On a family trip, recently, I had occasion to listen to some music while the rest of the family tuned into a movie. (I hate movies in the car -- I'm compelled to turn and look instead of watching the road!) So, I perused the music on my Zune and found an album I hadn't listened to in quite awhile: Try! John Meyer Trio Live in Concert. It wasn't long before I remembered why I love this album so much.

The always incredible Steve Jordan lays down some of the funkiest grooves I've ever heard on this album, serving Meyer's guitar lines very well and grooving in perfect lockstep with Pino Palladino's bass lines. Specifically, there's a groove Jordan plays on Who Did You Think I Was and their innovative cover of Jimi Hendrix's Wait Until Tomorrow. While both grooves are similar in feel, Jordan mixes them up to serve each song independently. Also, once I learned these grooves, I found myself incorporating bits and pieces of them into the parts I'm developing in the studio with Lake 32.

Who Did You Think I Was

Jordan's line on this tune seems bent on kicking Meyer's guitar part. Here's a transcription of the part:

The power of this groove comes from the heavily accented snare hits on beats 2 and 3 of each measure, with a quick hit on the offbeat of 4.

Wait Until Tomorrow

The first measure of this groove is essentially the same as Who Did You Think I Was. The change comes in the second measure where there is almost a double time feel when compared to the first measure. Here's a transcription:

Notice that in the first measure, the only real difference between this and previous transcription is that the kick drum staggers out from a straight eight note pattern to a shuffle with the second hit coming a sixteenth note later. The major difference is in the second measure where the two eighth notes on the second beat give the groove a double time feel compared to the first measure, with beat three showing a paradiddle between the snare and the kick. Finally, the fourth beat of the second measure, with the kick on the second and fourth sixteenth notes, really propels the sound back to the measure one patter again.

Here's a video showing how to play both transcriptions:

Try these out and play with them. I think you find some nice parts you can incorporate into stuff you're already playing.

I had a great gig with Trigger 5 Sunday afternoon at the Augusta Brewing Company down along the Missouri River. It was a beautiful place to play and a wild set as I didn't know the majority of the songs, but Abe (bass player) and Alex (lead guitar) did a great job of queuing me on the stops and start in the tunes. Also, thanks much Mike Heeter for the invite to sit in on the gig -- I had a blast.

I am primarily a modern/prog rock guy, so sitting in for three sets with a traditional country band was a terrific learning experience. There are few genres of music where the drummer is absolutely required to play for the song than in country. There are a few areas here and there where you can add some color to your playing but, for the most part, you are there to drive the beat and help establish the feel for the song.

From the drummers standpoint, there are basically three "grooves" in you need to be able to play to successfully pull off a country gig:

1. A 50's rock-n-roll beat
2. A shuffle/swing beat
3. A train beat

I got a little insight yesterday to playing an effective and grooving train beat I thought I'd share.

Dissecting the Train Beat

At its most basic, a train beat consists of eighth notes on the snare drum with accents on 2 and on the & of 3 and 4. Transposed, it looks like this:

This is one of those areas where you can add some nice touches of color, like accenting both eighth notes on the second beat, like this:

Depending on the feel of the song, you can play this rhythm as either straight eighth notes or by shuffling them, like so:

Traditionally, the train beat has been played using brushes. While you can easily play the rhythm with sticks, you will require a lot of volume control to avoid having the snare drum completely take over the tune. The only issue with brushes is getting enough volume to cut through at a live gig, especially outdoors and without microphones on your kit, as was the case yesterday at the Trigger 5 gig.

Enter the Tala Wand

I first bought a pair of the Steve Smith signature Tala Wands by Vic Firth a couple of years ago. I know that the other major stick manufacturers also have similarly constructed sticks, so if you don't care for Vic Firth, you can probably find something comparable. I've used these sticks on a few occasions where I needed to cut through the mix but still strictly control the volume. They sound great on my Zildian K Custom Session Hi-hats and really produce a nice pop on the snare drum.

The key to the unique sound of the Tala Wand is that it's a hybrid between a brush and a stick. Multiple thin wooded dowels surround a foam core and give it a scattered, brush-like sound but allow the stick to really pop off the drum head and cut through the mix at a live gig.

To get a feel for the difference in sound, here is a quick video of me playing a classic train beat using a set of brushes, Tala Wands and a standard pair of sticks:

*Note: If you see an image above for Microsoft Silverlight instead of a video player, please click on the link and download Silverlight. It's perfectly safe and will allow you to watch my video. 

See the difference? I picked up my pair of Tala Wands at my local drum shop for $14.95, so they're not a big investment and they can really add a different texture to your sound, whether that sound is country, rock, jazz or whatever.