Drum Lesson #4
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16 notes are pretty much what drummers strive for. It would be idealistic to have 32nd notes and 64th notes executed by drummers universally. However there is so much to learn on drums that the styles alone is never-ending. However one cannot give up an opportunity to lay down some technical 32nd notes that sound like a 16th note "Beat/ Fills," brought to you in previous lessons. I say 32nd notes because they should be played at a faster rate than the 16th notes. All it is is doing a pattern forward and backwards. Use the bass drum however you want. Your right stick is on the bell of your ride cymbal. your left hand is on the snare. Now you want to play this as fast as you can count out loud or if you trust yourself in your head because it's faster: one e and ah Two e and ah three e and ah Four e and ah, Two and Four are capitalized because it is going to be hit on the snare drum louder. The pattern is R L R L L R L R R L R L L R L R . Keep your hands on the same spot doing it as fast as you can and accent the 2 and 4. This is what you want to lead in with for a beat before you do one of the previous Drum Beat Fills I presented. You want to do that left stick bounce off the right tom and floor tom I showed in setting up the drum set section. Now remember you want to look like lighting and sound like thunder, so each exercise is going to take you over a thousand times to practice each! If you want to give it a quazi video game feel, every time you do a hundred mark a line on a piece of paper. You keep track by saying the time you played it on the 1 of the 16th notes:
1 E + A 2 E + A 3 E + A 4 E + A 2 E + A 3 E + A 4 E + A ALL THE WAY UP TO WHEN YOU REACH 99 E + A 2 E + A 3 E + A 4 E + A
Then the 100 is where the 1 usually is. When you say seven you want to say sev, and whatever to signify teens. I usually go 1-9 and on the 10th denote where I am so I would then count 1-9 and then say 20 and out loud come back on the and represented as the +. Now spending a few hours with a couple of fills can wear on the body. Eventually one arm will be sore before the other. So you want to switch up by conducting an exercise that will add to you additions to your future drum solo.
Have your left stick hit the left tom and your right stick hit your right tom with no bass drum. Use flam's, bouncing, get the sticks really low to the drum or whatever. You want to do that as fast as possible and you don't even have to count. Just Left Right. Picture yourself as a martial artist. This is where the real thunder noise comes in. When you hit the bass drum once after the right tom. Obviously you want to do this backwards with the right hand starting. Then mix it up two bass drum hits after the toms.
The key to the intro is to have your drum sticks as low to the snare and come in with the right hand on the ride cymbals bell:
1 E + A 2 E + A 3 E + A 4 E + A
R L R L L R L R R L R L L R L R
Left hand hits snare on all L lefts and on the 2 and 4 those are loud as possible.
Then you want to hit your left tom and right tom one after the other and the bass drum that follows. Flame non flame however you want. Do this 4 or 8 times and then do it backwards with the right tom left tom bass drum. If it sounds like thunder you are doing it correctly.
Next hit you right tom so it bounces onto the floor tom using either hand you feel most comfortable in. Then hit the floor tom with the opposite hand. Then the bas drum. Do this 4 times or 8 if the crowd is really paying attention.
To compliment this you want to hit your snare drum twice and your upper toms four times. Like R L on the snare and each hand on it's respectable tom (Right tom Left tom) Hit R L R L . Do this backwards with a single right tom stroke and a single left tom stroke, then hit your snare drum four times. Change it up on different drums but practice al this a thousand times each, daily if you have the time and brush up on your parri-diddles for the next lesson.
That's R L R R L R L L R L R R L R L L
Hint left will also be it on the snare drum. Practice this with your right hand on the hi hat and your left hand on the snare. This is always good if your a roadie and they need you to do a sound check on the drums and you just have to hit the hi hat and snare for the sound engineer.