Billy Ashbaugh: 32nd Note Funk Groove #1

Here's our first look at playing 32nd notes between the snare & hi-hat in a groove setting....I love this stuff!!

Hey everybody welcome back to the Drum Room. Billy Ashbaugh here,  DrummerConnection.com. We're going to have some fun today. We're going to explore 32nd notes in a groove setting, primarily between the kick the snare & the hi-hat.

We're going to look at the hands first. Now, this is some advanced stuff so you guys be patient right away. If you're just getting started with this I've got a little tip for you.
Basically what we're going to do with these 32nd notes is combinations of singles & doubles, a lot like doing 5, 7 or 9 stroke rolls with some singles thrown in there.

So there's a good little warm up exercise to sorta get use to this that you can do.
You want to take and do doubles OK, just constant doubles with your right hand on the hi-hat and your left hand on the snare. What you want to do is practice applying some pressure with your left foot so you're going to get a nice tight sound out of the hi-hat. You're going to go up on the tip of the stick and of course you're going to go with your left hand and ghost note on the snare. And sonically what you're going to try and do is get the hi-hat to sound equal to the snare drum. You're going to find that you're going to have to dig in a little more with the right hand even though it's up on the tip and really lighten up with the left hand to get it to sound right.

OK remember patience with this. Lot's of time, lot's of repetition, just until it feels comfortable cause now we're going to have some fun.
This first concept, we're gonna basically start this little cluster right on the back beat and we'll start on beat 4. So that means beat 4 is going to be a rimshot, an accent.
Technically even though it's 8 little notes we're fitting in there, in that one quarter note, let's think of 2 groups of 16ths just for now to get the subdivision right.

So what it is, on beat 4 is a left paradiddle LRLL, left only accented. Then RRLL.

OK,  there it is very slow broken down. Now I'm going to let you hear this in a groove setting. I'll set the click at 80 bpm, you'll hear 8th notes clicking away. And then on beat 4 of every groove will come this little cluster.

OK once that smooths out, everything feels good. We're going to get the right foot involved in this little flurry here. What we're going to do is switch the sticking up a little bit on the 2nd half. So it's still LRLL then it's RLL foot. Now because this is happening on beat 4 chances are as we come out of this we are gonna hit the downbeat of the next measure. So we're gonna have two 32nd note back to back on the bass drum fitting in here. So again be patient and really pay attention to your note placement and how it feels.
OK there it is nice and slow broken down. Let's here it again at about 80 in a groove setting.

Alright one more final variation for today. We're going to again keep the left paradiddle. We're going to keep the bass drum also at the end of this figure, but instead of RLL foot let's go RRL foot. Seems like a small change but for some reason getting those two hits up on the hi-hat really changes things. Remember you gotta really get up there with the tip of the stick like I said before. Here it is nice and slow.

OK and here it is again a little faster in a groove setting with 80 bpm clicking away.

Alright there it is our introduction to 32nd notes in a groove setting to the kit.
Again this stuff is pretty advanced so please be patient. Take a lot of time. Remember the stages, getting use to the hi-hat, the snare just the tone the volume getting those dynamics to fly by. Subdivision. Slow stuff down. Play it very slowly, accurately with proper dynamics and note placement and then gradually speed it up and you can't go wrong.

So be sure and check back we're going to have a lot more on 32nd notes around the kit.