Play Like (the Other;) Nate Smith (subscriber-only version)

It must have been my second or third semester in music school.

I'd long-since been introduced to the Dave Holland Quintet, with Billy Kilson...

...spent almost an entire summer wearing out  Prime Directive whilutst sleeping off cannabis hangovers on my buddy Dan's couch...

...transcribed at least one Chris Potter solo to sing along with, then analyze for a term project in Dave Liebman's class.

Not to mention seeing the quintet live.

So when my buddy Scott told me that a guy named Nate Smith was now playing with Dave Holland, I assumed he was fucking with me.

"Nah, buddy. That's the ten-year plan. You're too soon with that."

Nope. Turned out he wasn't. Another, totally different Nate Smith was now playing with Dave.

There went my life's plan. The odds of lightening striking twice, and Dave hiring two guys with the exact same name seemed slim.

To make matters worse, Nate, when I finally listened to the new record, was killing.

Fast forward more years than I care to admit, (skipping past a bunch of years of Chris Potter's Underground band) and Nate's sounding better-than-ever, and writing great music.

The song that inspired this week's lesson is Skip Step, from the recent Kinfolk record, in particular the Tiny Desk performance.

Like Butcher Brown, about whom I just shot the lesson you'll see in two weeks, Nate and Kinfolk manage to "smooth the edges" of the previous generation's fusion. It's some part motown, some part Headhunters, many parts Dave Binney/55 Bar, and so on.

Skip Step epitomizes the group, and Nate's playing.

Make sure you grab the transcription below:

Nate Smith Skip Step Transcription

A Simple Way to Play Quintuplets on Drums - Subscriber-Only Version

In BJJ there's something called Butterfly Guard...

Some of you know where I'm going with this already;)

You learn it in class, and it seems amazing.

You're supposed to put your legs between your opponent's legs (which assumes he's dumb enough to stand/squat totally square to you and just pause), then there's a whole assortment of ways to knock him off-balance, including cirque-de-soleil-esque ones where you toss the guy in the air, use one foot to rotate him 180 degrees before he lands, then take his back.

Know what usually happens in real life when white belts try to use butterfly guard? The opponent stuffs both of your legs between his legs, and mounts you like a steed.

That's how I've felt, for many years, about the quintuplet.

It's a practice-pad exercise. An abstraction. You hear people like Jeff "Tain" Watts seem to "stretch time" with quintuplets, or quintuplet-like rhythms, but good luck nailing one in the wild.

Cue one Mr. Joel Turcotte.

Instead of using the quint (sorry - I needed a slick abbreviation) like a modern art project, he used it as a metric modulation device.

"I always wanted to play in five, but I kept having to play in four on all the gigs I was doing," Joel said at a recent clinic. "With quintuplets, I could play in five any time I wanted."

Which beings us to this week's lesson. It's not about "licks". It's about the feeling of playing in 5 whilst you're keeping the 4 in your head.

And this week's lesson gives you an easy way to do that.

Grab the transcription here.

Quintuplet Transcription

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Oh, and if you're wondering about the end of the butterfly guard story, the analogy holds: it's most useful to think of butterfly guard as a way to get to other positions, rather than as a finishing point.

Enjooooooy:)

Make Your Drum Solos Seem Faster - Subscriber Version

A five year old can play "fast".

But the difference between that five-year-old, and the great players, is the subject of this week's lesson.

It's not just speed, but clarity.

Time.

Phrasing.

Texture.

That thing that makes you purse your lips whenever you listen to a Vinnie/Mark/Marcus solo.

Let's call that the "x factor".

But what would happen if you took away the fast, and kept only the x-factor. What would that look like?

It's just that concept I was experimenting with last week. To back-up, I've been spending a lot of time just practicing playing on the drums, with no cymbals.

Why?

I felt I was a little to "hat reliant", and I didn't like that I was facing the hats so much, instead of in the center of the kit.

So I'd work on phrases, of the type in my course (continually sharpening the saw), around the drums, only allowing myself to play the hats with LH and LF.

At the same time, I was checking out Taron Lockett's instagram, (@taroney) digging several clips of Taron playing with his band. There's a tune that sounds like a Scofield record with the Chambers/Beard/Granger band, and I was practicing playing over the top.

140 bpm on the metronome, but I found ideas were really repetitive, and I was "hiccuping" a lot. What to do?

Slow it DOOOOOOWN. 70bpm. "Same" tempo, but half the frequency. Sure enough, my ideas opened up, and I was making better phrases.

Along the way, I invented a couple of slick phrases in 16ths that allowed me to "break up" the time, and create the "illusion" of playing faster than I was.

And it's these licks that are the subject of this week's lesson.

To get the transcription, just click below.

Magic Trick Transcription

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Sextuplets in Your Face - The 80/20 Drummer

No, you're not hallucinating.

I'm back.

As summer turns to fall in New York, and as I start to fantasize again about my January pilgrimage to NAMM, I've been thinking about sextuplets. Have you?

You should be.

Here's the problem with sextuplets, though. It's tough to get past six-stroke rolls. Ugggh - PTSD flashback of me in college, stupid grin on my face, demeaning the whole drumkit with six-stroke rolls during a solo.

It's not like we can blame Philly Joe, either. At least he did interesting things with them.

Nope. I blame the hair-metal era. Boogada boogada. China crashes. Low, unmuffled snares. Coke, (the SODA - let's not get crazy), women (in a purely PLATONIC sense - gawd, would you reLAX?), and six-stroke rolls.

As tastes evolved, we weren't trying to sound like Neil or Simon anymore, and the maligned sextuplet got pushed backstage, like an unemployed older brother nobody mentions in polite company.

Until two things changed.

First, was the invention of the second triplet. Chris Dave. A new era. It was like we could breathe again.

Second was Thomas Pridgen's generation, and their recombobulation (spell check tells me that's not even a word - I think I'm gonna double down tho) of so many Wecklisms into something...cool.

(Vinnie's the paradox. Vinnie was never out-of-fashion.)

Oh, and I haven't fully traced the etymology of the hi-hat fanciness that gave rise to young'uns like Joel Tercotte (for me it was probably DeJohnette, then Thomas)...

...but in this lesson I've got a lick that draws from all three.

It's just one sextuplet lick you can probably learn in a few minutes, but maybe it'll open up some idea-flow and lead to other stuff.

Anyway, lesson.

Back sooner-than-you-think.

Till then, be good,

N