We'll be discussing all sorts of drum stuff, but I thought a good way to kick (you should pardon the expression) it off was takin a look at the great Al Jackson Jr.
For those of you (and I hope it's not many) who aren't familiar with him, he was best known for playing with The Reverend Al Green and for being a founding member of Stax house band, Booker T. and the MG's. Check him out at www.myspace.com/aljacksonjr
24 comments:
Thanks for reminding me about Al.
I'm going to check out Al. I'm not really a percussionist but I want to learn more....tell me some percussion 101 stuff.
hey fulvio, let's start with listening. while you're checkin out al,listen to fa fa fa fa (sad song) by otis redding. start counting along, 1234 and repeat. then listen for the snare drum. that'll be on 2&4.
it's called the back beat. (it's also where the cool people clap at shows).
let me know how that goes and we can go from there. mike
hi it's wendy. great listening exercise (and grt to b with OR). what next?
hey wendy,
while we're still on al jackson jr.
check out try a little tenderness by otis redding as well (live in europe is a great cd). the last tune we listened to (fa fa fa sad song) had the back beat (snare on 2&4) like we talked about. "tenderness" has the emphasis on all 4 beats (when the groove finally kicks in). listen for the snare again (it's played side stick style and sounds sort of like a wood block). these are 2 "feels" and a good way to learn beats.
keep those cards and letters comin.
thanks!
mike
okay good i'm lovin the awareness of the beats and the "feels". I'm finding it interesting how the other instruments in a band work with the drumming. What are other feels? IS there ever a 1-3 thing happening? How about feels for 3/4 time?
great questions wendy. for 3/4 time we're gonna move away from al jackson jr. and the rest of the stax cats.a perfect example of a 3/4 feel would be norwegian wood by, of course, lennon & mccartney. not a great example of 3/4 time drumming so, your mission jim should you decide to accept it..... find a tune in 3/4 time with a cool and or a prominent drum (or percussion)part. let us know what you come up with. mike
Neil Young Only Love Can Break Your Heart??
good one wendy!
now, if ya like, we can move to other "triple" feels like 6/8 and 12/8.
yes pls.
ok, 6/8 is not necessarily a commonly used time signature in "modern" pop music. 12/8 is but we'll get to that.
a good example of 6/8 would be washington post march by john philip sousa. 12/8 would be a slow blues or lot's of 50's songs (teach me tonight, i think you're real familiar with that one). 6/8 is a "triple" feel in 2 (ONE two three FOUR five six), 12/8 is a triple "feel" in 4 (ONE two three FOUR five six SEVEN eight nine TEN eleven twelve). find a 6/8 and 12/8 tune and let us know what you come up with. after that we'll move on to shuffles.
excellent; thanks. i'm going to work on the 6/8 suggestions and get back to u. As regards 12/8, I've been working on guitar and vocals for Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah which is in 12/8. And I get what yr saying about 12/8 being a triple feel in 4. That's so cool bc i'm used to singing, mostly, 4/4. now here's something with the feel of triples but it also has 4 "downbeats" i guess i wld say per measure. i'm very curious to see how that's going to all interweave. i like that there are so many beats per measure bc it keeps me moving on this song which when i sing/play it, can get too....morose i guess i'd say.
yea wendy, great choice with the leonard cohen tune.you're absolutely correct about 12/8 having 4 downbeats with a "triple" subdivision.it's not however, the same as 4/4 subdividing the beat into triplets. i could go into the differences if you like. it's kinda technical and may not be that interesting (it may be) let me know. also if you want we can move on to a different feel.
mike
i would definitely like to hear the differences about 12/8 if it's not an odious task for you.
not odious (great word) at all wendy.
i love this stuff.
in 4/4 the quarter note gets (represents) the beat with four beats per measure. that you know. the subdivisions are "duple" i.e "straight" eighths and sixteenths etc. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and - and so on. in 12/8 the eighth note gets (represents) the beat with 12 beats per measure. 4 groups of 3 which causes the triple feel. ONE two three Two two three THREE two three FOUR two three. this would be why they "feel"different. 4/4 being "straight" and 12/8 "swinging". i hope that was a coherent description.let me know if there are any questions or if you'd like to move to shuffles. mike
okay thanks i get this. very cool. i like the concept of "represent." i'd like to move onto shuffles. To quote Oliver, sir, can i have some more?
i guess what i was saying about 12/8 is that 4 downbeats/measure exist in 12/8, right? So a triad/quadruplidad:) relationship exists w/in the measure. There's a 3 times 4 thing happening. which i love.
wendy, you're absolutley right about the 12/8 thing.
now, shuffles. this is a large topic and one of my favorite grooves. there are blues, jazz and country shuffles.
there are many ways to write a shuffle rythym. since we were just doing 12/8,let's start with that. if you rest on the second note of each group of three (1rest3 4rest6 7rest9 10rest12) that would be the basic tenant of a 12/8 shuffle. you wouldn't count it this way but that's the concept. an example of this would be pride and joy by stevie ray vaughn. you can really hear the "chunka chunka" feel. so check out some blues and see which ones may be shuffles and then will move on to some other types of shuffles.
cool!! i am going to chew on this and get back to you.
ok coupla questions re: shuffle.
you broke it down mathematically for 12/8. would you mind doing it for 4/4? Would you say there's an upbeat...or maybe i wanna say pick-up quality to it? Does Bruce's Fever have it? Ted Hawkins' There Stands the Glass?
hey wendy, the springsteen song is a regular 12/8 feel (no shuffle). The ted hawkins tune is basically a shuffle. It's the space between the first note and the last note (of each beat) that makes it shuffle. In 4/4 (as you know a 12/8 shuffle is the first and third notes of each beat) each beat can be subdivided into 4 16ths. So a 4/4 shuffle is 1 rest rest uh 2 rest rest uh, 3 rest rest uh 4 rest rest uh. It's usually written as a dotted eighth then a sixteenth. And yes it has a pickup feel to each beat but the down beat is the stronger note. b.b. king's every day i have the blues is a good example of an up(ish) tempo shuffle, dwight yoakm's guitars, cadillacs is an uptempo country shuffle and lyle lovett's you've been so good up to now is a slow rock shuffle. there are still more kinds of shuffles if you're interested.
'k i'll masticate for a bit.
thanks for the free lessons!
....and that's masticate w a "c" get your head out of the gutter. :)
your welcome (i was only up to my feet in the gutter)
i've got to get comfy with some blues riffs on guitar before i'm going to really understand this i think. i've been taught the I IV V thing a bunch of times but have never really spent time...not sure why. so that's where i'm headed with this:)
what are you listening to? i know it must be summer cuz jackson browne is showing up for me. always a sure sign in my world:)
yo ho wendy, some of the new stuff i've been listening to is, sara bareilles (many the miles, great tune)
and alice russel. after that i've been hittin shuffle on the ipod commin up with the usuals.....
stravinsky's rite of spring, nat king cole, foo fighters, monk, maceo parker's shake everything you got (highly recomended, especially in the summer). a little bit of everything.
listen to the stones monkey man, go to the charlie watts post on this blog there's a youtube clip.
enjoy!!!!!!
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