I get pretty individualized finding the best way for my students to work on something. People come to me with a lot of different levels of background, and playing goals, so I can’t just give a blanket this is how it’s done, figure it out, as I might if I was just teaching very ambitious, college level students. I want them to learn the things I want, and give them a shot at playing the drums well, even if they’re not spending a tremendous amount of time with it.
So this is yet another approach to all the fill-oriented stuff we’ve been doing recently, which we workshopped in a lesson recently. It can take a little bit of work to figure out what’s going to help someone right now. Here we did a few basic things with the first pages of Stick Control:
Here are each of the things happening there:
- Normal right hand lead: RH on cym + BD / LH on SD
- First note of every four-note grouping on cym + BD / RH on FT / LH on SD
- Like previous, but first note of measure only on cym + BD
- Like previous, with last note of measure also on cym + BD
- Like previous, except solo BD on last note of measure.
After learning a thing, add some moves to the drum portion of the phrase. You can also add some embellishments, and add another crash— on the & of 2 would be good, or the & of 3. We’ll get into that in another entry.
