I like to practise my drums. Always have. It feels great, to tackle a technical or cognitive skill that couldn’t be achieved at the time, but after some focused and disciplined work on the instrument, is really owned.

To make practising not only fun, but also noticeably effective, I prefer using and coming up with conceptional workouts and excercises, that can offer a wider range of improvement in the long run, as opposed to simply appoach the obvious deficit.

In this new video workshop series, exclusively for bonedo drums,  I would like to present you some of my personal conceptional approaches, that have helped not only me with my own development on the drums, but have proven to be extremly useful to legions of ambitious students that I have had the privilige to teach over the years in various institutions and situations.

We all are aware of the importance of control, interdependence and balance on the kit; and the ability to percieve rhythmical structures from different perspectives. Though, from time to time we find ourselves confronted with the weak spots in our playing – and if so, it can make us feel frustrated. Even if our fellow musos don’t twig the stress we are going through with a certain groove, fill or other musical challenge, we know for ourselves  – because we have learned to hide the deficit and fight ourselves through the moment.

The here presented workout, which I call “Moving Paradiddles – Moving Feet”, is just one of many ways to train and improve the mentioned skills on the drums. The written workshop with the musical notation on bonedo is in german language only, but here you can find the english video version.

As with all practice, you can look at this concept as just some dull excercise – or you can understand it as a musical routine, a little piece of music, that you create while practising and which you can play with touch, sound, creative orchestration and instrumental joy. It’s up to you.

I recommend to place your focus on precision over speed, and constantly monitor yourself. Continuously check, how souvereign and comfortable you feel in terms of body balance, control and perception of where you are in the bar. And count out loud.
Play the excercise at  a very low volume as well as with fierce energy, just like you would play any music. And practise with a click – and definitly without!

The question is: Can you play it – and can you play it relaxed?
After a while, you will – and it can turn out be tremendously helpful with your playing

After you mastered it, go ahead and modify the excersise, change it up and make it your own. There are no limits to your creativity.

I hope you will enjoy this workout.

 

This time I want to introduce you to one of the most recorded drummers in R&B, Soul and Motown: Legendary Drummers – Legendary Grooves # 6, presenting James Gadson.

Having been successfully active for far more than half a decade as a session drummer, producer, composer and even singer, Gadson is truly one of a kind.
Now, being in his autumn years, he is still a sought after musician, also hired by comparably younger artists such as Justin Timberlake, Beck, Feist and D’Angelo, to give their music the special „Gadson-Feel“.

In 2017 he was asked by Vulfpeck to join forces for a live studio session recording the song „Running Away“ for their latest album „Mr. Finish Line“, alongside guest-guitarist David T. Walker (Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder). What a wonderful piece of music they created here for us…

His groove and feel are once more simply impeccable, and so „Running Away“ is not only a timeless piece of new, classic soul music, but also a great stage for displaying Gadson’s huge talent to shape the feel of a tune with his magic touch.

Check out the workshop with a detailed groove analysis and some re-recordings of his contribution to this future classic, exclusivly at bonedo drums – and  simply enjoy learning from a groove-giant.

 

This bonedo drums workshop-series  is called “Legendary Drummers and Grooves”. So it is pretty obvious, that a drummer, who is commonly known as “The Legendary Nate Smith” needs to be featured here at some point.

This is part 4 of the series, and Nate has been all over social media in the past years; his infectous and explosive mix of Funk-Jazz-Rock-Loop-Style-Drumming has earned him his well deserved “legendary” nickname and status amongst fans and colleagues.

Now Nate has caused another big stir by his involvement with members of the  beloved “Vulfpeck”: Bassist Joe Dart, guitarists Corey Wong and Mark Lettieri (Snarky Puppy) together with Nate formed a Vulf-Records-project named “Fearless Flyers”, and what they play is some serious Funk!
In their hard grooving track “Barbara” – featuring Ghospel-Icon Sandra Crouch on tambourine – Smith lays down an irresistable high-energy-groove-improvisation, which I here would like to bring to your attention in greater detail.

In this further bonedo-exclusive workshop we will take a look at transcriptions of he impressive Drum-Intro and the track’s main groove as well as some re-recordings, all done with great admiration by your’s truly.

I personally found it extremly inspiring to take a close look at this special drummer’s very individual and unique approach to our instrument – i hope you feel the same!

Have a look, have a listen, enjoy!