Shuffle Groove Research

[Williamfox21]

Hi I am a drumming student in London and am doing a project researching the shuffle groove. It would be great to get some opinions on any of the following questions please:

1. As someone who has learnt the shuffle and is comfortable playing it, what was your first inspiration to learn it?

2. What tips would you have to someone learning the shuffle for the first time?

3. How difficult did you find it and long did it take you to master it?

I would really appreciate any responses. I will be using any info you provide anonymously in my project.

 

[jda]

 

[jda]

 

[jda]

 

[jda]

 

[toddbishop]

Hi I am a drumming student in London and am doing a project researching the shuffle groove. It would be great to get some opinions on any of the following questions please:

1. As someone who has learnt the shuffle and is comfortable playing it, what was your first inspiration to learn it?

I needed it because it was called for on gigs I was doing. I listened to these, among other things:

2. What tips would you have to someone learning the shuffle for the first time?

-- Learn to make an upstroke.

-- Practice your flamacues in this inversion/rhythm:


-- Get a gig where you have to play a lot of shuffles.

3. How difficult did you find it and long did it take you to master it?

I always hated it, found it restricting, hard to play with combo dynamics. It got easier when I stopped trying to whip the backbeats in with my forearm, and just used my wrist to make an upstroke.

 

[toddbishop]

Another one from that same Blakey record-- I had two Blakey records in high school:

 

[green glass drum]

I think this qualifies? The first one I remember.

 

[Caz]

If the research project is so you can learn to play shuffles yourself, I’d recommend going to Ain’t Nothin But the blues bar in London. They have multiple bands on every day and weekend jam sessions.. on drums you get asked to play different types of blues shuffles like flat tyre shuffle, Texas shuffle.

Practice your flamacues in this inversion/rhythm

This is very nice!

 

[Grawe]

Hi I am a drumming student in London and am doing a project researching the shuffle groove. It would be great to get some opinions on any of the following questions please:

Hi William
What do you mean by a 'project researching the shuffle groove'? Like 'real research' or more like 'finding out how to play myself'?

Anyway, here some answers to your questions:

1. As someone who has learnt the shuffle and is comfortable playing it, what was your first inspiration to learn it?

I started to learn the shuffle to play ZZ Top songs like these:

In contrast to the examples given so far, these songs are a bit harder and more energetic (in my opinion).

2. What tips would you have to someone learning the shuffle for the first time?

Without formal training, I just tried to reproduce what I heard. The easiest way was to play a 'fake shuffle'. This means to 'shuffle' (or 'syncopate' or 'swing') only the right hand on hi hat or ride cymbal. And then add a simple 'back beat' on bass drum and snare. This sounds already close, and you can hear it in many 'bar bands' playing ZZ Top until today. Even Frank Beard himself played it often like a back beat on snare (on 2 and 4 only), just shuffling the bass drum, sometimes not even the right hand.

From this point, where you shuffle your right hand, you can start shuffling the bass drum, or snare, and finally both. Start slow, of course.

3. How difficult did you find it and long did it take you to master it?

The 'difficulty' starts, when you try to get 'power' into the shuffle, or speed, or both. Or if you want to create a 'tension' that it sounds like you're rushing heavily (but in reality you're not). Things like that. Or get all the variations like 'Texas Shuffle', 'Flat tyre shuffle', and so on. But careful: there are a lot of misunderstandings, different people have different definitions of these terms. Then they explain to you 'tah ta-tah ta-tah ta ...' and mostly are thinking of the most conventional shuffle.
Another important point (to my experience) is, that you can't 'master' it alone. You have to play 'together', at least with your bass player, or better with the whole band. If you try to play 'against them' (because they push or pull, or have some other tempo problems), you might get a real hard time.

Some more examples that show me, that I'm far from having 'mastered the shuffle', because the easier it looks, the more difficult it is.

The great Cris Layton (listen to his Stevie Ray Vaughn recordings):

Or Lee Kerslake:

How he drives this song is just great, and it doesn't sound too difficult (but is).

 

[cbphoto]

1. As someone who has learnt the shuffle and is comfortable playing it, what was your first inspiration to learn it?

La Grange
Pride and Joy

2. What tips would you have to someone learning the shuffle for the first time?

NO FLAMS between limbs.

3. How difficult did you find it and long did it take you to master it?

At first I was all over the place; no groove, lotsa flams. Nowadays I play the shuffle with an in-tempo delay on my audio interface. If I'm on tempo with solid notes, the delay sounds clean. When I drift off or flam a note, the delay become garbled.

 

[Bonnies1]

Chris has a real specific thing. I think there's one other guy in Austin that actually plays in that style or fashion. The way his hands rest near the snare drum and how his wrists work make it a real particular vibe. It's not Art Blakey or a Chicago shuffle at all. Not at all.

I'm not a historian, maybe Daniel glass can chime in. But it would be interesting to know what the first recorded versions are. Obviously swing goes back to Africa and Cuba before it got to New Orleans, but the two handed shuffle ?

 

[cbphoto]

Chris has a real specific thing. I think there's one other guy in Austin that actually plays in that style or fashion. The way his hands rest near the snare drum and how his wrists work make it a real particular vibe. It's not Art Blakey or a Chicago shuffle at all. Not at all.

When bought & watched the [DVD] videos of Stevie Ray and Double Trouble playing live at Montreux, I was shocked at how relaxed he was playing those shuffles. In later tunes, he was watching the crowd with such an innocent face, wondering why they were booing.

 

[Drummingdog]

Hi I am a drumming student in London and am doing a project researching the shuffle groove. It would be great to get some opinions on any of the following questions please:

1. As someone who has learnt the shuffle and is comfortable playing it, what was your first inspiration to learn it?

2. What tips would you have to someone learning the shuffle for the first time?

3. How difficult did you find it and long did it take you to master it?

I would really appreciate any responses. I will be using any info you provide anonymously in my project.

Basically , i learned the shuffle groove(s) when i started to hear them more frequently , plus they are just cool! Being a bit of an independence exercise, it also acts as a bridge to better jazz feel. It is a musical independence exercise like the latin grooves.
I dont recall it being to difficult to physically learn the movements. It was getting the different feels that took some time. There are infinite ways to play this and i started by getting comfortable with the different ride variations, 1/4 note, swing, and shuffle pattern mirroring my lft hand. Since the commen variation is 4 on the floor bass that wasnt a problem.
For many, especially having a rock back ground in the beginning, getting comfortable withe the shuffle pattern on your snare hand is a bit of work. Both of your hands will want to do same thing so doing the shuffle pattern with both hands could be a good starting point. Then try 1/4 note and swing ride while shuffling your snare. Everyones different, so figure out what works and practice slowly. Peace