Question on Soloing

Got an email question earlier this week about soloing.

Question:
"The drumming problem I'd need help with the most is soloing. Particularly, more smoothly putting the licks together and changing rythmic scope solo to solo. I play regular w/ a jazz trio and my solos are about a 50/50 proposition. Half the time they come out nice, others it's are more rickety and stuck in re-tread licks. I feel like I could pre-conceive 2 or 3 'go to' solos. but going between ideas improvisationally makes me stumble sometimes."

Answer:
"That's a tough problem. One I struggled with myself in the past, especially my senior year in college. It's actually the reason I made a whole section of the members area on the site called "The Art of Soloing".  I'm able to take students step by step through the process of working on their soloing skills.

For me, revolving the solo around a recurring theme, especially in a jazz setting, seemed to help me the most. It gave me a logical beginning and ending. I would also take smaller chunks of that theme and rearrange/morph them into other ideas during the solo. This is called Theme and Variation and is a very common practice in both the jazz world as well as the classical world.

In your practice time, try to set aside a solo practice time. Come up with a theme. Then work on incorporating ideas that you already know into that theme. Hum the tune of a familiar standard and try to outline the melody using snippets from that theme. In other words, don't focus on impressive chops...focus on dynamics, melodies, tension and release, etc. That's what will improve your soloing. Learning impressive licks and fast fills is cool...but in the end, it's about how much you make people sing what you play. How memorable your solo is.  When I'm listening to jazz, I want melodies, music, memorable lines. Not chops. Art Blakey? You can hum all of his solos. And they're impressive to boot. I think you've nailed what the issue is, now it's just working through the mechanics of stringing your ideas together more thoroughly."

Ready to take your drumming to the next level?  Then it's time to join The Shed

Incorporating Left Handed Hi-Hat Patterns Into a Groove

I asked everyone on Facebook what they would like a lesson on. Well, I got a TON of requests so I had to pick one. One suggestion was how to incorporate left hand patterns on the hi-hat into ride cymbal grooves (ala Carter Beauford and Ray Luzier). I thought that would be a fun one. It was something that I sought to incorporate into my playing when I was coming up. Here's a simple groove that will help you begin to master this concept. Be sure and stop by the website to see what all of the new buzz is about! And if you haven't signed up for the free email lessons that I offer, well, you should. 'Cause it's free. And they don't suck. And did I mention they're free??? Enough said...GO PRACTICE!!!

John Bonham Triplets - 30 Second Drum Lesson

We break 'em down...in 30 seconds or less!!!

Snare Strand Size

Hi Stephen,

hope you're good mate. Quick question I'm sure you'll be able to answer..
I need some new snare wires for a couple of 14" snare drums, and i'm looking online for some good ones. When they say
'14" snare wires'
does that mean wires for a 14" snare drum? or the wires themselves are 14" long? because obviously i need the wires to be an inch shorter than the drum. I hope that makes sense.
I was trying to google this but it wasn't working for me so thought i'd ask you.
Thanks buddy

-D

What's up Danny...

I can see how you'd be confused. The 14" means it's for a 14" snare drum. I hope that helps bro!

-ST

Students Working Through the Lessons

I get really excited whenever I'm able to check out how some of the live students are coming along. Chris posted a few from recent lessons...Check it out!

Meet Chris


Cascara Soca Lesson


Some of the grooves we worked on in the Soca lessons


A fill from one of the linear lessons


This one is from one of the YouTube lessons. He KILLS it!!!

How To Drum - The Cascara Soca

What do you get when you mix a cascara bell pattern with a soca groove? Something really cool, that's what!

30 Second Drum Lesson: Fill from The Killers Drummer Ronnie Vannucci

How To Drum - Intermediate Groove

Drumming - Live Playing w/ Lovers and Liars

I've had a bunch of people asking for some live footage of me playing. I have a few videos of gigs up, but not that many. This is one from a couple of months back that I never posted because the audio was so bad. But ask and you shall receive I guess...nonetheless, here's a live clip.

How To Drum - Opening The Hi-Hat

Had a lesson request come in on opening the hi-hat within a groove...simple, but necessary.

Summer NAMM

So Silverfox Drumsticks invited me out to NAMM this year. I've been endorsed with them now for a few months, and they're absolutely a stellar company. Got to have lunch with Dave from the A&R department. Good stuff. Here's a couple of short videos I shot.



And I saw this guy kickin' it. Ironically, someone on You Tube knew him from Facebook...so now he and I have actually started talking. The internet is a funny place sometimes.

Student Video Response

Every now and then you guys send me a video of your progress on a topic I post. I LOVE getting these! Seeing your progress pushes me to practice myself. Here's Robert kickin' it with The Helicopter...



it's a response to this lesson...

Drumming In a Jazz Group - What To Work On

"Hi stephen, i've subscribed to you on youtube and have a question. I'm going to start my sophomore year of high school in the fall, and i'm planning on joining the jazz band at our school. i haven't listened to much jazz, and im not sure what to expect. can you help me?"

-Geoff


What's up Geoff..

Thanks so much for the email man...and SO SORRY it's taken me a hot minute to get back with you. Being a one man typing army can be time consuming, lol...on to your question.

That's awesome that you're going out for the jazz band! Alot of players avoid getting involved in the jazz programs. If they only realized how much they were missing out on though. You'll be forced to learn a ton of different styles, play with dynamics, learn to read charts, learn to LISTEN and support the soloist, etc. I was a jazz studies major in college, and I'm so glad that's the major I chose instead of performance.

What to expect...

Alot of work! Lol, and alot of fun. You need to start listening. I never realized how beneficial listening was until I had some older players sit with me and help me learn to listen to songs, to pick them apart, figure out why the parts worked, why the players played what they did. If it's a big band, go download some Count Basie stuff (The stuff with Sonny Payne is my favorite...simple, understated, and GREAT setups to learn from). As far as getting your swing together (which you'll work on constantly), go listen to some Art Blakey ("Moanin'" is a great one). Concentrate on the ride cymbal, mainly the quarter note pulse. That's where the swing is gonna come from. Play along to recordings using just the ride cymbal and try to make it really swing.

Practice your chart reading. You'll be doing alot of it. Learn to set up the ensemble hits. Listen to how other big band drummers set things up. Also listen to smaller groups and how they set things up in those settings as well.

Approach it like you would any other style of music...with enthusiasm, with curiosity, and most of all with an open mind.

I'm stoked you're taking the opportunity to expand yourself man. Let me know how it goes and if you have any more questions!

-Stephen T.

How To Drum - 32nd Note Flourish Drum Lesson

Mondays drum lesson is up...an exercise I've been hacking away at for a few days...

Drum Lesson: Beginner 16th Note Pattern (But Twisted)

Another drum lesson from my book. The book is about permutations. Hope you enjoy.

How To Tune A Drum

Ok, so I've had a TON of requests to do a few lessons on drum tuning. This is an area that I'm no expert in by any means. It's also a personal area of drumming...every drummer has their own sound and should strive to find their voice. That being said, I've found a few things over the years that help me achieve a good sound quickly...so that's what I thought I'd share with you. Feel free to throw your comments in as well!

Applying Rudiments To The Drum Set and Learning New Fills

Had a question via email come in...

"Hey man, I hope this message gets to you! I'm 18, and my name is Ryan.I just graduated High school and attending college next year. I live in Maine, and I too love drums. I'm 100 percent self taught. Out of all the drumming videos I have seen online, you seem to be the nicest, most understanding guy I see on there. so messaging someone because of their video on youtube is highly unlike me. But I had a question for you. I am in a band and get through it just fine. Most of my fills though are basic, and half the tim I dont know what I am doing, it is just muscle memory. How do I expand my knowledge of fills? I mean, I was told to learn rudiments and what not, but how do I incorporate those into fills? I want to be able to play drums and throw down some awesome triplet fills,or 32nd not fills, or what have you. and on top of that, I would want to do them on time:P so as of right now, Im not making any progress with my drumming.. what do I do? Thank you so much for your time, I hope you get this!"



What's up Ryan!

Thanks so much for the email...and yea, I try to answer all of the messages and emails I get in. Although these days I'm getting alot of them, so it's getting a bit harder.

To your questions...

You're going through something that's ordinary. Even I go through it. You realize that you've just been on autopilot and now you're actually wanting to expand your knowledge and push yourself to learn new things. The first step is realizing you're in a rut...and you're already past that step, so kudos to you for noticing it.

First step

-Take 3 of the "boring" fills that you already know and play all of the time. Now, instead of playing them like you usually do, dissect the sticking. Just play that sticking on the snare until it's in your head. Now, keep the left hand on the snare and move the right hand to the floor tom and play the fill on just those two sound sources. Then keep the right hand on the snare and move the left hand to the top tom. Now pick a cymbal and one tom to play the fill on...continue doing this for as many combinations as you can. What this will do is not only give you variations to your normal "boring" fills, it will start to open your thinking up...and that's the most important part. Getting your mind used to thinking in different ways.

Second Step

-Yes, you absolutely should learn your rudiments. They just give you a larger rhythmic palette to pull from. You're stuck where alot of guys get stuck...how do I apply them. Begin to think of the rudiments you learn as simple sticking patterns. Paradiddle is simply RLRR LRLL. you can take that sticking and move it around the kit just like you did with your other fills. Move the right hand first and keep the left hand on the snare. Move it to as many sound sources as you can. Do the same with the left hand. You won't use all of the combinations you come up with...some of them will sound quite bad actually...but that's not the point. The point is to open up your thinking.

Now that you've moved them around some...replace all left hand hits with your kick drum and play the rudiment between your kick and right hand. Move it EVERYWHERE on the drum set. Then play all of the right hand hits with your kick so that the rudiment is played between the left hand and the bass drum. The important thing to remember is that there are NO rules here...there's no right or wrong way to apply these rudiments. Some of your ideas will work, some will be horrible...that's ok. The point of practicing is to push yourself to new places. If you sound good while you're practicing, that's not really practicing...that's reviewing old material. Save some of your practice time for reviewing old things and polishing them and a large chunk of your time for pushing yourself to new places...you'll sound bad, you'll improve quickly, and you'll have a blast doing it!

Check out my YT channel and comb through alot of the old lessons...there's over a hundred up there so they should keep you busy for a while. I put them up there specifically for people like you...self taught chaps that want to improve.

I hope that helps Ryan...let me know if I can answer any other questions! You can also check out my blog for other questions and practice tips at www.DrummerEtc.com

Now go practice!!!

-S

How To Drum - Blues Drumming

Everyone should know this beat. Everyone should also have a sense of humor. Hopefully, this helps on both fronts.