When I was a wee lad, I used to wonder what to do with straight grooves without backbeats. Swing, I understood. Rock, and halftime work, I had a good grip on. But what about when somebody called Maiden Voyage? Or, later in school, Bright Size Life? I never seemed to have an answer, and it was hard to know what to practice, besides the same "spangalang" as swing, only without the swing.
Sound familiar? Does the time go out the window when you're denied the twin supports of swing and backbeats? Does shit get "floaty".
Then, one day, it kind of clicked. If I had to summarize the revelation, it was that I didn't have to fill up every space. And probably listening to Mark and Keith helped as well.
Now, if I were teaching my younger self, I'd say, much as I did in the Jeff Ballard lesson from last year, "just play backbeats! Just move them around!"
But in this week's lesson I go a little deeper, demonstrating 3 concepts I think will help both open up your straight 8th/16th playing, and make it more solid.
Here's the lesson!
PS anybody in Thailand this week?
