The goal of this course is to provide the drummer with enough information, so they can improvise on the kit endlessly effortlessly with a wide variety of arrangements on the spot. So basically if you’ve seen those guys going off on the kid at any given time, this is what we’re gonna do here.
We’re gonna play a few phrases few very simple phrases, but but we’re going to practice them a lot and stretch them out, play them all around the kids, play them in triplets, play them in 16th notes so they can become second nature. And when phrases become second nature, this is when we get to improvise them. This is when we have those phrases at the back of our pocket and we can throw them around the kid at any time in time and in the pocket.
So I’m going to start with a very simple phrase. This is going to be right left foot. I’m going to start with a snare drum and i’m going to move to the rest of the instruments and play around the kit.
At the same time I’m going to be counting with my left foot on the hi-hat. I’m going to be playing quarter notes on the high cut and this will help me keep time, keep a good balance on my stool and also it would help the band if if i wasn’t in a live setting situation the band would be able to hear the counting and know where I am in time, in case I get confused.
To begin with I’m not gonna pay attention to the number of bars. I’m just gonna keep this flow, this triplet flow. It’s three notes, so it’s gonna be triplets. I’m gonna keep this triplet flow going so I get very accustomed to this phrase and this phrase becomes second nature to me. I want to bring this to the automatic pilot.
After you feel comfortable at a certain tempo, change your metronome, bring it up a little and try again a different tempo.
So obviously I’m trying different arrangements here and you should too, but I pay attention and I will stick to a specific arrangement just for a bit just to make sure I got it in time, I got it in the pocket to make sure it sounds good and all that.
The foot is very important you want, the dynamics of the foot to match, the dynamics of your hands. You don’t want your foot to be softer or louder. You want it to be at exactly the same dynamics so this feels like one thing.
After you feel comfortable I recommend using that phrase as a drum fill. So play one bar of time and one bar of that phrase. The bass drum plays on the last triplet of the bar, so we’re gonna have to play two bass drum to play on the last triplet and the first one off the next bar.
So this is how it starts. Very simple phrase. Start very slow. Practice it clean, get it to your peak tempo, practice it a lot at the peak tempo and then use it as a drum fill.
