The best thing about him is that he's one of the top level technical musicians on the planet and is also able to describe and teach concepts clearly. Those two talents don't always intersect.
I went to see him at a drum clinic a decade ago just to have my mind blown (I’m not even really a drummer) and he had us in the audience call out random numbers between 1 & 10. He continuously swapped which limb he was playing them over a straight 4/4 metronome on the speakers, all while describing exactly what he was doing. Insane.
Yeah but why fluff his nuts anymore? Teaching is actually a natural human instinct. The problem is that humans have been dumbed down and sucked of their emotion, patience, and understanding fully of a thing.
@@FunkyMacky yes, a looping pattern. Write it out and you'll find that it's just a looping pattern. Especially a 3/4 polyrhythm. I'm biased playing as long as I have, but if you think of it as a polyrhythm I think it's needlessly complicated. And I'm not saying it's easy, just simpler than people think.
you need to understand that , their talent only comes from practice . The difference between Thomas Lang and most other drummers is he decided he was going to become a professional drummer , and he was going to do that no matter what , your 1000 times is nothing compares to the 100`s of thousands of times hes played it . He plays for many many hours every day , 365 days of the year , WITH NO EXCUSES , thats how you become great at something , you aren`t "given" a talent , YOU WORK YOUR ASS OFF for it . You can do what he`s doing as well as he does it , you really can , but you HAVE to dedicate your WHOLE life to it and make many many sacrifices for it . If you don`t , you will just be another drummer . Like the rest of us .
@@davidhaney1394 yeah if you watch his drumeo appearance going through all the rudiments he does more practice in that session than most people do in a month
It you start by playing 3 against 4, it's easy to learn. As soon as I heard it, I recognized the pattern. Learning stuff like that from counting is way harder than by ear and imitation.
@@user-oy7gz5bf2hit’s the easiest polymeter but playing both hands on all divisions at the same time is what makes it more difficult especially without flamming, I never thought to practice it this way
I've been learning how to play the drums for a few years. I saw Thomas Lang on you tube and have been following him since. Such a great drummer and teacher. Absolutely phenomenal. Thank you Thomas lang for gracing everyone with your drumming skills and explaining in a way which anyone could understand.
I learned to do this on hand drums, it's really cool when you figure it out. Just work at each hand, individually until it's natural and then combine! (that's one way).
I always have to work it from multiple angles. In addition to your approach, I have to start really slow with both hands to make sure I feel where the hits line up. Otherwise it turns into a flam mess.
Awesome..! In Indian Carnatic Music, to improve the sense of rthym and concentration, Gurus advise their disciples to practice such rthym series. This 123 in carnatic is called Thrishram and 1234 is Chathurashram. There are three more in carnatic music. They are; 3 beats : Thrishram - 123 4 beats : Chathurashram - 1234 5 beats : Khandam - 12335 7 beats : Mishram - 1234567 9 beats : Sankeernam - 123455789 Artists while playing percussion instruments like Mridangam, Thavil, Tabala perform such wonders of playing combinations, with thrishram on one and khandam on the other hand, chathurashram and mishram, mishram and sankeernam and many such permutations and combinations. While the artist plays, It is obscure for a layman. But the ones who know will enjoy. Music is universal. A layman just enjoys the waves on the ocean surface. One should explore the depth to behold the treasure. Dive deep into the ocean. Doesn't matter where you jump from. The US, Europe, Africa or India. While the way down, experience and the methods will differ. But goal is always the same. The point of convergence..! Love to all musicians.!! ❤❤❤❤❤
German drummers have a level of focus and precision that just defies reality. Minnemann, Nickel, Schmitt, Jojo Mayer, Benny Greb, Patrick Metzger and the list goes on.
Can you write the relationship between the accents of the two beats and the words? I feel like I'm understanding it but I want t be sure I did. (I'm not a drummer)
Seamlessly shredding ten thousand notes on guitar with tasteful bends and harmonics thrown in here and there is far far easier than what he is doing here. I could never ever do two rythms at once. Speaking as a guitarist and singer, drummers amaze me.
This is because most people giving their opinions on the "best" drummers are really listing their favorite drummers, the only ones they know. I'd be reticent about making a list; I don't know enough and haven't seen enough. Any list that doesn't include Danny Carey is suspect, though.
I've played a couple of musical instruments, and I know I can get decent when I practice, but drums are the exception. Mad respect for drummers. Their brains operate differently.
I've seen him at a drum clinic and had a chance to chat for 15min or so...Great teacher,humble man...yes he's what i describe as a " Octopus with mad skills"...on the kit...
True intelligence is the ability to articulate complex ideas in a manor that all can understand. Not only can he articulate it, he can show it. Genius.
I played this exercise pretty fast!!! )) but because I remembered the accents !! .... without a visible manual, I would not have played this exercise . Thanks !!
Super cool! A breakdown: Make a table, 12 columns, two rows. Top row mark every 3rd box. Bottom row mark every 4th box. Go slowly until it's automatic. Have fun! It's not as difficult as you think!
Thanks! This made it way easier to practice and get. I noticed that if you put the 4ths (divisions of 3) first, it makes it really easy to count as a bar of 3:4 - 1 A 2 + 3 E (with a flam on one). That made it extra easy to get, but I'm wondering if its not setting up for trouble when you need to fit that feel into an ongoing time signature. For example (if I have this right) that count would be "backwards" for trying to fit it into a 4:4 time signature.
@@Visserau Hmm I hadn't really considered that. For polyrhythms I always just play them until I get the feel. BTW you can do that with any polyrhythms. For example, for 7:3, just multiply 7x3, 21 boxes. One row is every 3rd, the other is every 7th. For 5:4, multiply 5x4. 20 boxes. Every 5th beat in one row, every 4th in the other.
@@ryanlynch290 Yeah, I got that intuitively and had a little play. Works great, speeding it up and really internalizing it is obviously the thing. Going to have to make myself not count I think, lest I get into bad habits, but its so much faster for the ones you can. The counting thing can work other ways though, for example 5 on 3 you can make triplet bars (so idk, a bar of 15:8 I guess). Back in the day my excellent teacher taught me a mnemonic for 2 over 3 ("four funny frogs", say it out loud) which I always enjoyed playing and sounding cool, so I'd never thought of it like this.
@@Visserau I was just thinking about it, and what works best FOR ME is to use the smaller number as the primary beat. Make it the pulse, and have the larger number hit on its subdivisions. That helps me get the feel the easiest.
It's the best day of your drumming life when you can have four limbs playing different rhythms. It was something I worked on for well over a year, when I was a young fella, and was able to keep the practice up for about a year. Then I focused on my singing for about six months...sat down at the kit felt like a total spanner. The 'perishable skill' is so true when you don't use it regularly. BTW my singing went up up UP! Oh well!
Did anyone else notice he's also marching as he does this?!!? He's not moving his feet as if pedaling the bass or hi-hat in accents, he's flat-out just marching a slow 4/4 beat with alternating feet. Awesome.
