It has been a while since I posted anything here. It was an intense two weeks, and some areas got put on the back burner to simmer.

My friend's band, Flavor Crystals, had a short tour booked and needed a temporary drummer. I haven't been back to the US in five years, so it was a nice way to get me to travel back. I have made that trip so many times, but I needed a push to go this time.

Their real drummer, John Menke, is so good, so it made learning the songs and getting the shows a breeze. It was good times focusing in on just the drum parts on their songs. I'd put on headphones, take an urban hike, and sort out the vibe of each drum part.

My plan wasn't to copy each song note for note but to get the feel down. I figured that for the other members, if it felt right, then they could not worry about me so much. It seemed to work.

Today's drum pattern reminded me that I should resist the dominant hand or foot. My body/mind wants to start with the dominant probably because it is easiest to get going. I should lead with the opposite of what my mind is telling me to go with. It is a little messier and chaotic but I usually find a pattern or fill that surprises me more than usual.

Today, breathing is on my mind. Especially breathing in time to music. An eight-count inhale, holding it for eight counts, exhale eight counts, and holding for eight.

I believe the term for it is "box breathing" which uses a four count. You need to adjust it to what you are playing or listening to.

I use it for remembering to get enough air while drumming. Keeps me from getting tired.

I also use it as a metronome. Keeps my mind on the tempo.

RLRL R (single stroke) - Crash on right side 
RLRR L (paradiddle) - Crash on left side

Right out of the gate for 2025 is that. It is so easy to be lazy and do the first one. The second one is elegant and energy-saving. Gotta stop reaching my right-hand across to hit a thing my left hand should be doing.

The drum thing I am celebrating for 2024 is the letter B. B is for both. Things can be both.

I started off the year studying jazz drumming. I started noticing in the lessons that with the hands, things seemed to be Left, Right, or Both. So all my notes started to have "B" along with "L" and "R".

Slowly "B" began to creep into all my other areas of drumming (band, shortcuts, etc.).

I haven't abandoned LRK or LR. Just have the new options of LRKB and LRB.

I finally had a chance to work on the drum micro pattern I mentioned in a previous post. I had a couple new songs to work out that pushed this pattern to the back burner for a couple weeks. The funny thing is the concept I was trying to workout from this pattern works perfectly in one of the new songs.

Pattern

RLRL
K HK

Very cool pattern. A struggle at first for sure. I couldn't do the hi-hat at first. I had to split that out, get used to it, and then I could do it.

Steps

This..

RLRL
K    K

Then this...

RLRL
K H

Then both...

RLRL
K HK

Reasons

The reason for focusing on this little pattern is getting my feet separated from my hands more. If the feet are on auto-pilot then I have a little more brain to pay attention to the hands. I am shooting for "complex simplicity". Meaning I just want to be able to drop a single hi-hat "chick" whereever I want whenever I want.

Another reason is subtle. When I play a beat on floor tom or ride, it sounds good. When I play the same beat but add the hi-hat with the left foot, it elevates. It's hard to describe the dimension that tiny "chick" sound adds. It's like when I hear chefs talk about adding Bay Leaf to their dish.

If it isn't there, the beat still holds up. The song goes on. When you add it, it sounds/feels more complete.

RLRL 
K HK

I ran across this drum micro-pattern and it’s been burning in my mind the last couple days. It looks simple but the last half of it is quite rough at first. When I think about my limbs trying to do it, they don’t want to do it. If I can get my mind to zone out on something else, I can suddenly do it.

Gotta remember to hunt for more of these micro-patterns. 

Rehearsal today, and I am coming in with a triplet beat to share . I discover a lot of new beats to bring to rehearsal by learning from the past. Not copying the past. Learning from the past.

If I study some old technique, beat, idea, or pattern on drums, the same pattern occurs at practice when I am alone. I try to learn some old beat or fill as is, getting to about 50-75% close to it. Then my style gets antsy and wants some attention. I combine what I am trying to figure out with what I usually do, and it becomes a new thing I can do in my playing.

It happened that way with linear drumming. It happened that way when I tried to learn jazz drumming. It happens that way when I try to learn some legendary old beat.

Not being able to learn a beat completely isn't a fail. Coming out of a rehearsal understanding the idea or concept behind a beat is a huge win.

I can't play the half-time shuffle in the song "Fool in the Rain" note for note. My ghost notes noticeably leveled up from the fifteen minutes I sunk into figuring out the pattern. That's a huge win.

: RLR LRL (RLR is floor tom. LRL is on snare)

There is a drum beat called a Half-Time Shuffle. Lots of drummers crow about the difficulty of this beat. I will pause as you go look it up on Youtube or wherever.

[hold music]

I decided to get my head around this beat. When I stripped away all the ornaments and mythology around it (ghost notes, shuffle, clips of legendary 1970s drummers, etc.), it wasn't so daunting.

Pattern

RLR RLR BLR RLR
K

R = right hand on Hi-Hat
L = left hand on Snare
B = R an L at the same time
K = kick drum

Approach

1. RLR is the easy part. BLR is the tricky part. I worked on those two for a while separately.
2. Looped RLR RLR. Fun to zone out and do that part for a while.
3. Looped BLR RLR. Found it less tricky when you start with the both hands part.
4. Looped RLR RLR BLR RLR. Did this veeeeerrrrrry slowly at first. Let my mind and hands get used to when success sounds and feels like. Then ramped up the tempo.
5. Added the kick.

Tips

• Every L should be a ghost note. Didn't worry about that.
• This should be played with a shuffle feel. Didn't worry about that either.

Getting the beat up in the air is more important than making it shiny. I can polish it up later when the muscle memory is solid.

Beats like these are legendary for a reason. I may never use it for anything but the skills needed to play a beat like this level up my playing forever. Not a lot of chances to use half time shuffles in punk songs, but that "BLR" section in this beat is effing genius. It's one of those patterns that can reset your hands back to normal if you drum yourself into a corner.

Two things I need to get sorted out for the plain text drum tabs are accents and buzzes. I did a little soul searching and digging around in Unicode.

Accents are easy to do with inverted breves from Slavic languages.

L̑ (U+004C with U+0311 - combining inverted breve above)
Ȓ (U+0052 with U+0311 - combining inverted breve above)

For buzzes I realized that if I do them, they are natural so I probably don't need to clutter up the patterns. If I really need them in a pattern, I can type a note about it under the pattern, for now. This could change in the future.