8th-Note Rock Beat Variations
*You may not find them to be all that simple! Most students experience problems, getting these up to speed. Don't freak if you have trouble with them. It's a part of the growing process. It isn't at all uncommon for even the best students to need several weeks, getting up to snuff on these patterns. Do not be too hard on yourself here. Move on to a different topic completely and return later, if these beats give you unexpected trouble.
The truth is, these beats we are about to learn are by far the most useful and most common. If you do NOT hear some form of these two beats in the music playing around you every day, it only means one thing: You aren't really listening!
Learn to focus deeper on the drums within every recording. Try to recognize these rhythms as they occur in various songs. You'll even be hearing them as the background rhythm in many of the commercials on tv. They're everywhere!
NOTE: Though there are technically more than 4.3 billion (potential) other variations of the 8th rock 4/4, beat pattern, most have gone pretty much unused. You'll learn to visualize them as you study 'Finite to Infinity'. These are the primary beat patterns that tend to recur over and over again with slightly different permutations (variations) of the bass and snare.
As we add a few snare or bass syncs (to be studied in future lessons), they will slowly ignite. Most of the really popular, and really 'hot' 8th rock drum beats, tend to be related, in some way, to these.
Pop music trends between the 1960's and the current time, have pretty much utilized the same handful of beat patterns, over and over again, in song after song. What's more . . . Most of those beat patterns can be traced back to these two (simple?) beat patterns. I call these beats, the 'Primary Rock Variations', but they have been called many things over the years. Terms like 'Fatback', 'Funk', 'Rap', 'Soul', 'Hip Hop', and even 'Boogaloo', all refer to different combinations, and slightly different forms of these beats.
This type of study is sometimes referred to (by some teachers and some methods) as limb 'Independence'. Whatever terms we prefer; these beats, and these techniques, are extremely important to all serious students of drumming.
They are really the foundation or cornerstones of the entire rock era. Learn to play them rapidly and comfortably, then learn to combine them in various ways. Soon after, you will find yourself playing along, note for note with the drummer on any '8th rock' song. Also, if you'll fire up a little imagination, they can be used as an awesome drum solo when played without music.
So what are we waiting for? Let's do it!
Primary 8th-Note Rock Variations
#1
VIDEO: Click here to play, see, and
hear the above 8th rock variation video. This version of the video is for Internet Explorer w/Windows Media Player.
Video: For almost all handheld devices and other browsers.
#2
Hear it!
VIDEO: Click here to play, see, and hear the above
8th rock variation video. Be sure to play these patterns in a steady, repetitious
fashion, though some video players may pause too long at the end of each loop.
Video: For almost all handheld devices and other browsers.
The hardest part is the first few minutes with each pattern. After you get up to speed, you will recognize them as beats you have heard in a million songs, and they will slowly start to cook.
Add a few rolls or fill patterns and your drumming will begin to smoke.
8th-Note 'Rock Beat' Syncopations. If you are ready to move ahead with my lessons, then lets get 'funky' with 8th-note rock 4/4 syncopations!If you experience problems with these . . . DO NOT PANIC. Play along with more music, using simpler forms of 8th rock. As you continue to jam with music for fun . . . it will eventually just happen. One day soon, you'll be playing a song (using a simpler form of 8th rock) . . . and as you listen deeper into the music, you'll realize that these patterns are in play. Half the trick to learning to play them, is in RECOGNIZING them, as they are being used in a song. It'll come natural . . . as you play along with enough music.
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