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Sunday, July 24, 2016

New Orleans street beat - Reed method

As promised, another method for developing a NOLA street beat, this one perhaps more musical than the last. Definitely. Here we'll be using Progressive Steps to Syncopation, by Ted Reed, pp. 33-44— the “Syncopation” section of the book.

Similar to the Stone method from last week, we'll be playing alternating 8th notes on the snare drum throughout. Following the music in the book (stems-up part only, ignore the written stems-down part), you'll add a snare drum accent on any written short notes (untied 8th notes), and add a bass drum note on all the long notes (everything else— quarter notes, tied notes, dotted notes).

Once you can do that fluidly, you can begin making two-measure phrases that approximate a real groove. On the last long note every two measures, accent with the hands (whichever hand the note falls on), and roll— just continue playing the running 8th notes, but play multiple-bounce strokes for the duration of that long note. Here, it's all on the page:




Instructions from before still apply, mainly: 1) Swing the 8th notes slightly. 2) Listen to recordings to get the feel, and to get an idea of the amount of variety professional drummers use with this type of groove. Actual bands from New Orleans may not do a lot of variations on the basic groove; jazz drummers playing it as a style may play a lot of variations.

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