DrumMantra: Groove Studies with the 20th Note: The Exploration of an Emerging Subdivision (DrumMantra: 20th Note Studies)

By Rich Stitzel

Groove Studies with the 20th Notes is full of coordination exercises focused on the groove. Everything in this book is based on the 20th note subdivision. Each exercise includes a hi-hat pattern (or ride, clap stack, etc.), a backbeat, and a bass drum pattern. Unlike the Foundational Series & Primary Series books, this book stays in one-time signature - 4/4. When fully mastered, each exercise will bring you to a deeper level of comfort with playing grooves based on 20 subdivisions per bar. To understand this subdivision is to go deeper with your practice. This book is divided into five sections. Each section contains 90 different kick & snare grooves with a "backbeat" on the snare. The only difference between sections is the placement of the hi-hat. Each section is delineated by the position of the hi-hat notes across the twentieth note field: 1. First & Fourth Position (Flat Shuffle) 2. First, Third, and Fourth Portion (Jagged Swing) 3. First Position 4. Every Fourth 5. Every Third This new paradigm in subdivisions will take some time to sink in. Have patience. You will likely want to place the bass drum notes either early or late in the pattern at first. Have faith. Each note has a specific placement, and when your body gets used to playing precisely in the right spot, the grooves will start to feel "normal" to you. This will take some time. This book is comprised of five sections, each divided into twelve segments. In addition, this book has 532 exercises (108 per section) plus a handful of warm-ups and linear field examples. Each section also has a warm-up/time checking exercise that utilizes the linear field concept where the hands fill in all the 20th notes linearly, with the left hand also covering the backbeats on 2&4. There are two polymetric sections in this book. Section IV is a four-note grouping on the hi hat, making it a 4:5 polymetric relationship. You may notice that when you are playing these particular exercises, the ear wants to take advantage of rhythmic perception and start to hear things in 5/4 with sixteenth notes rather than in 4/4 with twentieth notes. If this occurs, take note. It happens because your ear wants to hear something it can make sense of, and in the beginning, the twentieth note subdivision will seem entirely foreign. Every exercise is a 1-bar pattern that is to be repeated 6 times. Each segment is "performed" by playing all the exercises consecutively (six measures each) and then repeating the entire passage twice through the whole sequence. The only case where the exercises are not 1-bar patterns is in Section V, the "Every Third" section, which requires three bars to resolve due to the nature of a 3-note polymeter. The 3-note pattern atop the 20th note field is a NON-NATIVE polymetric expression because it requires three measures to resolve. Each exercise in the "Every Third" section is six measures long, but since the pattern takes three bars to resolve, you will repeat the exercise once to reach the six-measure duration. (The audio play-along will repeat the six-bar pattern eight times, equaling 48 measures.)

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BN61ZD9Y
• ISBN13: 9798360643753
• Release Date: November 2022
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 223 Pages
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.5" x 8.5"