World grooves Archives | Total Drummer

How To Play 12 Bar Blues On Drums

How To Play 12 Bar Blues On Drums Learn how to play 12 bar blues on the drums. This Is The 12 Bar Blues Drum Lesson Welcome to the 12 bar blues drum lesson. Here we will learn how to play 12 bar blues on drums.Understanding this popular song form unlocks the code and allows us to sit in and jam with a huge majority of blues songs with ease. It allows us to understand where the music is going and therefore play fills in the correct places.In this blues drum lesson we will break down what is happening musically…

Afro Cuban Live Drum Lesson

Afro Cuban Grooves Learn how to play Afro Cuban grooves on the drum kit This Is The Afro Cuban Grooves Live Drum Lesson Welcome to the Afro Cuban grooves live drum lesson. This was one of the live lessons within the Total Drummer Academy but you can watch a replay of it here.In this lesson we broke down some key Afro Cuban drum grooves and looked at different ways we can apply them to the drum kit.We delved into more authentic ways to play this as well as adaptations for modern drum kit styles such as rock and funk.We also…

History of Cymbals

The History of Cymbals When were cymbals invented? Here we are looking at the history of cymbals and when cymbals were invented. This is taken from my book The Drum: A History which goes deep on all aspects of the drum from the earliest evidence to modern studio recording techniques. The history of cymbals is a long and interesting one and it started in earnest with one of the oldest companies in the world: Zildjian with their origins being in Turkey. The area known today as Turkey is an interesting country due to its location between Asia and Europe as well as its history of…

Street Samba Drum Lesson

Street Samba Drum Beat Learn a street samba drum groove This is a street Samba drum beat adapted for the drum kit. The Samba is a rhythm type from Brazil which is lively, infectious and often seen at carnivals making people dance. Usually this rhythm is performed by the bateria which is a large group of percussionists that play on a drum or other percussion instrument each. These can range from drums to shakers, whistles, tambourines and scrapers. The collective sound is very powerful. So here we are going to try and replicate that street samba drum sound using just…

Jazz Samba Drum Beat Lesson

Jazz Samba Drum Beat Learn this basic Samba drum beat The samba drum beat is closely linked to the bossa nova drum rhythm, both of which are from Brazil. However the samba drum beat is taken from much livelier, carnival dancing music whereas the bossa nova is usually slower. And so authentic samba sees groups of percussionists, ranging from small to hundreds strong, making up the percussion group (bateria) performing these beats in the street at carnivals. There are different sounds being played from large surdo drums, through shakers, tambourines, caixa, cuica, pandeiro, repinique and whistles. The collective sound is…

Advanced Samba Drum Beat

Advanced Samba Drum Beat Learn this advanced Samba drum beat This advanced samba drum beat is an extension of the basic street samba drum beat. It takes that pattern which was already quite a challenging four limb independence exercise and makes it even harder. But it's worth it because the end result sounds great! You probably already know that samba is a Brazilian rhythm which is usually played by lots of percussionists. From the mid-20th century drummers have been adapting these rhythms for the drum kit which enables one person to do the job of many. To create this thick layered rhythm…

Bossa Nova Drum Beat Lesson

Bossa Nova Drum Beat Lesson Learn the Brazilian Bossa Nova Drum Beat The bossa nova drum beat is awesome, it's fun, it's an essential groove for any drummer, and it's from Brazil! There are four great reasons to learn this pattern today. Now I know you might say, "Hey, I'm a metal drummer, there's is no way I will ever need a bossa nova drum beat." Well I hear you but you're wrong! Well you might not be, but in many cases this attitude is a bad one. One day you might stop being a total metaller and decide you…

Soca Calypso Drum Beat

Soca Calypso Drum Beat Lesson Learn the Caribbean Soca Calypso Drum Beat Here we're breaking down a Soca calypso drum beat. This is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean and in fact Soca is separate from Calypso although the two are very closely linked. In fact Soca has been described (by a Soca pioneer Lord Shorty - what a name!) as the SOul of CAlypso so you can see that Soca was born out of Calypso music. The rhythmic originas of a Soca Calypso drum beat are found in Africa, like much of the music in the…

Learn an Abakwa Drum Rhythm

Abakwa Drum Rhythm Lesson Use the Abakwa Drum Rhythm in many different ways The Abakwa drum rhythm is a really fun polyrhythmic pattern that is often found within the Afro Cuban six eight rhythms today. It derives from the secret Abakuá society found in Cuba, with roots in Western African culture, where they use their own language and music. This Abakwa drum rhythm takes the influence of rhythms within this music and it's evolution through Cuban music arriving at something on the drumkit that is a real independence challenge. So be warned, this rhythm is hard. But it is really fun, sounds…

Afro Cuban Drumless Playalong Track

Afro Cuban Drumless Playalong Track This Afro Cuban drumless track is a great practice tool Here we have an Afro Cuban drumless playalong drum practice track. It is in six eight time signature and based on the Bembe clave. If you have listened to this style whether in traditional form or American Jazz form, you will know that these patterns are some of the most fun to play on the drums. Once you have the Bembe clave feeling comfortable, it does take a little work to get the grooves down due to the independence challenge of the limbs. But you…