TDJ-Issue-Three

I was always taught that feel is in the leading hand. So whether
I find myself playing a rock beat or improvising against a
swing pattern, my right hand keeps the feel and the timing
whilst guiding the rest of my movements on the kit. This way
my drumming should sound fluid and I have control over the
feel, tempo, and dynamics from moment to moment.
This is true up to a point but obviously something has to
control my leading hand and this control is a count that
happens in my mind. So despite feedback from the pulse of
the leading hand, there must be some form of inner count
going on in order to guide and predict the pulse in the fist
place.
Increasingly, I find that I am not relying on my leading hand
whilst practising or creating new drum patterns. To play in
this manner, a drummer needs to free up their leading hand in
order to allow for new ideas and different phrases to happen.
This requires a leap of faith and putting trust in your internal
count and instinctive sense of time. The best way I can illustrate
this idea is to give some examples of musical pieces where the
drummer illustrates this innate skill to some degree.
Internal Count Playlist
For each track on this playlist list, the performance of the
drummer relies more strongly on their internal count in order
to forgo the regular control of the leading hand pattern. This
skill is adopted in order to allow for fresh rhythmic concepts
including syncopated or uneven phrasing.
1. Radiohead - Morning Mr Magpie
Here the hi-hat pattern is double tracked indicating that
the drums have been built up as a sample. The live version,
however, adopts a similar style with the hats playing a displaced,
syncopated pattern.
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THE DRUMMER’S JOURNAL