Saturday 17 October 2009

Week 6 12th - 15th October 2009

6 Weeks already! Again apologies for not posting up everything from last week, I'll try to cover everything in this post but if anything gets left out do let me know.

Firstly, 16th note triplets and 16th note triplet shuffle. With regular 16th notes, we would sub-divide each quarter note pulse into 4 beats and count it 1-E-and-a, 2-E-and-a etc. With 16th note triplets we are dividing each beat into 6 even beats with a count of 1-2-3-4-5-6, 2-2-3-4-5-6 etc. To play a shuffle but in 16th note triplet form we would play the pattern like this :- (Bold = notes to be played)

1-2-3-4-5-6    2-2-3-4-5-6    3-2-3-4-5-6    4-2-3-4-5-6


The best exponent of this style of playing is a drummer called Bernard Purdie. He has worked with many recording artists such as Aretha Franklin and Steely Dan. His version of this groove is now well known as the 'Purdie Shuffle' which incorporates 'ghost' notes played on the snare drum with your following hand (example below) as well as a back beat. This can be heard on 'Home at Last' and 'Babylon Sisters' by Steely Dan. This idea was taken even further by another drummer called Jeff Porcaro who often played this groove pattern over 2 bars incorporating a 'clave' pattern on the bass drum - examples of this groove can be found on 'Rosanna' by Toto and 'Any Foolish Thing' by Micheal MacDonald.

An example of this groove can be found at the bottom of this post.

Work through the sheets below at your own pace and if you can have a listen to a few examples.



Our second subject was 8th and 16th note grooves played one-handed and hand-to-hand on the hi hat - with 8th and 16th notes on the bass drum.

The first pattern we played was the 1 and-a, 2 and-a, 3 and-a, 4 and-a,  on the hi hat with on hand as show here or hand-to-hand as shown here.

The second pattern was 1-E-and, 2-E-and, etc on the hi hat again played with one hand as shown here or hand-to-hand as shown here.

The third pattern (the one you didn't like!) was playing 1-E a, 2-E a, 3-E a, 4-E a on the hi hat with one hand as shown here and hand-to-hand as shown as here.

The Purdie Shuffle :-



2 comments:

  1. Hi Alex,

    Sorry that I coulnd't make it back in time last week and think from your comment that this Tues 21st is half term so will keep practicing in between. Can I just check please that for the 'Purdie Shuffle' the hi hat is always played on right hand (for me that is right handed)?
    Cheers,

    Ali

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  2. Ali

    Yes, the right hand (for right handed drummers) is always on the hi hat with the left hand playing the ghost notes and the back beat with your left hand.

    See you in a few weeks

    A

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