When you have chosen your (ostinato)
it's time to do something with it,you cant just sit there and smile.
HOW ?
Baby steps one step at a time
For your first ostinato i would recommend keeping away from odd time patterns
also keep the ostinato pattern simple
OK
Play the ostinato you have chosen (say its feet) Play this pattern until you have a very soild idea of the exact motions
involved.(you have to know what you are doing!)
Next
play the pattern with out looking at what your doing stare at a point on a wall in front of you.
Try to let
your attention fix to the point on the wall letting the pattern run in the back ground keep this up for 20-30 min.
At this point you may run in to a problem !
if your pattern is (RLRRLRLL) and you cant play the double on the left foot
you will need to work on that before you can move on.
(you cant play on top of ...something cant even play
by its self !) EEK !
be honest with your self :P
if you can play the basics of the pattern but its a bit rough don't worry
after the time spent working though all the patterns ahead
you will have had a lot more practice at it!
Next
if you have control over the pattern close your eyes while playing the pattern
Think about an highly imaginative image,
make it as clear as possible in your mind the more crazy the idea the better !
(go nuts...think of riding a giant frog or what ever takes your fancy)
think of all the strong colors and all the sounds to go along with the crazy image try to feel like you are in the image
and not sat on your stool playing .
WHY?
Doing this distracts the conscious mind and helps to program your pattern as
motor memory.you learn a
shorter time span than with normal practice thinking
.....in normal practice you just go over and over till get bored and your mind goes out to lunch yawn...and thats when
it sinks in ((top tip))
after a long session of this visualization exercises you should start to feel the pattern fall in to place then you
can play it at quite a speed without thinking to hard about it (feels like sort of keeping check on it as it runs )
Next section
Play 16ths or 8th or 16th triplets*depending on the subdivision*,
(on the snare) over your foot pattern
get used to the feel of the ostinato against the constant time.
This is the master TIME GRID that everything will fall
in to. (you have to have this nice and soul)
When you feel comfortable with that still playing 16ths over the feet
Next move your right arm on to the first
tom to here beats (1)e(&)a(2)e(&)a(3)e(&)a(4)e(&)a over the pattern
this will make the 8th notes
very clear to hear ( now you can pick out how the pattern falls against 8ths!)
Next
Using the same system above
(1)e(&)a(2)e(&)a(3)e(&)a(4)e(&)a
Now play the right hand part between the first tom and a ride cymbal so
(1)is ride - (&) first
tom--- (2) ride-- (&) first tom--- (3) ride-- ect
its still 16ths but right hand moving
from ride to tom.Listen to the ride for a while
This will make the quarter note count easy to hear also the of beat 8ths
on the first tom(depends on what you focus on)
The more you focus on these top kit patterns the more the feet have to
act on fixed memory.When i play this kind of
stuff im thinking of just the hands and the master time grid
( no way can you think of it all at once ! ,,,are you nuts! )
Next
just play 8ths 1&2&3&4& with out filling in the left hand 16th notes
and then
the single crochet beats 1 2 3 4
ect.
Then back to the 16ths.1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a
Now you have all the main divisions covered,
all the "Prime divisions" as i like to call them.
4th 8th 16th
Next stat to break up the subdivisions
crochets eg....1 "2" 3...4 ...1..2..3.."4".."1".."2"..3....4
*next a
similar thing with 8ths and 16ths*
get these down and you can start to solo in 4th 8th 16th phrases
**TIP***
you are half way there with your ostinatio if you can play
(1)e&(a)2e(&)a3(e)&a(4)e&(a)1e(&)a2(e)&a(3)e&a4e&a
*ONLY playing the bracketed notes*
after all this your in to the "sweat it out section"
Work though the"All variations list".
the groups of 2 notes then groups with 3 notes
going back to the earlier groups
if you get in to trouble.
: )
for some of the strange 16th note groups
try moving between 2 sounds to highlite the notes you need to hear
or for this eg 1(e&a)2(e&a)4(e&a)4(e&a)
put a rolled up towel on one half of your snare
play 16ths over the ostinato and
tap the 1 2 3 4 on a towel!
you
now have a clear idea how the (e&a) pattern sounds over the foot ostinato
and that is half the battle :)
Once you have a lot of patterns memorised you can start to stack them
its like drumming lego.....say if you have a pattern 5/8 set in memory you can stack that on top of other preset patterns
eg 7/8 with out a big fight about it.
while playing this type of stuff the trick is to not think to much and let it loop
so you can hear the automatic result .... dont force it
Ok im out of here again... all this stuff is not super simple so dont panic
Im as freaked out by it as much as you are : ) lol
but you have to keep trying.
hope this helps someone
see ya