Power Trip - Walkthrough
With
Sophie AllowaySophie Alloway walks through the metal piece 'Power Trip', turning the stick around for a heavier snare and digging into the hi-hats to add weight and drive.
What's in the course
114 lessons (3h 47m) · 1 free
01. Rock Drumming Introduction
7:55
02. Example 1 - Single Strokes
2:44
03. Example 2 - Double Strokes
1:28
04. Example 3 - Paradiddles
2:37
05. Bonus - Combining Singles, Doubles, and Paradiddles
2:22
06. Rock Lesson 2 - Adding Rests
1:48
07. Example 1 - Rest on Beat 4
1:56
08. Example 2 - Rest on Beat 2
1:36
09. Example 3 - Moving Rests
1:05
10. Example 4 - Piston Bars 12-16
1:56
11. Bonus Exercise 1
1:49
12. Bonus Exercise 2
1:02
13. Rock Section Summary
1:50
01. Pop - Adding the Hi-Hat
1:31
02. Example 1 - Quarter Notes on Hi-Hat
1:40
03. Example 2 - Resting on Beat 1
1:42
04. Example 3 - Two Consecutive Quarter Note Rests
1:28
05. Bonus Exercise 1
1:11
06. Bonus Exercise 2
1:10
07. Pop Lesson 2 Example 1 - Combining the Hi-Hat & Snare
1:11
08. Example 2 - Moving Quickly Between Drum Voices
1:17
09. Example 3 - Two Drum Voices in One Bar
0:59
10. Example 4 - Take It to the Top Bars 1-4
1:10
11. Bonus Exercise 1
1:08
12. Bonus Exercise 2
1:04
13. Pop Music Section Summary
0:51
01. Introduction to Country Music
4:13
02. Skills Checkpoint
1:54
03. Example 1 - Half-Note Rest
1:18
04. Example 2 - Placing of the Half-Note Rest
1:31
05. Example 3 - Bass Drum Phrases
1:29
06. Bonus Exercise 1
1:27
07. Bonus Exercise 2
1:10
08. Country Lesson 2 - Combining Bass Drum, Snare, and Hi-Hat
3:07
09. Example 1 - Combining the Bass Drum & Hi-Hat
1:40
10. Example 2 - Adding the Half-Note Rest in Various Positions
1:10
11. Example 3 - Moving Quickly Between Drum Voices
1:10
12. Example 4 - Borderlands Bars 1-4
1:06
13. Bonus Exercise 1
1:30
14. Bonus Exercise 2
0:56
15. Country Music Section Summary
0:26
01. Metal Introduction - Playing Two Drum Voices
3:35
02. Example 1 - Focusing on Coordination
2:19
03. Example 2 - Bass Drum Variations
1:16
04. Example 3 - Coordinating the Hands
1:09
05. Bonus Exercise 1
1:05
06. Bonus Exercise 2
0:50
07. Metal Lesson 1 Summary
0:25
08. Metal Lesson 2 - Playing Your First Full Beat
1:56
09. Example 1 - Basic Rock Beat Hi-Hat Pattern
1:08
10. Example 2 - Adding the Back Beat
0:58
11. Example 3 - Adding the Bass Drum
0:59
12. Example 4 - Power Trip Bars 13-14
1:32
13. Bonus Exercise 1
1:10
14. Bonus Exercise 2
0:53
15. Metal Section Summary
1:05
01. Indie - Introduction to the Style
1:26
02. Example 1 - Resting on Beat Three
1:01
03. Example 2 - More Variations
1:00
04. Example 3 - Coordinating the Limbs
2:16
05. Bonus Exercise 1
1:10
06. Bonus Exercise 2
0:50
07. Indie Lesson 1 Summary
0:25
08. Indie Checkpoint - Mallets
2:46
09. Indie Lesson 2 - Introducing 8th Note Bass Drum and Snare
1:25
10. Example 1 - Eighth-Note Snare
1:36
11. Example 2 - Eighth-Note Bass Drum
1:04
12. Example 3 - Eighth Note Phrase
0:59
13. Example 4 - 'Big Mouth' Bars 1-4
1:48
14. Bonus Exercise 1
0:38
15. Bonus Exercise 2
0:59
16. Indie Section Summary
0:34
01. Hip-Hop Introduction - Basic Beats and Fills
1:33
02. Example 1 - Snare & Bass Drum Fill
1:10
03. Example 2 - Snare & Hi-Hat Fill
1:08
04. Example 3 - Fill Using Snare, Hi-Hat & Bass Drum
1:09
05. Bonus Exercise 1
1:38
06. Bonus Exercise 2
0:47
07. Hip-Hop Lesson 1 Summary
0:32
08. Hip Hop Lesson 2 - Introduction to Eighth Note Beats
3:53
09. Example 1 - The Basic Eighth-Note Beat
1:19
10. Example 2 - Snare Drum Variations
1:28
11. Example 3 - Bass Drum Variations
1:09
12. Example 4 - 'The Dogg' Bars 13-16
1:56
13. Bonus Exercise 1
1:04
14. Bonus Exercise 2
1:09
15. Hip-Hop Section Summary
0:32
01. Introduction to the Pieces
1:04
02. Piston (Rock) - Walkthrough
4:57
03. Piston (Rock) - Performance
0:46
04. Take it to the Top (Pop) - Walkthrough
3:58
05. Take it to the Top (Pop) - Performance
0:50
06. Borderlands (Country) - Walkthrough
3:49
07. Borderlands (Country) - Performance
0:48
08. Power Trip - Walkthrough
You are here5:04
09. Power Trip (Metal) - Performance
0:51
10. Big Mouth (Indie) - Walkthrough
5:26
11. Big Mouth (Indie) - Performance
0:52
12. The Dogg (Hip Hop) - Walkthrough
6:14
13. The Dogg (Hip Hop) - Performance
0:51
14. Overload (Rock) - Walkthrough
5:23
15. Overload (Rock) - Performance
0:50
16. Slam (Metal) - Walkthrough
4:28
17. Slam (Metal) - Performance
0:51
18. Under the Radar (Indie) - Walkthrough
5:02
19. Under the Radar (Indie) - Performance
0:50
Lesson transcript
Music Lesson: Techniques for "Power Trip"
In the metal piece "Power Trip," I'm going to change some of my techniques a little bit.
Changes in Technique
-
Snare Drum Stick Position:
- I mentioned earlier the possibility that with some rock pieces, you might wish to turn the stick around.
- So, rather than playing it like this, turn it around and hold the stick from this end.
- This change gives:
- More weight
- More volume to the snare sound
- More consistency
-
Hi-Hat Playing:
- Rather than using the tip of the stick to play the hi-hats, I'm going to use this part of the stick because it digs in a bit more.
- For this style of music, we definitely want more weight and more heaviness.
Demonstration
To show you the difference:
- If I were to use the tip of the stick on the hi-hat and play the snares quite lightly for the first two bars, it would sound like this:
- "That's okay."
- It could still be in time.
Now let’s see how the first two bars of this piece feel with:
- The snare stick turned around
- Me digging in a little bit more on the hi-hats.
You can always play the snare stick this way around, but just hit a bit harder.
Space Between Notes
Again, let's have a look at the first line:
- There's quite a lot of space between the notes, so you might choose to count eighth notes to land nicely on:
- Beats 1 and 2 and 3
Attention to Detail:
- At the end of the first line, on beats three and four, you're just playing the hi-hats.
- Moving into the next line, you again only have hi-hats on beats one and two.
Bass Drum Timing
- Effectively, we have four beats across two bars where we're only playing hi-hats.
- It’s unusual not to have a bass drum on beat one.
- As you get into the second line of this piece:
- Ensure you're ready to play the bass drum on:
- Beat 3 in the first bar of the second line
- Beats 3 and 4 in the second bar of that second line
- Ensure you're ready to play the bass drum on:
- Then we go back up to the snare on bar four of the second line.
Preparing for the Eighth Note Rock Beat
- There's another half note rest, providing ample time to prepare for the next section, which features an eighth note based rock beat.
- I recommend just for this example:
- Use the snare stick turned around
- Dig in with your hi-hats
When we come in with that groove on the third line, it should have a bit more weight.
Transitioning to Quarter Notes
As we continue through most of the third line, be mindful of the rest between the bass drum and snare drum at the end.
Line Four Warning:
- Be careful when suddenly dropping back to quarter notes.
- It will feel like there's a lot of space in the hi-hats, especially since we’ve been playing eight hi-hats per bar for an entire line.
- Now we drop back to four hi-hats per bar.
- Count in between, perhaps the eighth notes, to help you adjust to that feel so that you don't rush through the last line.
Importance of the Last Line
The last line of the music is crucial because it's the climax of the song.
- Let me play the fourth bar of the third line and the first bar of the fourth line, so you can hear that difference.
Maintaining Tempo
There's lots of opportunity for that new time feel, with fewer notes potentially leading to a speed-up when we don’t want it.
Final Bars
In the third bar of the last line, we have some eighth note bass drums going to the hi-hat.
- The hi-hat on beats two and four replaces the snare back beat that we'd normally have.
Let’s do bars three and four of the fourth line (the last two bars of the piece):
- Ensure that last snare hit is powerful.
- "Make sure you really dig in with it."
- "Make sure it's a nice loud snare because it's the end of the piece."
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Meet your guru
Meet your guru
Sophie Alloway is a session and touring drummer at the heart of the London jazz scene. She has performed with Jason Rebello, Yazz Ahmed, Laurence Cottle and Tony Allen, and notably played for Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace shortly before he became King.
Touring credits include Roots Manuva, the Thriller musical and Paul Stacey (Oasis / The Black Crowes). She is also the drummer in original fusion band Lydian Collective, with over six million Spotify streams.
Sophie has recorded sessions at Abbey Road, AIR and Angel studios, and her television appearances include Later… with Jools Holland, Glastonbury and two series of Adrian Dunbar’s drama Ridley. She is featured on Abbey Road Masters: The Drum Sessions and performed for the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2024 finalists, broadcast on BBC TV and Radio. Jon Newey of Jazz FM dubbed her the “goddess of groove”.
