From the course: Drum Set Lessons: On the Beaten Path

The 12/8 time signature

From the course: Drum Set Lessons: On the Beaten Path

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The 12/8 time signature

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- Let's learn how to play some blues. Now, a lot of rock'n'roll originated with blues, and even bands like Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles and Led Zeppelin had blues in their music. So we're going to get into it, and we're going to go into more authentic B.B. King style blues and other, Muddy Waters and stuff like that. The first thing you're going to notice is that blues beats are a little bit more bouncy than the rock beats. We're going to learn shuffles, we're going to learn blues, and we're going to get started now, so let's go. The first beat we're going to play is in a 12/8 time signature. This means there are 12 beats per measure, and the eighth note gets the count. The blues, let's play some blues. The first blues beat we're going to learn is a beat that Mitch Mitchell, one of the greatest drummers of all time, this is a beat that he played on a song that Jimi Hendrix made popular called Red House. The beat goes like this. (Red House by Jimi Hendrix drum section) Now let's break this beat down. We're going to hit the high hat with your right hand on all 12 beats, like this. (high hat rhythm) Now we're going to pay the bass drum on beats one and seven. Just like this. (high hat and bass drum rhythm) Now we're going to add the snare drum in on beats four and beats 10, so it sounds like this when it's all put together. (high hat, bass drum, and snare rhythm) You notice I played that with slightly open high hats, and you see on the notation there's a circle with a slash through it above all those high hat notes. What that means is just... You're not really playing the high hat fully open, like a full circle without the slash would indicate. The circle with the slash says don't play it fully open, don't play it fully closed either. Kind of make it sloshy-sounding. Now, when you play the beat, you'll notice that whenever the snare drum is hit, the sloshy note goes away. All right, we're going to tighten up the high hat on those hits, and keep it loose on all the other hits. When it's all put together it sounds like this. (Red House by Jimi Hendrix drum section)

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