Need Help!! Shuffle Songs

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enmkrdrumming

Junior Member
Hey everyone, again me, a newbie, bothering you with my silly questions. So, the thing is that I'm starting to learn some styles and in that purpose I'm getting a repertoire of songs together, I burn a cd with the style songs from slow to fast and easy to hard. Now it's shuffle time, and I want you to help me with picking my songs.

So far I've got

Hold the Line - Toto
Rossana -Toto
Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder.

Any reccomendations /suggestion will be welcome. Thank you in advance!!!
 
there's about a million blues songs that use a shuffle beat. i'd even go so far as to say most blues songs are shuffles, usually in 12/8.

another great shuffle song is "fool in the rain" by led zeppelin. playing exactly what john bonham plays in that song is a challenge! i've been working on it, and i can pretty much do it now, but it took a while.
 
Black Friday by Steely Dan is a good basic blues shuffle, played well.

A good blues record primer in quality shuffles is "From the Cradle" by Clapton.

A great rock example is Easy Livin' by Uriah Heep (YouTube it).

Lots of drummers are super obsessed with half-time shuffles (Rosanna... ugh, great shuffle, hate Toto... sorry), but they are rarely used in actual musical contexts... unless you are playing Rosanna or Fool in the Rain. I generally don't deal with that, until the student can play a decent blues shuffle, which, in reality, is more likely to make the drummer real money playing gigs, than the Purdie thing.

I've never played a half-time shuffle in 15 years of gigging. Played lots of straight up stuff in the blues context and made plenty of green doing it.
 
La Grange, by ZZ Top. The Texas Shuffle. The coolest sounding shuffle ever.
 
Thank you very much,I'm beginning to set my repertoire. Thank you so much for your help.

So, now I would ask you, do you have a repertoire or just play songs that you like but never put them in order?
 
There is no rush mate. Drums are a long term investment. Concentrate on your technique and getting everything right as you go on.

Have a set of tunes you play to yes, can shuffle the order if you want just as long as you are ready for the song when it comes on.

Focus on technique, and being able to play a real steady nice sounding basic beat. Work it up from there
 
A crucial point for playing most shuffles is to get the articulation of the shuffle right. There is a lot of room for interpretation between playing it as the first and last notes of an eighth-note triplet, playing it roughly as 1(e&)a, or even stretching the first note out further and playing something like a double-dotted 8th and 32nd (the SRV clip of Pride and Joy above is closer to these latter two than the first) However, in almost every case except the "flat-tire shuffle" where you accent the up beats, you need to emphasise the downbeats and lay off the upbeats somewhat. This will help give your shuffles a nice forward motion and emphasise the quarter note pulse to lock everything in.

The physical mechanics of this can be achieved in a number of ways, but a very common technique for the ride cymbal is a variation of "Drop and Point" - i.e. on the upbeat, you're essentially bouncing/dropping the stick on the cymbal and on the the downbeats you're pointing the stick/closing the hand to snap the stick into the downbeat - this assumes a French or thumbs-up grip, mind you. The pointing motion is something like rolling a dollar bill in between your thumb and forefinger/middle-finger. The dropping is essentially just allowing the stick to roll over your forefinger as your hand/forearm come back toward your body to prepare for the stronger downbeat stroke. This kind of technique can also be used for half-time shuffles, though something like Porcaro's technique of rocking the wrist will also work to give you the articulation, and can be a little easier to execute on the hats if you're used to using a more palms-down approach there.
 
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asht89 said:
'Rosanna' by Toto was the one that got me working on my shuffle. Steely Dan's 'Home at last' is a good one, along with 'Babylon Sisters'.
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I'm just curious how often (aside from covering Rosanna or writing your own song with such a beat) does that groove actually come into play in real gigs?

Not that I'm opposed to learning it, but it seems that drummers hack away at that thing for such a long time and come out, still unable to play a decent blues or Texas shuffle. Seems a waste of time to me... till you learn the ones that are quantitatively more common.
 
Grab a copy of Freddie King's "Lets Hide Away and Dance Away" album. Great instrumental Blues record with plenty of sweet shuffles to play a long to.
 
Ian Ballard said:
I'm just curious how often (aside from covering Rosanna or writing your own song with such a beat) does that groove actually come into play in real gigs?

Not that I'm opposed to learning it, but it seems that drummers hack away at that thing for such a long time and come out, still unable to play a decent blues or Texas shuffle. Seems a waste of time to me... till you learn the ones that are quantitatively more common.
Click to expand...

I think the shuffle is something that every drummer should learn if they are trying to be an all round drummer. I've used it no end of times, especially in function sets. I've also played a good number of toto and steely dan songs on gigs, a lot of the songs having a shuffle. 'Rosanna' was the first shuffle i learnt. Learning the other shuffles and feels would have been a lot harder if i didn't get the right hand sorted.

I understand that a simple 4/4 groove would be more common, but learning more styles and different grooves can only be a good thing. You never know when you may need them.
 
asht89 said:
I think the shuffle is something that every drummer should learn if they are trying to be an all round drummer. I've used it no end of times, especially in function sets. I've also played a good number of toto and steely dan songs on gigs, a lot of the songs having a shuffle. 'Rosanna' was the first shuffle i learnt. Learning the other shuffles and feels would have been a lot harder if i didn't get the right hand sorted.

I understand that a simple 4/4 groove would be more common, but learning more styles and different grooves can only be a good thing. You never know when you may need them.
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Well, that's not what I was inferring. The right hand still "shuffles" when playing a full-on blues shuffle. The point is, a half-time Purdie shuffle will be encountered once in a blue moon, compared to a blues shuffle.

Just my opinion.
 
I can't believe no one has mentiond Grand Funk Railroad's Some Kinda Wonderful. Very simple but effective shuffle groove.
 
Ian Ballard said:
Well, that's not what I was inferring. The right hand still "shuffles" when playing a full-on blues shuffle. The point is, a half-time Purdie shuffle will be encountered once in a blue moon, compared to a blues shuffle.

Just my opinion.
Click to expand...

Yeah i know what you mean, i never use the half time shuffle as often as a standard one. They are all good to know though
 
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