WELCOME TO FOUR ON THE FOUR: A BLOG ABOUT JAZZ DRUMMING AND ALL THINGS UNRELATED, BROUGHT TO YOU BY JON McCASLIN

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Drums Patterns 2.0

Here are a couple of patterns I've been messing around with lately on the drums. They sound sort of Tony Williams/Jack DeJohnette/Cindy Blackman'ish when you play them fast enough.

They are based on this basic rudiment that I like to play that has no name (!) that looks sort of like this:

rLLLR rLLLR rLLLR rLLLR

*This pattern is grouped in groupings of 4 eighth-notes. The first 'r' is a grace note (i.e. a left hand flam)

I suppose it's sort of an extended variation of a Swiss Army Triplet that starts on the Left hand.

Anyways, here's the drum set variation:



And here is a variation using a 3-beat cycle:



They are tricky patterns because you introduce a double stroke on the right hand that is split between the cymbal and the snare drum.

Some nifty variations would include adding the hi-hat on four quarter notes or eighth notes to give that Tony Williams vibe.

You can also add a bass drum note to the beginning of each pattern so you get a sort of Brazilian/Samba-like vibe going.

(i.e. ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom, etc.)

Here is what they would look like with the added bass drum variaton:



And with the 3-beat variation:



Enjoy !

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