The power of the single and double stroke

This week I want to talk about two fundamental movements for the drummer.  While analyzing the basic 26 American Corps Drum Rudiments I noticed that the stickings fall into four basic styles: flams, roughs, single strokes and double strokes.  Let’s put aside the flams and roughs for a moment and focus on the two very basic stickings: the single stroke and the double stroke.

The singles stroke is your typical RLRLRL…pattern.  When you let the sticks bounce this soon becomes your basic drum roll.  This is the predominant sticking when playing sixteenths, be it on the hi-hat for funk-based stuff or around the kit for a fill.

The double stroke is the RRLLRRLL…pattern, and consequently my favorite type of sticking because it gives the illusion of a single roll with one hand, say on the snare, while you move the other hand around the kit.

When analyzing the rudiments you will find that most of them are based on either one of these stickings, and some, like your paradiddles use both. 

The late Joe Morello new the importance of these two movements around the kit and often used a simple exercise with them to promote his “Master Studies” books.  The exercise goes like this.  Play four bars of single strokes(RLRL), than four bars of doubles (RRLL), and then four bars of single paradiddles (RLRR, LRLL).  You can increase to eight, sixteen or twenty-four bars of each per your liking.  Use a metronome to stay honest and increase your speed gradually without any spaces in between stickings.  For you double bass enthusiast out there the same exercises can be done with a double bass drum pedal or dual bass drums.  Either way you will be amazed at how quickly your skill sets will improve through the use of this exercise.

These movements are not just stickings, but rather a way to unlock complicated drum parts you may encounter.  Because most drumming will fall under one of these movements you can use that knowledge to figure out how your favorite drummer is moving around the kit.  Is he playing that fill hand to hand (LRLR) or with double strokes (RRLL)?  I often analyze new grooves by trying both movements and soon find that one produces an easier flow for the song, and surprisingly that is the right way the original guy played the part.

There are reasons that the rudiments are built around these two movements and with proper practice and insight they can help you unlock any complicated drum part.

Drum on!

How much does a Gold Album get you?

Here is the breakdown.  Prepare to be amazed (or disturbed)...

Our artist has made a gold record and sold 500,000 copies.  He has a royalty rate of 14%, pays the producer 3%.  Has recording costs of $250,000 and tour support of $50,000.

Wholesale Price (what they base your royalty rate on)                $12.05

Royalty Rate (14% all-in, minus 3% for producer)                       $1.32

Royalty X 500,000 Units                                                             $640,000

Less 10% Free Goods (Promo copies)                                      -$64,000

                                                                                                     ____________

                                                                                                     $576,000

Less: Recording Costs                                                                -$250,000

Less: 50% of Independent Promotion                                        -$75,000

Less: 50% of Video Costs                                                          -$50,000

Less: Tour Support                                                                     -$50,000

                                                                                                    ____________

Total:                                                                                          $151,000

To add salt in the wound the record company holds a reserve on your gross royalties ($576,000) meaning they keep 35-50% of your royalties in case your sales boomerang.  At 35% that is $201,600.  So in this first statement you get NOTHING. You may get that back if yo continue to sell, but they still have you.

And it gets worse…

Suppose you took the record companies advance of $300,000 towards this album.  That means after this album you are in the hole $149,000.  Which they will gladly take from the royalties of your next album, if you have a two-album deal.

Still want to become a rock star?

I got these figures from a great book “All You Need to Know About the Music Business” by Entertainment Attorney Donald S. Passman.

Understanding the infamous 6/8 time signature.

I got an interesting text the other day.  A friend of mine was stuck in an argument over the difference between 6/8 and 3/4 time signatures.  She asked “can’t we just count 6/8 in 3/4 time because they add up mathematically?”  I thought it was a valid point after all time in music is just simply math and counting, and, yes, 6/8 can be divided into 3/4 in math.  But in music it is the way we count 6/8 that makes it different and helps give the music that “Latin” feel.  So I will try to explain.

3/4 time is quarter note based, meaning that each of the three notes is a quarter note.  Counted it would be one, two, three, one, two three, one, two, three… This is what I will call a straight forward based feel.  In Jazz we may give the “ones” a little longer of a feel creating that infamous swing feel.  6/8 is different because the musician must keep in mind that it is actually triplet based.  So one measure of 6/8 is actually two sets of triplets counted trip-e-let, trip-e-let…or a quicker 1,2,3,4,5,6...  In this 6/8 feel the usual snare hit that will fall on beat 2 in rock feels falls on the “let’s”(counted beats 3,6) of the 6/8 measure.  It gives the music that lift feel that is cornerstone to Latin music.

Now my friend was right because you can subdivide 6/8 into two 3/4 phrases and this will come in real handy if you ever have to play fast 6/8 music.  In these situations it is often difficult to count 1,2,3,4,5,6 over and over again real fast so I may count 1,2,3 in a quarter note counting method while playing the fast Latin 6/8 underneath.  I just have to remember that if the music calls for eight bars I can only count it in that quarter note 3/4 feel for four bars. 

This is one of those that you will have to practice with a metronome or a good written piece of music with an included audio file.  Or better yet go find a friend from one of the South American nations and ask to borrow some music.