba jabba. This will give you “good pain” after a while, your muscles WILL get sore, but they will never give you terrible pain.

Remember, just like G.L. Stone said, stay relaxed 100% of the time, even when you go up. You should be putting at least 30 minutes a day into these excercises.

So you spend 2 months, going through excercises 5-24 or something at tempo 100. Done now? Great! Now you do it all over again at 104! and 108! and 112! and 116! and so on!. Never go up more then one click on a metronome when starting the page over.

The reason this exercise method is so difficult is because you have to be so patient. A lot of younger drummers especially want to start faster, speed up the next day, blah blah blah. If you do that you WILL NOT IMPROVE AS QUICKLY. This exercise really seriously does require patience. It apparently takes an entire year to get from 200 to 208.

The reasons this exercise is GREAT are numerous. First of all, you are always working on singles and doubles. Singles and doubles are what most of drumming is made of. Second of all, spending a couple weeks on only one combination of 8 notes makes you completely intimate with the pattern, and you will be able to interchange it in time with any feel you want. I guarantee you that by the time you finish this exercise(in 2112 or so) you will have some SERIOUS technique. One of my drum teacher’s older students is on 176 or something(he's been doing for 3 1/2 years) and has some crazy technical abilities. 

Good technique means you can learn parts faster.

Yay for good technique!

p.s. do these excercises on a practice pad with LOTS of rebound. Don't worry, you won't need a pillow to "feel the burn" once you get to about 138 or so."

This is a great technique of the application of exercises the book has to offer that will help build your technique as I quote the book, "control, speed, flexibility, touch, rhythm, lightness, delicacy, power, endurance, preciseness of execution and muscular coordination,"

I have been using this technique now for about two weeks and I already have seen improvement in playing singles, doubles and the paradiddle as it relates to grooving these with the metronome. I have also turned on my instructor onto this method and maybe one day he will be using it with his other students.

 

Resources:

Top 25 Timeless Drum Books by Modern Drummer Magazine:
http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2013/04/25-timeless-drum-books/#.UZr7oUmv9mI

STICK CONTROL (george L stone) your experiences and suggestions:

http://drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17751&highlight=stick+conrol

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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.

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Drum Lesson 6 : Alternating Patterns Part 2

Lesson six occurred on April 24^th, 2013 at my instructor's studio at Willis Music store on Hurstbourne Lane in Louisville Ky. This is the continuation of the Alternating Patterns (See Drum Lesson Five – Alternating Patterns Part 1) with a slight modification as discussed below in the objectives.

Here's the objectives: To use both hands playing alternating strokes with the left and right hand's applied to two surfaces (Hi-hat and Ride Cymbal) and also to work on getting the left hand and the right-foot to work together. Play slowly, with a metronome, one measure at a time until able to play the the measure without errors the repeat for the next measure. Once all measures have been completed, start over and increase the tempo of the metronome. The pattern to use here will be as follows: K (Kick), L, R, L then R, L, R, L then K (Kick), L, R, L.

The first measure below, starts out with a the kick drum on beats one and three, snare on beat two and four and alternating hi-hat and ride on e, & and a of beats 1, 2, 3, 4. Note: Apply the pattern discussed in the objectives above.

The second measure below, builds upon the first, but adds another kick drum on the & of 1 and the & of 3.

The third measure below, adds another kick drum, this time on the & of 2 and & of 4.

The fourth measure below, adds yet another kick drum on the a of 1 and a of 3.

The fifth measure below, changes this up and moves the kick to the e of 2 and 4. This will work that left hand and right-foot combination.

The sixth measure below builds from the fifth measure and adds another kick on the & of 2 and 4.

The seventh measure, again moves the kick drum, but this time to the a of 2 and 4; again working on the left hand and right-foot.

The final measure adds a little twist, can you see it? It is on the e of 3, another kick is added.

This concludes the lesson six and the second in the series on Alternated Patterns. To recap this lesson built upon the alternating patterns that were introduced in Alternating Patterns part one and applied it using two surfaces on the drum kit; Hi-hat and Ride Cymbal.  I hope that you found some value and if you do, drop a comment below.  Like always, if you have any questions leave a comment below or drop me an email from the contact me page.

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Drum Lesson 5 - Alternating Patterns Part 1

Hello my fellow drummers and musicians out there! It has been several weeks since my last post and like everyone else, I have been a busy person. For this lesson, which occurred on 4/17/2013 with my instructor Jack I. Hall at the Willis Music Store on Hurstbourne Lane here in Louisville Ky. Today's lesson focused on Alternating single strokes applied to the drum kit utilizing the kick drum, hi-hat and snare drum.

Here's the objectives: To use both hands on the hi-hat playing alternating strokes with the left and right hand's and second work on the coordination between the left hand and the right-foot; this not natural in our day-to-day life.

Let's get to it! The first measure below is mostly straight forward, all measures will be sub-divided (meaning two sets of notes repeats itself), sixteenth notes on the hit-hat, kick drum on the count of one and snare drum on the count of 2 and 4. Notice that on the count of 2 and 4, you have to drop you your right hand down to play the snare. In order to accomplish this a sticking pattern on the hi-hat needs to be applied: R, L, R, L.  The reason for this is sticks don't get crossed up and gives time for us to get the right stick back in position to play the next beat on the hit-hat.  This is very important! 

Alternating Patterns Part 1 - Measure 1

Notes: Each of the measures will build upon this set of notes for the remainder of the lesson. Also, if you don't know how to count sixteenth notes or need a refresher check my lesson out here on musical theory!

The second measure below, sixteenth notes on the hat, an additional kick drum is added on the count of the &'s of each set of notes (& of 1, & of 2, & of 3 and & of 4).

Alternating Patterns Part 1 - Measure 2

The third measure below, sixteenth notes on the hat, an additional sixteenth note kick drum is added on the count the a of 1 and a of 3.

Alternating Patterns Part 1 - Measure 3

The fourth measure, well remember what I said above about the left hand and right-foot coordination, well here it is. We have sixteenth notes on the hat as previous, the kick drum that was on the & count of 2 and 4 is moved to the e of 2 and e of 4. This means that the left hand will play the hi-hat and the right-foot will play the kick drum. Again, take this slow to work on the technique and the increase your speed when you are comfortable with being able to complete the measure several times through.

Alternating Patterns Part 1 - Measure 4

The fifth measure continues with sixteenth notes on the hat, that awkwardness of the left hand hitting the beat on the hat and the right-foot with the kick drum along with an extra kick drum being placed on the & of 2 and & of 4.

Alternating Patterns Part 1 - Measure 5

The final measure moves the kick drum again, this time is lands on the a of 2 and the a or 4. This means that you have a double kick moving from the count of a of 2 to 3 and from a of 4 to 1. For some reason, this measure gave me the most trouble due double kick on a of 2 to 3 and a of 4 to 1.

Alternating Patterns Part 1 - Measure 6

That is it for the fifth lesson, as you can see from the above, this is some good material that can be added to you practice work that will really get you going with alternating singles on the hi-hat, snare and bass drum and will work on the coordination between your left hand and right-foot. Remember, when practicing, start at a slowly, use a metronome and be patient. Happy Drumming to all and if you have any questions, drop me a message or email!

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Drum Lesson 4 - Part 2 : Setting up to Kit

Monday April 8th, 2013

  Do you setup to your kit or set the kit up to you? These question may sound like they are the same, but they are indeed different in how you approach using you drum kit.  The first would focus on setting up you kit and sitting down to play it without regard to the position various items, where they lay is where they are played.  The second, you actually setup the kit based on how everything would fit you, how you sit, the reach of of the snare, hi-hat, ride cymbal and the natural position that your feet.  Are you using the right items of the kit to get you in a proper playing position? As I found out in the adhoc second part of my fourth drum lesson. Jack, my instructor, noticed while I was playing I was lifting my foot off the bass drum pedal.  Is that a bad thing you maybe asking? Well, yes, if you not aware that you are doing it and, as it turns out it has a big impact on your playing; which I go in more detail in bass drum setup. This lesson will detail setting up to the drum kit with focus on the four important voices of the kit (bass drum, hi-hat, snare drum, and ride cymbal), the throne and how they fit in place with you. After all, you are the master of your own throne, aren't you?

Roc-N-Soc throne -
the one that I use

  Jack and I traded places and he took the throne of the kit.  The first thing that he pointed out that was important was that your throne was set to the proper height.  This is important in that if you are sitting to low you will lock you legs, which should be relaxed.  Yes, there are many that drummers as he pointed out that sit lower or higher in their seats and play very well, but again the point is to be comfortable and relaxed as possible while playing.  He also pointed out that in my case, I was using the throne in the studio that was used by others and being 6'3 / 6'4 tall, I was sitting to low and locking my leg.  This was having impact on the use of my kick pedal.  I never thought of this being an issue as at home I had my Roc-N-Soc throne set to the height that I needed to play properly.  He reminded me that I need to make sure that I am sitting in the same position in the studio as I do behind my own kit; which means adjustment when I get to the studio for throne height. Added to my check list of things to do when I get to studio! Another important note about the throne is that it should be square to the snare drum and the front of the stage; more on this in the snare drum section.

  The second thing that he pointed out that I should do when I sit down to the kit is to make sure that my pedals are set in the right positions; pedals meaning kick, hi-hat and possibly the second kit pedal if using double bass pedal. The key here is that once you are seated on the throne, that each of the pedals sits under where your feet normally sit when you are sitting normally.  To check this, sit on the throne and take note of where you feet naturally sit.  Then apply this to the pedals when you are sitting on the throne at your kit.

  Before proceeding to the next voice on the kit, he took the opportunity to discuss now why this is important and how it was effecting my playing.  Since I was not setup properly with the pedal positions, being that I was reaching for the pedal based on where I had my throne, I could not use the proper technique.  He stressed that no matter which style that I use to play the bass pedal, heel-up or heel-down, that I needed to make sure that I did not lose contact with the pedal at anytime while playing.  He showed me what happens when I was doing this.  Basically, the beater was flopping around and had no rhythm or flow when it was being pressed.  Since there was no control over the beater, the beater would vary in the amount it was from the drum head when I would press it.  This is what was leading to the lack of rhythm.  He demonstrated that if I keep my foot anchored to the foot board, the part of the pedal that your foot sits, you are able to control the beater.  Jack himself uses the heel-up technique where I was using the heel-down technique.  The two vary in applications, but the basics are that with the heel-up you can get a louder sound from each note.  He pointed out that in the studio, there is no real difference between the two, however, playing live is a different story.  Playing live as he explained, that even though you have microphones, you still have to produce a sound that the person in the last roll of the stadium or a other venue will be able to here.  This is something that I never considered.  I know that I did not touch on the heel-up or heel-down techniques, this may be a side post in the future.  The key here is that position of the pedal and controlling the beater head by not losing contact with the foot board.

  The next item that he moved onto was the position of the snare drum.  This voice of the kit is one of the most often over looked parts.  As my instructor pointed out to me, the majority of the students that he has taught as setup to it wrongly.  He pointed out that many drummers setup with their bass drum as the one that determines the how everything else should flow.  Therefore, if the position of the bass drum is setup in an angle that puts you facing to the left, because you used your pedal and the guide to setup everything else, well you will be facing the left side of the stage.  As he pointed out, the crowd is in front of the stage, so shouldn't you be facing them. The proper way, as he explained, is to the sit square with the snare drum.  He took the time to explain square, which really means that you are facing the front of the stage; not facing directly to the left or right.  He explained that the front of the stage should be your starting point, set the snare in it's place, place the throne in a square position to it, then add in the other items of your kit; as I will touch in the next sections. Now, maybe this should have been the second in the list of things to talk about, since it is vital to the setup of the kit, but they are all in relation related to one another. And the start of this really was about my pedal technique.

  Recap so far, snare drum square to stage, throne square to the snare drum, bass pedals(s) sitting under where feet where they fall naturally along with the hi-hat pedal.

  As you will notice, I mentioned hi-hat in the above recap, but have not talked about it yet.  This is the next item that we discussed.  The hi-hat foot pedal should sit to the left of the double bass pedal (if one being used) and should be in the same relative position as where your left foot sits naturally as described above.  The most important thing that Jack explained to me is that the hi-hat has to be a bit higher than normal and out of the radius of the snare drum.  This is important so that you do not hit the sticks together while playing the snare and hi-hat at the same time.  He also explained that one of the drummers that he knows, along with his consideration of the same, has moved the hi-hat in the more head on position.  This would require a hi-hat foot pedal with a cable in order to put it in the same position as a normal stationary one like most drummers use.  The key here is that it needs the pedal needs to set in a natural position relative to the foot and double bass pedal and be out of the radius of the snare drum.  Nothing more wrong than to hit your sticks together; if you have played any at all you will understand this point.

  The next most used item on the kit to discuss and the final voice of the four most important it that of the ride cymbal. Now the major of the drummers and I have ever seen and as Jack explained to me, most of the ones that he has seen also play put their ride cymbal on the right side of the kit, but very high.  Mostly rock drummers as he put it.  Not that is a bad thing.  As I have seen Jack's kit as he showed it to me at one of the gigs that the band he plays with locally, I know that he plays it much in the same position as the photo that I included to the right.  However, interesting enough, I play it in the same position on my drum kit, basically in the position of the traditional tom 2.  Jack actually does not use a mounted tom 2, instead has a second floor tom.  My kit, being digital kit, I shift everything more around to the right to compensate for the lower position my cymbal.  This is more of a jazz placement, but to me it feels better than having to reach higher up to get to the cymbal.  This also relieves tension in my arm and shoulder when playing it.  I'm sure I will do this when I get my own acoustic kit in the future.

  This concludes my lesson that my instructor provided me about the setting up to the drum kit.  This can be a very often overlooked part of the process, but as you can take from the above account from me, it can impact a lot of things when you play. The important things to take away from this is, start your kit setup with placing the snare drum in position, then your throne square to the snare, determine your placements of bass and hi-hat pedals relative to where your feet naturally set and the hi-hat outside the radius of the snare drum and finally your ride cymbal setup.  Everything thing else just goes in the spaces around these. I came away with a lot of good things from this part of the lesson and as I returned home that night, I looked at my drum kit in a different light.  The these that I have no incorporated into my kit from this lesson are I now keep my foot on the foot board of the bass pedal and moved my hi-hat outward a little bit and higher.  By keeping my foot on the foot board has made a huge difference in the rhythm that I get in playing notes on the bass drum which also has lead to more control over the hits and has lead me to start playing with my heel-up.  The hi-hat chances gives me more range for my sticking on the snare drum so that I don't have to worry about hitting them while playing the snare and hi-hat together.

I hope that anyone that reads this will take away something from this lesson and apply it to the kit or helps your technique.  If you have any questions or comments, please pass them along in the comment section below or send me a message from the contact page.

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Drum Lesson 4 - Part 1 : Dotted Notes

Wednesday April 3rd, 2013

  The start of April, and Spring is slowly setting in here in Kentucky.  I just had my forth lesson with my instructor Jack I. Hall.  He and I jumped right in at his studio at the Hurstbourne Willis Music Store here in Louisville Ky.  We started out with a review of the material covered in the last lesson (See Drum Lesson 3 - Intro to Paradiddles with Exercises).  I explained to him how I had trouble with a couple of the exercises which included ones where I had to hit the snare drum and the kick drum at the same time.  He had me pull out the sheet music from the previous week and play the last three measures.  We spent a few minutes on this, but then we went into the first part of today's lesson, dotted notes.

Dotted Notes

What are dotted note and are they used?

  Dotted notes are essentially a way to represent a time signature for a note that makes it easier to write on sheet music.  If you go out to the internet and do a search for Dotted notes, you will come up with endless explanations of what they are, what they represent, etc. I told my instructor that I really didn't know what they where, since I really have not encountered that many of them in the sheet music that I have been using.

  Jack pulled out his standard yellow sheets of paper and wrote Dotted Notes at the top of the page for a header. The definition that he included is:

  Take the value of the note with the dot and add 1/2 of the value to the note with the dot.

  Hmm...note much of a definition I thought and so he said himself, but really means the note that is represented with the dot, is just the note value plus a half; or one and a half times.

  So, examples?  Sure, what instructor would not include examples.  So take a look at the example image below, basic sixteenth notes on the hi-hat and a kick drum on the 1 and the a (first and last note).

  Notice how there are sixteenth note rest that appear in the bass drum line in indicate that we should not play the bass drum on the e and & (second and third notes).  In comes the dotted note to the rescue, if we replace the first sixteenth note with a dotted eighth note it would indicate that we have a dotted note which would increase the value of the sixteenth note by have its value.  Half of the value of a sixteenth note would be and eight note.  This means that the first note will take up the first three notes of the sixteenth notes and the next note would be the last sixteenth note.  Lets take a look at how it would be written by looking at the example below:

  Again, this is a set of sixteenth notes on the hi-hat (first line), no snare drum (second  line) and bass drum (third line) on the 1 and a (first and last notes). The thing that you should notice is that it looks cleaner than the previous example in that the rest are not being displayed.

Below I break down the dotted half, quarter and eighth notes to provide further examples in hopes to help everyone to better understand.

Dotted Half Notes

  As you can see, the first note is a dotted half note and takes up three note values.  A normal half note would take up two notes.  Again, counting in sixteenth notes (as discussed in my first lesson, 1, e, &, a, 2, e, &, a, etc), we would play the snare and bass drum on the count of 1, bass drum on the count of 2, bass drum on the count of 3 and snare and bass drum on the count of 4. Remember to count the e, &, a for all counts, they are just note played; same as having rests.

  The second measure in the above image starts off with snare and bass drum on the count of 1, dotted half note for the snare and quarter note for the bass drum on the count of 2, and bass drums on the counts of 3 and 4.

  The third measure in the above image starts off with only bass drum on the count of 1 and 2.  the count of 3 has the dotted half note on the snare and and quarter note for the bass drum.  The count of 4 only has a quarter note for the bass drum.

  To summarize, the dotted half note represents itself and takes up two other quarter notes.

Dotted Quarter Notes

  The above image has quarters notes and noted quarter notes.  The first measure count of 1 consists of a dotted quarter note on the snare drum and a quarter note on the bass drum.  The count of 2 has a quarter  note for the bass drum and a snare drum on the & of 2.  The count of 3 has a snare and bass drum as does the count of 4.

  The second measure count of 1 and 2 have a snare and bass drum with the snare of the 2 count being a dotted quarter note.  The count of 3 has a bass drum and the snare drum on the & of 3 (3, e, &, a).  The count of four has a snare and bass drum combo.

  The third measure starts off with the snare and bass drum on 1 and 2 counts then a dotted quarter note of 3 along with a bass drum quarter note.  The count of 4 has bass drum on the followed by a snare quarter note on the &.

  To summarize, the dotted quarter note represents itself and two more positions or two and a half quarter notes.

Dotted Eighth Notes

  Finally the dotted eighth notes.  The first measure count of one has a dotted snare eighth note and an eighth note on the bass drum along with a sixteenth note on the a.  The count of 2, 3 and 4 are the same having an eighth note for the snare and bass drum on 2, 3, and 4 and a snare drum on the & count.

  The second measure again is the same as the first except that we move the dotted note to the count of 2 and play a sixteenth note on the a.

  The third measure moves the dotted note to the three set of eighth notes and a sixteenth note is played on the a.

  To summarize the dotted eighth note, it represents itself and takes up three eighth note positions.

Conclusion

  This lesson covered what dotted notes are, why they are used and examples to support the use of these.   I also took it a step further and included a break down of the dotted half, quarter and eighth notes and examples to help clarify their use.  I hope that you were able to take something away from this lesson and will be able to apply it to what you are working on.  Off to the kit, I have plenty of practice to get in before my next lesson along with having to develop the second part of this lesson that will cover setting up to your kit. Also, I included a link to a good resource for the dotted notes just in case you need further examples.  Like always, you can leave me a comment or send me a message from the contact me link above and I will get back with you within 24 hours.

Resources

Enable Drums Website : Dotted and Tied Notes

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