3 Ways To Practice Straight 8ths - The 80/20 Drummer

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?
 

Six Cross Stick Licks - The 80/20 Drummer

This is the first of several lessons I recorded in advance to air while I’m in Asia.

Last year around this time, I did a lesson on cross-sticks, showing you two of my favorites, from Marcus Gilmore and Kendrick Scott.

But what if you’re playing matched grip with the left stick across the snare, “slow dance” style?

Two of the greatest at this are Antonio Sanchez and Art Blakey. While I don’t claim to come close to capturing the nuance of either, I did challenge myself to come up with six useful licks you can start playing today.

Enjoy this one! Back next week with another.

Peace,

N

How to Prepare for a Drum Shed - The 80/20 Drummer

True, the Drum Off has warped drumming. Can one even prevail without a synth-pad? And there's apparently no room for things like Mark Guiliana's PASIC solo from November 2015, because everybody's playing to tracks. But...two things:

First, the drummers who contort themselves to the shape of the container and prevail - drummers like D Mile - are usually the most creative players in real life. Not even the Octapad can kill true creativity - it usually finds a way through.

Second, the Drum Off is not the last word on sheds. The jam-session-cum-juijitsu-roll of drums would exist and continue to evolve with or without the Drum Off, and that's why even now the Drum Off perches on the razor-edge of relevance, with plenty of the best players just sitting-it-out, and one hardly doubts it would become "over" in a hurry (how many jazz musicians give a shit about New Orleans Jazz Fest?) if it became too ridiculous.

So let's raise a glass to the humble drum shed, which respects both the trap-kit's pugilistic origins (it didn't start in the churches) and its endless capacity to encourage innovation.

In this week's lesson, I detail what I'm doing to improve my own drum shed skills.
 

Quick PS, I'll be in Japan from the 29th to October 10th. Anyone who wants a lesson or a hang, hit me up - nate@8020drummer.com
 

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