How To Play Funky Drummer

In this video we're going to learn how to play Funky Drummer done by James Brown and his band. Though it never really did that well on the pop charts from its single released in the 1970s. It finally got an album release in the mid 80s on James Brown’s compilation album In The Jungle Groove. The drum solo on the recording is performed by Clyde Stubblefield and is probably one of the most sampled rhythmic beat in hip hop and pop music today. To learn how to play Funky Drummer we'll break it down by starting with the bass drum pattern. Its a pretty simple one to learn, nothing really fast or hard. Although the bass drum pattern differs on the recording, I stick with the most common pattern that he plays. Next we learn the snare pattern. This one is a little difficult to learn, because it feels like the hi hat and snare should be played separately but in fact they are played together all the time. Slowing things down will make it easier to learn this. Putting the snare and bass together can be a little challenging. Maybe try just playing eighth notes on the hi hat instead of sixteenths, or maybe slow it down to where you can play each note correctly. Its always good practice to play things really slow and correctly rather than normal tempo and fumbling through it. The hi hat openings are the most difficult part of this beat because it feels like it comes on such odd times. But actually its not that random. I think to my self that each time I have to open hi hat it comes right after beats 2 and 4. Playing with your heel up will makes things tons easier. Thanks -Dom

Posted via email from Dominic's posterous