Love these videos, man. So good and helpful. I was just listening to Billy on the early Mahavishnu record. Good God every track, billy is just playing the most bonkers shit and In crazy time sigs. He's otherworldly.
I was at that Zildjian Day. There were a lot of good performances that day, but Gadd absolutely stole the show. He crushed it. Groove, dynamics, power, everything he played was gold. For all the great players there, Acuna, Cobham, Vinnie, etc. etc., Gadd completely blew me away.
Thanks Austin. Became a huge Billy Cobham fan back in the 70's when I heard him for the first time on Eumir Deodato's Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) that went to the top of the charts.
I've discovered your channel around 10 minutes ago and I already loved your content, I feel like I've found a gem or smth. thanks for the great content!!
youre a great teacher. im not even a drummer, im a guitar player, but i enjoy your videos nonetheless! i may pick up the sticks some day thanks to channels like this
Rodo I think you should. Great to hear Jim. I started when I was 20 (now 43), but regrettably just self taught and really didn't start any technical drumming till only about 5 years ago. Oh if I could turn back time where would I be.
xwinglover i'm completely self-taught. I do some rudiments on my own like Swiss army triplets and doubles. But I think I'm lacking big time in the rudiments department. What do you recommend?
Hi Jim I was playing in a band, hit my glass ceiling and had no idea where to go or why my rolls sometimes didnt land on the 1, why I couldn't pick up speed, etc. My journey: So my philosophy was to find a teacher to tell me what I was doing wrong. Yoda theory 101, unlearn everything I have learned. So I started with him. It was all technique. From the basics of holding the sticks (where to hold them), and my "tight hang onto the sticks at all costs" grip and inappropriate finger and hand technique. He spent ages correcting it, esp my left hand. Then onto rudiments which I had not even heard of (and I was playing drums in a band!!). So starting with the fundamental rudiments (single strokes, double stroke patterns and push / pull at higher speeds, flams and drags). Then this widened my vocab to explore the more complex rudiments (incl parradiddle family and the drag and flam family rudiments later etc) that use these fundamentals. Also learned about time signatures and counting. I practiced these rudiments and subdivisions within context of the time signatures, at diff tempos or playing along to songs on a practice pad. BTW Austin does a great demo of working through the subdivisions in time on his video breakdown of the Danny Carey Rosetta Stone snare roll. Finally I came to get the exploration the musicality in dynamics, accents, ghosts and absent notes. My teacher taught me that drums is like a learning a language. To do it you have to love it enough to motivate yourself through the memory muscle stage (painful and frustrating), go slowly to get the technique perfect before speeding up, and basically to master it you need to learn how to read it, write it and play it. I worked on a rudiment at a time till muscle memory kicked in. It i amaxing how the brain can then just slice in rudiments to your play, and even bits of rudiments And there is no destination, just a life long journey. It has been maybe 5 years since I started over, and I have surpassed where I was but came to realise how much I still do not know. And that inspires me to keep learning (even little things daily). All the best :)
Austin, I've been watching your channel for a few months now and have thoroughly enjoyed and admired the work that you're doing. As a former drummer I grew up on Neil Peart, Bill Bruford, Simon Phillips, Terry Bozzio, and many other greats. I'm not one to post on RUclips, but this evening I watched your Billy Cobham video and felt compelled to comment. You are the essence of cool. You have exceptional skills, know your shit, teach incredibly well, and don't come off in the least bit cocky or arrogant. You are a real talent and I hope you keep doing this. Congrats on the Vic Firth endorsement! Well deserved. All the best, Jim
+James Newman Thanks Jim, I appreciate the kind words and the fact that you created an account just to tell me! haha that's awesome. Glad you enjoy the videos.
Just subscribed about a week ago. Great channel. What a cool concept too, Study the Greats. Excellent breakdown, great playing. Love your teaching style as well. Bravo!
Yes, and Warren is my older brother who played with Zappa, missing persons and Duran Duran, I have worked with all 3 of the previous artists,and I was Shankars drummer for over 18 years.I have some videos showing some of my Jerry stuff,based on or from tabla drumming, east meets west, let's do a video of the great eastern way vs western way of reading music, I think you'll like it!!
excellent video as always.thanks!! Regarding trying to make sense of the paradiddle played as sextuplets, practicing each group of six seperatley I think helps, before joining them together to where it resolves. Lot of fun to be had using the fill above but using the other three paradiddle versions too.
Dude, it's so awesome to see a comment on here from you. You've been one of my favorite prog/metal drummers for a long time. Hope you don't mind if I do an episode on you one day! no joke... although I'm not sure I'll be able to figure out anything you play haha
Cheers, man! I have transcriptions in most of my video descriptions but I don't have stickings or anything laid out. There's also plenty of stuff that doesn't include transcriptions if ya wanna poke around. At any rate, I'd be honored!
+Travis Orbin For sure man! I know you do your own transcriptions... I should have said I don't think I'll be able to re-create anything you play haha. That shit's gonna hurt my brain
Okay, now is there any way you could record/transcribe/etc the 'flamming' from Cobham's "La Guernica" at the 3:59 mark? If it never happens, no problem--thanks for all the videos; and I'll be looking forward to the next, and the next ...
During the time that Cobham dude became famous with the "Mahavishnu Orchestra" I was a REALLY great fan of his drumming. This ended abruptely when I read his statement: >Those who CAN, play! Those who CAN'T teach! < He's simply an arrogant bloke with some skills who had some luck when he joined the M O. This dude was TAUGHT by teachers to get his skills, but it seems that his teachers could not play?????? Nevertheless, it's a nice lick and thank you for the vid.
I can't wrap my head around this one. I just sounds like a up-tempo paradiddle beat. Cool, but nothing I'd ever be able to execute tastefully. Cobham is one of the greats!
Disagree with the dotted quarter thing. The idea is to be aware of what you're playing at what rate (subdivision). I hear it as quarter note triplet accents alternatning between hat and snare with a paradiddle underneath, and that's how it should be played. If not played like this you're actually modulating into 6/4, and what you wan't is a 4/4 with a 16th note triplet paradiddle underneath. Its nice to master both, since both are very usefull, but you gotta be aware they're different things. You should be able to alternate between feeling the metronome as dotted quarter (you're playing 16ths over 3 beats) and as as regular quarter (you're playing groupings and 4 over 16th note triplet), and see how that changes how your hands move. 16th note triplets have this particular watery flow to them (gospel dudes exploit this to the max), while 16ths are much more mechanical sounding, therefore how you feel the metronome will change how you feel the phrase, and how you sound. And I know you're modulating, because i'm used to that type of phrasing, both modulating and not modulating, and the way you sound clearly shows you're playing a 6/4 beat inside what used to be a 4/4 meter, therefore losing that sweet fluidity of the sixtuplet. Just lock the second diddle with the offbeat, not that hard :p Beat 1 and 3 = accent, beat 2 and 4 diddle. There's this guy with this video called "Matt Gartska Paraddiddle Chalenge" where he's playing this exact same thing but only between snare and BD, HH keeping quarters i think, and using the right hand to play half note triplets, quarters, quarter note triplets and 8th notes sequencially. Check that out, it really pops out that "oh those are 32nds but are also sixtuplets but are also 16ths but are also triplets", which is the beauty of anything based on 12 ^^ Great series tho. Cheers!
Can you break down anything from Blake Richardson? Either the alternating hands and feet section from The Ectopic Stroll, or the drum solo from Swim to the Moon?
Hey Austin, great channel and series! I subsrcribed! Could you please break down Richard Christy's drum part he plays in Death - Spirit Crusher from 2:00. Thanks!
Abbdrums dot com...sounds good.Anyway, this solo is hard. Some ideas for new study the greats...Mr garibaldi(the permutations..ouch) and Mr Art Blakey (a night in Tunisia, omfg) Good job!
I don't know how you can hear the clicks as a dotted quarters when they start off as quarters. I still hear them as quarters and trust me I am no genius. Maybe I am just so used to playing straight 4/4 grooves that I cannot get out of that time frame or at least not switch from one to the other in the same measure. That just seems weird.
Steve Percoco you're on the right track with why you don't hear the pulse as a dotted 8th note and a 16th note but it's a good thing if you can learn how to free up your mind and play the overlaying lick and always knowing where 1 is and also know where the 4th quarter note is too.,😀
Loser but that's kind of the point of the whole thing. I think it would work really well as a fill inbetween a groove, it takes you out of the rhythm for a second and you're confused, then he drops you right back into the groove and you're like 'ah, fuck yeah'
@Loser I was just about to say then but you said it for me. It's not ear-catching at all. @Pepijn Streng: No, it wouldn't. You're like "ew".. not "fuck yeah".
+sloppyanus1 haha, well, that was the max tempo that I could pull it off "clean" at that time. I could have gone higher but it would have been a lot sloppier. I ain't got that much stank bro haha
![SahBabii - Viking [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/D37cL92JX0I/mqdefault.jpg)
Love these videos, man. So good and helpful. I was just listening to Billy on the early Mahavishnu record. Good God every track, billy is just playing the most bonkers shit and In crazy time sigs. He's otherworldly.
I was at that Zildjian Day. There were a lot of good performances that day, but Gadd absolutely stole the show. He crushed it. Groove, dynamics, power, everything he played was gold. For all the great players there, Acuna, Cobham, Vinnie, etc. etc., Gadd completely blew me away.
Great work on one of my favorite drummers. Man, Billy is so smoooth
Great breakdown of a great lick. I hear that phrase in a lot of his playing and now it makes sense. Thanks for hard work and the post!
i always laugh when you say mmmmmmmm! great videos man!
Dude, website is killer. Great video, please keep doing what you're doing.
Thanks man, will do!
Moon germs has a nice paradiddle grove about 3/4 through. My favorite is Bandits - the entire track is paradiddle based.
Thanks Austin. Became a huge Billy Cobham fan back in the 70's when I heard him for the first time on Eumir Deodato's Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) that went to the top of the charts.
I've discovered your channel around 10 minutes ago and I already loved your content, I feel like I've found a gem or smth. thanks for the great content!!
youre a great teacher. im not even a drummer, im a guitar player, but i enjoy your videos nonetheless! i may pick up the sticks some day thanks to channels like this
You should. I picked up the drums at 49 years old. Two years later where am I? Well, I can play the drums! lol So much fun. Go for it.
Rodo I think you should.
Great to hear Jim. I started when I was 20 (now 43), but regrettably just self taught and really didn't start any technical drumming till only about 5 years ago. Oh if I could turn back time where would I be.
xwinglover i'm completely self-taught. I do some rudiments on my own like Swiss army triplets and doubles. But I think I'm lacking big time in the rudiments department. What do you recommend?
Hi Jim I was playing in a band, hit my glass ceiling and had no idea where to go or why my rolls sometimes didnt land on the 1, why I couldn't pick up speed, etc.
My journey:
So my philosophy was to find a teacher to tell me what I was doing wrong. Yoda theory 101, unlearn everything I have learned.
So I started with him. It was all technique. From the basics of holding the sticks (where to hold them), and my "tight hang onto the sticks at all costs" grip and inappropriate finger and hand technique. He spent ages correcting it, esp my left hand.
Then onto rudiments which I had not even heard of (and I was playing drums in a band!!).
So starting with the fundamental rudiments (single strokes, double stroke patterns and push / pull at higher speeds, flams and drags). Then this widened my vocab to explore the more complex rudiments (incl parradiddle family and the drag and flam family rudiments later etc) that use these fundamentals. Also learned about time signatures and counting.
I practiced these rudiments and subdivisions within context of the time signatures, at diff tempos or playing along to songs on a practice pad.
BTW Austin does a great demo of working through the subdivisions in time on his video breakdown of the Danny Carey Rosetta Stone snare roll.
Finally I came to get the exploration the musicality in dynamics, accents, ghosts and absent notes.
My teacher taught me that drums is like a learning a language. To do it you have to love it enough to motivate yourself through the memory muscle stage (painful and frustrating), go slowly to get the technique perfect before speeding up, and basically to master it you need to learn how to read it, write it and play it.
I worked on a rudiment at a time till muscle memory kicked in. It i amaxing how the brain can then just slice in rudiments to your play, and even bits of rudiments
And there is no destination, just a life long journey. It has been maybe 5 years since I started over, and I have surpassed where I was but came to realise how much I still do not know. And that inspires me to keep learning (even little things daily).
All the best :)
@@chezchezchezchez l'
Austin,
I've been watching your channel for a few months now and have thoroughly enjoyed and admired the work that you're doing. As a former drummer I grew up on Neil Peart, Bill Bruford, Simon Phillips, Terry Bozzio, and many other greats.
I'm not one to post on RUclips, but this evening I watched your Billy Cobham video and felt compelled to comment. You are the essence of cool. You have exceptional skills, know your shit, teach incredibly well, and don't come off in the least bit cocky or arrogant. You are a real talent and I hope you keep doing this.
Congrats on the Vic Firth endorsement! Well deserved.
All the best,
Jim
+James Newman Thanks Jim, I appreciate the kind words and the fact that you created an account just to tell me! haha that's awesome. Glad you enjoy the videos.
Just catching up with this and realised that the Rockschool (grade 8) book - “Red Baron” has something similar but it’s a backward paradiddle.
I didn't hear the click switch, I'm a genious! But probably wasn't paying attention. Great break-down. Billy is in a class of his own.
website seriously looks great, thanks so much for puting in the time and effort, I will be using this more in the future
Amazing work thank you very much 👍👍
Just downloaded every single transcription! Guess I got work for a lifetime now... Good job for all man!
+Sami ROGER haha nice! have fun with all that
Just subscribed about a week ago. Great channel. What a cool concept too, Study the Greats. Excellent breakdown, great playing. Love your teaching style as well. Bravo!
these are some of the best out there great job Austin
Yes, and Warren is my older brother who played with Zappa, missing persons and Duran Duran, I have worked with all 3 of the previous artists,and I was Shankars drummer for over 18 years.I have some videos showing some of my Jerry stuff,based on or from tabla drumming, east meets west, let's do a video of the great eastern way vs western way of reading music, I think you'll like it!!
Wow great work on the website! WThanks a lot for this!
Yet another awesome lesson Austin! With as many transcription that you pull out, you should publish a drum book!
excellent video as always.thanks!! Regarding trying to make sense of the paradiddle played as sextuplets, practicing each group of six seperatley I think helps, before joining them together to where it resolves. Lot of fun to be had using the fill above but using the other three paradiddle versions too.
Thank you for the lesson it's all about feel
These vids are pure awesome. Thank you!
Always excellent..! 👍
Billy! Great breakdown, thanks!
Dope. Love that Zildjian Day (had the VHS, hah). Nice work!
Dude, it's so awesome to see a comment on here from you. You've been one of my favorite prog/metal drummers for a long time. Hope you don't mind if I do an episode on you one day! no joke... although I'm not sure I'll be able to figure out anything you play haha
Cheers, man! I have transcriptions in most of my video descriptions but I don't have stickings or anything laid out. There's also plenty of stuff that doesn't include transcriptions if ya wanna poke around. At any rate, I'd be honored!
+Travis Orbin For sure man! I know you do your own transcriptions... I should have said I don't think I'll be able to re-create anything you play haha. That shit's gonna hurt my brain
Haha. I'm sure you'll get it. Thanks again!
nicely done, Austin
Very cool. Thanks for the Cobham action. Good call on the website organization as well;)
Very nice channel man. I just found it today and its very helpful!
awesome!!! thanks for share your talent!
Excellent as always!
Wow! Thank you for this video! Very helpful and wise info practice mode:on 👌🏻👌🏻
Yes! Thank you! Excellent video ...
loving this series! it would be awesome if you made one about Larnell Lewis
Increíble .. saludos desde Argentina ..
Great episode and I'm glad it's not just me that always hears the click change subdivision...
I really like of all your videos..Congrats friend very good!
Austin I really enjoyed your videos, you're a great drum instructor and I want to come see you and play 3 min soloistic motifs😀
>Notices Keith Carlock in list
>Subscribes
Well played!👍
great channel
Coooool! Thank you!!
Have you watched Cobham's rolls in the beginning of the tenth pinn solo from 1974? I'm sure you have :)
Awesome! Thx
Oh.. forgot to mention. I created a RUclips account today just so that I could leave my comment on your channel!
Woo! That Billy man! Great vid bro!
Okay, now is there any way you could record/transcribe/etc the 'flamming' from Cobham's "La Guernica" at the 3:59 mark? If it never happens, no problem--thanks for all the videos; and I'll be looking forward to the next, and the next ...
During the time that Cobham dude became famous with the "Mahavishnu Orchestra" I was a REALLY great fan of his drumming. This ended abruptely when I read his statement: >Those who CAN, play! Those who CAN'T teach! <
He's simply an arrogant bloke with some skills who had some luck when he joined the M O.
This dude was TAUGHT by teachers to get his skills, but it seems that his teachers could not play??????
Nevertheless, it's a nice lick and thank you for the vid.
I can't wrap my head around this one. I just sounds like a up-tempo paradiddle beat. Cool, but nothing I'd ever be able to execute tastefully. Cobham is one of the greats!
Disagree with the dotted quarter thing. The idea is to be aware of what you're playing at what rate (subdivision). I hear it as quarter note triplet accents alternatning between hat and snare with a paradiddle underneath, and that's how it should be played. If not played like this you're actually modulating into 6/4, and what you wan't is a 4/4 with a 16th note triplet paradiddle underneath. Its nice to master both, since both are very usefull, but you gotta be aware they're different things. You should be able to alternate between feeling the metronome as dotted quarter (you're playing 16ths over 3 beats) and as as regular quarter (you're playing groupings and 4 over 16th note triplet), and see how that changes how your hands move. 16th note triplets have this particular watery flow to them (gospel dudes exploit this to the max), while 16ths are much more mechanical sounding, therefore how you feel the metronome will change how you feel the phrase, and how you sound. And I know you're modulating, because i'm used to that type of phrasing, both modulating and not modulating, and the way you sound clearly shows you're playing a 6/4 beat inside what used to be a 4/4 meter, therefore losing that sweet fluidity of the sixtuplet. Just lock the second diddle with the offbeat, not that hard :p Beat 1 and 3 = accent, beat 2 and 4 diddle.
There's this guy with this video called "Matt Gartska Paraddiddle Chalenge" where he's playing this exact same thing but only between snare and BD, HH keeping quarters i think, and using the right hand to play half note triplets, quarters, quarter note triplets and 8th notes sequencially. Check that out, it really pops out that "oh those are 32nds but are also sixtuplets but are also 16ths but are also triplets", which is the beauty of anything based on 12 ^^
Great series tho. Cheers!
Awesome bro!! Keep going
You deserve more subs.
Please please please please do a study the great on Matt halpern. He's a drum genius!
it's cool bro😃😃👍👍👍
you did the transcription or is a program that identify the strokes? great video :)
+Renato B. I manually do all the transcriptions in Logic
Can you break down anything from Blake Richardson? Either the alternating hands and feet section from The Ectopic Stroll, or the drum solo from Swim to the Moon?
I'd love to see the solo from STTM broken down, it's killer.
THOSE ARE THE EARLY ZILDJIAN DAY VIDEOS VINNIE TOMMY CAMPBELL IS ON THAT AS WELL
I want to suggest an episode about Gavin Harrison.
Is a great drummer and he has a lot videos available with complex licks...
+saldanha644 Already did one!
Really? I didn't saw it, I'm sorry! Can you send me the link?
You smoked that one,boss! I got some licks from my guy Nat Townsley I'd like to see you break down...Kepp it up!
Hey Austin, great channel and series! I subsrcribed! Could you please break down Richard Christy's drum part he plays in Death - Spirit Crusher from 2:00. Thanks!
can you study tony royster jr?thnks:)
btw thnks for the vid:)
Billy was and still is a beast !!
Abbdrums dot com...sounds good.Anyway, this solo is hard. Some ideas for new study the greats...Mr garibaldi(the permutations..ouch) and Mr Art Blakey (a night in Tunisia, omfg)
Good job!
Awesome video man. What's your background and how did you figure out this niche you have?
A Lesson about Matt Garstka :V
not sure if youre into that kinda stuff, but since youre a tool fan, do thomas haakes snare solo from the meshuggah song spasm. great video!
Would like to see that too!
troy wright (awesome drummer from australia) does a live transciption of it /watch?v=MlCepFIiAj0
I don't know how you can hear the clicks as a dotted quarters when they start off as quarters. I still hear them as quarters and trust me I am no genius. Maybe I am just so used to playing straight 4/4 grooves that I cannot get out of that time frame or at least not switch from one to the other in the same measure. That just seems weird.
Steve Percoco you're on the right track with why you don't hear the pulse as a dotted 8th note and a 16th note but it's a good thing if you can learn how to free up your mind and play the overlaying lick and always knowing where 1 is and also know where the 4th quarter note is too.,😀
Do matt gartska!
Are you playing the reverse of the sticking that is notated or are you messing with my dyslexic brain?
Q: What camera do you use? Also, do you record with the camera &/or a different device? thanks!
Do you perhaps also teach math?
I did not hear the click change Austin; does that mean I am a genius?
yep!
Yeah but, how do ya dance to it?🤣🤔😎
Ill never get that down lol
Title should be - How to get fired from any gig.
i`m a genius ! :D
I don't really like this one, because the sextuplets don't fit with the rhythm he played before.
Loser same I agree man i
Yeah! Just to impress the drum nerds, you know : ) But I´m a huge fan of Billy!!
Loser but that's kind of the point of the whole thing. I think it would work really well as a fill inbetween a groove, it takes you out of the rhythm for a second and you're confused, then he drops you right back into the groove and you're like 'ah, fuck yeah'
@Loser I was just about to say then but you said it for me. It's not ear-catching at all.
@Pepijn Streng: No, it wouldn't. You're like "ew".. not "fuck yeah".
I guess I'm a genius😂
Nerd
Another sweet video, but cmon man that was a weak attempt to push your limits. I was hoping to see you drop that burcham stank on that lick. 😋
+sloppyanus1 haha, well, that was the max tempo that I could pull it off "clean" at that time. I could have gone higher but it would have been a lot sloppier. I ain't got that much stank bro haha
paradiddle triple are totally unnecessary
tighten your snare! sounds horrible!