Foreword

The Commandments of R&B Drumming: A Comprehensive Guide to Soul, Funk and Hip Hop

"With A Song In My Heart"
"Feel-good music, I’ve been told - good for the body, and is good for your soul." This lyric is from "Hey Pocky Way" a New Orleans classic and one of my favorite Meters songs. The words ring especially true in my heart because that’s exactly what R&B music is, feel-good music. My love affair with R&B music began at a very young age in an area of South Central Los Angeles known as Compton. Long before I ever played the drums, my sprit was overtaken by "the groove." Growing up in that neighborhood, I was exposed to intoxicating doses of soul music. I was raised on the music of people like James Brown, The Meters, Funkadelic, Aretha Franklin, Al Green and most of the other soul and funk groups of the 60s and 70s. Motown, Stax / Volt, Atlantic, King and HI records were staples in my home. That sound had a profound influence on me and shaped my musical tastes. R&B music had become my life’s blood.

Back in 1969 at the ripe old age of seven, I can remember listening to "Twenty -Five Miles" by Edwin Starr with Motown’s legendary Uriel Jones on drums. The song had this ridiculously funky drum beat that seemed to beckon me down it’s path. Funk is an infectious force to be reckoned with and not to be suppressed, so naturally I gave in to the force. That was simply the only wise thing to do! Since then I have retained a tremendous preoccupation with R&B music.

Inspired by songs like those, I built a makeshift drum set made from an array of leftover garbage. I used everything from Folgers Coffee and Almond Roca cans to Oatmeal boxes. On one occasion for a school talent show, I got a hold of a brand new Maytag washing machine box that I used as a bass drum; now I was" livin’ large"! With my junkyard drum set, straight off the set of "Sanford & Son," and a portable radio I was ready to hit the big time. I’d set up on the street corner and jam along with anything funky on the radio. This was my absurd version of a lemonade stand. Nonetheless, I was digging on it and felt as if I had found my destiny, my purpose in life: to groove and make people happy doing it. There’s an incredible natural high that comes from expressing yourself on an instrument. I got the same warm feeling in 1971 when I went to see Shaft at the drive-in; the music sucked me in, further fueling my desire to become a disciple of soul. Isaac Hayes and The Bar-Kays had me bustin’ open my piggy bank to finance the purchase of that soundtrack. Like a music junkie, I ran out to the record store to get another fix. Curtis Mayfield’s music had the same effect on me a year later when I went to see Superfly. This time I got lucky; my older brother Ricardo had already bought the soundtrack so I would just go to his room for a listening party. I just had to hear that "stupid funky" drum beat from Morris Jennings on "Freddie’s Dead."

My fate was sealed when I went to see The Temptations with Diana Ross & the Supremes live in concert. Like other young kids, I was very impressionable; watching their performance and hearing them sing all my favorite songs made for an evening of magic. Looking back, the feeling was surreal; the memory of that evening would last a lifetime and be all the inspiration I needed to become a performer.

"Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"
Because of the interest I showed in playing drums, my mother Maria bought me my first drum set from a catalog as a Christmas present. It was real Mickey Mouse, literally. It had a picture of Mickey Mouse on the bass drum and it was made out of paper heads. The anticipation was intense. I was so excited to unleash the funk that I destroyed it on Christmas evening by putting a hole straight through the bass drum head.

Well, that experience was detrimental to my drumming career for quite some time; however, I was still completely drawn towards music. Without a drum set I had no other choice but to become an avid listener and a big fan of R&B music. I continued to buy every funky record I heard. Each one put me into a deeper state of euphoria. I became a fanatical record collector and unknowingly was storing up all those grooves to utilize at a later time.

"Drums Are Lovelier, The Second Time Around"
It wasn’t until 1978 that I really began to play drums again. I bought a 4-piece set with one seriously thrashed crash cymbal. One of the first songs I learned when I purchased my new drum kit was Booker T. & the MG’s "Hip Hug Her" with the late great Al Jackson Jr. groovin’ hard on drums. I had that 45 laying around in my record collection for years and always dug it. I got knee deep into the pocket, it just felt so good to play along!! That’s when I decided that I wanted to groove for the rest of my life.

"We Want The Funk"
Around the same time I started to pursue drums again, I started my own mobile disco company called GQ productions. I spent 1978-1981 as a DJ mixing all the funk hits of the day, as well as classic R&B hits of the past. In a short time I had taken over the North Eugene high school radio station and became their program director. I ended up changing the whole music format. It became known as the "fortress of funk." In conjunction with that, I deejayed for clubs, school dances and promoted my own all -city dances. As a DJ, I became a real student of songs. I enjoyed watching people get into the music and studied what grooves got them on the dance floor and why. After all, that was my job and oddly enough still is. Make the people move, that’s what time it is. Since then, I have accumulated over 3,000 CDs in my obsessive collection, that I do listen to. I’m relentless in my search for CDs. One of my hobbies on the road is to dig through pawn shops and used record stores in search of coveted classics.

As a disciple of the funk I’ve spent the last 17 years touring, recording, and watching people from around the world "Shake Their Groove Thang." It is the culmination of all those experiences, first as a fan, a DJ, then as a drummer, that I proudly and enthusiastically present to you The Commandments of R&B Drumming.

"On The Serious Side"
This book is divided into three main musical styles of drumming: Soul, funk and hip-hop, and finishes off with some advanced groove concepts for developing your own grooves. Our time line of study is the from the late 1950s right through the 1990s. The grooves themselves are categorized by the style in which they are most prominent, and chronologically from the original era they were derived. For each style I will give you a brief history of the music, the culture, and many steps technically that pertain to playing each style authentically. All the developmental exercises are merely concepts that I’m sharing with you; they are not the definitive list of possibilities. These are simply starting places and because of limited space I have kept them very brief. If you apply these principles and further challenge yourself, they should yield some beneficial results.

Included in each chapter are photos of some of the key drummers and some historic transcriptions that best represent each style, a recommended listening guide, and a list of the 50 most frequently covered songs from each era. The grooves presented in each time feel study represent specific grooves that are found in R&B music. These are musical beats that when put "in the pocket" will groove extremely hard. These variations will give you many authentic feel options. You must understand that in R&B music the drum parts only make sense in the context of the other interacting parts within the rhythm arrangement. On their own they may seem insignificant, but within the puzzle of rhythms they are the glue that binds the music together.

Especially perplexing and challenging to many drummers is a tangible concept for playing hip-hop. I have presented a very logical approach to unraveling that mystery. It would be a grave mistake to think of hip -hop only as rap music or rap drum machine beats; it is more than that, in fact it’s the latest evolution of funk drumming. Because hip-hop has seeped into the mainstream, it has influenced much of today’s popular music.

Contemporary artists who have dipped into the hip-hop bag range in diversity from Sting to Donald Fagen, from Tom Jones to Cher, and a host of others. Hip-hop’s impact has been profound and its influence will be felt if you play any contemporary music at all.

Even though hip-hop grooves are often programmed on drum machines, our aim is to play the grooves on the good old-fashioned drum set. The Goal? To incorporate soul, funk and hip-hop styles in your playing, bridging the gap between jazz, blues, R&B, and hip-hop drumming. Still vital and irreplaceable is the live drummer. Whatever direction drumming trends go in, you can be sure that one thing will always surface to the top, real talent. Live drumming is the only thing that stands the test of time and its essential need will never die. We will also be using modern technologies such as loops based around our live playing to create the modern production techniques of this style of music. One should use this book to gain facility, knowledge, history, insight and practical applications and enlightenment for total mastery of R&B drumming styles. All music has a culture and sub-cultures that follow it; this is what causes the music to come into existence. Culture shapes the music. Most forms of music originate somewhere from the streets of various cultures. Soul, funk and hip-hop exemplify the music and values of the streets for their respective generations.

When James Brown says "give the drummer some," most people love it, they go wild. It’s the drum beat that does this. The drumming of soul, funk and hip-hop has a hypnotic effect on people as does every form of rhythmic drumming since the beginning of time. Whether or not you are a fan of this music, it’s a simple fact that the drums, along with the bass guitar, are the foundation instruments on which this music is built. Most drummers would agree that the beats are extremely funky, and at least appreciate the music for the groove it creates. Anyone who calls themselves a student of the drums in today’s world, needs to be familiar with how to play all these past and present grooves. They are the cornerstone of American drumming and represent a journey through the R&B music and culture of our times.