Is This The HARDEST Thing to Master on Drums?

First things first - here’s your free transcription.

When we think about what the “hardest” thing to play on drums is, we probably have some of the same ideas.

Certainly some of the impressive double-kick/blast beat/gravity drop technical prog rock of the type Navene Koperweis or Estepario Siberiano do seems pretty hard.

Ditto anything with shifting, angular polyrhythms of the type we see Arthur Hnatek or either Matt (Halpern or Garstka) playing. Not to mention adding lightening double-kick to that, as Chris Turner is wont to do.

But I’m going to propose something else entirely as a contender for hardest thing to do on the drums: improvising with doubled triplets.

Whereas some of the other disciplines are hard primarily for their speed, doubled-triplet improv is difficult even if it’s slow.

Whereas some of the other things are hard because you’re learning composed polyrhythms that cross the barline in weird ways, doubled-triplets - if you want to play them at a high level - are hard because you have to improvise things that cross the barline in weird ways.

So, what are doubled triplets? Imagine a slow half-time shuffle, and imagine improvising over it, at twice the rate of the triplet. They’re the same rate as sextuplets, but they “lie differently”.

And what makes them so hard?

My theory is that it’s because they only emerge in a certain band of tempos, and they’re tempos we don’t see very much in popular music. And that it’s all down to reps. We get tons of reps with 16ths, sextuplets, and 32nds, but many fewer with doubled triplets.

But I’d argue we should be making time for this solo structure, because it sounds really cool. (In the video I’ll show you several examples.)

Which leaves us with how do we do it. And you know me - I’ve got you.

The answers to get you started, as usual, are in the video.

Hope you enjoy.

Brandon Olander - Technique Notes With The Drum Corps GOAT

If you're like me, you probably remember those drum corps videos from 2017 and 2018, when a certain media network started sharing a ton of them on YouTube.

One of the most captivating to watch were the blue devils. I actually used excerpts from some of their lot drum line performances to illustrate what I meant by "playing clean": if you treat your drum kit like 4 players playing together, your "personal drum troupe" should sound, well, Together, rather than all over the place. And it was the devils' footage I used.

The center snare player for that group, during several of its best years, was Brandon Olander, who, I'm excited to say, is today's podcast guest.

Brandon and I had been meaning to have a conversation for a while, and decided "why not record it". I was excited to pick the arch corpsman's brain on a number of things.

Topics we touch on in this interview include:

-The differences between marching snare and drum kit technique

-Brandon's philosophy and approach to teaching

-What it's like to be an apex marching percussionist learning drum kit

If you've ever wondered why the hands of corps folks and drum kit players look so different, or whether the crazy rhythmic vocabulary of drum corps gives you a "leg up" learning to improvise, I know you'll dig this interview.

Does Anybody Know What This Drum Beat is Called?

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

I actually genuinely hope someone in my audience can supply some more info on this.

It started like this: I’m listening along to my instagram, then I see this “Bill Withers with 32nd notes” thing from Jharis Yokley, and I think “wow, that reminds me of this Chris Dave beat with Meshell Ndegeocello.”

I also thought of the beat I played over one of the tracks I recorded the last time I was at Meinl - this stuff is clearly in my head too.

There was just one problem: I had no idea what to call it.

It’s not exactly breakbeat, the way Jojo Mayer or JD Beck play it.

It’s also not really jungle or Drum and Bass.

But it does seem to share their DNA.

After texting umpteen drummers and asking “what is this thing”, I got fed up, and decided to hatch my own tinfoil hat theory.

In today’s video, I’ll tell you what that theory is, and also show you how to play the beat. Complete with transcriptions.

Hope you enjoy!

The "Sneaky" Way to 2x Your Speed on Drums

First things first - grab your free transcription here.

Whooooa Nelly I’m tempting the clickbait accusations with this one.

Sometimes I’ll come up with a learning technique with my students that works so well I’m in the unenviable position that everything I say to describe it sounds like utter horse$#!#.

So, caveats out front:

The method I’m about to describe assumes you’ve done a lot of prerequisite work. That means learned to play cleanly and in time, and developed your idea flow. I’ve often said that the key to playing fast solos is playing slow solos. The reason what I’m about to describe works is that you’ve already learned to play slow solos. If you take a sloppy solo and add speed, it’s just going to sound sloppy fast.

With that out of the way, how long should it take to play faster, once you can already play slowly?

The answer could be a couple of years, if you just inch the metronome up. (And I recommend you do that either way.)

But, it turns out, there’s another, faster - sneakier - way.

In this complex soup of drum improvisation, speed is one ingredient. Another is number of licks you maintain in active memory. And you can play with both.

In fact, one of the most famous “choppers” of his generation is talking about it, in public, in plain English. If you know where to look.

I promise I’ll explain more in the video.

Hope you enjoy!