Advanced Funk Drumming

Students want to learn how to play various grooves. Some can read, some can’t, and some aren’t interested. I felt the most helpful instruction would simply be to play the grooves and let you watch and listen to them. With this in mind I recorded these video clips and put them in loop format so that you can play along with them until you master them. Transcriptions are available in the book for those who want to follow them and see what it all looks like. The book text also includes some tips on individual beats. I did not spend a lot of time on methodical exercises to develop each of the techniques (ghost notes, accents, bass drum doubles, etc), but I’ve included one or two beats for each technique. My book Funk Drumming deals with some of these techniques in a more detailed and methodical fashion. If you find, for example, that your left-hand doubles aren’t cutting it, you’ll have to practice them independently. Likewise with the 16th-note doubles on the bass drum and the constant 16ths on the hi-hat. (The down/up technique is best understood by watching the video clips.) If one particular beat is just too difficult—for instance, a beat with three left-hand ghost notes in a row—skip over that beat and go on to the first rhythms in the next section. It’s more important to understand the general concepts in each section than it is to be able to play the most difficult beats.