For this 'blast beat', sometimes referred to as a 'Bomb Blast', you will be playing constant triplets notes on the snare, kick and a cymbal. The point of a blast beat is to be incredibly loud and aggressive and this is easily achieved by combining three parts of the kit at once. These grooves are usually used at high tempos, but be sure to make sure you have the part down accurately slowly before pushing the speed. Our Hand/Foot Co Ordination Exercises will be useful here. To get you started I'll give the groove as quarter note triplets first then the pattern will be developed through each exercise.
Example 1
A constant eighth note blast beat played as crotchet triplets.
Example 2
You will then double the note values to create a version of the final groove.
Example 3
What you may have noticed with the previous exercise is that keeping the groove going for an extended period of time is very draining. One thing that can help with this is to use a double kick pattern for the feet. This example will sound exactly the same as example 2 only two feet are used, notice that the feet on the quarter note counts alternate.
Example 4
Another way to ease the strain on your stamina involves cheating slightly. In this example you are switching the rides to quarter notes. This still has a similar affect but isn't quite as in your face.
Example 5
Finally we'll up the speed even further by switching the note values to sixteenth triplets.
TASK
- Apply a blast to a structured pattern either as the groove or fill.
- Experiment with the orchestration of the grooves.