Carter Beauford's Grey Street

pounder

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Need some help here. Trying to learn Grey Street, but iIm not sure what Carter Beauford is doing for the ostinado. On the youtube videos I've seen, it almost looks like he's primarily using his left hand on the high-hats, and his right hand on the snare. Or maybe it's a combination of left and right. I've tried to find tabs for the song, but had no luck.
Can anyone give me some hints?
 
For the verse parts. I think I know what he's doing in the chorus. I just need to know the basic pattern for the verse parts. Once I've got that I can work on the many little fills he does.
 
are you mainly concerned with the snare and hats?

if so, play simple 1/4s on hats and making sure the bass/snare groove is tight. after awhile youll find it easy to add in small ghost accents on snare and hats, like he does, inside that main verse groove. in my opinion carter's biggest signature is his syncopated, off-beat hatwork. he goes wild with it in satellite. after having studied his playing for some time now, id like to consider myself pretty good at it. it becomes unconscious after a little practice.

the best way to do "carter" is the learn the basic grooves and learn to play around with them like he does.

sorry if this doesnt help. if it kinda does but your looking for more, just let me know. i have been working with dmb for a looong time and love it to the core.

tb
 
Hi Pounder,

Check out his video ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O9Sf4P38oE (you might have already seen it). I hope it helps.

In this live performance Carter adds alot of new flavor to an already existing pattern which he always does brillianatly. Focus on the basic structure and as tbmills already mentioned then slowly add what your capable of. A dvd that will definately help you to understand Carter's structure of drumming is "Under The Table And Drumming." That dvd really enlightens drummers to the way Carter approaches a song. I'm sure you will find some clips of it on you tube.
 
Thanks all for the advice. I usually try to learn a song as exact as I can, but I think you're right, tb, on this one I think I'm just going to have to try to learn the basic beat and then try to improvise the fills. And I think I may splurge for the Under the Table DVD, because Carter Beauford is my new favorite drummer. Now, does anyone happen to have the tab or notation for this song -- even just the first page?
By the way, the video helped. I see that he does, in fact, play left-handed, although his kit is set up for a right-handed player. That's a bit confusing.
 
i was there, like 20 rows back! great concert!

I have seen them live many times and it gets better each time. I love DMB.

By the way, the video helped. I see that he does, in fact, play left-handed, although his kit is set up for a right-handed player. That's a bit confusing.

He's not a lefty, he plays open-handed. I'll give you a quickie on Carters history. Carter is right handed. When he was a child he was inspired by the usual drummers.. Buddy, Papa, Cobham, Cozy etc. When he used to watch them on tv he set his kit up directly infront of the tv and mirrored everything he saw. Even though the drummers were playing right handed, he was playing left cuz as he was mirroring them. If you were looking at the front of the drum kit for a right handed drummer on tv and you mirrored it you would have a left handed set up. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?

So, for most of his younger years he did play left handed. As he realized that his favorite drummers were right handed he switched his kit around. *Voila*... a right handed drummer who now has an incredibly versitile left hand. Thats when the magic happened. A new world was opened up to him. He plays open-handed and he is one of the best.
 
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I believe the entire tune was transcribed through Modern Drummer Mag. Don't know which issue since I got them all since 03 or so but I remember seeing it.
 
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