lesson
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Syncopated Fills
This month, we’ll explore another type of drum fill—one that incorporates syncopation. Syncopation is displacing the regular metric accent and emphasizing the weak beat. In this context, that means resting on the downbeat. With one or more of the strong…
Balancing Grunt Work and Creativity
This is a follow up to the March 2021 article I did for MD entitled “Practice Like a Pro.” (You can find it at moderndrummer.com.) In that piece, I shared techniques that can be used to effectively learn songs. Muscle…
Progressive Drumming Essentials
Part 6: Syncopated Double Bass...the Easy Way. When I began working on double bass, I was inspired by drummers like Gene Hoglan, Raymond Herrera, and Thomas Lang, all of whom seemed to have a never-ending supply of creative parts. I’d…
World Groove Independence Mash-Up
When I began writing my latest book, Groove Freedom, the goal was to gain flexibility both within my students’ grooves and my own. As I practiced the book’s systems, I realized they helped with independence as well as with groove.…
Triplet Fill Concepts Part 2: More Three-Over-Four Fills
Welcome to the second lesson in our series on jazz-style triplet fills. This month we’ll continue with the three-over-four triplet concept. For this version of the fill, you’ll play the first three notes of the phrase on the snare and…
Quintuplets Part 2: Polyrhythms With Fives
Last month we got acquainted with quintuplets by using accent patterns and transitions with familiar rhythms. In this lesson we’ll superimpose quintuplets across two beats using a five-over-two polyrhythm and across three beats using a five-over-three polyrhythm. TO READ THE…
Flam It Up: Add Some Meat to Your Fills
Flams are fun! A flam is defined as a soft stroke, or grace note, and a louder main stroke played closely together to sound like one. Flams can be closed (less space between strokes) or open (more space between strokes).…
