Infront of or behind the beat?

[double stroke roller]

What is a Good excersise for playing infront of or behind the beat. I hear it talked about often but have never heard of excercises for it. Is it like flamming or reverse flamming the 2 and 4 against a metronome? Oh, And what purpose does it serve to play this way?:confused:

[~(lunch_box)~]

these terms are used to describe the "feel" of a drum part to a song
staying "infront" of the beat means that you are pushing the beat a little and the way you play makes it sound like you are slightly ahead of the beat. Most of the time, drummers want to be "on top" or "infront" of the beat.a good example of this is "dont believe a word" by thin lizzy
being "behind" the beat means that your playing sounds very relaxed and sounds slightly behind the beat.i think that "black dog" by led zeppelin is a good example of this.
these terms have nothing to do with flams. when playing grooves on the drumset, nothing should sound "flammy", all of your limbs should always be in perfect time with each other

sorry if i didn't explain this well. i do know what these terms refer to but sometimes i have trouble explaining these kinds of things.

hope i helped

[double stroke roller]

Thanks this does help alot. The flamming I was talking about is playing along to a click, hitting slightley before or after the click thus the stroke and the click together being the flam. I was just trying to figure out how to practice it.

[Josiah]

Just as you say.

You gotta listen to the click AND your playing. Flam the backbeat against the click, you'll be slightly behind. Flam the click against the backbeat, you'll be slightly in front of. Make the click dissapear, you are ight on top of it.

I flam the backbeat against my hi-hats when playing blues, very easy way to create the bluesy drag hynoptic feel, esspeccially with blues shuffles.

The thing that matters is intention. Are you intentionally playing the notes to sound exactly as they do.

[double stroke roller]

If the flam has anyspace at all between the two hits does that ruin the effect? I can see how it would make the beat sound fatter without space. I'll have to practice it and record it.

[Josiah]

If the flam has anyspace at all between the two hits does that ruin the effect?

Then it wouldn't be a flam.

[dairyairman]

this is a tricky thing to do when other musicians are involved because you don't want to actually speed up or slow down everyone. it's got to be really subtle or you'll end up sounding like you're out of time and other musicians will complain that you're rushing or dragging.

[Syntax]

Just play half time to the guitar

[FockerTheLopper]

What is a Good excersise for playing infront of or behind the beat. I hear it talked about often but have never heard of excercises for it. Is it like flamming or reverse flamming the 2 and 4 against a metronome? Oh, And what purpose does it serve to play this way?:confused:

Learn to play on the beat first. Thats alot harder than any other aspect of drumming

[Gibling]

I wouldn't recommend practicing this with a metronome or anything. You have to feel it inside. If you feel like you're playing really tight and on the ball then you're most likely driving the music. If you feel very relaxed and almost even sloppy then your most likely playing behind the beat. But when you do this don't gain or lose time. And don't be too tense or too relaxed either. Again, it's all about how you're feeling the groove.

[Stickman Sam]

It depends what you mean by "In front of or behind the beat". If anyone asked me the question you asked, I would interpret that you meant taking the accent off the "1", to create the illusion that you're playing in front of or behind the basic pulse.

For example; (in common time) crashing on the "a" of 4 (1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a) or the "e" of 1.

If this is what you're talking about, set your metronome to 16th notes, and practise playing in perfectly normal common time with you accenting the above suggestions, and expand the idea from there.

I'm curious TS, what did you actually mean by playing in front of or behind the beat??

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[double stroke roller]

I've just heard it talked about alot without any clear definiton as to how to play it. Playing slightly ahead or slightly behind the actual beat.

[Stickman Sam]

When talking about the count ie. 1...2...3...4..., I tend to use the term "pulse" rather than beat, it saves on confusion.

There has been a bit of talk in the drumming community, something about Dave Weckl as I remember, "playing on either side of the pulse", as opposed to what was supposedly his old approach of playing directly on the pulse. In my opinion it gives a more complex, unusual feel to drum parts, where playing "on" the pulse (ie. accenting the 1) would give a more straight feel.

What I'm saying would seem to be in contradiction of previous posts though; you can play on either side of the pulse in a fast, busy style or a more relaxed, subtle feel, or any combination. So perhaps I've wrongly interpreted your question; it IS getting late.

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[double stroke roller]

If you have a heartbeat you have a pulse:naughty:

[Stickman Sam]

>.>

Did I get pwn'd again?

~~

[double stroke roller]

I don't know what "pwn'd" means. That was just a funny way of saying we meant the same thing by beat and pulse.

[Stickman Sam]

Pwn'd = own'd = bested.

One more post before you can freely post in the advanced forums!

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[double stroke roller]

Yessss! I'm Free! :chug: