Left foot cowbell clave practice ideas?

Benthedrummer

Benthedrummer

Silver Member
I purchased a Gibraltar pedal cowbell thingamajig a few days ago.

I've been exploring the 3/2 clave pattern ostinato against a basic slow money beat as I'm just starting.

I can play a single paradiddle over it as well.....a bit wonky mind you.

I'm exploring some upbeat 1/8 notes against a 6/8 bembe.....and that's about the limit of it all so far.

Anyone else wants to share some good ideas/exercises to build proficiency?

Maybe some simple ideas first.

Thanks everyone.
 
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The way I started practicing the left-foot clave was by playing simple eighth-note exercises over it, such as 8th or 16th notes on the snare drum—either hand-to-hand or one-handed—with accents on the toms. I used an exercise from my Time Initiation drum book for this, which you can find on page 37 (8th notes) and page 51 (16th notes).
www.timemanipulation.com

Alain Rieder's Drum Books

A set of drum methods to take your knowledge, technique, and musicality to the next level
www.timemanipulation.com www.timemanipulation.com

There are also other accent exercises in the book that will keep you busy for a while, and they are quite musical as well.

When I first began working on the left-foot clave, it wasn’t really popular. I mainly did it as a way to internalize the clave while playing. The first pattern I tried was adding a left-foot clave to a guaguancó pattern from the book Afro-Cuban Rhythms for Drumset. At first, I thought I was crazy for even trying, but if you start slowly, it’s definitely doable.

I'm also about to publish a new drum book. While it’s not specifically focused on left-foot clave, it does provide opportunities to explore that concept further, including in 12/8. The title isn’t final yet, but I think it will be a valuable resource for expanding your playing.

You might also want to check out Horacio Hernandez's Conversations in Clave and Dafnis Prieto’s Rhythmic Possibilities. Though Prieto uses his hands for the clave, both books offer great insights into the rhythms.

To truly understand what the clave is, though, you need to study it in context. Listening to the music that uses it and learning from people within the culture where it originates is crucial. That’s why these books are so important—they provide not just exercises, but a deeper understanding of the musical and cultural significance of the clave.
 
Alain Rieder said:
The way I started practicing the left-foot clave was by playing simple eighth-note exercises over it, such as 8th or 16th notes on the snare drum—either hand-to-hand or one-handed—with accents on the toms.
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Thanks for this piece of advice Alain. It's very good and it makes sense to me.

And thank you so very much for the wonderful, detailed reply.

It's very much appreciated.
 
It'll be a nightmare, but... New Breed-- figure out an ostinato and then work it out with the reading, with whichever limb/s doing the independent part.

It was pretty interesting actually, I spent a couple of days doing that, and it ended up influencing a lot of stuff beyond just the obvious thing I was practicing-- next gig I was orchestrating things completely differently than I normally do.
 
toddbishop said:
It'll be a nightmare, but... New Breed-- figure out an ostinato and then work it out with the reading, with whichever limb/s doing the independent part.

It was pretty interesting actually, I spent a couple of days doing that, and it ended up influencing a lot of stuff beyond just the obvious thing I was practicing-- next gig I was orchestrating things completely differently than I normally do.
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New Breed eh?

That book scares the beejebus outta me. But some of the easier patterns (if there's any) may be useful. It'll give me some solid limb stuff to do and it'll force me to get past the obvious default patterns which I'd inheritly adopt.....you know what I mean?

Like straight 8ths or 16ths with the right hand and 2 and 4 on the left.

Thank you Todd.
 
toddbishop said:
It'll be a nightmare, but... New Breed-- figure out an ostinato and then work it out with the reading, with whichever limb/s doing the independent part.

It was pretty interesting actually, I spent a couple of days doing that, and it ended up influencing a lot of stuff beyond just the obvious thing I was practicing-- next gig I was orchestrating things completely differently than I normally do.
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Todd, your comment reminds me of when I took a few lessons from Todd Strait many years ago, and we did a few things out of New Breed (he studied it with Gary Chester in the late 70's or early 80's, at the same time that Weckl was studying with Chester). He told me that he went through all of book 1 and most of book 2, and he said, "It even helped me with my jazz playing!"

He said that Chester gave him a few other systems to practice that weren't in the book. One of them that I remember is this: play a roll in continuous 16th notes alternating between the floor tom and bass drum (i.e., play floor tom on all the 8th notes with right hand, and the bass drum plays all the off 16ths), hi hat on quarters (or on upbeats, if you prefer), then play with melody with the left hand on the snare drum (he did this with rim clicks).
 
I worked up my left foot clave my playing by playing various patterns with my left foot (3/2 and 2/3, son and rumba) with the first page of Stick Control in the hands.

Then change right hand to various bell and cascara patterns with the tumbao on kick, then playing various 8th and 16th note grid-type patterns in the left hand. Dave DiCenso's "Rhythm and Drumming Demystified" has a 16-bar grid outlining this concept in great detail.

Then move onto New Breed reading in left hand or kick drum.

Hardest part for me was making sure everything was absolutely locked in. No flams with the feet!
 
dwsabianguy said:
I worked up my left foot clave by playing various patterns with my left foot (3/2 and 2/3, son and rumba) with the first page of Stick Control in the hands.
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I think you and Alain are kinda on the same page........ maybe it's a good place to start for me. At least for now, maybe some clave ostinato against some rudimentary/stick control stuff on the snare.

Thanks dwsabianguy!

Oh, BTW........I don't think we've ever actually chatted directly to each other on the forum before.

This is so cool.
 
This is a practice session I posted four years ago. The material I'm playing on top is from my upcoming book. It's a warm-up exercise using 3-beat patterns that shift over bars in 4/4, played over a 2-3 son clave and a tumbao rhythm. I wouldn’t use this in a musical context, but I see it as an exercise—kind of like practicing scales. Try to follow the clave, no matter what's happening on top. It's a fun challenge!


In this video, I'm playing random patterns, using ideas from the previous video but in a more improvisational way. It's all over a 2-3 son clave and tumbao rhythm.


This is another practice session from three years ago. I tried to loosen up and play freely over a 2-3 left-foot clave pattern. I explored some rhythmic concepts that I find interesting, along with some random ideas. The sound is from the Zoom camera only.

 
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I hopped on the left foot clave fad back in the 00s when it became a popular. Horacio’s book is definitely the best instructional book with the clave explicitly written out for the left foot. Unfortunately, I never had many opportunities to demonstrate my newfound coordination, and it went the way of my double bass pedal (fun to play around with, but not worth it to haul to gigs).

Once you get a few beats down, start throwing it on whatever you can. I had an easy enough time adding it over 4/4 grooves of all sorts, but I wasn’t comfortable enough with the 6/8 world grooves at the time to mess with mashing them up.

My advice would be to treat it as an interdependent exercise, rather than an independence exercise at first. Then, once you’re comfortable with that, try to feel your left foot separately as the “leading” voice, as well as the “slave” voice, and finally as an independent voice, where you can mess with its volume and precise placements in relation to the beat. Then, you’ll know you’ve truly got it under control.

Above all, have fun with it!
 
caddywumpus said:
I hopped on the left foot clave fad back in the 00s when it became a popular. Horacio’s book is definitely the best instructional book with the clave explicitly written out for the left foot. Unfortunately, I never had many opportunities to demonstrate my newfound coordination, and it went the way of my double bass pedal (fun to play around with, but not worth it to haul to gigs).

Once you get a few beats down, start throwing it on whatever you can. I had an easy enough time adding it over 4/4 grooves of all sorts, but I wasn’t comfortable enough with the 6/8 world grooves at the time to mess with mashing them up.

My advice would be to treat it as an interdependent exercise, rather than an independence exercise at first. Then, once you’re comfortable with that, try to feel your left foot separately as the “leading” voice, as well as the “slave” voice, and finally as an independent voice, where you can mess with its volume and precise placements in relation to the beat. Then, you’ll know you’ve truly got it under control.

Above all, have fun with it!
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Thanks caddy.

From the general consensus in this thread, I reckon what I may do is this:

1) I spend the first 20 minutes of my hour practise routine working on basic rudiments on the snare anyway with a samba bass drum pattern. I can swap that out with say straight 1/4s on the bass drum and the 3:2 clave. That kinda covers the advice from dwsabianguy, Alain and eddypierce.

2) Once I'm comfortable with those concepts I can perhaps move on to some actual grooves which covers the advice from toddbishop, caddywampus and tamboreter.

I think there's a lot of material here for me. It's great to get this advice as it gives me ways to streamline things and utilise time more efficiently.

I never would have thought of these things TBH. They are all doable and quite reasonable.
 
I'm with Todd on this as I understand it from Gary Chaffee's books. Work up the ostinato in what ever limb you choose and then start the reading.
 
When i studied LF clave with Chuck Silverman, I did the typical Afro -Cuban grooves, while the LF played clave and the RF did tumbao. Once that felt good, I played timbale solos that I transcribed , while my feet kept the clave/ tumbao going. Eventually, I could improvise over that ostinato. . I think you should seek out authentic material, rather than Ted Reed and Gary Chaffee.
 
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Hey Paul, I agree if you want to fully appreciate and play the original feeling of a music style, study that style. I simply mention the Chaffee way as it will allow for muscular control and independent coordination which provides for further development. Studying a style still needs to take place.
 
Paul Blood said:
When i studied LF clave with Chuck Silverman, I did the typical Afro -Cuban grooves, while the LF played clave and the RF did tumbao. Once that felt good, I played timbale solos that I transcribed , while my feet kept the clave/ tumbao going. Eventually, I could improvise over that ostinato. . I think you should seek out authentic material, rather than Ted Reed and Gary Chaffee.
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I agree that studying authentic material is essential, but I recommend starting with something simple, like accented eighth notes—that’s what worked for me. While I don’t have Dafnis Prieto’s book with me right now, I believe he also uses Syncopation in his approach, so there’s nothing wrong with that.

I also have Chuck Silverman’s books. I remember struggling with the timbale solo transcriptions about 30 years ago, but I’d find it easier now. For beginners working with the clave, I suggest starting with accented eighth-note patterns, like those in Syncopation.

As for my Time Initiation book, it includes 32 pages with 256 unique, great-sounding two-measure patterns of accented eighth notes. These patterns, based on traditional rhythms, aren’t found in any other book, as far as I know.
 
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So, I've been working away slowly on the ideas mentioned.

So far I'm getting some solid ability by doing the 3:2 clave pattern ostinato with my left foot and straight 1/4s with the right foot.

On top of that I'm doing singles, doubles and paradiddles alternating between 16th notes and 32nd notes on the snare.

It's coming along nicely.

I can very wonkily do a mambo against the clave too.

It's really adding some strain on doing the normal run-of-the-mill stuff......jeez.
 
Benthedrummer said:
New Breed eh?

That book scares the beejebus outta me. But some of the easier patterns (if there's any) may be useful.
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As I mentioned before, I recommend starting with accented eighth notes, like those in Syncopation, along with the 256 great-sounding two-measure patterns from my Time Initiation drum book.

Having worked extensively with both the clave and The New Breed 1 & 2, I can now easily sight-read while playing the clave, though I wouldn’t specifically recommend that approach to someone just starting out with the clave.

My next book, which is about to be published, includes left-foot clave in 12/8 and offers a fresh approach to rhythmic exploration. However, it’s not meant as an authentic study—it’s a collection of rhythms not tied to any particular style. It’s also material I continue to work on myself.
 
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