Le Cri - Tougoudoum Number 3

Stories of drummers
The
Sid Catlett' Show

The drummer of
the month
Lars Ulrich

Rhythmic musical theory
The bars / I

The technique
of the month
The flam

The rhythm & fill
of the month
The irregular bars

Hardware information
How to deaden
the sound of
your drumset

We will start now the study of the bars.

The bar divides the music piece in several equal parts. It is indicated by two numbers in fraction (2/4, 6/8...) at the beginning of the score.

If it can be lived as a constraint (certain traditional or to the opposite very contemporary musics do not use it), it is very useful to know the beat of a piece, that is its rhythm.

Thus it indicates the nature of the TIME, that is wether the rhythmic indicator (the beat) is the quarter note (more frequent case), the eighth note, the half note or the dotted quarter note for example. The bar specifies also the number of times, for example 3 in the waltz, 4 in most of the "modern" musics or 7 in the "irregular" bars.

NUMBER

THE BARS / I

To simplify, we will separate the bars in two families :

- the binary or simple bars

- the ternary or composed bars

In both cases, the more important indicator is the FIRST TIME, that is the first beat of the bar.

His style is typical of the Metal drummers : play with twin bass pedals, rapidity, power and research of effectiveness. Because of a certain apparent simplicity some said that Lars Ulrich does not possess a very developed technique, especially if one compares to him the current drummers, nearer to the "click" and very, indeed too, preoccupied by the technique. He remains nevertheless an essential reference, a"marker" between Hard Rock style and the Metal play of Igor Cavalera (Sepultura) and Joey Jordisson (Slipknot) for example.

THE BINARY BARS :

Nota : In most cases, the time of the binary bar is at the quarter note, and musicians often assimilate these two notions, while they are very different: the QUARTER NOTE is a value (or a length) of note, always equals in comparison with the others notes, while the TIME is an uniform beat (half note, quarter note ...) that can vary from a piece to another and even in the same piece (quarter note, half-note....

The bar begins and finishes with a vertical line :

THE FLAM

It consists in playing a weak touch of a hand immediately followed by a strong strike with the other hand.

Of course, the flam can be played with both hands, on any note (whole note, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth. ..). It is very important, following the example of the saxophonist, "to think" the note FLAM at the moment of the strike and, of course, to work slowly to obtain the precision of the gestures.

Start for example by playing some flams in loop (several times in succession) at the whole note :

Playing the flam around the kit :

The stick playing the weak touch remains close to the head to touch it just before the strong strike.

THE IRREGULARS BARS

Here is a trick to create your first rhythmic in 7/8 :

Take a 4/4 rhythm :

then translate it in 8/8 :

then remove the last eighth note :

The FILL of the month :

It is written as followed :

Example of right flam :

Caption :

left hand

right hand

accent

weak touch

strong strike

then

THE SID CATTLET'S SHOW

HOW TO DEADEN THE SOUND OF YOUR DRUMSET

In the binary bars, the time (the beat) is equivalent to a simple value (whole note, half-note, quarter note, eighth note, sixteenth note). Therefore it can be divisible by two (the half note divides in two quarters, the quarter in two eighths. ..) - Refer to the picture "the length of the notes" in the rhythmic musical theory of TOUGOUDOUM - Number 2.

Try these solutions or look for your own solutions according to what you play and to your own play style. The objective being to have a sound that corresponds you.

According to the styles of musics, the sound of the drumset can be very different. For example, a Jazz drummer will exploit the resonance of his toms while a Rock drummer rather will try to shorten the length of his bass drum and snare drum note. There exist numerous solutions in order to obtain a short sound and avoid a too big resonance of the drumset. Here are some of them :

(See the
bar numbers in TOUGOUDOUM
Number 5).

—

etc...

Take a example :

—

—> the superior number indicates the number of times by bar : 2

—> the inferior number indicates the pulsation, the nature of the tempo. here the tempo is equal

—

to a quarter of a whole note, that is a quarter note.

Note, as in the table studied in the Number 2, the reference is the whole note.

Consequently :

—

We will study the TERNARY BARS in TOUGOUDOUM Number 4 .

125K

52K

59K

160K

132K

As a pure "swing" dummer in the 30s/40s, Big Sid Cattlet was before all a show man, perpetuating the tradition born with the first drummers- jugglers of the history of the drums.

LARS ULRICH

The flam is part of the rudiments (technical basis) of the European and American military drum that were transposed to the drums (as the "long roll" or the paradiddle which was evoked the last month).

The irregular bars are not the most employed ones, especially compared to the 4/4, except in some traditional musics, progressive Rock or Jazz.

They create nevertheless an interesting atmosphere (out of step or floating sensation) and allow developing the mental independence (get used to counting the times out loud).

• Put a pillow (or a cover) in the bass drum (be careful not to muffle the note too much).

• Take off the bottom heads of the bass drum and toms (as it was done a lot in the 80s). The sound does not resound anymore between the heads and the note is shorter.

• Release the heads of the toms and bass drum, while avoiding the "cardboard" sound when the head is too much loosend.

• Stick "gaffer" or chaterton on the heads (effective but dirty).

• Use the internal mutes of the toms (unfortunately rarer today) or buy external mutes.

• Cut off circles in old heads and put them on the strike heads (this is the principle of MATT SOUND invented by a drummer : Steve Gadd). Very effective for the snare drum but the circle may move and got caught in your sticks.

• Install thick heads or double heads.

• Buy "muffles", circles of plastic stuffed with foam rubber, that one puts under the strike head. Effective but expensive.

• It exists today bass drum heads equipped with a band of foam rubber. Except the price, the inconvenience is the lack of nuances that one can obtain with this head type, even if the system is effective.

One of his favorite "numbers" in club was to begin a solo on the drumset, to continue it on the walls, the ground or even the saucepans of the kitchen before finishing his performance on the instrument, without of course nothing to lose of his extraordinary swing !

WELL DONE SID !

Born on the 26/12/1963, from Danish origin, Lars Ulrich is the direct heir of the Hard Rock drummers, such as John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) or Phil Rudd (ACDC), at the same time a forerunner in the play of the future Rock drummers.

He founded, with the guitarist James Hetfield, the band Metallica at the end of the 70s, one of the first formations which " hardened the tone" in the line of Led Zeppelin, ACDC, Scorpion or Iron Maiden and opened the way to the "Heavy Metal" stream.

The play of Lars is powerful and always "stuck" to the rhythmic guitar. This cohesion is particularly highlighted in the unisons of the orchestra on rhythmic patterns and the use of irregular measures (6/4 or 9/4 for example).