When I started playing in the 80s we didn't have access to all the different teachers & tools they way they do online now. We just had to rewind the cassettes and figure it out, sometimes with a teacher but usually not. You have made this very easy to understand. It's still hard to play but thanks to you I now know what the hell is going on in this beat!
That is true, but learning by ear developes your ear, which is very important also and sometimes when you try to learn something difficult, you come up with your own version of it and that way you develop your own style. Great beat!
So many people play this and some even technically correctly, but few sound really clean and the shuffle doesn't have the feels like your version. Thanks man.
Hey man, you've got that "groove" going on this Rosanna shuffle. I've heard many others play this but they sound mechanical and rehearsed. Thanks for the lesson, keep up the good work!.
Love your explanation,that shuffle came to me in a dream on how it should be played, and I got up the next morning and it came right out of me. I'm glad to see how you've explained it,it's perfect and you make it look soooooo easy. Your a great drummer but more importantly your a greater teacher.
So Jeff Porcaro and Bonzo BOTH authored an amazing shuffle beat that no one can really reproduce in the same time period? (1979ish). Crazy. Did they know each other? I also give huge respect for Porcaro's performance on Hold the Line. Great drum riff that never overplays, but drives the whole song into the solo break and kills it.
@@Bruhskivibes Absolutely. I started studying Mr. Purdie right after I made that comment 4 years ago. Steely Dan's Green Earring!!!!!!!!!! His drum fill with the double cush on the high hat right before the guitar solo. Bad-ass funky wonderfulness......
The Groove that separates the men from the boys - don't beat yourself up if it takes a while, and don't dare lie to yourself and pretend you're ready if you're not - it will train-wreck, and graceful recovery is nearly impossible - it really is just that hard.
CusterFlux I know right. I’m just a teen self taught drummer myself, and my trio is gonna try to cover this song… should be interesting. Gonna have to dumb it down to my level which will be a shame for such an iconic drum beat
Of the few explanations of this beat, this version is the best. The plain explanation is good and then playing the beat for a decent length of time so we can really hear it and get the feel is the key for me. Others play the beat just a couple of bars before the groove is properly heard and felt. Thank you 🙏 Can you do Colorado Bulldog intro now please?! 😁
I'm just learning this and i've watched others 10minutes long videos and i don't understand anything from them. This is Five minute video and so simple. Good teaching :)
Gracias gracias gracias gracias! :D Sos el mejor! Tanto tiempo tratando de sacar de oído esta canción y nunca me pude, hasta que vi tu video y fue lo mejor que pude hacer jajajaja Genio!!!
Good demonstration. You have the feel down, have the ghost notes down and have the balance right. There's only one other on RU-vid, other than Porcaro, that does. Lots of guys and girls get on RU-vid who have no business trying to "teach" anything. You did a good job of clarifying the ghost note right after the back beat, which separates the pros from the amateurs. I don't know that in the original recording that he used rimshots, but he does in his instructional videos.
So random how I just started working working on this shuffle pattern tonight, I decided to check you tube to get a little guidance and this video was in my subscription. I think the gods of rock are looking out for me! Great lesson it was very helpful!
I am an oldman now. I played Hollywood in the 80's/ This beat was so hard to do by ear. Now I see you explaining so perfectly. I wish I was young again. Really good teacher. But my brain is fried these days. Amazing bro.
+Eric Tanner VERY motivating to hear, Eric. I'd much rather hear that I've successfully taught you something than the comments many other 'teachers' seek. That being ... "You're a great drummer." Teaching is a separate skill from drumming altogether that I value very highly. Anyway, thank you very much! -Nate
These videos piss me off, but not in the way you may think. I did a great disservice to myself by not sticking with music when I was younger. This is fantastic stuff.
Hey man. Great lesson. I have been working on this for a while now and I play the version you showed here, but I also play the version Jeff Porcaro taught in his youtube video with the "Bo Diddley" bass drum pattern of which I have practised a lot. You helped me with how to really soften the ghost note after the accented 3rd beat. Thanks for this. I am also playing the "John Bonham" half time shuffle from the song "Fool In The Rain" by "Led Zeppelin" my favorite half time shuffle by far. Rock On Man........
hi. veteran player here... great stuff. one item ; i believe Jeff once transcribed this entire beat-passage ( in the 80's...in a modern drummer magazine issue'...of all things. i recall having it...and remember that tid-bit, to this day! amazing for a 55 year old '80's hard rock drummer! lol!..) and... he called it the 'Bo Diddley" beat. (triplets-thing) so, your playing it very nicely...BUT....guess what?.... Jeff planted the Kick and Snare Together, on the last "3" of the phrase. (gives it a fatter feel right there doesn't it?).... listen and research it... pretty sure that's what's happening on the original recording. dig your thing.. just clarifying something here. rock on OD....
+drummerfella 55 Thanks for the input! We do a lot of research before putting notation out. A lot! This is the way he taught it (but not actually the way he played it all the way through the record). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pwyO1qr0edI.html No beat 3 on the bass drum .. as explained by Porcaro himself. We do appreciate the input, though. Thank you. -Nate
But at 2:30 in the video you've linked to, Porcaro clearly *is* playing the kick and snare together as drummerfella describes. just sayin. Great vid BTW.
Nate great job with it. I've been watching every video on this song which started with the Purdie Shuffle. It is such a great beat. It just takes hours and hours till it becomes a natural body movement. Again great job and yes ditch the hat. No snow yet.
Specifically from."Home at Last" by Steely Dan, which was the king of smooth drummin', Pretty Purdie. Seen him.play 7 feet away. It's like that irl, too.
Hew Nate, thanks for this, nicely laid out for us, interestingly though it seems in the intro you were not doing the ghost after the snare on the 3 and it sounded about right, I guess one just just pulls it in an out as the feel takes you. Love Pecaro! no solos from him, just fine juicy grooves to bring on the magic. thanks again.
Nice, clear presentation...I think Jeff may add a kick on the 2nd downbeat (I say 2nd downbeat here because the Bo Diddley-based kick pattern occurs over 2 measures of the half-time shuffle groove) - and if so, I feel that it may be a relatively "wasted" kick in that the snare can somewhat drown it out (as opposed to a kick-crash cymbal combination where the kick gives a more auditory "punch" to the crash sound)...consequently, I prefer to add the 2nd kick similar to the placement of the 1st kick (3rd stroke of triplet 2)...
I have had a really hard time making this pattern groove. When you play it too speed do you recommend accenting slightly the hi-hat on 1,2,3 and 4. Also are you swinging slightly to give it a better feel or is that an illusion because of the shuffle hi-hat pattern. GREAT LESSON!
Hey Fady! Yes, I do recommend accenting the 1, 2, 3 and 4 slightly on the hi-hat. About the swinging ... good question. It felt like I was swinging it a little, but that's because it's a (for the sake of explaining) a broken-triplet groove (i.e. stroke, rest, stroke, stroke, rest, stroke, etc.), which is often what is played for swing. The syncopated placement of the bass drum strokes really makes it swing, too. So, the answer is ... Yes, I'm swinging it, but I'm not changing any note values. I'm staying true to what's written on the notation. Hope that helps! -Nate
Im pretty sure I know the issue, it's the ghost notes. Try lowering your tap strokes on the snare. Trust me, I'm working on it too and that's the important hard stuff.
The snare on note 2 of the triplet was where I was screwing this up when I first learned this song..i was playing it on 3 and couldn't figure why the shuffle never lined up.also had problem where the bass note started in the first measure.its not on the downbeat.and remembering that the beat starts with the four single bass notes and ends with 2 close together.not the other way around.alot of frustration back when lol
earned a sub. + like! by the way, just want to ask. It's my first time to play the drums and the kit I bought was a Pearl Vision VBA Artisan NY Splatter. I bought it last September 2, 2016. Just want to find out if it was a good investment. Thanks and God bless you always! Peace everyone!
Just curious, am I supposed to understand and play this in 10 minutes? If not, am I weird to understand this so easily? Let me rephrase that, I tapped this same groove out on my lap, trying to use wrist with ghost notes. Went to try it on the drum and it sounds like it. Still needs little more cleaning but I can play it.
Point here: This guy says it's hard to hear the ghost note following the accent on beat three. He's right, so why not just skip it? While you're at it, skip the high hat stroke that would be congruent with that back beat accent. Simplifies the heck outta playing the groove, and nobody in any audience will ever hear it or know the difference.
Very handy video but the real crunch it the feel. You can study the notes & their placement but what is always overlooked is - the feel has to be good & that can’t be taught methinks. A helpful video nevertheless.
And if only we could engineer the technology to functionally neuroimage and myelogram percussionists in the process of playing, I think it could yield some unprecedented insight into the neuropathway foundations of procedural memory formation & recall, since drummers apply the process to complex skills faster & with more intensity than anyone but athletes, and yet from stationary positions.
Please talk to your video person about logo placement - I'm trying to watch where the backbeat is hand-wise and all I see is the biggest logo in the world... :-/
Drummers this is. oo heavy on the downbeat. t it should.be one AND and then the AND one becomes a surprise. The whole song is based on this dynamic....back and forth between accenting . Upbeat and downbeat.
This is a ridiculous example of how to play this groove! Jeff Porcaro would NEVER have used a 6" splash on the right side of his kit!! Your 10" tom is 0.037 degrees off-center. Jeff's wasn't!! The third partial of the second triplet in the eighth bar you just played was a little too staccato. If you listen to Jeff on the Toto album, his was a shade more relaxed. You need to work on that before you dole out the wrong information about this legendary groove played by the greatest drummer this planet has EVER seen! And everyone knows that when Bernard Purdie originally played this groove (which hugely inspired Jeff) he waited a MINIMUM of 40 minutes after eating lunch to record it in the studio. Jeff followed the same routine. If you want to continue in this business AND be successful, you should do the same! Just sayin', IMHO. Keep at it though. In about 15 years with A LOT of practise you should be able to make this groove sound more in line with how Jeff felt it and played it. Good luck!
Jimmy Keskin - I don't trust a guy who doesn't know the difference between 'practice' (the noun - as in medical practice) and 'practise' (the verb - as in I need to practise my violin). Please do yourself a favor and read a book.
I hope that was a joke and I hope you got the sarcasm of my original post. This guy did a great job and I've seen lots of people post similar comments (although they're being serious). Jeff Porcaro is dead, no thanks to his addiction, and there have been many subsequent drummers who have more than filled his shoes in Toto since his death.
Doesn't it get hot under that stocking hat? I know you're all about the logo but it must be uncomfortable after a while. As a drummer, the last thing you need is something to promote sweating.
Nave Bron can you please talk a bit slower, I can hardly make out what you are saying and I'm a native English Speaker. The faster you speak on presentations, the less people are interested. Cheers.
no offensive, because i have never seen your other stuff, but you need less FX and better sound engineering if you plan on teaching. For example the very reverbed and too airy hi-hats. Good luck sir
WTf?!?!? Really?!?!?!? What he needs is a COMPLETE knowledge of the instrument, history and theoretical knowledge along with a sprinkling of empathy/patience to teach (Sounds like he does). Who cares what his drums sound like?!?!? His playing has to sound great, NOT his drums!!!
