Here’s a quicky of a lesson but one that I certainly enjoyed coming up with! I’m going to teach you a triplet based linear drum lick that can be applied to many styles of music, including the gospel drumming style.

This free drum lesson is going to build the drum lick up step by step and will show you some different applications along the way that I hope you find useful and fun. Lets get started.

 

Basic Pattern

This is where we’re going to start with this drum lick. This basic pattern of three notes, two with the hands and one with the bass drum foot, actually originates from a drum lick played by the great John Bonham. This drum lick is called the Bonham Triplets and was famously played by the drumming legend as one of his trademark licks.

The drum pattern is good fun by itself, especially when played around the drums!

 

Doubling the Bass Drum

The next step is to double up the bass drum. In the above example the single bass drum eighth note has been replaced by two sixteenth note bass drums. This drum pattern is based upon the Herta drum lick.

The first of the two bass drum notes is played in exactly the same place that the single bass drum note was played but now the second bass drum note squeezes into the space between the first bass drum and next snare drum.

These two bass drum notes can be played with the single bass drum foot or double bass drum pedals depending on the tempo, your preference and your ability.

 

Note Placement

By moving the doubled bass drum to the second partial of the triplet we create a very unique sounding drum pattern that you won’t hear played very often. Drummers find it harder to emphasize the second partial of the triplet for whatever reason. This means that this rare gem won’t be pulled out of the metaphorical stick bag too often!

This drum lick is based on an idea similar to the Blushda in construction. A strong sense of the swung triplet (or shuffle) is felt and heard during this lick thanks to the snare drum placement on the first and third partial of the triplet. I like the way the left hand leads into the right hand downbeat. I tend to accent the downbeat when playing this.

 

Moving it Through Straight Sixteenths

The final stage is to move the triplet based gospel drum lick through sixteenth notes to create a super cool and quirky sounding drum fill. The doubled bass drum notes are now played through thirty second notes. This is a similar to linear gospel licks I teach in this free drum lesson here.

The idea is to play exactly the same grouping of notes, as shown in the previous example, through sixteenth notes instead of triplets. The right hand is moved to the floor tom and the left hand stays on the snare drum. I liked this orchestration the best as the floor tom combines with the bass drums to create a heavy three note ruff that leads into the snare drum.

Because of the nature of playing what is basically a three note pattern through sixteenth notes (grouped into fours); the drum lick moves across the beats of the bar and gets played four times before beat 4. Beat 4 then simply contains four sixteenth notes completing the bar. These four sixteenths could be replaced with anything you like, it doesn’t matter.

Heads will turn when this drum fill is played, believe me!

Learn how to play some of these great drum lick ideas by watching this free video drum lesson The Herta Drum Fill & Hybrid Rudiment – Orchestration & Double Bass Drum Ideas.

 

 

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Please email rob@drumstheword.com or contact me through the Contact Form if you have any questions at all.