Grab your free transcription of the exercises in this video (it will be emailed to you).
I’m endlessly fascinated by drum stuff that looks easy, but is hard. In lessons/videos/etc, sometimes I need to work to make the case that there’s “another layer” of subtlety. Indeed, my first few weeks working with many drummers are spent simply discovering that that layer exists.
We can tell on the surface that there’s something Tony Williams has that we don’t, for instance. But try to go into the practice room and practice a detail that will get you closer to Tony. The picture gets pretty “pixelated” when you zoom in far enough. You can lose the forest for the trees.
That’s why I love “heuristic beats”. Beats you simply won’t be able to make sound good unless these “second layer” subtleties are in place.
No disrespect to the great drumming on either of them, but songs like ACDC’s Back in Black or Tom Petty’s You Don’t Know How it Feels are songs I’d give to a more beginner student, because either the bass line buoys you along and provides “guide posts”, or stays out of the way, allowing you to simply place your beat in approximately the right spot, and it’s going to sound great.
If you try that with Aaron Parks’ Karma, which Eric Harland made famous, it will simply sag if you don’t have high level subdivision, coordination, and dynamics.
Try it with Nate Smith’s Skip Step, and it will lose tension and momentum if your lead hand technique and beat placement aren’t near-perfect.
Try it with Corey Fonville’s drum part on Christian Scott’s Twin, and unless you can layer your 8th notes 1:1 on top of the invisible matrix the bass and piano are creating, it will not only not “snap”, but create a hot mess.
So, for fun, I decided to feature those beats in today’s video. We’ll listen to the “pro” play them, we’ll dissect what makes them hard, then we’ll take you through, step-by-step, how I’d recommend playing them.
This one was transcription-heavy, so special thanks to Chris for his help with the transcription.
Hope you enjoy!