DrumDoug
Senior Member
I was watching Tommy Igoe's Groove Essentials DVD again and started thinking about his comments about the hi hat and ride being the connective tissue that holds the groove together. I started thinking about my own playing and where I keep the time. I have always heard the time on the back beat, on 2 and 4. When I hear a song, that's where I hear the time. I then play the bass drum, hi hat, ghost notes, whatever, around the back beat. This weekend, I tried to play using the hat and ride as my time and played everything else around that. It completely changed the way the songs felt. They seemed to be much more relaxed. So much so that I felt some of the songs seemed to drag. I really had to think about pushing them and giving them energy. It also made my fills feel much more in time than they usually do. I had a couple coordination issues playing things I have played a hundred times, just because I was thinking differently about it. So that made me wonder; where do other drummers keep their time?