As promised, here's some more pad business to enjoy outside.
We did one of these "puh-duh-duh" exercises awhile back. I like this sticking. It rolls off the hands nicely and makes for a relaxed warm-up.
This time though, we're going to add some paradiddles into the fold, making it more difficult on a few levels. Not only do we have to deal with the gear change between triplets and 16th notes in general, but often we're moving swiftly between double strokes at the triplet rate and 16th note rate.
Play the whole thing as written, with no accents. Then for a few variations, try keeping everything low, but accenting the single notes of the puh-duh-duh's, like so:
And also, with an accent on every beat, regardless of the sticking, like so:
We're coming into that time of year where I spend a lot more time out on the back porch with a pad in front of me just working the hands, writing exercises, and playing along to music. So is here a system for Stick Control that is simple concept, but quickly becomes quite the workout both in terms of chops and brain power.
Awhile back we applied flams to Stick Control. This is a similar concept that applys double strokes. The basic system is below, with all the 16th notes played as double strokes:
From here simply add the stickings from the first few pages of Stick Control. So, for example, number one will look like this:
Once we get past the single strokes we end up getting three and four strokes on one hand. Number three (which is paradiddles), for example, will look like this:
After number 13, when the patterns become four beats long instead of just two, is when the real mental game comes in. Here's what number 14 will look like, for example:
This will work all the way through number 72, so that should keep you busy for awhile. More nerdy pad stuff coming this week.
This is a very cool groove that I've been enjoying for many years and have been meaning to write about for almost as long. I'm pretty sure it was developed by Hamilton de Holanda.
I first heard it in 2007 when I went to Brazil and picked up the first album by de Holanda's now famous quintet. The album is called Brasilianos, and the groove came up in the song "Pra Sempre". It only appears for a few bars at a time at the end of the first A section. You'll find it in the melody at 0:16 and 0:58, and many more times throughout the solos and out head. Marcio Bahia is on drums.
Two years later, in 2009, de Holanda's quintet released a new album, called Brasilianos 2, and the same rhythm was on a very beautiful, and very funky tune called "Tamanduá". Within the first few bars I recognized it as "that cool groove from 'Pra Sempre'". Except this time an entire piece had been composed around it. Again, Marcio Bahia is on drums, and he includes a few different variations on the groove.
Bahia orchestrates it a few different ways in this live version as well.
So what's going on here? The answer is actually right in front of us, though cleverly hidden. It didn't jump out to me until I saw Hamilton de Holanda's own chart for "Tamanduá". Beneath the title the style marking said "Samba Invertido", which translates "inverted samba", and it smacked me in the face.
If you keep up with my regular postings on samba and Brazilian music, you might already know that a common telecoteco rhythm looks like this:
This rhythm is directional, meaning that depending on the composition it could be played as you see it above, or the two bars can be swapped so the cycle starts on beat one of the second bar.
But, if we start on beat two of the second bar (or "invert" it), we end up with this:
Which just so happens to be exactly what is being played in the examples above. "Tamanduá" adds an additional layer of disorientation by starting on a pick up note, like so:
Edu Ribeiro has played this groove a few times as well, putting his own subtle spin on it. The first was in 2011 when, Jota P., a sax/flute player from Hermeto Pascoal's band released a self-titled solo album. The track "Que Fase!" features the groove.
And finally, in 2019, Hamilton de Holanda released a record with a new quartet featuring guitarist Daniel Santiago from his quintet, Thiago Espírito Santo on bass (son of Arismar do Espírito Santo, and occasional sub in the HH quintet), and Edu Ribeiro on drums. The album, Harmonize, is one of de Holanda's finest in my opinion, and features a new rendition of "Tamanduá".
This groove is quite a specific thing, so I wouldn't recommend dropping it willy-nilly into your next bossa gig. But it presents it's own challenges that are a lot of fun to work though and might give you some new creative ideas.
Last week I received more e-mails requesting PDFs than I have in a long time. It seems many of you really enjoyed the various Elvin inspired exercises. I've been enjoying them too, so I kept going with them.
This time around I've taken the quarter note triplet exercises, and experimented with playing groupings of four notes. Because there are only three notes in the bar, the four note phrases will roll over the barline, and resolves tidily after four bars.
Starting on the beat looks like this:
While starting on the second note looks like this:
Bill Stewart does this quite often to great effect. You can see one example of it here on the blog in the transcription of "Metamorphosis".
Adding this variable to the mix means that the possibilities are pretty much endless in terms of voicings, but I came up with three simple ideas to get you started.
2&2
Pick any two voices, and play two of each: SSBB; HHSS; BBHH, etc.
AABA
Pick any two voices and treat one as A and one as B: BBSB; SSBS; HHSH, etc.
ABAC
Use all three voices and treat one as A, one as B, and one as C: BSBH; SHSB; HBHS, etc.
If you've listened to any Elvin at all you'll almost surely know that, in addition to the sounds we explored in the last two posts, quarter note triplets are a big part of Elvin's sound.
Because we'll still be playing three notes for every two beats, we can use all the same voicing options we did on the two inner triplet exercises. If we start on the beat, then there's really only one note different in the whole thing: the first non-ride cymbal note will be on the downbeat, rather than the second partial of the triplet.
I've written it out again, however, with both the two and three voice versions on one page because A) it's easier to visualize if you're new to this, and B) to emphasize the placement of these notes, as it's far too common that this:
Gets played like this:
And for a whole other set of options we can leave the ride cymbal alone, but shift all of the comping notes an 8th note later.
Continuing on with the Elvin exercise we looked at on Monday, we can also play just two voices per cycle through the ride cymbal pattern. Remember, we're simply using our left hand and both feet to fill in the triplets not being played on the ride. By using only two voices each time we're left with doubles on each voice.
I don't feel this is necessarily any more difficult or any easier than the three-voice interpretation, but rather is just a different sound, and certainly gives us a lot more variations to experiment with.
I've been re-visiting a lot of Elvin lately as I have a student who is just beginning his deep dive into the material.
In gathering some material to send over to him I was reminded of this excellent post by Canadian drummer, Jon McCaslin on his long-running "Four on the Floor" blog. The whole thing is definitely worth a read, but today I want to focus on one exercise in particular that Jon saw Elvin demonstrate at a clinic in the late '90s.
The concept is fairly simple. You'll play a stock ride cymbal pattern in your right hand, and fill in the remaining triplets on another voice.
Each time through the two-beat ride cymbal pattern we have three notes to play and three limbs to play them with, so start by playing each limb once. That gives us six different combinations to work with.
This wasn't mentioned in the original post, but by playing a double stroke on the snare drum we end up with further Elvin-esque ideas.
Drop me an e-mail if you'd like of PDF of this worksheet, and be sure to check out "Four on the Floor". There is a ton of great stuff over there.
I've been working these three rudiments on the set with a student of mine. Some came easier than others and flowing between them was one of the rough spots.
When this happens either with my students or myself I'm a big fan of creating simple exercises that can be played on the pad or even just on your lap. If you've checked out any of the other studies I've posted here before, then you'll know that I also like to make them naturally flip to be practiced off both hands.
So I quickly jotted down this little study that incorporates all three and naturally switches hands. Try repeating it with drags added as well.
