Transcription - Nene Brown, "Trajetória"

Continuing on with more repique de anel, here is some modern playing, this time by Nene Brown with Maria Rita.

This track comes from Rita's 2007 album Samba Meu, which is basically how I learned to play pandeiro.  The album came out right at the same time I bought my first pandeiro.  I listened to it over and over and over again, and tried (and initially failed) to play along to the record.  At first I couldn't even make it through a single tune, but with practice I could get through the slower songs, then the faster ones, and eventually I could play the whole album top to bottom with no break, which was incredibly satisfying.  So as this record was so influential in my pandeiro development I thought I'd revisit it to try to find some repique material.

As mentioned earlier, Nene demonstrates some more modern language that we don't hear in the earliest Dotô recordings.  There are some different rhythmic ideas, and he also presses the head for higher pitched sounds, which I notated that with dots above the notes.

Even if you're not interested in playing repique de anel, there's some great material here that you can develop for the drumset or other instruments.  Or even just listen and follow along for a better understanding of some of the phrasing that happens in samba.

Four-stroke ruffs

Carrying on with some Philly Joe-ish ideas, here is a simple sheet on the four-stroke ruff, a rudiment you'll hear plenty of if you're checking him out.

The four-stroke ruff is more a sound than a sticking, because just about any sticking you can come up with is valid.  The most common sticking, and easiest place to start is with single strokes.  It's also common to see this labelled as the "Single Stroke Four".

The least common, but still worth trying out is double-strokes:

Two paradiddle inversions are common as well, particularly in classical repertoire:

No matter how balanced one's hands may be, each of these stickings gives the four-stroke ruff and different sound and feel.  That final one was a favorite of Philly Joe's.

To practice these, try starting with metered triplets and 8th notes like so:

By playing them in that order, one hand stays on the beat throughout the entirety of the passage.

But remember that a ruff is technically comprised of three unmetered grace notes rather than triplets.  They should be played very close to the primary note.  Experiment with different degrees of openness and closed-ness, playing them somewhat wide so as to hear each note individually and also crushed down to create one fast sound.

Drop me a line for a PDF of this all on one sheet.

Philly Joe Jones three-beat triplet phrase

If you dig in to Philly Joe, you'll hear this signature phrase come up a lot.  It's simply three triplets, often played more than once so it rolls over the bar, with an accent on the first note of the first triplet each time.

You could, of course, simply play this as single strokes with no problem.  But it is generally accepted that Philly Joe played it R L L, followed by a paradiddle-diddle, like so:

To my knowledge, Philly Joe played it primarily (maybe even exclusively) off the right hand as notated above.  But we never miss a chance to create an exercise and work on something in both directions.  So, to get familiar with it try releasing with a quarter note and then starting with the left, back and forth:

Once it feels comfortable play it multiple times in a row on each hand until it resolves, and then again, flip it to the other side.

If you're practicing this on the kit, with the hi-hat on 2 and 4, it would be worth shifting the whole by a beat as well to experiment with different placements.

Another thing that Philly Joe would do with this lick is launch into with another single stroke triplet, preceded by an accent eighth note.  Again, try this leading both left and right.

And, again, shift that by a beat for more options.

As always, drop my an e-mail if you would like a copy of all of this on a neatly organized PDF

Transcription - Squarepusher, "Iambic 9 Poetry"

The same teacher that introduced me to Andy Kravtiz in the previous post also introduced me to Squarepusher around the same.  This stuff blew my mind.  I had friends who were really into acid house, techno, and happy hardcore, but that sound always seemed cheesy and boring to me.  As electronic music went, though, I could fully appreciate what Squarepusher was doing and enjoyed other artists in the drum 'n' bass/IDM/big beat scenes.

The first album I picked up was Feed Me Weird Things, the opening track "Squarepusher Theme" being a personal favorite of mine then and now.

I transcribed some of it 10 or 15 years ago, but it was a real slog, and when the laptop which stored the not backed up transcription was stolen I didn't have the heart or patience to start it again.

But recently I was checking out a later Squarepusher release called Ultravisitor and decided to write out some of the playing from the tune "Iambic 9 Poetry".  Squarepusher, real name Tom Jenkinson, is not only a DJ/producer but also an excellent bassist, with most of his bass lines being played live.

Jenkinson also plays drums and I believe is the one playing them on "Iambic 9 Poetry".  With Squarepusher's material it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate between what is played live and what is programmed.  It's even more difficult on this tune and all of Ultravisitor as he used clips from live performances in the creation of this studio album.  The drums on this particular tune sound pretty live to me until about the halfway point where it sounds like the might be some programming or effects going on.

Either way, it's a cool groove on a cool tune, so here is what I'm pretty sure is Tom Jenkinson playing drums on "Iambic 9 Poetry".  The first line repeats pretty much the same from 0:55 to about 2:10 where the second line starts and continues until in becomes basically untranscribable around 3:22.

Solo transcription - Andy Kravitz, "St. Teresa"

This is one of the first solos that taught me about subtlety.

In high school, my private teacher at the time suggested I check out Joan Osborne's album Relish.  I was skeptical because as a hard rock loving teenager I thought "One of Us", the hit single from that album, was stupid.  But, as he had yet to lead me astray, I nonetheless used my allowance money to pick up a copy of the album which I found was indeed very good.

One of the main reasons he suggested the album was because one or two tunes feature Omar Hakim, and the rest of the album has drummer/producer Andy Kravitz behind the kit.  Kravitz has worked with a wide array of artists that you'll especially remember from the 90s like Juliana Hatfield, Cypress Hill, Spearhead, and Urge Overkill, as well as with bigger names like Billy Joel and The Rolling Stones. 

Another one of the singles from Relish, "St. Teresa" has an understated solo at the end.  I still remember thinking how crazy it was that he wasn't playing all that many notes but it was still really cool.  The bass drum and rim click were coming in unexpected places to great effect.

This popped into my head the other day, so I put it on and realized I still remembered the solo note for note, so I figured I'd quickly jot it down and share it with you.  Solo starts around 4:30.

Transcription - Dotô, "Incompatibilidade de Gênios"

Continuing on with the repique de anel that I mentioned in the last post, here is a transcription of one of the most famous recordings of the instrument.  It's played by the creator himself, Dotô, with João Bosco on his classic, "Incompatibilidade de Gênios".  Here you'll see most of the standard material that we talked about last time put into context.

Repique de Anel

While in Brazil I picked up a repique de anel, an instrument that for whatever reason doesn't seem to get played as much as it used to, which is a real shame, because it's a lot of fun and a great sound, particularly in samba.  I had been wanting one for awhile anyway, and then ended up spending some time talking about it in my lesson with Kiko Freitas.

It was invented by a man named "Dotô" or "Doutor to Repique".  As best as I can tell he took a regular samba repique, tuned it down, and played it with his hands, the idea being that he could create a full samba sound with this instrument alone.  The only picture I've been able to find of him is a grainy shot from a video of him playing with Clara Nunes.

With one hand on the underside of the drum he uses a dead stroke to play the heartbeat rhythm that is most commonly played on the bass drum in samba drumset playing.  He also uses open sounds for fills and variations in conjunction with the other hand (more on that in a moment).  With his other hand he taps the side of the shell much like one would on a tantan or repique de mão.  However, Dotô gets a more metallic sound by putting "rings" on his fingers.  "Anel" is Portuguese for "ring", so the instrument name literally translates to "repique of the rings", but from what I've seen it appears to be more like thimbles on his finger tips.  Nowadays players often tape coins to the side of the drum so that one doesn't have to remember their rings.  Here he plays a telecoteco-ish pattern with some extra notes added, presumably to fill out the bar.  With the same hand as the rings Dotô uses his thumb to play variations and fills on the top head.

What you end up with is a groove that looks like this:

And with the fills played on the top and bottom head

I've got some transcriptions coming soon and there are some wonderful ways we can apply this to the drumset, but in the meantime, here are the only videos I've been able to find of Dotô to give you an idea of the sound.

Brazil

Apologies for the light posting lately.  Since Covid "ended" this year has been delightfully busy, culminating in a 17 day trip to Brazil these last couple week for gigs, lessons, and general hanging out.

In those 17 days I managed to study with three of my favorite drummers....

Kiko Freitas

Edu Ribeiro

Celso de Almeida

....and meet quite a few more at the 21 gigs we went to.  I heard and was able to chat to a number of other musicians whose work I've listened to for many years but have never had the chance to meet or see live, and discovered some serious young musicians who should definitely be known outside of Brazil.  I also had a chance to sit in on some choro, samba, jazz, and even at Vila Isabel escola de samba with Andre Siqueira whose playing I've transcribed for the blog before.

There is, of course, always more to learn, but the trip also confirmed and reinforced much of my understanding of certain Brazil styles, especially samba and forró.  I've had a few pieces in the works the last couple months that I'll soon be publishing with renewed confidence.

I don't want to gush too much here on the blog as this is meant to be an educational resource, so if you'd like to see more pictures and videos from the trip head over to my Instagram page and see "Brazil trip '22" in my stories.