i'm stuck

[broken_symlink]

ok, so i got a copy of david garibaldi's book future sounds and have been practicing like an hour a day for the past 2 weeks. everytime i sit down i play the same beat over and over, but i don't seem to be getting any better at it. the beat i am stuck on is page 10 paradiddles as eigth-note triplets, number 1. normally when i sit with a beat it takes me a couple days to learn it and i feel like each time i sit down i have actually made some progress, but with this beat it feels like i haven't gotten anywhere. i can play the paradiddles fine without accents, but as soon as i put the accents in, there is a noticable flam that occurs between my bass and snare in the 3rd triplet of the first measure. the rlrr where the snare and bass are together. i am left handed so i reversed all the stickings. any tips for how to fix this? this is one of the most challenging books i have tried.

[d.c.drummer]

one solution. MOVE ON! If you cant get it and you've put in dedicated practice time into it, move on, There are an infinite amount of rhythms out there waiting to be conquered by you.

And if you are talking about being stuck in a rhythm rut where you can only seem to play one beat, play along with some music. Immitate the drummer you hear and that should help.

[Class A Drummer]

I recently bought his book. I dont really like it. I started with the easy stuff, got really bored then looked for the hardest stuff in the book. After a couple weeks of messing around with it, i kinda got bored.

It is a good book, and probably extremley helpful for people looking to get good at funk and cool little grooves, but its too dry a book for me. If it was not just lots of beats the whole time i mightve stuck with it.

Now im messin with Portnoy stuff.

[Wavelength]

Play it SLOWER and practice it like David suggests it: start with the first note, then add the second, the third, building up as you learn it.

[gusty]

I havent got the book, but by your description of the beat, I think you mean doing accented paradiddles (with the accent on the start of every paradiddle) as triplets, and playing quater notes on the bass drum. Play this SLOW. Its difficult to get your head around it, do what wavelength said. also, what helped me was not thinking of the paradiddles in triplets, rather the bass drum in triplets. Hope this helps.

[Dr Drums]

I recently bought his book. I dont really like it. I started with the easy stuff, got really bored then looked for the hardest stuff in the book. After a couple weeks of messing around with it, i kinda got bored.

It is a good book, and probably extremley helpful for people looking to get good at funk and cool little grooves, but its too dry a book for me. If it was not just lots of beats the whole time i mightve stuck with it.

Now im messin with Portnoy stuff.


I did not at all like that message.
It's a great book for absolutely everyone...

What i'm trying to say is:
If u think you're too "good" for simple stuff, think again.

[n2xlr8n]

ok, so i got a copy of david garibaldi's book future sounds and have been practicing like an hour a day for the past 2 weeks. everytime i sit down i play the same beat over and over, but i don't seem to be getting any better at it. the beat i am stuck on is page 10 paradiddles as eigth-note triplets, number 1. normally when i sit with a beat it takes me a couple days to learn it and i feel like each time i sit down i have actually made some progress, but with this beat it feels like i haven't gotten anywhere. i can play the paradiddles fine without accents, but as soon as i put the accents in, there is a noticable flam that occurs between my bass and snare in the 3rd triplet of the first measure. the rlrr where the snare and bass are together. i am left handed so i reversed all the stickings. any tips for how to fix this? this is one of the most challenging books i have tried.

Welcome to my world, LOL.

What I found about my particular inability to play that pattern was that I wasn't feeling the pulse.

Here's what I suggest:

- Begin by playing alternating 8th note triplets against a 8th BD. Not paradiddles, mind you. Now, begin shifting the accents one note at a time for one measure. i.e., Accent on 1, 2, 3, 4, next measure accent the "trips", next measure accent the "lets".

- When you're comfortable with that, move the accents each 8th, rather than each measure. What you'll feel (I'll need some help here from someone more knowledgeable than I) is a 4:3 polyrythm (or maybe a QTR triplet?). You should begin to feel the pulse.

- Practice playing the notes on one hand, rather than both.

- Lastly, return to your paradiddle sticking triplets, and you'll see a difference.

This how I conquered my trouble with triplets, but YMMV.

HTH,

SRJ

[Class A Drummer]

I did not at all like that message.
It's a great book for absolutely everyone...

What i'm trying to say is:
If u think you're too "good" for simple stuff, think again.

Never said i was too good for the book.

I just said its kinda boring. I never said it was a bad book, actually said it was good, just a little on the dry side...

[KLittle123]

Never said i was too good for the book.

I just said its kinda boring. I never said it was a bad book, actually said it was good, just a little on the dry side...

Maybe you should quit while you're ahead and stop talking, just stop. Are you aware that makes no sense? It's like saying, "dang this movie is boring, but it sure is good."

[brittc89]

Never said i was too good for the book.

I just said its kinda boring. I never said it was a bad book, actually said it was good, just a little on the dry side...

But you are saying youre too good for the book. You always have comments like this and they dont advance any discussion, they just stroke your ego to some extent. Yet no one takes them seriously because we have all heard you play. WHy do you feel a need to say these things?

[gusty]

Welcome to my world, LOL.

What I found about my particular inability to play that pattern was that I wasn't feeling the pulse.

Here's what I suggest:

- Begin by playing alternating 8th note triplets against a 8th BD. Not paradiddles, mind you. Now, begin shifting the accents one note at a time for one measure. i.e., Accent on 1, 2, 3, 4, next measure accent the "trips", next measure accent the "lets".

- When you're comfortable with that, move the accents each 8th, rather than each measure. What you'll feel (I'll need some help here from someone more knowledgeable than I) is a 4:3 polyrythm (or maybe a QTR triplet?). You should begin to feel the pulse.

- Practice playing the notes on one hand, rather than both.

- Lastly, return to your paradiddle sticking triplets, and you'll see a difference.

This how I conquered my trouble with triplets, but YMMV.

HTH,

SRJ

So was what I said right?

[iamtak]

But you are saying youre too good for the book. You always have comments like this and they dont advance any discussion, they just stroke your ego to some extent. Yet no one takes them seriously because we have all heard you play. WHy do you feel a need to say these things?

dont feed the trolls.

[n2xlr8n]

So was what I said right?


I don't think I'm qualified in musical notation to the point of judging anyone's comments, but what you said sounds right, sure.

I was offering insight into my struggle with feeling accented triplets rather than being critical of your comments. I apologize if it came off that way.

SRJ

BTW, I'd like to know if what I said was accurate regarding this:

"-When you're comfortable with that, move the accents each 8th, rather than each measure. What you'll feel (I'll need some help here from someone more knowledgeable than I) is a 4:3 polyrythm (or maybe a QTR triplet?). You should begin to feel the pulse."


Thanks in advance for the input.

[sovereign76]

Future Sounds is an AWESOME text. I don't know where you are in your development, but this is pretty advanced stuff. In terms of Univ. of North Texas, this is second semester non-jazz studies and first semester study for jazz students,,,so it is really good foundation material.

If you have only been playing the paradiddle accent patterns for a couple of weeks I can say this, play the eighth note patterns, then move to the sixteenth note patterns, then come back to the triplet patterns. They WILL feel easier after all the accented paradiddle repetition.

For me, as for feeling the pulse of these grooves it is important to really feel the triplet so play the two time patterns until they are ingrained and free. Then you can play these patterns as a nice smooth shuffle with accents, that's all your doing, playing a shuffle with accents, forget about the paradiddle, just listen and hear the accents, paradiddles are an easy pattern. This really worked for me and I hope it works for you.

Just keep working and you will become unstuck, it always happens. AND don't listen to someone who says things similar to "I didn't really like that book so I moved on, maybe you should try a Portnoy book." BAD ADVICE. If you want to funk it up with the best of them and have awesome control over ghost notes and accented snare / hi-hat patterns, keep working. It's worth it.

[Spreggy]

Hey Broken, that particular exercise is a ball-buster! I recently got the book also, and I never did nail that pattern too well, I went further down the book and have been picking things out here and there but I wll go back to that exercise and get it figured out. Don't feel bad for struggling with it.

[zambizzi]

Wow - I've heard of this book and love David Garibaldi's drumming. If it's a ball-buster I'm definitely going to have to order it.

I second, third....tenth what others have said. If an exercise is challenging, don't keep attempting to play it at the speed you'd *like* to play it at. Slow it *way* down...as much as it takes to actually play the beat successfully. It'll sound like crap...but it'll "click" in your head eventually and you'll speed it up...and it'll feel as natural as blinking.

Another thing I like to do with really advanced beats is; break them down. This can be done in several ways. Say you can get through the first half of the first measure but there's a sticking combination in the second half of the measure that you keep screwing up. Take that two, three, four, etc. note combination and do it as an exercise, slowly, until you can pull it off. Then return to the original exercise and use it in combination w/ the rest of the measure.

Another method I use is; removing notes. I think someone mentioned something about this but I'll elaborate. If it's a triplet feel, then start by doing triplets in place of what is written...but in the same tempo and feel as the rest of the groove. When you're comfortable and think you've internalized the *feel* of the groove...add more notes. I'm not familiar w/ the material but in this case, try cutting the number of paradiddles in half, if you can. When you're comfortable, add the ones you haven't been playing.

You can do paradiddles, you can do accents, and you can probably do accented paradiddles. Any of these things are physically *possible* and they're not even that hard if you break them down into their basic pieces. However, when it quits being fun, do something else in the book that isn't so challenging for you and return to it later so as to avoid frustration.

[LinearDrummer]

. I started with the easy stuff, got really bored then looked for the hardest stuff in the book.


Thats a silly statement....
Theres nothing easy about the book....

Broken_symlink if you are interested in playing paradiddle and hybrid linear type grooves and are having trouble with Garibaldi's book there are other books on the market that are a little eaiser to start with....

I studied with Rick Latham and I too found Garibaldi's swiss triplet and accenting on the second rebound very challenging...

A couple of other books in the same type of concept are:
Latham -Contmporay Drumset Techniques
Kim Plainfield - Advanced Concepts
Mike Clark - Funk Drumming

Also The Funky Beat is a good book to hear Garibaldi play his style in a musical setting which might help you hear and feel the grooves better....

Good luck!