Video transcript
The Arts Unit @home Art Bites – Drumming – 4. Who's going to play that tricky snare drum part I guess its me! Part 2

DAVID LOCKERIDGE: Hey everyone. Welcome to the second instalment of 'Who's Going To Play That Snare Drum Part?' If you have forgotten a little bit about Part 1, go back and watch it. Then come back here. If not, continue on.

Here we go. Section 2. As you can see, probably the biggest thing that's changed is the dynamic drop. We've dropped down to piano. This is quite tricky, because it's a similar pattern, but we're trying to play it really low dynamically. So, that's got its own challenges.

You'll also notice there's no flams going on. So, we actually have to think about how we're going to get that accent without focusing heavily on our rudiment to help us get it. The other thing, too, here is that little triplet hanging around in the second bar of this section. So, that's going to change our subdivision a little bit.

So, let's have a go similar to what we did at the start with the first section. So, we're going to have a crack at the first 2 bars repeating, and we're going to focus on the subdivision. And, we're going to focus on, obviously, things like the height, because we're trying to get a piano dynamic, so, we're thinking everything's low. And, we're also going to focus on trying to get a sense of good connection in the sticking.

So again, we're following on that lead hand method. Here we go, 60 bpm. I'm going to have quavers in the click. It's just going to help with that triplet. And, we're going to subdivide, keep the dynamic down. 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4-e and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and a 1 and 2 3 and 4-e and a 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and a 1.

Did you see how the triplet shot the sticking, so you had to end up playing and leading with your left hand for a little bit there? That's really important. So, just reconnect. Let me make sure you've marked your sticking correctly. So, here's the sticking for those 2 little bars with the triplet.

Great. So we've got the 2 bars down. Having a look, scanning through the rest of that section, you can see we revisit the same pattern from Section 1. But, now we end up with the flams in the middle there. So, let's try that as a bit of an exercise, because we haven't played it at piano yet. So, we're going to play this bar, and we're going to play it at piano, because that's what we need to do in the excerpt.

The other thing I should point out is it's going to stop with our left hand, because it's coming from that triplet. Here we go. 60 bpm. We're just going to go over and over it, make sure those grace notes, tap notes, are really low, because our dynamic's really low. 3 and 4 and.

Now, we've got that down, let's check out the last part of this section. So, we can see it's the same kind of rhythm that's been going on throughout, except we've got that crescendo. So, let's treat that as an exercise. So, we're going to start really soft, piano, and get through to that fortissimo at the end. 2 and 3 and 4 and. 2, 3, 4, quiet.

OK? Let's put that whole section together. So, we're going to go from the top of the second section all the way through. We're going to focus on the metricness of it. We're also going to focus on the flam height, so the grace note. That tap's got to stay down. We're going to focus on the evenness of it, and we're going to focus on our sticking.

Now, you can see by doing this, you've already maybe filled a good half an hour of your practice time. Top of the second section. Quavers in the click. 3 and 4 and.

So, the next most important thing to do is to join those 2 sections together. That tends to be the bit in music that gets missed, or doesn't get as much attention. It's the join. And, that's where we need it to be the strongest, because that's where we're changing the idea.

So, let's have a look at the last bar of the first section, and the first bar of the second section, and how we can join it together. A good little exercise would be to take that fourth beat, and the first beat. So, we're going to look at 1, 2, 3, 4, and a 1. And, we're trying to get 1 to be the dynamic drop. So, it's going to go for forte, piano.

So, let's try it with our metronome. So, we're going to have it on 60 bpm, semiquavers. 2, 3, 4, and 1, 2 3, 4, and 1, 2, 3, 4, and 1. Now, let's do the whole bar. 2, 3, 4. One more time. 3, 4.

Excellent. Now, let's just turn that click down a fraction because I want to hear how quiet I can get the first beat. 2, 3, 4. It's tricky. So, let's see if we can join those 2 bars together at 60 bpm. 2, 3, 4.

Little bit faster. 70 bpm. 2, 3, 4. One more time. 3, 4. Let's try 80. 1, 2, 3, 4. Here we go. 90. Except this time, it's just in crotchets. So, I'm still thinking the whole time, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, 1-e and a 2-e and a 3-e and a 4-e and a 3, 4, 1, 2, 3.

One more time. 3, 4. 100. 1, 2, 3, 4. 2, 3, 4. Here we go. 110. One thing I like to do, at around this tempo, is add the quavers back in. A 1, 2, 3, 4. 2, 3, 4. And, our final tempo, which is the marked tempo, 120. A 1, 2, 3, 4. 2, 3, 4.

That's our little hairpin. We'll join it together. It's working really well. It's now time to probably look at playing it as an excerpt. Here we go. The first full run of the excerpt.

Now, there's a lot of information in this video, so I'm going to kind of spearhead it to a few points to think about, as you do this first run. The first one is subdivision, so focusing on getting your metric with that metronome, testing your pulse. Now, that's going to be highlighted by your use of the leading hand approach to sticking. That's definitely going to help.

Now, the next thing is the evenness of the flams. We've got to make sure everything is nice and even, connecting. And, we've also got to work those little joins, the hairpins, the dynamic references, the sudden loud to sudden soft, from soft gradually growing to loud. So, these are all the things we need to focus on for our first run through.

We're going to start at 60 bpm, and we're going to count ourselves in. And, we're going to play that leading rhythm as well. So, I'm going to actually use semiquavers for the first run at 60. 1, 2, 3, 4. And a 1. 4-e and a 1. 4-e and. 4-e and a 1 and a 2. 4-e and. 4 and a. 4-e and a. 4 and a. 4-e and a. 4-e and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4-e and a 1.

Now, I'm going to skip a little bit, and I'm going to skip 70. I'm going to go straight to 80. But, you should definitely focus on 70. So, this is 80 with quavers in the click. 1, 2, 3, 4, and. 4-e and a.

Here's 100. Getting quick now. Let's focus on the crotchet. A 1, 2, 3. Composer's tempo. A 1, 2, 3.

Now, we've gotten through the excerpt, you can see how important it is that we've broken it down into all these little different things to work on. With a rhythm like this, there is going to be a high probability that a lot of the musicians in the ensemble are going to be gravitating to listening to that pulse. Now, you could actually turn that scary fact into a positive and use it to help push you to develop a better sense of pulse.

Now, to finish off the video, what I thought would be cool is I'm going to perform the whole excerpt in a battery sense. So, it's going to be two Daves, one playing the actual snare drum part on the snare drum, and another Dave playing the concert bass drum part. A 1, 2, 3.

[music playing]

So, for a little bit of add-on information, I thought I'd very quickly talk about this instrument. Since filming these videos, I've had multiple questions from teachers and students about this big metal thing that's been on the corners of my videos. So, what are they?

These are actually known as tubular bells, and their role is pretty much to emulate church bells. So, I've owned these bells for a while now, but they were made by Ludwig many, many decades ago. And recently, I've actually just fixed and restored this beautiful wooden mount bit where the bells go through.

What you do to play the instrument is you take a hammer and you hit the top part of the bell, which is called the cap. And, when you hit that, it emulates that kind of church bell sound. One of the really big pros of these Ludwig bells is that they are super light. Unlike most tubular bells, which weigh a metric tonne, these bad boys, I can actually just wheel them like that and pick them up.

It was also recently used on the 2019 School Spectacular. It's also done multiple Arts Unit concerts, just because carting these things up a set of stairs is a lot easier than carting something that weighs as much as a City of Sydney bus. It's a stunning sounding instrument. And, the one thing I do say about these Ludwig bells is they're quite bright and quite powerful.

[music playing]

Thanks again, everyone, for tuning into this Art Bites video. It's been an absolute blast putting another one together. Now, you don't even have to fret when you get handed that snare part for that new piece that you guys are going to be working on. Happy practising. Can't wait to make more videos for you guys. It's been a blast. Look forward to seeing you all soon. Thanks. Take care.