Lessons with a drummer?

[stanknuckle]

Hello, I'm organising lessons with a drummer. so that I can hone in on my time/groove playing. I need your input regarding how these lessons could be structured and what could be played as part of a lesson?

[slybass3000]

I had drummers taking lessons with me so it is pretty much the same.

What they were after was their timing and their groove.

So the main to look for is how you play with him. Do you get his/her kik patterns,are you tight with it? Does it feel good or stiff? Are your basslines matching his playing? Are you playing with him or fighting it? Do you feel the pulse at the same place as him? This is very important for the pocket !!!

That is what I'm thinking of so far,

Good luck, I'm sure it is going to be fun and instructive,

Sly

[Bodyelectric]

This is a sweet idea. I get together with just my drummer alot. We often work on fills and breaks. for particular pieces, but the grooves in between can donothing but improve as well.

[Plays_For_Dog]

Last weekend I jammed with a drummer. Just me and him for about 3 solid hours.

Just have him play beats for you to follow. Once you're tight on that beat, have him throw in some fills. Once you maitain the beat through fills, then practice lead changes.

Honestly, I just wing it. Once you've played with drummers enough, you will learn to read their body language and facial expressions to know what they're thinking and where they want to go. They, in turn, learn to read yours.

[mambo4]

Strong command of the groove requires command of 2 important fundamentals: accurate tempo and accurate sense of beat subdivisions up to 16th notes.

Practicing accurate tempo with a metronome is easier alone...in a group you typically end up listening more to the met than eachother, and the feel suffers. One device my drummer has is a tempo meter: it picks up the drum sound and keeps track of tempo, telling you how fast you were. We use it to check how much the tempo changes from begenning to end of a song. If you can rig up some way to mute/unmute a metronome on the fly that could serve the same purpose.

Practicing to increase awareness of subdivisions is a little more song/pattern specific. I'm not aware of any specific exercises, but do a You tube search for "Anthony Wellington + modes of rhythm" for a great exploration of the 16th note subdivisions.

Beyond that, I'd say focus less on jamming and more on songs your band actually must play. Pay special attention to nailing the 1 after transitions between sections, breakdowns and such -those tend to be the danger zones.

Another thing to try is maybe "trading fours" after establishing a repeating groove: get into it together and then take turns dropping out while the other guy takes a 4 bar "solo" -as whacky as they can get- but aim for nailing the 1 as always

Hope that helps

[stanknuckle]

Hey! Thanks for all the ideas. Very nice. Anthony Wellington modes of rhythm was was mentioned and I actually got this idea after I saw that clip on youtube.
So if I arrange exercise ie a four bar groove where it changes every four bars like nailing the one for four bars then nailing the e for four then nailing the and for four then the a for four. I'm thinking this would be an ok way to feel every subdivision?
Then again I'm asking a drummer whom I've never played with to gelp so I don't know what he has in store. I'm looking forward to it and should have been doing this years ago.