How to drum Reggae
3 Reggae Drum Beats Every Drummer Should Know | Reggae Drums | Stephen Taylor Drum Lesson
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this is gonna be a lesson breaking out
three grooves that I think every drummer
needs to know when it comes to reggae
music and that's the one drop rockers
and steppers I think that in any
situation you get put in if a reggae
song is called out those three grooves
are gonna get you through it so I wanted
to do a quick lesson on that now I am
NOT a reggae master
I just appreciate the style I love the
style of listening to it and I love
playing it whenever I get a chance to
and these grooves have really gotten me
through some tight peaches where things
have been called or I got into a gang
and thought oh I need to I need to know
this style so hopefully they'll do the
same for you now it goes without saying
you need to go listen to the players
some good guys to listen to slide Dunbar
Winston grinning you also Carlton
Barrett all of these players are going
to be excellent to listen to because
this is a very rich musical style by
people that are very proud of their
music and they should be because of its
heritage and so you need to go listen to
it and really absorb it because that's
the only way you're really gonna ingest
any style you can know the notes the
notes don't mean a thing if you don't
know why you play what is being played
so I encourage you please go listen take
this lesson in absorb it and then go
play along to some of your favorite
songs all right so three reggae grooves
that I believe every drummer should be
aware of now it goes without saying I've
said it earlier listen to the style
listen to the style listen to the style
listen to Winston grinning listen to
slide Dunbar listen to Carlton Barrett
all these guys are great players to
listen to learn what they're doing learn
how they make the music feel it's hard
to do a lesson like this without
musicians behind you because the reason
we play what we play is because of the
music that is happening but these are
the grooves that you'll need to know to
function in that environment now I'm
gonna normalize the hi-hat pattern there
are a lot of different variations and
you'll hear a lot of different
variations on a lot of different
recordings okay but for this for for
this lesson two different things
the way I counted off now it's a debate
as to if you need to count it off in a
slow count off or in a more of a cut
time count off so what does that mean so
instead of counting one two three four
some people feel and I've heard it
counted both ways
by players that are in the reggae world
in by players that around of the reggae
world so it doesn't seem to be a rhyme
or reason I think it has to do with the
feel of the song is how I would how I
would do it so you can either count at 1
2 3 4 where you're feeling the pulse or
the backbeat on 2 & 4 there or you can
count it 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 where the 3
would be the backbeat so let me
demonstrate counting that my hi-hat
pattern is gonna be I'm gonna count it
in 4 so it'll be 16th notes 1 1 1 1 1 so
we can count it either way I've heard it
counted both ways alright and the second
thing is we're going to normalize this
hi-hat pattern do a lot of variations
we're just going to do sixteenth notes
and we're gonna be focusing on that
skank beat this kind of is what they
refer to that as and that's gonna be the
up beats because you're gonna have piano
you'll have guitar all of them are gonna
be referring to that many times and so
so you'll need to become comfortable
with the upbeats there so so the one
drop is just what it sounds like we drop
one nothing hits except occasionally a
hi-hat will hit the emphasis is on the
backbeat and the backbeat is usually
played with the kick drum and sometimes
with a snare drum accompanying it but
more often with a with a rim click
accompanying it so it's one
[Music]
so the one-drop is exactly what it
sounds like we drop the one the only
thing that will hit on the one is going
to be the hi-hat at times one okay I've
got sixteenth notes here I'm accenting
the upbeat and again we're gonna avoid
that one with the kick drum now a great
song to listen to for this is one drop
by Bob Marley that's a great song to
listen to it's the name of the group
it's the name of the song
and so refer to that one and listen to
it to try to really get the feel for
what this is let me demonstrate it one
two and that brings us to the second one
that's going to be the rockers now the
rockers groove is going to have a heavy
emphasis on the downbeats okay so if
we're playing one two three four if
you're playing one two three four it's
gonna be on the one and the three okay
but if we're playing one two three four
if I'm counting it there it's gonna be
on all of the downbeats and it's called
a rockers because it really references a
lot of the rock and the RMV that was
going on at that time Sly Dunbar and
Robbie Shakespeare are the ones that
were kind of credited with coming up
with this groove and he slide a lot of
his influences from listening to
American R&B and disco drummers at the
time like Earl Young those types of
players and so that's where he came up
with this now oftentimes but not always
there's an emphasis on the downbeat in
all parts of the music okay in the bass
and in the rhythm section and so on with
this groove oftentimes you'll see it
played and when you hear it played
you'll hear the kick on one and the
snare drum on two like a basic Rock
groove I've also heard it with the kick
drum on one and the kick drum
two with a rim click alright so
essentially a one drop but hitting the
downbeat as well and I'll play it both
ways so that you can hear what that
sounds like I always want to leave you
something to listen to whenever you go
away from the lesson so a great example
of a rockers groove is spongy reggae by
Black Uhuru you can go listen to that
and look that up and listen to that
that's gonna be kind of a quintessential
rockers type groove and the third groove
we have is the steppers groove the
steppers groove is going it's also
referred to as a four on the floor
groove a great example of this is a song
called red gold and green by Burning
Spear you can hear a great example of a
steppers groove on there this is a
groove where if we're counting it like
we are the kick drum essentially comes
on the eighth notes alright and a lot of
in the late 70s early 80s a lot of the 2
tone ska bands that came our back kind
of came back around adopted this in
their song form so we're looking at the
selector and the beat and then on into
the 90s you had bands like Goldfinger
with here in your bedroom
[Music]
okay so that's something that you would
hear on like a 2 tone ska revival type
of a group or a lot of the punk
Operation Ivy those kinds of groups kind
of brought it into what they were doing
as well so what is it exactly what we're
gonna keep the groove the same sixteenth
notes on the high hat up accenting that
upbeat we're going to have the UM again
the rim click on two and four four
counting it the way we are one and two
and three and four if we're feeling that
in four and then I'm going to put eighth
notes on my kick drum again go listen to
red gold and green by burning spirits a
great song to references but let me
demonstrate this for you
[Music]
