MESHUGGAH's - Bleed

The Double Bass rudiment from  MESHUGGAH's Bleed is something I've been looking into overtime, and it is something I definitely want to conquer as a drummer. The Rudiment is both physically and mentally difficult, like ridiculously difficult. Physically just due to the speed and consistency that you have to keep the beat going for, roughly 6 minutes being the the length of the song (there is a about a minute break in the sound at around 5 minutes through then the song carries on as normal).

Mentally, its playing the triplet fill "The Herta" on the feet - The Herta being a type of rudiment fill, where the the pattern adds a fast note after the first hit and then the rest carries on as if in a triplet style (see picture below)

Tiberius and Rollin'

So we had to play a piece of music via sight reading, just playing as you go, for a couple of different genres. the ones I sight read were Tiberius and Rollin'. Tiberius was a grade 4 metal beat and Rollin' a grade 4 blues beat.
Rollin' was the first beat i did, its fairly straight forward, there's a couple of parts where you have a swung cymbal pattern, and there is also an improvised drum solo for 8 bars i believe. Anyway here is my video on my first attempt at Rollin'

So above is my first run through of Rollin', the grade 4 blues piece. It was okay, I have loads to practise however, as i t was very messy, and the drum solo section was very under thought, and the swung pattern was wrong so yeah loads to learn, and practise and generally work on.

Next was Tiberius, the heavy metal grade 4 piece. also fairly simple, i'd say easier than Rollin', couple of parts work a little weird, but I like this beat and genre just due to the amount you can improvise around the beat with rather fills or double bass techniques and stuff.

Tiberius, also needs a lot of work and was quite messy.

(Due to the videos not uploading correctly, here are the links to the videos Tiberius and Rollin' -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QoMv-U5u5s&feature=youtu.be&list=PLiOd5HtT3teDSIHTmHshNBnKSu0GDiTbO - Tiberius -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa7WObMmb70&list=PLiOd5HtT3teDSIHTmHshNBnKSu0GDiTbO&index=21 - Rollin' -

Gospel Fills- R 'n' B drumming

Today we looked into R'n'B fills or "Gospel fills" as they're more commonly known as. basically they're a rendition of hands and feet displacements, combos of the bass drum and any other part of the drum kit (so rack toms, snare, cymbals, hats etc.) anything such as the sample below...

Below is a short clip of me trying out a gospel fill, it's not the best, but I guess we all have to start somewhere and it's definitely something I need to practise.

There are a mass variety of different variations of this type of fill, different ways of playing it, for example; how you can play the bass part, as there will be from singles up to quadruple hits from the bass drum you can rather use a double bass pedal to complete this or you can use whatever foot technique so like swivel technique, or heel and toe technique or the sliding technique.  

You can play various number of notes with rather hands or feet, so you could have a mix of 2's and 4's- 4 hits with hands and 2 hits with fee, or 4 hits with both, or you can play a mix of 3's and 2's - (this type of feel sounds like its going out of time but falls back in time near the end).

Re-evaluation of my own personal goals (mid way through)

Overall I feel that I've not only generally improved but that  I have gained more confidence over time,  I don't freeze when I go wrong, or speed up like I used to- I'm a bit more relaxed, my posture stays strong, I'm more in time, the tempo doesn't waver and if I go out of time I'm better at improvising myself back into time and getting the song back on track.

However, I do also feel though that some of the personal goals I set myself at the start have rather become later on projects to work on after I have figured out other bits of drumming, for example Latin drumming may be a little to far deep in unchartered waters for me to go travelling to yet, I still have quite a journey before I f can reach that properly and so on.

Other personal goals I feel I have made some progress on but maybe not enough as I should of over the time period it has been since the beginning so like other variety of genres and time signatures I have only really scratched the surface of what can be done and how they can be used effectively and I just overly feel I have more to learn and I could of learnt more in the allotted time.

I still feel my personal goals to be able to play a variety of genres comfortably and play odd time signatures with feels that fit and use them effectively. I still need to be more confident, and i still need a lot of work on my timing, transitions counting with a metronome and so on as my drumming is not as sharp as it could be and some of the fills i displace tend to be very weird at times- to the point that they fit in my head because I know the timing of them but others don't so it confuses them whilst playing and so on.

Other personal goals such as different rudiments, polyrhythms etc. I will focus on at a later date as since writing the previous entry i now feel that they are not as important at the moment as i believed them to once be.

Tiberius-Metal Grade 5

Tiberius the metal groove we learned last week, in which i need to practise starts on the tom and moves onto a quarter note groove, usually played quite slowish and heavy like.

Blues rock-Rollin'

Blues Rock-Rollin' is the grade five piece we were looking into today- I found it hard to pick up right off the spot, so its something i'll definitely have to go home and practise. This piece I especially will need to practise as its for an exam later on this year.

The first two pages (above) of just groove- no time signature changes at any point, however, loads of off-beats and open and closed hi-hat changes making remembering the beat difficult. Something that when you pick up and can remember is very easy. the occasional fill and not necessarily swing patterns but the hi-hat patterns do differ. The first page (top left)- There is a bracket around the second note of the first bar- indicating to only play it once the first time around. Further on down the same page there is a notation saying "To Coda" with a little symbol next to it- that indication marks to go to the coda location on the forth page after you've played the first page the second time around- basically just a short cut that saves writing lengthier amount of tablature. so that indicator, indicates to go to the indication. The pattern right at the bottom play as "R,L,L,R" on the hi-hats.

The next two pages (below) the third page is like the solo page, where for the first good few bars is a developed 16th note snare to tom pattern, then it changes to one par following bass and guitar then into another bar filled with whatever fill you want (so long as it fits).
The fourth page is back to groove, however, there are indicators to go back to the very first page- "D.C.al- Coda" the "C" stands for "cap" meaning to the top, so basically you just go back to the beginning of the song- skipping out any notes in brackets as they've already been played once etc.

Below is a development variation of the 16th note snare fill on page 3 something that also needs practise and developed in anyway.

Odd time Signatures

Lesson we looked into today was on the peculiar odd time signatures - Where we looked at 3/4, 5/4, 5/8, 6/4, 7/4, 7/8, 11/4 and 11/8. Obviously the top number being the amount of the bottom number and the bottom being the fraction so 5-11 over 4 is 5 quarter notes or 7 quarter noters and onto 11 quarter notes- the same applies to 8th notes- just 6 8th notes or 9 8th notes. So technically quarter note bars end up being longer over 8th note bars- this works in that 7/8 ends on count 4 (so just take off an "and") and then 7/4 would just be a bar of 4/4 and a bar of 3/4 put together or 2/4 and 5/4- 11/4 could be a mix of 6/4 and 5/4 or 4/4 and 7/4 or 4/4, 4/4 and 3/4 etc.

Below is the 5/8 Odd time signature-

Next up are the 7/4 and 7/8 odd time signatures plus fills.

11/4 and 11/8 with 3/4, 6/4 and 5/4 added in with fills.

Linear Drumming

Today we were looking at basic linear drumming, basically where none of the hits are played together (however there are some circumstances where this rule is broken).

This is one of the linear grooves we looked into- This is a linear hip hop beat. I feel linear drumming to be a little difficult and something I definitely need to practise at home as well as in college. Some beats were easier than others but others took a little longer to pick up and play confidently.
Due to Linear beats being the way they are, drum fills become quite peculiar if played after a linear beat- However, due to the linear beat usually being structured in 16th notes, its very easy to turn the beat into a fill just by moving the hits from your right hand (or left if left handed) to rather the toms or the snare drum.  (as an example, The Linear fill below).

Afterwards we looked at a more complicated Linear pattern, one from the Latin style of drumming, a beat called the Songo. However its not the full Songo, it was broken down a little to be made easier to learn.

The final Linear beat we looked at was called Louisiana Funk- more rudiment based, and the beat was also swung (kind of like horse galloping- two hits at a time, but the first hit is single- so du dada dada etc). Bass and snare hits were in their typical 1 and 3 for bass hits and 2 and 4 for snare, the pattern went L, LR, LR, LR, RL and so on the left hand played on the hi-hat and the right hand played on the ride cymbal- the bass fell on 1 and 3 with the left hand and right hand would hit the snare on 2 and 4 instead of the ride cymbal.

Looking into more technical Linear beats- we look at a Linear groove in half time- were instead of the snare/ Back beat falling on 2 and 4 it falls on 3 instead. There are also more ghost noted snare hits.

Instrumental lessons

over the past few weeks I have looked into and learnt a variety of warm ups, fills and beats from a couple of styles from the music world including; The Nod (hip hop), Cold Pants (funk) and the hammer blow (metal).

Warms consisted of playing 4s (16th notes), then 3s (triplets), 2s (8th notes),  then 1s (quarter notes) around the kit so, snare to tom1, tom 2, tom3 and so on. seeing how long can keep it going and gradually building up speed over time.
Another warm up was a triplet based warm up using the snare, and toms 1 and 3, how you would perform the warm up is the first hit is on tom3 (right hand) 2nd hit on snare with the left hand then the 3rd hit on the snare with the right hand then left hit on tom1 the right on snare then left on snare and so on, getting faster then afterwards adding to more hits so on on the toms and one on snare so 3-5-7 hits, then cycling through them, doing 3 hits, then 5 then 7 and back to 3.
Another warm which was taught, actually quite a tricky one at first, but once learnt, quite fun to play- basically its a [pro-active based beat splitting up your limbs so one is playing 3 the other 4 so 4 over 3 beat left hand hitting snare, tom1 then hi hat and the right hand playing snare, and the toms, however at first you hit each thing with hands in unison, then after you have learnt that then you would playing the hands giving separate hits. The final step to add would be adding a bass note after each hit with both hands so right hand left hand, then the bass drum, then after one could 2 bass notes after every two hits.

A couple of the fills we learned incorporated

The Hip hop beat The Nod being the main that we have been looking into, over the past few weeks, simple 4/4 beat with fairly simple fills at the end. A couple of off-beats but nothing to major.
8th and 16th notes with the bass drum and snare moved to weird places.

The hammer blow using a quarter note based beat to give it a heavier sound and therefore more impact in songs. The bass and snare at times are moved to off-beats.

Evaluation of the Induction

Through the past few weeks, my weaknesses that have come to light from rehearsing and performing these variety of genres, mainly consist of my time keeping, counting beats and playing the transitions in the correct places. confidence, not being nervous when performing (which will come naturally) also resulting in my other flaw of speeding up as a result of me being nervous, so hopefully when one flaw is covered another will follow. overall practising more and studying the drummers style and also the genre of music.

Rock - Final week!

Week 6! The final week of induction and we're studying rock, and were I performed 2 songs! Bon Jovi-Livin' on a Prayer and big Guns by Ac/Dc. performance wise I feel that Livin' on a Prayer went far better over Big Guns by Ac/Dc.
Livin' on a Prayer was a little easier to learn and play over Ac/Dc - with Ac/Dc my main problem once more was my timing - going from verse to chorus to verse etc. I'd lose track on how many times I'd played the beat, so I'd forget to change the beat or perform a certain fill. Furthermore, I had rehearsed this less than the other song, which is another reason the other song I performed, I performed better.
Livin' on a Prayer went the best out of all of the performances, just well rehearsed and more practised and I was less nervous and managed to keep the time better and not speed up as much. the fils were okay, and overall I feel it went quite well.

week 5 Funk!

The Commodores Brick house- week 5 first rehearsal went rather well learning the beat and generally getting the groove down. We listened to the song to work out the structure i.e. verse chorus, build up chorus so on and so forth and overall was going quite well. However the next day as a result of me being late, I missed rehearsal time in the morning before the performance, and so was therefore oblivious to the changes that had been made to the song, resulting in me making mistakes at the end of the song.
The band during the performance felt a little shakey. I was nervous and as a result, my drumming lacking confidence caused me to speed up a little and mess up on occasions.

The genre was enjoyable, and I would love to look more into that area of music, learning the many different grooves and fills that accompany this style of music. I feel it would be strong step in helping me write my own music in the future.

Motown 4th week of induction

For the forth week of induction, we studied the Motown genre, were I rehearsed and played "Ain't no Mountain High Enough" performed by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel. I found this song particulary strange and difficult firstly from the first main beat in the song where the timing was still 4/4 but the groove was strange as the bass drum hits where placed at odd points. The motown fills are were a little challenging also as you had to play double strokes straight from the off of hitting the mid tom and then rolling back onto the mid tom after performing the strokes on the snare - I learnt to play it, but failed to add them into the song.
There was also this particular snare beat where the snare is played on every beat and the bass drum on   the & of 3 and on the & of 4 and also on beat 1 - this beat I had a little trouble playing the bass drum on the right beats but got it eventually.
over all I felt the performance didn't go to well and was rather messy. The structure was a little everywhere and the were quite a few beats and fills missing, I managed to pull it off, but I could of definitely done a better job at it.

Pop Ballads

Week 3 - Pop ballads week - I performed the song "I Want to Know What Love is" by Foreigners. This song I feel went quite well so so - It didn't go horribly wrong, but then it wasn't an amazing performance either.
The rehearsing went okay, I learnt the song best I could, there was a weird swing pattern which took me a little bit before I could play the section properly, but even when we performed I still missed out some parts from the song. just small things like maybe an opened hi-hat or a small fill, something that's in the song but not to significant that would cause chaos if not put into the song. Fortunately for myself, as a result of the genre being Pop ballads, drums are not the main instrument- its presence is not so significant to that of the piano, or vocals or even guitar, so the drums being soft, repetitive and simple, not many mistakes could be made.

Week 2 - Reggae 08/09/2014

In week 2, I had to perform the song Boy Lolli pop by Millie Small (1964). We practised and practised the song over and over. My main fault which I found from rehearsing this song was counting timings and beats, as we had a lot of trouble when it came to the chorus of the song with this particular part, I would continuously screw it up. My other fault was the swing pattern I incorporated into the drum groove, it was a nice and well known swing pattern but it was the wrong one for the song, also something that was corrected and then practised to get right for when we perform later on.
The swing pattern being quite a tiring hand exercise, meant I had to take a break or two due to palms becoming really sweaty, so drumming became slightly more tricky with my sticks flying out of my hands every so often.
I believe the performance went well, however my over confidence from practising the song so much,, I then got really into playing the groove and forget to do perform the first transition between the first verse and chorus. The second time round however, I remembered and managed to pull it off. Could of done far better I believe but..

9th September 2014

Due to our 6 week long induction, we performed a one to two songs each week, from a variety of genres given each week.
Our first week we looked at the 1960s genre, were I rehearsed and performed Cream-Sunshine of Your Love. I had never heard the song before, so when we started rehearsing I improvised the drum groove for the song, were I was on the hi-hat instead of the floor tom in which I was supposed to play. However I do feel that the beat I improvised, fit the song really well. Even so,  I was later corrected on what the correct groove was for the song, which I then practised continuously for the remainder of our rehearsal time until it was time to perform.
We later performed Cream-Summer Of Your Love which went okay, though it being my first performance in front of a new audience, I was quite nervous, so as a result of the nerves getting the best of me, my drumming for the song was left quite shaky.