What to Practice Ep 2: Impossible Nate Smith Groove 

The gentle placement of the snare into the trash bin 😂

"1. You don't have Nate's Left hand 2. You don't have Nate's right hand 3. You are not Nate Smith" This made my day 😂

Damn called out at 1:07! Guess I've got zero excuses 😲- Anyway, great breakdown

This is so cool watching you and your drumming grow and improve. You have came a long way. Keep it up. Also phenomenal job bringing down this groove. 👍🏽

Nate got that from Gadd. Look up Gadd licks. It's not exact, but close

Dude thank you so much for such an honest, clear, and illuminating video. I am always watching drum videos and everyone is always just showing off with all this crazy equipment, chops, etc. Your honesty and directness is much appreciated. This is the first drum video I have ever commented on and I’ve seen HUNDREDS. I’m a subscriber keep it up!

the intro to “Oh, Marion” from Paul Simons “One Trick Pony” has another great variation of this lick using a very comfortable sticking pattern. That “comfort” shows through a recording session so its important to understand what sounds smooth and tight for yourself. I definitely enjoy hearing your “RLR” variation! that would probably track the best in studio since it feels very smooth in comparison. Thats not a bad thing! no cheating was done here imo Thanks for the breakdown! I love this vast world of perspective🌎

Man you are already freaking awesome, thanks for sharing your skills and grooves!!!

Good breakdown. 🙌🙌🙌 Love the way you do your videos with finesse and a sense of humor 😊

Thanks very much for this dude. Been waiting for someone to break down some of Nate Smith's madness like this for ages. Also you sounded so clean playing it, big respect!

Great vid, great demo! Nate's the man.

Man this format is sick! Thanks dude

This is amazing. Thank you - keep making content broseph

I love Nate, he blow my mind. Great stuff Brandon ! Like it!

I Love Nate Smith and really dig this groove and the way you break it down and make it easier to learn! Thanks for the transciptions always super helpful! keep it up Brandon!

Damn , this is so sick . Definitely learning this ! Thanks Brandon !

Nice Kit and it sounds great Too!!!

Man you nailed that breakdown, don't beat yourself up, none of it is easy, Nate is one cool dude 😊

Very cool vid. Cool to hear/see your process of practicing (and nice to know there’s probably never going t o be a point where I’m not blown out of the water by other drummers). Ty for posting

Brandon you are absolutely great. More Nate Smith videos would be much appreciated! Keep it up!!

That was SO good.

much respect bro!! u sounds amazing !!

"Whats up drumheads" I die xD Love ur vids Brandon!!!!

Pretty damned impressive drumming, actually. With the buildup I expected a fail but you actually have this.

Very cool in how you broke that down into sections. I'm a pianist/keyboardist and I totally understood the approach. Great chops man.

As mentioned in a previous comment this is very close to a Gadd groove. You’ve done a great job. My suggestion to fellow drummers is to spend some time developing the inverted doubles. There’s a cool sticking called the Boston Lick I learned from a Mike Johnston video. It’s inverted doubles that switches lead hands. RLLRRLLR LRRLLRRL Accents on the R and L before the doubles.

Nice work brandon! Thanks.. and thanks for the inspiration as well!

Ur great Brandon, thank you!

Great job, really appreciate how you broke it down with the sheet music.

Great video and breakdown! Nate Smith is in a league of his own but he’s inspiring the next generation and that’s great for everyone! Also you have a FANTASTIC Snare sound! Love it!

you are the best maaaaan!!!!! keep the videos coming

Awesome!!

So cool! Thanks for showing this groove to us =) Great job =)

This is tasty. Thank you for the break down!

Awesome man! Thanks for breaking it down! Nates totally just bouncing on it like a shuffle, almost not even thinking about the technicals! Great work :)))

Your videos are dope man, love to see it

great playing, super tight and great dynamic.

Great video thanks, love the humour & also you nailed it very well, cheers

Great lesson man! I knew he was stomping his hihat but could never figure out where to land it (or try to). Nuff chatter ... I'm giving this a go!

Nicely done!

love nate smith, from the moment ive saw him on tiny desk! thanks for ur effort of destructing his magic. also: I like ur editing skills. by far one of the advanced editors out there when it comes to drumchannel. not that its necessary. but its a nice touch, southing to the eye and it shows how much someone cares! cheers from switzerland

Dude, I know this was made a while ago, but I just now got to it, and I want to thank you for doing what you're doing. This is awesome and really fun to actually feel like something Nate Smith does might actually be possible for me as well. :D

AWESOME vid man, thank you for this

Very helpful. And great subject matter to use. Thanks.

Great Brandon Scott !!!

lovely playing. great vid

been working on this for 2 weeks, gotten to 135bpm, using the hat then double right tap. great excerise and improved my hat control no end. great video thanks

It's always a good day when you upload a new video, brother! Great stuff man

more of these please. !

Nate is freaking asommeee,,,,,,thanks man!

WOW that was a cool break down...

Way to break it down, my man! I especially love the following features to this vid: 1) Your acknowledgement that we're not Nate Smith (which means that we should all LEARN it, then OWN it); 2) Your thorough and educated/prepared approach to breaking down the groove and what nuances make it so frickin' groovy; and 3) Your complete transparency that Nate is indeed a master at his craft and that the groove is super dope! BTW, I REALLY enjoyed seeing you demo a few alternatives (and I agree, #3 is the best IMHO). Well done, sir! You made a subscriber out of me. All the best! -Jeff

Cool vid. Yeah Nate is pretty amazing... And very inspirational.

Thank you brandon I will be shedding this on my left foot every day now for the workout

Hermano lo explicaste muy claro, thank you bro, so clearly your instructions to do that's groove. I got it.

Love this video

Man, every time you post a video im so hyped. Its really nice to see you around here again 🙌 any time you come to Argentina, you count with a home in Buenos Aires lol

that groove on repeat all day!

You actually nailed it.

Good job brother! 👍🏼

fantastic!

Thx for this Video - Great Work!

so cool bro !! you sounds amazing :)

Very clean man

cool stuff, buddy, thanxxx

Excellent Brandon. I loved this one. Nate Smith is very groovy and his feel is very Bernard purdie/Steve Gadd like. That groove reminds me of the Steve Gadd "Flutter Lick." I have been obsessed with half time shuffles for quite a while now. The "John Bonham" shuffle Fool in the Rain, the "Jeff Porcaro" "Rosanna" Shuffle and the "Bernard Purdie" half time shuffle. I want to learn this "Nate Smith" one now too. Thanks for this video man. Rock On.

Love your videos ❤️

You sound great man! You got it dialed 😎

THAT IS FIRE. Made me want to pick up the sticks for the first time in years

This video is freaking hilarious. And informative.

Well presented and demonstrated man, first time seeing your page I dig it.

Good job!

This video is amazing, thank you. And also damn you Nate Smith, you beautiful, beautiful bastard.

Great Vid, love your humbleness but your actually good / going well on the journey.

Excellent study of a cool lick...thank you. I've been enjoying/finding easiest for me - (last 6 strokes) RLLRRK

Awesome, going to work on this

Some things are just made to not bother to even try. I'm never going to be able to make that journey to the finish line.. You, on the other hand do this really good 🤗

Nice work

Nates’ cool version of the Gadd ‘flutter’ lick.Nice.

very good class

thx for this.

I couldn't love this more, if I tried!!!

GREAT LESSON!! im gonna try it out! Btw i really think You're bringing something new to the whole drum lesson thing on RU-vid. Don't know what is.. But it's awesome!

Great!

Dude, You nailed it and brought the breakdown. Much appreciated, thank you very much. :) I'm no expert and I'm by all means not criticising your video. But I have some thoughts on where my interests were and where you could harvest them. As an amateur player, I would be much more interested in observing more of the mistakes and the general process of figuring out the groove. People feel the grooves differently and studying other peoples thought process is probably the most valuable lessons out there, and those kinds videos are rare. (F.e. Nate Smith himself states that he doesn't count his beats. He tries to fit his groove into an unexplained predefined melody. That's interesting, right?) Generally, people hide their mistakes more than they should. (Because the general population sees mistakes as failure, sadly) Seeing talented people struggling with grooves and eventually figuring them out is pure gold to the amateur player and reminds them that the best are also very human. ;)

Thanks so much!

Those 2 sixteen notes on kick is the hardest thing for me. Its hard to play them precisely. I now have something to work on! Thanks for the cool video :)

Merci beaucoup !

The flam = dead flam by name...;) Great job man!!!

Well made content and advise. Subscribed !

I could be wrong... But it's insane to think that we are all putting this much thought and breakdown into something nate just ripped one day and was like "that was dope, imma do that more"

great job, I gotta go try this. on the 3 R's in a row, it sounds like Nate accents the 2nd and 3rd (shoulder of the stick) on the hat. As if the groove wasn't tough enough.

First time watched. You got my sub. I've been practicing with metronome lately, 60-90 bpm, 2 bpm^ every 2 minutes, working out RF mostly, but found myself doing straight vs shuffle beats to break up monotony and to challenge myself. I'm going to check out your page!

Nice video! Thanx for sharing. Keep it up! I think for flam, that "together" not necessarily means unison, for those unfamiliar with the terms only.

very nice

Thank you

That beat in the Background... i flipped the exact same Curtis sample just yesterday...

ThaaaanxX dude !

You’re 123 had me lmbo! #4 we don’t have Nates’ brain. * pray up.

This is cool! The biggest difference between yourself and Nate here is how you approach the triple stroke. You're doing more work than you need to. Slow everything down to 50%. 0:34 watch Nate's his hands. He's doing push-(mini)pull-pull, and dropping his hand quite a bit with the last motion to play the edge of the hi-hat. You have a bit of variance in what you're doing, but for the most part it looks like you're doing three pulls and lifting your hand up a bit on the last one to get more height. The accent isn't always very obvious and it looks fatiguing. The trick to sounding like Nate is to drop the hand and strike the edge of that hat on the last note. A Moeller stroke (up, up, down) looks like it would be the most economical thing here, even moreso than what Nate is doing. Although that would change the feel a bit. Thanks for a fun lesson!