The Four Kind of Approaches to Rhythm and Timing

I European Orchestral and Rudimental Drumming

I am often asked by young rock drummers why they should bother to learn the snare drum rudiments since they don’t seem to have as much application to drum set as much as snare drum either orchestral or marching. I agree on one point drum set skills go way beyond the execution of all the   rudiments properly played on a snare drum., but there

are good reasons for knowing the basic rudiments, all 40, or 26, or 13, or 7, but who’s

counting. 

The first thing I do is play a marching pattern on a snare drum for 4 measures.

Obviously it generates a rhythm, a familiar kind of parade beat. Then I play it with some slight adjustment on a hi hat, bass drum, and snare drum and presto change oh it sounds like  the late great John Bonhom beat on Led Zepplin’s the Wanton Song. Hopefully the light bulb goes of in your head and  “oh wow it’s kinda the same thing.”  Just as the shape of these letters changed it is still the same alphabet using the same alphabet. What was recognized is the cadence.

We need to understand rhythmic cadence so let’s understand what that is.   The word cadence comes from a  Latin word which means falling. You’ve fallen down haven’t   you. What happens at the end after waving your arms about. You come to a STOP!  The first rhythmic cadence you learned was “Shave and a Haircut Two Bits, but if all you heard was “Shave and a Haircut ” your ear would miss the “Two bits.” The   cadence didn’t finish or STOP!  Well the main thing about the rudiments on the drum set is when you string them together you end up with an endless source of rudimental cadences. Rudimental cadences have a lot of familiarity that is part of the language of drumming that everybody likes to hear because it is a familiar part of all their favorite songs. Do learn the essential rudiments. which are required to eventually play all 40 official rudiments.   

There are also snare drum compositions which are called etudes.  Etude is a French word which means a “study” which is challenging and builds your technique There are plenty of snare drum etudes already out their, but here is an important fact. A great etude when played all over a drum set with some creative musicianship can make a great solo.

 These blogs   focus on the historical   sources   of drum set performance, especially

ethnic rhythm from the old world.   These rhythmic ideas evolved on the drum set over the last 130 years. The roots are that part of the tree that hold up the trunk and all the branches, but the historical drum set roots  better be there if you wish to play with any authenticity. You’re standing on the  shoulders of masters who have established the drum set performance traditions and standards.

II The Mediterranean, African, and Indian roots of Swing and Syncopation    

Centuries of drumming have evolved all over the world and most of it is not rudimental. It is a fact that much of these rhythmic styles ended up on the drum set so it is important to understand them in their original setting to understand how to blend them into drum set

styles otherwise you would be missing a huge and probably the most significant aspect

  of drum set rhythms. This is the Latin influence and   by Latin we mean all the way back to the Roman Empire not the salsa flavored music only. As you can see the Roman Empire more or less surrounded the Mediterranean (Middle Earth.)

The ancestral background of the people that populated the empire were blacks from

N. Africa, Whites from N. Europe and Semitic (Hebrews, Arabs, Persians etc.) from the Eastern lands. Latin was the official language of Rome but most spoke Greek from the time of Alexander the Great. The culture was predominantly Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Christian, and   Levantine, (Arabic). Constant migration and trade cross pollinated to the point that the music became technically very similar but stylistically varied. For instance, North African Arabic belly dance music, with finger cymbals, and Spanish Flamenco with castanets are so similar that they can easily play together.

The main crossroads were the land bridge at Jerusalem which connected  he empire around the Mediterranean and was the intersection with the Eastern lands. The Roman emperor Hadrian called that area Palestine after the Philistine culture and renamed Jerusalem Aelia  Capitolina in 70 AD   though it’s more ancient name of Israel was the homeland of King David of Israel who invented many musical instruments, wrote songs known as Psalms, and at one time had a ten-thousand piece band. Religious music and folk music which is all there was mostly did two things: it told stories and was danceable. Certain Psalms King David wrote were called Shigganoth, which translates as asymmetric rhythm or syncopation and date from the 10^th century BC. and   were Hebrew religious music with drums, tambourines, cymbals, harps, flutes, finger cymbals, kettle drums, bells, brass horns, shakers and pipes

(became organs).

There is a reference in the Hebrew book of Genesis 1450B.C. to Hebrew women dancing and singing with tambourines led by Miriam the sister of Moses after their escape from Egypt   Drumming and dancing is as old as civilization and religious music preserves the musical forms and influences the popular culture.

Most drum set students eventually encounter a book by Ted Reed called Syncopation (if you haven’t got one get it) The word syncopation actually comes from  the name of a medieval (Spanish dance) called Cinco Pasos meaning five steps. It is a very silly dance, take 4 steps jump up the air and shake your feet while holding hands. Fortunately, it evolved into the Argentinian tango. Very danceable.  The St. Louis Blues W, C. Handy   has a tango in it and the great jazz composer pianist Jelly Roll Morton said good jazz had to  have the “Spanish Tinge.” That offbeat on the and of four is a very important syncopated note in drum set time and contributes heavily to what is loosely called the Big Beat. The “Big Four” is credited with being the first syncopated rhythm for bass drum which

moved off of on top of the beat as was typical of marching bass drum.

Notice the & of four is the syncopated accented note and counting 1 2 3 4 & , the &

is note number 5. Cinco Pasos, Five Steps, Synco-pation.  The simplest explanation of syncopation is in 4/4, 1 downbeat,2 upbeat,3 downbeat,4 upbeat, 5 accented offbeat.

Any off beat in any meter especially when accented is a  syncopation and can get very

complex.

One  five step rhythm is called a cinquillo

and probably the root of the rhythm called a Tresillo

It’s easy to see the triple grouping.  It is also part of the rhythm known as clave.

The  most common and important 5 step  rhythm  is known as the clave which is a five step cadence with  one or two syncopated notes depending on whether it is son clave, or rumba clave. Clave is a very significant conceptual idea to build on.The great jazz drummer Jack de Johnette calls the clave the universal rhythm and I agree whole heartedly. Syncopated music reached something of a peak during the golden age of Spain in the music we know as Flamenco   which was of tremendous musical influence in the new Orleans world of Jelly Roll Morton’s “Spanish Tinge” and the birth of jazz. Bear in mind the “Spanish Tinge” is all the musical influences from all around the Mediterranean that combined and percolated during Spain’s Golden Age. Spanish Tinge rhythmically, harmonically, and melodically is clear as a bell and totally pure in Flamenco music. Jelly Roll was a Creole which indicates he had French and Black ancestry but Spanish colonial culture also was much in evidence in  the non stop music that was New Orleans.  What is important is that he heard music that had all those old world imported   influences on his music because his hometown of New Orleans was the most musical racially mixed city in the New World.

So where did the Spanish Tinge come from? The Hebrew book of Obadiah mentions the Hebrews living in the “Sepharad”  (Spain) around 600 B.C.  Arabic culture was well established as the Moors (Muslims) invaded around 700B.C  and up until 1492 when Catholic Spain began driving and throwing everybody out   ending  the Golden age of Spain when non Catholic  Christians, Jews and Muslims plus a few Romanis  (gypsies, they are originally from India) managed to get together (hide) in the caves and produced Flamenco music. The caves have morphed into Flamenco nightclubs. The study of Flamenco music is a study in and of itself but certain elements are very much like the way we organize drum set meter, cadence, and syncopation.  The most important one is the 12 beat form which we are going to discover is very important to playing the drum set.

 The great migrations to the New World around 1500 AD for gold, glory, escape from   persecution and   the Spanish Tinge  came right along with it. In New Orleans the   order of the day is “Joie de Vie” (Joy of Life) and “Laissez bons tempes rouler” (Let the Good Times Roll) accompanied by the Big Beat of course on the drums with the Spanish Tinge in full swing! Pun intended!

III The African  Roots of Polyrhythmic Drumming

The influence of Spanish Tinge took root in the culture of the New World for about a hundred years in New Orleans where the music just never stopped. The next major influence came about starting around 1600 A.D. that was the beginning of the Atlantic

slave trade when Africans were brought to the New World. Cuba was a stepping stone

to the New World. In Cuba, a Spanish colony where African slave labor was much used  Afro-Cuban music was born. Spanish Cuba historically had a greater slave population for 300 years than all the New World combined mostly male Africans from West and Central African with very little cultural influence from the Mediterranean cultures already cited. The African religion of the Yoruba tribes were deeply devoted to  ritual percussion used to evoke the spirit(s) of their religion. This was an all-male secret society which relied heavily on large percussion ensembles to provide the musical underpinnings of their rituals. Their music was multi-instrumental, drums, bells, woodblocks, shakers. scrapers, and primitive xylophones.

With so many musicians it became possible to play very complex rhythms which included a polyrhythmic   foundation. The simplest polyrhythm is 2 against 3, or perhaps 3 against 4. The twelve beat form which we have already mentioned can be 4 groups of 3, 3 groups of 4, 6 groups of 2 and various combinations. It is easy to play in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8 &12/8, allowing different timelines to subdivide the meter at different points so that multi- meter or polyrhythms can be played either by superimposing them over  each other or switching between them.  The simplest polyrhythm of 2 against 3 can be counted 1 2, 123, & 123456. Switching between all three counts while tapping the polyrhythm is really the same as switching the tempo of three different metronomes. In reality they are just sub-divisions of a single time signature and bottom-line tempo. If practiced over a period of days or a period of weeks or months, the effect is to develop and internal sense of time known as a trinome. As western music is accustomed to a single tempo or subdivision of the beat, we are not accustomed to hearing polyrhythmically. In the beginning it is challenging to learn to count and hear polyrhythmically. After sufficient practice though the capacity to do so becomes embedded in our inner timekeeper so that we hear that way all the time. The other option is to be born into an African tribe where polyrhythmic drumming is virtually a daily occurrence and by the time you are three years old you can dance and move different parts of your body, feet, hands, and torso across all three timelines.    

IV 2^nd Line drumming and the Birth of the Drum set.

It’s a very good idea to get a handle on just what purpose music serves before we discuss 2^nd line drumming. Throughout most of history, music has accompanied religious ceremonies, weddings, funerals, and important events before during and after battles, the victors in particular. Music told stories that were handed down over the centuries such as creation myths, hero stories, tragedies and broadcast the political news. This was especially true of minstrel troubadours during medieval time. If the minstrel was lucky enough to get a court job, like a jester he could criticize the king more or less safely, and sometimes not which is why they traveled a lot. Music was the soundtrack to life. Music as commodity to be   bought and sold is a very recent development. It can be an honorable career, and a sound business, but copyrights, publishing royalties, licensing, ticketed concerts is not what first attracts us to music and we should never lose sight of that. It’s the music that grabs you ain’t it?

 In New Orleans the tradition of parades, to celebrate, Mardi Gras ( the week before Catholic Lent the period when you are sorry for your sins and decide to clean your up act (a little)is basically a las-minute party till you drop music saturated event. Also the great tradition of the New Orleans Jazz Funeral is another kind of parade. Actually just about any excuse will do. So what is the second line?  In a New Orleans (pronounced Nawlins) Jazz Funeral the first line is the dead guy. Don’t wanna be in the first line. The second line is the band. The march to the cemetery is a slow somber piece called a dirge which has its roots in the drums preceding an execution. Also sometimes it is closer to a bolero which may be the most recorded beat in western popular music in the Americas and is the second most important rhythm in the Spanish Tinge next to the clave(s). It is the underlying cadence to all those ballads and sad love songs Learn to play Ravel's Bolero on the snare drum! Once the dearly departed is planted in the earth and hopefully gone on to his heavenly reward, well that is a reason to celebrate (maybe he wasn’t liked). Time for a parade to a swinging second line beat. It is not uncommon to start the parade before the mourners get to the grave site. Hey, the dead guy isn’t going to notice.

So then begins that happy bouncy street march, and it better have a swinging shuffle feel unlike a military march and it has accents that just happen to be the Spanish Tinge in the form of a clave usually 2/3.  One bass drum player with a cymbal on top played with a coat hanger (became the hi-hat) and a snare drummer and here comes the second line. Music school is any kid that walks up with a snare drum, or clarinet, etc., and says show me. There is always an excess of players. Now all you have to do is add a bass drum pedal and a hi hat cymbal with or without pedal and one player can play a second line beat sitting down. It’s a drum set or the beginning of one and the parade moves indoors. Sometimes it rains.  So you see music is life and life is music and you can’t own something that can’t be written down, but we will try and explain how to play dilewith a real second line feel with a pocket way down in the crease. See Playing in the Crease.  Its’ more than a march, it’s more than the clave, and it’s more than a shuffle. It’s what happens when you play them all with just the right timing and touch. It has life. All the great groove masters do it.    Again I refer you to 2nd Line drumming on you tube. It's a feel and notation is only a file as a staring point Work on it till your dog dances ,then do some more.

Drummers these days have it very good with all the drumming studies and demos, concerts on the internet but there is no substitute for doing the work. Hard work.