Welcome to our next workshop. The mixture of the 6 feel and 2 feel is omnipresent in almost all Latin styles. One of the most popular grooves in South America is Cumbia. And boy…this new stuff being played swings like mad! It has such a huge hump it almost feels like you could roll off the groove!! As a drummer it’s wonderful thing to hear these beats with so much hump. Something a machine could never reproduce. People go mad when they hear it too! You cant help but move to the groove! It’s interesting to add that Cumbia is a style originally from Colombia. Extremely popular there and all over South America. For us as westerners, to understand what is going on with this music without actually being in the native countries, can be a challenge. By using my RTS system (Relayed Time shifting) we can go back in time, to where all of this started. To Africa. To decipher this feel, this language. Bringing the knowledge back to our contemporary grooves. If you want your grooves to swing as hard as possible it is essential that you put a piece of Africa in your soul. After all, Africa is the mother of drums.
Continuing with our rudimental work, lets explore one of my favorites, the “Lesson 25”. This rudiment is very useful for creating phrase through lines. If you have been following our workshops you know about the RTS system. Our final goal is vocabulary absorption and feel. If you are not familiar with this concept please check out my you tube page, and watch the RTS video. We are of course exploring one of the most popular Latin styles, Afro Cuban. Lets check out the exercises
First cut time. 1) Lesson 25 over a basic Afro Cuban groove or Tumbao as it is called.
2) Same thing but we now adding and accent on the “duhs”. 3) Now adding an accent on the “ands”. 4) Move all accented notes to the hi tom.
Now we move to the 6/8 time signature. Exercise 5) The accent outlines each lesson 25. Since it is in 6 now, it will spread out over 2 bars. Creating a beautiful cycle of 3. If this gives you trouble then just play dotted quarters on the bass drum until it’s in your hands and ears. 6) As before we add another accent, so we have expanded the accents on the cycle. 7) Once again we add another accent and we get another variation. 8) Move all accents to the hi tom. 9) Here we mix the 2 feels together. The left foot is now playing clave and you can see how it works with this motif. Loop this exercise until it feels comfortable. If it gives you trouble, play simple downbeat pulses on the BD. On the “1” of each bar. And again watch my RTS video clip. Don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you need more info.
Download PDF= Lesson 25
Con Sabor!
Phil M.
www.youtube.com/philmaturanodrums