Hi there, welcome to the new lesson of the week, today we're going to work on the one
foot Blast Beat, it's the first step of the Blast Beat coordination course, and we're
going to see how to play the one foot Blast and how to coordinate it on drums.
We're going to switch from 8th notes to 16th notes plaing one foot Blast Beat adapting
it to different surfaces, so, for example, the hand's going to go on the Ride and on
the Hi-Hat, so we have different responses and we have to be able to obtain the same
sound, of course the left hand is going to stay on the snare and we're going to switch
foot.
We're going to switch from right foot to left foot and with this workout we will be able
to play the Blast Beat on different surfaces without having any problems and having the
control of the sound, of the notes, of the rebound... we're going to switch staying synchronized
to the pedal and the rebound from bigger muscles to smaller muscles which is a very important
thing which, many times, gives problems when you're playing and you're kind of starting
something or while you're playing you lose the rebound and you have to kind of, work
physically to get it back, so we're going to work on those steps too in order not to
have any of those issues while we play.
Plus we're going to work on speed too, we're going to alternate the bars from slow to fast,
so that we have a, kind of, rest bar, and a pushing bar where we can push the speed
to the limit, even going over what we're used to play, what we're able to play, so let's
say, for example, some of you can only reach 220/230 bpm when playing a Blast Beat, in
this exercise is good to start from a slow tempo but then increase and go over what you
usually can play, so, if you can only play 220, push it to 230, push it to 240 and give
100% in the fast bar and then rest it in the slow bar.
So, this workout also is very good for speed too.
So, let's break down the exercise, as we usually do, in order to make sure that every part
of our body is working in the right way, of course we will start from the kick, switching
from 8th to 16th notes
working on keeping the synchronization between my body and the pedal in both cases with leg
and ankle motion, so, I don't want to feel, like, that step in between, like, the 2 phases
where I feel like kind of, having hard times playing, switching from leg to ankle motion,
so... stuff like that, I want to... always very synchronized so that everything
works smoothly while I play, then, we'll add the right hand on the Ride, and we'll work
unisone with the right foot, so, it's going to be pretty easy and simple, but, one thing
that we have to make sure is not to change the dynamics, unless is not something that
we want to, unless is not our, you know, the dynamic that we want to give to the song,
to have the first part very loud and then the blast part very low, but, that's usually
not very cool for a technician or a sound guy from outside, which has to deal with 2
completely different sounds, you know, dynamics that you're giving him, and so, it's like,
in the mix this can be a problem, but there's always, you know, a reason, maybe, why you
want to do this, so that's another case, but in this case, the best effect, the best thing
to do, is to have kind of the same dynamics between the 2 steps, so that it's better for
who's playing with you and who's hearing and listening to what you're doing.
So, let's add the right hand unisone to the right foot:
so, with my hand too, I feel the shifting from arm motion to finger motion or wrist
motion, whatever you guys want to use, you feel more comfortable to use while doing this
exercise, just make sure you know exactly which part of the body, like for example in
my head I know it's a leg motion and heel up technique, so, I know exactly how to work
and control my foot and on my hand it's arm motion switching to finger motion, so I'm
just applying the 2 techniques at the same time on 2 different surfaces and this already
gives me a different feeling from when we are on the pad, because the Ride has a different
sound, it's louder, so I have to work more on controlling the sound and so, it's a different
finger motion already, and it has a different rebound, so I have to work more on thinking
about that and this exercise is done for that reason, so in this phase I can think about
things and I don't have to think about them when I play, when I'm on a stage or recording
or working or practicing with the band, or whatever...
So, this part is pretty simple anyway, I mean, it's just a matter of getting used to the
feelings and this kind of motion and then we're going to have the left hand on the snare,
and, basically what I do is, I think of a flam when I have to go and do the fast bar,
the 16th notes bar, so something like This is the feeling that I have, is not exactly
that extreme, because I don't want to have like a
that kind of sound, I want to keep it more like
of course, but when it's very fast that's what I think of, in the Blast Beat, maybe
I have to start, I go straight into in this case I think of a flam between my
hands and I think of keeping the right hand and the right foot unisone, so these are my
references, I always talk about having a reference when you play fast, beacuse we don't have
the control of what's happening anymore, our brain can't understand everything, it's actually
all muscular memories at a certain speed, it's just application, because we can't think
about the motion that we're doing, we can't thing about what's happening, and so that's
why I kind of put these references in order to, when I speed up, having the control, still
having the control of what's happening.
Ok, so, the three main things that we have to pay attention to are the spaces between
te notes, to make everything sound even, we have to pay attention to the synchronization,
between, you know, switching both the foot work and the arm work, so, from big muscles
to smaller muscles and the switch has to be smooth, and it has to be all very controlled
and the different surfaces, so the dynamics, so maybe I will need to hit a little bit more
on the snare and the kick and a little bit less on the Ride, because the Ride is louder,
it has high frequences, compared to the kick drum, which has low frequences, so, harder
to hear.
So, we have to deal with the sound, with the dynamics, spaces between the notes, and our
body control.
So, now I will give you demonstration of the weekly workout, which is basically, we'll
play 4 bars of right one foot Blast Beat, 4 bars of left one foot Blast Beat, on the
ride, and then switching on the Hi-Hat, switching from 8th notes to 16th notes, so, start from
a slow tempo, or a comfortable bpm and then increase the speed until your limit, and when
you reach your limit, push a little bit, because you're going to be warm and it's the right
time to push a little bit over.
Speed it's also a mental thing, if we are convinced that we can only play 220, we will
only play 220, if we push ourselved to play 230 and we will have hard times, and then
we push ourselves to play 240 and it'll be almost impossible, but the we go back to 230,
and 230 will be a little bit better, and we'll feel better and it's going to be already 10
bpm more that what we thought we were used to play, so, push yourself, it's extreme music,
it's extreme drumming, and we have to push ourselves over the limits.
Being extreme is not being at the limits, it's pushing ourself over the limits, getting
out of our comfort zone, so, I will give you a demonstration so that you guys have a clear
idea of how the workout is:
So, in this lesson we basically work on one
foot Blast Beat paying attention and working on switching from bigger muscles to smaller
muscles without having to think about it, but just make it an unconcious thing for our
body, we work on synchroniation, so, with the switch, we have to try to never lose the
synchronization with the rebound and the pedal, using different muscles and working on different
surfaces, we have to try to always have the same feeling every time we play and every
technique we use, every part of the body that we involve.
And, we work on the sound, we work on controlling the sound, having a nice balance between what we
play, that's what makes the difference when we play a Blast Beat, because if we have the
snare drum too low and the Ride cymbal too high that covers the snare drum the effect
of the Blast Beat won't be the same and we need the kick to be loud too and it has to
be... that makes... in my opionion, 50% of the Bast Beat is made from the sound and the control
that you have on the sound, so, not ust throw and just speed and throwing the hands, but
controlling the sound, controlling that and the dynamics, of course, which are very related
to the sounds, so, let's pay attention, let's use the right parts of our body, let's just
not use the right hand as it instinctivly works and the left just with the fingers just
to obtain the results but let's work on controlling everything that we do.
And on speed too, this exercise is very good for increasing the speed, so as I was telling
you before, the best thing to do is to start from a speed that it's comfortable, form where
we can really feel like everything is working for the whole workout, so that we can easily
play the 4 bars of 16t notes with one bar of rest, which is the last, let's say, the
last step of the clicks workout, for this workout, and then increase the speed, and
then when we'll start having hard times on the fourth 16th notes bars that we can play
the third, but the fourth is like, we're almost there to finish it but we're not there yet,
let's increase the speed and let's try to get to the 3 16th bars part of the click,
and then increase the speed and try to do the 2 bars, and then increase the speed and
try to play the 1 bar.
So, it's going to be a 1, 2, 3, 4 until we don't get to our limits, and then it's going
to be a 1, 2, 3 then we'll increase the speed at 1, 2, then we'll increase the speed to
1, so, it's like pushing ourselves, it's better to just play 1 bar at 260 than not even trying
at all, so that's how you push yourself a little bit and it's good because you warm up, and
then when you're warm you can push and you don't hurt yourself.
The most important thing is let's not try to get to 280 bpm, 300 bpm playing 1 bar just
by choking the sticks and being all physical, that's not the goal, the goal is to reach
those speeds and reach the maximum that we can play, the maximum speed that we can play
at, still feeling and using the right parts of our body, so that's very important.
A suggestion that I can give you is, when you switch to the fast bars, is to throw your
hands and kind of work on the rebound, so that's what I kind of feel, I feel like using
the big muslces, which is pretty easy, and then I throw my limbs, ok?
I do the first stroke always with the bigger muscles and then.
This is what happens basically:
So, this is the feeling that I have and it's
a suggestion that I give you guys, it helps me to not having the shifting problems and
not having the sound of going down and then coming back up, something like
or stuff like that, it's going to be like, on and off, so:
So, this is the concepts that I use for playing Blast Beats and I think it of, like, sections,
so it's section 1, section 2.
Dividing it into sections helps me a lot to keeping the control knowing exactly in what
part of the song or the workout I am, so that in section 2 I have to have this kind of approach
with my body.
So, this is it for this week, as usual you have all the reference clicks on the exercise
to download, so, you have the complete workout to work on, enjoy and I'll see you next week
No comments:
Post a Comment