In this lesson you will be taking some Offbeat Snare Grooves learned previously in level 2 and playing around with the orchestrations to create more complex sounding parts. Two changes are going to be made. First of all, for this concept the right hand will play something over on the right hand side of the kit. This could be a ride, crash, china or any other voices you have in that area. The reason for this is to allow the left hand to freely move around the kit as it will be playing on the snare and toms. Hi hats could be used here but that will involve some cross over which I generally like to avoid where ever possible.
Before starting these orchestrations make sure you have covered all patterns in the lesson linked above as I will just be focusing on the orchestrations in this lesson rather than the mechanics of placing notes between right hands.
The concept is pretty simple. The right hand will play as normal, but as mentioned above playing on the right hand side of the kit, whilst the snares will be played on a backbeat. Any note that falls on an offbeat 16th will be played on a tom. Which tom is struck will vary and the same tom doesn't have to be used through the bar, that is where there is a lot of room for experimentation.
Listed below are several examples of this concept. I have included a note with each to explain how the groove has been constructed. Remember to start the parts slowly, make sure your note placement is accurate and then start working on increasing speed.
Example 1
A simple version of the concept to get you started. A standard level 0 groove is played with the right hand on the ride, on the 'a' count after beat 2 a high tom is added.
Example 2
The right hand is playing the crash and a high tom is added on the 'e' after beat one then a floor tom on the 'e' after beat 3.
Example 3
Here the right hand plays quarter notes on the china. This can make getting the timing of those 16th notes a bit tricker so don't be afraid to slow this one right down. The toms move around the kit here starting with a high on the 'a' after beat 2, then a mid on the 'e' after beat 3 and a floor on the 'a' after beat 4.
Example 4
Ride bells are used to accent the quarter notes of the right hand. As in the example above, the toms move around the kit starting with a high on the 'e' after beat 1, then mids on the 'a' after beat 2 and the 'e' after beat 3 and finally a floor on the 'a' after beat 4.
Example 5
This pattern is based on an eighth note floor tom right hand with a high tom added on the 'a' after beat 2.
Example 6
In this groove the intention is to show how using the hi hats in this style of pattern can be a bit uncomfortable. When using a high tom these parts are quite playable but you still need to be carefull not to knock your hands together. One solution to this is to play open handed, but that's for another lesson.
Example 7
Finally a bit of a variation on the concept. In this groove one of the back beats is switched to a high tom and the 'a' after beat 2 is on a snare.
TASKS
- Learn the grooves above up to a tempo of at least 130bpm.
- Create some 4 bar phrases where this concept is applied to the groove.
- Create further variations on the given examples as well as constructing your own groove patterns.
