(upbeat music)
-: Hello everybody, my name is Aaron Walker-Loud
of Big World Breaks.
I'm very happy to be invited by The Creative Advantage here,
to work on different technique on Percussion and Rhythm.
Before I was using any instruments,
I was hitting surfaces like tables, lockers, lunch tables,
bathtubs, anything I could get my hands on.
And I'm sure a lot of you watching this
might have the same experience.
And I also know that even when we change
to using some of the other instruments today,
maybe you don't have that at home, and that's totally fine.
That's why we're going to use some techniques
using this table.
And we're going to also be using
some other percussion as well.
So when you see me change to using different percussion,
that doesn't mean you can't do it anymore,
that just means we're gonna talk about what's the equivalent
between these three different instruments we're using today.
And that's gonna be the table,
the Djembe and a Snare Drum. Alright.
So to get started looking at Low, Mid, and High Pitch.
There's a Low, Mid, and High Pitch in almost anything
that you can use as a percussion instrument.
And for tables,
what I taught myself and what friends were showing me
when I was young growing up,
was essentially three different sounds.
Now some of you might already make it more complex
in using rings or pencils and pens and rulers,
who knows and that's great too.
But just with your bare hands,
if you look at using your Fist in the middle of a surface
to get the Lowest Pitch,
like that,
or you might be left handed,
you might prefer using your left hand, either way.
The Middle Pitch,
using what we would call an open hand Slap, right,
and depending on where you hit it you can see,
there's a variety there,
but we'll just call this the Middle Pitch.
So we have Fist, Slap, and then if you use your knuckles,
not too hard 'cause you don't wanna bruise your knuckles,
to get the Highest Pitch.
So Low, Mid, High, all right.
Now, we're gonna do a little experiment just to warm you up,
where I'm gonna play a rhythm and you play it back.
I just call it the Echo Game to be simple.
And, I might play something that's a little challenging,
but don't worry about the challenge, just do your best.
So we're gonna go back and forth with the Echo Game:
I'm going to use all three Pitches,
just repeat after me as best as you can.
(beats the table)
One, two, three. Let's try that again.
(beats the table)
Now, I'm gonna keep changing it every other time.
Here we go.
(beats the table)
One, two three, four.
(beats the table)
Now I'm gonna change the speed.
We call speed Tempo in music, all right,
so I'll do a little bit faster tempo.
One, two, repeat after me.
(beats the table)
One, two, three, four.
(beats the table)
One, two, three, four.
(beats the table)
One, two, three, four.
(beats the table)
One, two, three, four.
(beats the table)
One, two, three.
One more time. (beats the table)
Now, I was changing some techniques there,
I'll tell you a little bit about that later today.
Now I appreciate that
you might have done something different on accident,
or maybe it was a little challenging and that's fine.
You may hear some teachers talk about
Growth Mindset, or Perseverance.
Those terms really just have to do with the idea
that we embrace that we're not perfect, we're human,
and we embrace the fact that through our learning process,
when we deal with things that are not perfect,
or we'll call them "mistakes,"
that helps our body and our mind to align better,
so we keep learning new things.
And if we can have a sense of humor and laugh
at the mistakes,
what that means is that we're gonna be learning quicker
and we're going to be less stressed out or less concerned
about being perfect in front of other people,
and just go through the process.
You'd be surprised what happens with how quickly
you can learn,
if you stop being concerned about,
"did I mess up in front of somebody else?"
or "am I doing this right or not?"
Now you wanna have, you wanna strive
to be focused on your details,
but let's just keep that in mind,
that it's not perfect we're looking for,
but just effort and staying focused.
And coming back for it every day, every day.
So, what I'm going to do now is I'm gonna have us
listen to a song that I have been working on
that no one else has heard yet.
Let's check it out,
we're gonna use it to help us with some new techniques.
(piano music)
So thinking about counting and subdivision of rhythm
is something that's really important.
Some artists that have really influenced me
and listening to how they do subdivision,
and how they produce their drums or their beats,
have really influenced the music that I'm working on
with this here.
So we're listening
we're talking about groups like OutKast, Organized Noise,
Three 6 Mafia, No Limit Records, T.I,
some of the great Hip-Hop innovators of the South.
And if you listen to a lot of their music,
you'll hear what I'm talking about with a subdivision.
So we're gonna start simple looking at Whole Notes,
Half Notes, Quarter Notes, and Eighth Notes.
Starting with using our Fist for the Lowest sound,
and you'll see me moving to the other two sounds as we go.
So play along with me,
on whatever table or surface you're hitting.
Here we go, one, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
One, two (these are Whole Notes), three, four.
They last, for, the whole, measure.
One, two. Now let's try Half Notes. Here we go.
One, two, three, four.
One, two. Nice.
Now, Quarter Notes.
Let's try with the Knock.
One, two, three, four.
Now let's try Eighth Notes.
Back to the Fist.
One and two and three and four.
And one and two and three and four.
And one. Now let's play whichever sound you want.
One and two and three, Low, Mid, High,
and one and two and three and four.
And one and two and three and four, nice.
Okay, one more time.
Okay now, I'm gonna switch over to another instrument,
and I'm gonna keep showing you some ideas with that.
So follow me over to the Djembe.
So these drums here,
if you have a Conga or a Bongo or any kind of Hand Drum,
that's totally fine, this is a Djembe.
If you don't have any of that still use the table,
it'll still work for you, all right.
So essentially, the idea is:
Three sounds, just the same, Low, Middle, and High, right?
So Bass, starting with your hand right in the middle.
One. Try that again.
Okay, Tone, the Middle Pitch,
with your fingers only halfway up through the drum,
bouncing off of your palm.
One, two, three, four.
We call that Tone. Once again.
Now with Slap.
Just your fingertips right towards the edge,
the last inch.
The Highest Pitch we call that Slap.
Bass, Tone, Slap.
Try that with me.
Bass, Tone, Slap, Slap.
One more time. Bass, Tone,
Slap, Slap, alright.
So who has taught me about Hand Drums,
mentored me for a long time?
Good friends of mine, Thione Diop, Ivan Galvez, Teo Shantz.
They've been showing me great things about it.
I'm more specialized with sticks,
but I love Hand Drums also.
Now, let's try a little back and forth,
a little call and response.
An echo game where you can repeat what I do
using the Hand Drum.
Here we go.
(Djembe drum beats)
And if you're still on the table, that's fine.
(Djembe drum beats)
Let's mix it up.
(Djembe drum beats)
Again.
(Djembe drum beats)
One more. One more.
(Djembe drum beats)
One, two, three, four. Okay, nice.
Now, the next thing we're gonna do is, I'm gonna improvise,
which is a another way of saying freestyle.
Freestyle is a term that came from Hip-Hop culture,
but started in the Bronx, in New York,
before I was born in the 70s.
And to freestyle, or to improvise,
means you go without a plan.
You let your emotions and your personality take over
and you just see what happens,
and you try not to think too much about it.
You let your hands do the work.
So let's try that. When I leave you some rest, some "space,"
do whatever you want to do, all right?
I'll go first. Here we go.
One, two, three, and four.
(Djembe drum beats)
All right, all right.
(Djembe drum beats)
Okay, one more time.
(Djembe drum beats)
Nice. Nice. Here we go.
(Djembe drum beats)
All right, one more time. One more time.
(Djembe drum beats)
Okay, nice. Nice. Thank you.
Now, I'm gonna head back to the table
to look at a couple other techniques.
Let's check out something new.
Before we start the other music that I've selected,
I wanna talk a little bit about something,
called Ghost Notes and Accents.
Ghost Notes and Accents is the relationship between,
high volume, low volume.
When you have a lot of other instruments in the world
that use different Pitches like piano, violin, vocalists,
they have so many options and they train using scales
and arpeggios and whatnot.
For percussionists, if we're limited to three sounds
or even less,
what we need to think about is how can we create
more variety. So dynamics, aka volume,
help us create more variety and musical interest.
So when I was studying snare drum first, in fourth grade,
I was focusing on some of the same things
that I showed you before, right,
looking at Rudiments where
we're doing different patterns with our hands,
and I didn't think too much about volume.
But there was a song when I was in fourth grade called
"It Feels Good" by Tony! Toni! Tone!
And that was the one of the first things
I tried to teach myself.
It was on a desk though, I didn't have sticks in my hand.
And if you'll notice,
some of the notes are louder than others, watch this.
(table beats)
So accents, that just means one note or more notes,
than one that are louder than the others.
An accent.
A ghost note means it's almost hard to hear, it's so quiet.
And we have the exaggeration between.
So what we're gonna work on is an exercise using doubles.
Right, right, left, left or starting with your other hand,
whatever you prefer,
and we're gonna start to see that some of them are louder
than the others.
So let's try that together.
We're gonna do a flat first.
(table beats)
Now you're gonna to see me start to shift.
(table beats continues)
Okay, now we're gonna do a little faster tempo.
And we're gonna do singles instead of doubles.
So (table beats) just single back and forth,
and try and follow me to see where I hit the accents.
And you might see me change from a Fist to a Slap,
or a Knock.
Just try and follow along as best as you can.
I call this freeway chase, watch this.
(table beats)
Play with me.
(table beats continues)
All right, not bad. One more time.
(table beats continues)
Okay, that's just a little bit to get started,
but you have so many ideas you could use,
that you make up, that you freestyle,
listening to songs you like and imitating them,
just like all musicians do.
So we're gonna move over to the snare drum now,
and I'm gonna show you a little bit more snare technique.
And then we're gonna work on some ghost notes
using another song I worked on.
So after studying with the snare drum,
for a couple years in fourth and fifth grade,
I started really getting excited about music,
and I decided I wanted to do it more and more.
So in middle school,
I met one of the most important teachers in my life,
at Washington Middle School in the Central District
of Seattle where I grew up.
And Mr. Robert Knatt changed my life forever.
He helped me understand the importance,
of being dedicated to something you love.
And there was some challenging times and I was intimidated
but after a while I realized he was just trying to help me
go after what I love and be committed to it.
And so one of the main things he always told me,
which I tell all my students,
there's no shortcut in music.
So you spend a half hour focused,
you'll get a half hour out of it.
You spend a few years you'll get that back.
But if you're not putting time into it,
music will not just pat you on the back say that's alright,
you're gonna sound good anyway.
So, thinking about that,
you gotta be patient with yourself, all right.
So thinking about the equivalence of the table,
Fist, Slap and Knock, Low, Mid, High,
or Bass, Tone, and Slap on the Djembe,
another way to look at the snare
would be hitting it right on the head for the Lowest sound,
and then the Middle sound using a cross-stick
like a drawbridge, pulling it up.
And then the rim has the Highest sound,
hitting the edge on the metal.
So, (playing the snare drum) right?
Now, if you don't have a snare at home, that's totally fine,
you can use a practice pad,
you can use a table, whatever you have,
and that's totally fine.
Now we're gonna use a another piece of music,
to help us explore something a little bit more complex,
using the Ghost Notes and Accents,
that I talked about before.
(drum music)
So earlier we discussed Whole Notes,
Half Notes, Quarter Notes and Eighth Notes.
Now we're gonna start utilizing Sixteenth Notes, all right.
And in using Ghost Notes on the drum set,
the way I'm doing here on the recording,
I was influenced by people that came before me.
So what I'd love for you to check out,
is a drummer named Clyde Stubblefield,
who played with James Brown.
I'd love for you to check out Ziggy,
who played with the meters.
These drummers changed the whole way
everyone looked at the drum set.
And using Ghost Notes with some loud and some quiet.
Let's start by playing Eighth Notes,
and then we'll get to Sixteenth Notes,
to make sure we're on the same page.
So Eighth Notes.
One and two and three and four
and one and two and three and four and.
Let's try that right in the Middle.
(playing the snare drum)
Okay. Now we're gonna go from Eighth Notes
to Sixteenth Notes
back and forth while still keeping the volume flat.
Here we go.
One, two, Eighths to Sixteenths.
(playing the snare drum)
Okay, not bad, not bad.
Now we're gonna start using Sixteenth Notes steady,
but we're going to start changing where the Accents are.
So Accents and Ghost Notes.
Check this out.
And we're gonna use the rim and the head,
the Highest and the Lowest sound.
One, two, ready, and,
(playing the snare drum)
So do your best to follow along with your hands
or your sticks.
One, two, three, huh.
(continues playing the snare drum)
Okay, not bad, not bad.
Now, we did an echo game before with the other instruments.
We're gonna try it with the snare drum.
(playing the snare drum)
One, two. Do your best to copy me as as much as you can.
Here we go.
(continues playing the snare drum)
Not bad. Let's use some of the other sounds.
(playing the snare drum)
Not bad. Rim and the cross stick.
Let's do another one.
(playing the snare drum)
Okay. Now let's be free with it instead of copying me,
do anything you feel.
After you hear me,
you can imitate what I'm doing or make it up on the spot.
Challenge yourself.
Here we go.
One, two, ready, and.
(playing the snare drum)
One, two, one, two, all right, one more time.
(playing the snare drum)
Okay, let's keep it going.
One, two, ready and.
(playing the snare drum)
Not bad. Not bad.
Here we go.
(playing the snare drum)
All right. All right.
Nice. Nice.
(playing the snare drum)
Okay, okay, nice.
That pretty much wraps up
what we're doing for this video today,
but I wanted to re-emphasize to you a few important things.
I mentioned some artists that you should be checking out.
Please look it up.
When I was young, I didn't have the internet,
I didn't have Google or YouTube,
so I'm so fascinated how you guys,
have so much more access to things quickly.
And check out those artists.
Remember the terms we talked about:
Ghosts notes, Accents.
We talked about the different Pitches right on the table,
between the Fist, the Slap and the Knock on the Djembe.
Between the Bass, Tone and Slap, on the Snare.
The Head, Cross-stick and the Rim, right?
We talked about Whole Notes, Half Notes,
Eighth Notes, and Sixteenth Notes.
We talked about Improvising,
which also is called Freestyling.
And I want you to remember, once again,
there's no shortcut in music.
And I want you to know that it'll be more loyal to you,
than most humans in the world.
Like you put in an hour, you'll get an hour.
You put in 32 years like I did,
you'll get 32 years out of it.
So keep up the challenge,
keep up the creativity,
look for songs you like,
even if they're none of the songs I picked.
Find your own artists you like and learn those pieces.
Teach yourself.
And find teachers you trust to help you get better.
And once again, this is Aaron Walker-Loud,
from Big World Breaks, working with Creative Advantage.
Thank you very much for your time.
(drum music) (siren)
(upbeat music)