When I released the first video in this marching tenor drums series, I gave a broad overview of what each video would cover. I listed video #6 as “Essential Vocabulary.” But honestly, doesn’t “Cool Stuff You Should Know” have a better ring to it? Either way, this lesson covers the essential tenor vocabulary not previously covered. After watching this, you will know:
- Three Rules of Double Stops
- “Jungle” patterns
- “Deep Jungle” patterns
- “Urban” patterns
- “Suburban” patterns
- “Side-to-Sides”
- “Cross Fives” (2 versions)
- “Helicopters”
- “Butterflies”
- “Figure Eights”
- “Candy Apples”
All of these are essential “must know” patterns for contemporary tenor drummers. As an added bonus, most of them look and sound really cool.
Additionally, for those who care about the technical details, I used a different method for recording my voice on this video, and I think the quality is much improved. Let me know what you think! (To leave comments, scroll down to the bottom of the page.)
A full transcript of the video is listed below. Enjoy!
–James
TRANSCRIPT
Good day, everyone. I’m James Christian from RudimentalUniversity.com, and we are here for video #6 on the “How to Play Marching Tenor Drums” essentials series.
Today we are going to pretty much cover everything we haven’t covered so far. We’re going to cover the standard tenor terminology–tenor rudiments, if you want to call them that. And that’s pretty much it.
Notes on Double Stops
I realized I haven’t really talked much about double stops yet. So I want to say a few brief words about that first, just because they are so common in tenor music. What double stops are, if you don’t already know: it’s when you hit two drums at the same time–or both hands hit at the same time.
You can do a double stop on one drum. Most commonly on tenor drums you’ll see them on two drums. On snare drum, a lot of times these are called a “flat flam.” Because that’s the sound you get when you play a bad flam, and they both hit at the same time, and it gets that real flat sound.
So that’s not what we’re wanting here. We want a full sound on both drums. And you can do that on any two drums. You can do it on drums #1 and #2 together, or drums #3 and #4, #2 and #3, #1 and #4, spock drum and drum #1–just whatever the context calls for.
Double Stops Rule #1: Strike Both Notes Exactly Together
I want to say three things really quick on double stops, and then we’ll move on to some of the more fun, flashy crossover patterns.
The first thing is that you want them to be double stops. You don’t want them to be “flammed.” You want to hit them exactly at the same time, so that they sound like one note working together.
Double Stops Rule #2: Double Stops Do Not Mean Play Louder!
The second thing I want to say is that double stops simply refer to a tone color, not volume. You can have loud double stops and soft double stops.
I still remember a drum line camp. Everybody had been practicing all day, and finally in the afternoon we brought all the sections together. It was this real jazzy piece, and it was this soft, kind of sneaky sounding section. And the tenors were just wailing away on these double stops.
And I cut them off, and I said, “Tenors, double stops mean play as loud as possible, right?” I was being sarcastic, of course. But they looked at me and shook their heads in earnest, like, “Well, yeah, we were playing as loud as we possibly could.” And I just looked at them. I said, “No, double stops just simply mean you hit two drums at the same time. It has nothing to do with volume.”
Oftentimes, you do have drums #3 and #4 together for impacts, and you do want them loud. But you can have triple piano double stops. It’s just the sound, and depending on the musical context, that will be loud or soft.
Double Stops Rule #3: The Two Sounds Can Be Blended or Distinct, Depending on the Musical Context
Finally, I want to distinguish between blending and distinct double stops, if that makes sense. What can happen in different situations is that you want a blending of the two drums together. You want it to sound like a chord almost, like the drums are in harmony with each other. And you have to make sure they’re exactly the same in volume, in resonance, and all of that.
Other times, you may be doing contrasting patterns with the two hands, kind of like a groove or something, and you want to hear that distinction between the two patterns against each other or working together.
Just a simple example: Say your right hand is playing drums #1 and #3, just as a simple two-note pattern going back and forth. And your left hand is playing a three-drum pattern going from the spock drum to drum #2 to drum #4.
So 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3–so three against two. So 1, 2, 1, 2–1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. If you have both of those going together, you might want it to sound very sonorous, very blended. Where it just sounds like straight eighth notes just moving together with different pitches against each other. Or you may really want to hear that two-against-three brought out.
And I’m hoping that will come out on the recording for this. I’m not using thousands of dollars’ worth of microphones for this recording. So hopefully the microphone quality will pick up the difference on here. But I’m going to play it first as a smooth, blended sound. And then I’m going to play it as a more distinct two-against-three pattern. And hopefully you can hear the difference between the two.
[demonstrations]Now hopefully that came out clearly. But the difference on that is really that you’re going to just slightly emphasize–notice I didn’t say accent–but just slightly emphasize the beginnings of each of those groupings as you move around. And it should bring out the distinctions in those two patterns against each other.
So that’s just something to think about. That’s up to you as a player. You have to look at the context of the musical passage and decide: Do I want this to sound really smooth and blended? Or do I want it to have a slight punchier, emphasized sound on the patterns I’m playing with each hand?
Singles-Based Patterns
All right, on to the fun stuff! I looked at kind of the standard tenor vocabulary out there, and I wanted to make sure I was covering all of the essentials. And really, when I looked at it, they can pretty well be broken up into two categories. One is singles patterns; the other is doubles patterns. I’ll cover the singles first and then the doubles.
All right, these first four patterns are all going to be triplet based. And I will preface them by saying, the names I’m going to give you I have always thought sound kind of dumb. But some people use these terms, and you should just know them. I don’t personally like using these terms, but they’re still patterns you should know. And so I’m just going to go ahead and tell you what they are.
“Jungle” Pattern
The first one is called a “jungle” pattern. These patterns are going to be similar to what we did on video #3–about getting fast singles. But they’re slightly different, and they’re good patterns to know.
The “jungle” pattern, like I said, is going to be triplets. You’re going to have the inner beats of each triplet on drums #3 and #4. And on the downbeat of each triplet, you’re going to reach out to drums #1 and #2. So it will be 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3.
[demonstration]“Deep Jungle” Pattern
The second pattern is a variation on that. And I actually have not heard a name for this one anywhere, but I’ve seen it in different music. So I came up with the name “deep jungle.” Because it’s similar to the “jungle” pattern, but you’re going to have to reach a little farther, like you’re reaching in deeper.
So you’re going to keep the inner beats on drums #3 and #4 still. But now your right hand is going to reach over to drum #2, and your left hand is going to reach over to drum#1.
[demonstration]“Urban” Pattern
All right, for the next pattern, we’re going to get out of the jungle and move into the city. This next pattern is called an “urban” pattern. And it’s the same as the “jungle,” except instead of reaching to drums #1 and #2, now you’re going to reach to the spock drum on the downbeats of each triplet.
[demonstration]“Suburban” Pattern
Now for the final of these type of patterns. The “urban” pattern had the inner beats on drums #3 and #4. Now you’re going to do the exact same thing, except you’re going to move the inner beats to drums #1 and #2. The spock drum will still be what you play on every downbeat. And this one is called a “suburban” pattern.
[demonstration]“Side-to-Sides”
All right, two more patterns on the singles. The next one is called “side-to-sides.” As the term would suggest, you are simply moving from side to side of the tenor drums. It’s a very lateral motion.
To play these effectively, it’s extremely important that you focus on your playing zones. You want to play right in the center of each drum. Not the dead center where it sounds dead. But the center when you’re looking at the whole perimeter of the drum, as far as what’s closest to you, the center right at that point.
Don’t try to cheat by getting too tight here. Because then you have to reach, and you’re going to have to change how much you’re moving from each one. As you move to the right side, it will get a little bit tighter. And as you move to the left side, as the drums get bigger, it will get a little bit wider in your spacing. But if you focus on hitting close to the center, that will help you avoid going too far, too short. And you should get pretty good accuracy that way.
So usually I see these in a seven pattern. So you’re going to go: 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3–or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. And then do it off the left hand: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. And just keep them going. Practice this one really slowly, and focus on the playing zones. Make sure you’re hitting right in that center spot. And you should build up accuracy pretty quickly.
[demonstration]“Cross Fives”
That pattern used sevens. This pattern is going to use fives. This is the final pattern, and they are often called “cross fives.” You’re just playing straight quintuplets, and you’re going to crossover on the third note.
So the main way I’ve seen this done is on drums #1 and #2, and you’re going to crossover on the third note. Starting on drum #1, you’re going to go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And then on the left hand you’re going to start on drum #2, and you’re going to go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So when you get it going fast, it looks really cool.
[demonstration]The first time I saw that, I thought it looked really cool, and I couldn’t quite figure out what they were doing. One of my students actually saw it online somewhere and brought it to my attention and showed me. I’ve always thought those were pretty cool.
“Cross Fives” Variation
One variation I’ve seen Bill Bachman do is he takes the exact same thing, except on the beginning of each five, he puts an extra change. He plays the first note on the outer drums, on drums #3 and #4. And that adds a little more difficulty to it. It’s also pretty cool looking.
[demonstration]And that does it for all the standard singles patterns.
Doubles-Based Patterns
All right, and now on to the doubles patterns. Pretty much all of these use crossovers and sweeps. So if you have not watched videos #4 and #5, which cover crossovers and sweeps, you might want to go back and watch those. But if you feel like you have a pretty good grasp on both of those, then here’s a way to take that even further and get some pretty cool-looking stuff.
“Helicopters”
So the first pattern is called “helicopters.” And from what I understand, those are called helicopters because, as your hands start moving really fast, it looks like helicopter blades spinning.
These are going to be two sweeps with your right hand and left hand going between drums #1 and #3–going down. So you’re going to go right, right, left, left. And then the left hand is just going to follow. You’re going to crossover with the right hand, and you’re going to go to drums #2 and #4. It’s going to be right, right, left, left.
So you’re going to keep that motion going. And again, it kind of looks like helicopter blades spinning.
[demonstration]Now, you can also do those off the left hand. It’s just a complete mirror of it. So on the left hand, it’s going to be left, left, right, right. And then crossover. And you’re going to have left, left, right, right.
[demonstration]“Butterflies”
So with helicopters, you started with outward sweeps. This next pattern is called “butterflies,” and it’s going to start with inward sweeps. It’s similar to helicopters, but not quite the same. And presumably, this name comes from the motion your hands are making, and it kind of looks like butterfly wings as it gets going fast.
So you’re going to start with an inward sweep. You’re going to go: drum #3 to drum #1. The left hand’s going to go from drum #4 to drum #2. And then, just like helicopters, you’re going to crossover. And you’re going to go #4, #2, #3, #1–like that. So it’ll be #3, #1, #4, #2, #4, #2, #3, #1. And you keep repeating it.
And you can do the exact same thing starting on the left hand. Just start on the left side of the drums. You’re going to go #4, #2, #3, #1, #3, #1, #4, #2.
[demonstrations]“Figure Eights”
The next doubles pattern is called “figure eights.” And sometimes I’ve heard helicopters called figure eights, but these are the original figure eights. And they actually make a figure eight pattern when you do it. You’ll feel your hands kind of tight in the middle and then broader as you move out from the drums.
So this starts very similar to helicopters. You’re going to go right, right, left, left, right, right. And notice I did three right there. So it’s two sets of three. You’re going to go 1, 2, 3. Then you’re going to do the exact same thing off the left hand. It’s going to mirror that pattern. So you’re going to go: left, left, right, right, left, left.
On that third double, you’re going to do a crossover. So 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. And again, when you get them going fast, they make a figure eight shape.
[demonstration]“Candy Apples”
The final pattern we’re going to cover is called a “candy apple.” And if you do multiple of them in a row, they are called “candy apples” in the plural.
Rudimental Outline
You have to know a few things on one drum before you move it around, so we’re going to cover that real quick. The first pattern is right, right, left. Just a three grouping pattern. And some people call that a “diddlet.” That’s the best term I’ve heard for it. So I’ll go with that.
But it’s just right, right, left, right, right, left. And you might want to practice that.
[demonstration]You can also do it off the left hand: left, left, right, left, left, right.
[demonstration]Now, we’re going to flip it. And you’re going to put the single note first, followed by the double. So it’ll be right, left, left–or left, right, right. I’ve heard this called a “reverse diddlet.” I’ve also heard it called a “pudada” and a “pugada.” “Pud” with a “D” and “pug” with a “G.”
Basically, both of those are just mimicking the sound that it makes: pudada, pudada, pudada, pudada–like that. So whatever term you prefer to call them, that’s what it is. But you have to know those to be able to play this.
So we’re going to start it slowly. And I’ll do it off both hands. And you can play along.
[demonstration]I’m only going to go about that fast, because we’re going to add something else to it in a second. Let’s do it off the left hand:
[demonstration]For our final variation on that, we are going to put a double on the first note. Some people, whenever they just have a single double, they’ll just call it a “drag”–which is not really a drag, but for our purposes, that’s fine. Or some people will just say “diddle.” Or I like the word “stutter.” If you just have a solo double by itself–
[demonstration]–it kind of gets a stuttering sound. So anyway, whatever you want to call these–“stuttered pudadas” or “stuttered reverse diddlets” or whatever you want to call them–this is how the pattern goes:
[demonstration]And then off the left hand:
[demonstration]Around Pattern
All right, now we’re going to do an around pattern with that rudiment. So the first part is– Doing them off the right hand, you’re going to do the first double just on drum #1–with the right hand. And then you’re going to do a non-adjacent sweep with your left hand.
So it’s going to go double, 2, 3–like that. So 1, 2, 3. When you do that non-adjacent sweep, you want to get your right hand out of the way. And that’s what gives candy apples their interesting look. Because you’re doing a higher up-and-down motion while the left hand moves underneath it.
You can also do the same thing off the left hand. You’re going to do the double on drum #2, and you’re going to do a non-adjacent sweep between drums #1 and #4. Duh-duh-dut-dut. Duh-duh-dut-dut. Just like that.
[demonstrations]Final Thoughts
And that will do it for the standard patterns today. Those were the main ones I could come up with. So if there’s something obvious that I left out–or you have other patterns that you just enjoy playing and want to share–please post them in the comments. I always love learning new tenor around patterns, and I always love learning new rudiments. And I’m sure most people watching this video would love seeing those too. So please share what you have.
If you could help me out, I would really appreciate it. Please–if you like this video, please “like” it. And if you know other people who could benefit from this, please do share it. If you like it, just put a comment saying, “I really liked the video. Enjoyed it.” Or if you didn’t like it, tell me that too. But just all those comments help YouTube when they’re looking at what videos people are interacting with. And I’m making this series to help people out–to learn how to play tenor drums better. So this will boost people’s ability to find it if you can interact with it.
As always, you can go to RudimentalUniversity.com to find more interesting stuff, percussion-related–on all sorts of percussion instruments.
And the final video in this series will be coming soon. And it’s going to cover stuff beyond the basics. It’s going to cover mostly things that I’ve come up with over the years that kind of take a lot of these ideas and take them to the next level. Some of them are fairly advanced concepts. I’ll break them down fairly simply. But it’ll give you a leg up on the competition to start practicing some of these–and just take your playing to the next level.
So I really appreciate you watching today, and I hope to see you next time. Thanks. Bye!