One Simple Trick to Make Your Drum Solos Twice as Cool - The 80/20 Drummer

Alright - that's officially my spammiest lesson title ever. But I think I squeak through on a technicality: this lesson will technically 2x the coolness of your drum solos. Why?

Let's back up. Think about the first drum solo you saw that made you say "dayum".

"I thought I was watching drum solos before this, but this makes all that look like repertory theater."

For me, it was Dennis Chambers. Now, don't get me wrong - this isn't a lesson on Dennis. But when I saw Dennis do the upward crash on the Serious Moves DVD (just as an aside, who gets John Fucking Scofield on his drum DVD? Straight ballin)...

Fast forward 15 years, and now we've got Eric Moore, Aaron Spears, and the generation after. And what do they all have in common? Symmetry.

Nobody wants to watch you right-hand-leading all over the kit. Don't be that guy. Hit the hats with left occasionally. Or go nuts: hit the crash with our left hand.

The true genesis of today's lesson was a simple move I realized my buddy Brandon was deploying in his instagram videos that was making me look like an amateur. The crossover. It seriously only takes 5 minutes to learn, and, technically speaking, your solos will be twice as cool, since you're mirroring everything you were doing with right-hand-lead.

Interest piqued? Let's watch the lesson!

PS I'm not going to stop talking about drum meetups in Asia. Next week I'll be sending out an email to allow people in Japan, Bangkok, and Hong Kong to sign up to hear more about meetups. There. I said it;)

2 Gospel Floor Tom Licks - The 80/20 Drummer

You know that floor tom stuff the cats do? When I was at NAMM, I watched Sean Wright mess around at an exhibitor booth. And I can tell you: 2016 is the year of the floor tom.

Like most stuff that looks impressive sped-up, or in a surprising rhythmico or orchestration context, a lot of the floor tom alchemy boils down to a few simple, intuitive stickings.

A great many are in the later modules of my coaching course.

But I'm continuing to discover/rediscover/mess around with new ones, and in this lesson I share two basic variations, and some variations on those.

Ready for the lesson?

Quick reminder: I'll be in Japan Sep 30-Oct 10, Bangkok the 10-17, and probably Hong Kong for a few days after that. Want to hang? Lesson? Meetup-followed-by-drinks? (Pay for lesson in drinks? I'm flexible). Get at me!

Peace,

Nate

2 Spanky Inspired Licks - The 80/20 Drummer

Poor Spanky has been the subject of more photoshop shenanigans than he deserves. Just for being killing. This week, I bring you two things I invented that Spanky would hopefully smile on.

This past year, I've gravitated toward two "sounds" a lot: first-two-triplets, and kick-drum polyphony. The latter means instead of using the standard palette of kick/cymbal, snare/cymbal, anything goes. Kick/snare. Kick/floor tom. (Sean Wright inspired some of this at NAMM, too.) The only rule is it's clean and intentional.

The first of this week's licks is a first-two triplet thing you can throw in to make a groove funkier.

The second is a five-note fill that sounds fresh, but is still grooving.

Hope you enjoy!

2 "Nate Wood" Fills - The 80/20 Drummer

A little less than two years ago, Nate Wood agreed to do a shed and an interview with me. I was frankly surprised. His facebook message to me was something like "Love to! When's good?"

As a fellow fan of the short replies (favorite response to "do you want to do a gig xyz details?" is "YES"), I liked him immediately.

Nate then proceeded to make me look like a rank amateur. It wasn't even that he pulled way more chops. It was that he made chops seem like a cheap gimmick.

Well, payback's a bitch.

No, I'm kidding;) Nate's welcome back anytime he wants to give me another lesson in humility. But I did lift 2 licks from him. Or rather I'm pretty sure he played them. The same way Jeff Tain Watts is pretty sure Elvin played most everything that later came out in Jeff's playing, after decades of listening to Elvin. I've listened to a lot of Nate over the years, and I 89% guarantee he's played something pretty-much-like-this;)

Oh - and to make sure I give you one actual, bonafide Nate lick that Nate actually really played, I throw one in at the end.

Ready for the lesson?

PS for everybody participating in the course relaunch, thanks so much for the enthusiastic responses! A lot of people are interested in the free evaluation, so I think I'm going to offer it to the first 10 people to sign up Monday morning. If you're on the launch list I'll be back tomorrow with more details!