How to Play Like Sput Part 2 - The 80/20 Drummer

I'm back with part 2 of the Sput lesson. Last week I delved into the off-kilter 5-groove of the tune Can't Get Right, featured in one of the latest Meinl videos. Today, I'm back with the results of my sisyphean experiment: the 4 bars of "solo" at the end of the sax solo, beginning at around the 5-minute mark in the video.

If there's anything I learned about Sput, it's that he's got a penchant for unconventional stickings, and a rock-solid right foot. You'll see what I mean when you get into the material: try to play the loop from the second last bar for 25 minutes. You'll know right away whether your kick-drum technique is serving you or not.

Without further ado, the lesson.
 

For the comments, would you guys hate me if I made another Benny Greb lesson?

Peace,

N
 

How to Play Like Sput Part 1 - The 80/20 Drummer

I'm working on the solo. I promise I'll get to that. But for now, the groove.

Let's back up: people have been bugging me to do a lesson on Robert "Sput" Searight for at least the last year. So I was looking for a way in:

Maybe the solo from What About Me at NAMM 2015?

Maybe the Vic Firth video?

But nothing really grabbed my fancy. Sure, he could deal chops. Sure, he constructed unconventional, often "open" beats around the kit. But I needed a hook.

Enter the Meinl Can't Get Right video. In order to have the energy and fire to transcribe something when I could be perfecting my own vocab in the Batcave, it has to make me mad. And Can't Get Right made me mad.

"What's he doing, and why can't I do it?"

Like they keep raising the bar even as we all try to get better.

So I've spent most of this week transcribing the solo Sput plays at the 5-minute mark of Can't Get Right. But first, I wanted to tackle the groove.

"What kind of crazy cyclic five shit are they doing?"

And it's not as easy as it sounds, either. It took me 2 hours to feel comfortable. How long will it take you? Check 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

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