Snake Oil
Sat, 08/22/2020 - 22:54
Hi David,
When I try and tap my foot to the drum beat on snake oil, I get totally lost which means by bar 3 my timing is totally out. Can you help me please.
Kind Regards,
Paul
Hello Paul.
The toms are throwing you off. The toms are playing the rumba rhythm. Beat 1 is there... this is good. The next tom hit is on the "and" of 2... the upbeat. Your body/brian is wanting to rush beat 3 and put it there (if you're tapping your foot, your foot is rushing and moving you out of time right there). The next tom hit is on beat 4... this is good. So... feel beat 1 (first tom hit)... do your best to ignore the second tom hit (and of 2)... and feel beat 4.
After working this, work the drums from another angle and pay attention to the hi-hats. The hi-hats are on beats 2 and 4, so there's no upbeat emphasis to throw you off. When you count/think... count 1 2-hat 3 4-hat. It will take a while to get used to counting something that's on the backbeat (beats 2 and 4), but the backbeat is one of the elements that's idiomatic of the blues, so it's good to become familiar with it.
P.S., it's a good idea to do a YouTube search on the parts of the drum set (kick, snare, hi-hats, toms, ride cymbal, crash cymbal) to become familiar with the sounds.