Music Lesson: Drumming Techniques for "Big Mouth"

Introduction

The indie piece Big Mouth starts with quite a lot of space for us on the drum. So, we’re not playing that many notes.

• Tip: Keep your counting going to ensure a strong entrance with those snares on beats two and three of the first bar, then move up to the hi-hats on beats two and three of the second bar.

Sticking Patterns

Regarding the sticking patterns, I’m quite a fan of practicing hand to hand. This approach helps to avoid favoring one hand, whether it’s the dominant hand (usually the right for right-handed players or the left for left-handed players).

• Note: Using these first two bars as an opportunity to play hand to hand is beneficial.

Example Playthrough

If I play bars one and two, it will sound like this:

• I’ll count myself in because there’s a rest on beat one.
• Even on the hi-hats, I’m playing right, left.

Note: You don’t have to play them both with the right if you prefer. However, this practice helps to get our single strokes more even.

Bar 3: Fill-In

When the fill comes in during bar three of the first line, we have eighth notes.

• Important: There's a rest on beat one, so watch out for that.
• I’ll count myself in when I play this for a time reference: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1.

Bars 3 and 4 of the First Line

You might notice that I chose to play both hi-hats in bar four with the right hand. This is partly to set myself up for the groove that follows in line two.

Groove Coordination

As we move into line two:

• The guitarist is playing a nice eighth-note pattern on the guitar.
• We want to lock in with that to make it feel good.

• Snares: Don't come in until the second bar of the second line, so be confident when they do. They drop out again for the third bar and come back in during the fourth bar.

Line 3: Consistency and Transition

On line three of the piece, the groove becomes much more consistent.

• In bar four of this line:
  • We want just the bass drums on the quarter note.
  • The snare drops out, setting up the next line, which then reduces further to only bass drums on the quarter notes.

Demonstration

I’m going to demonstrate the fourth bar of the third line going into the first bar of the fourth line.

Note: Little by little, different parts of the groove drop out until we’re left with just the bass drum.

• Tip: Stay strong with your bass drums to maintain the pulse, especially when the hi-hat hand drops out.

Final Bars: Technique and Sticking

Watch out for the half-note rest in the second bar of the fourth line.

• In bar three of this line:
  • It’s up to you how you play the unison snare and bass drums.
  • This may be the first time we see this in one of these pieces.

Right Hand with Right Foot

If you’re right-handed, you may naturally feel more comfortable playing the right hand with the right foot on beats two and four of the second-to-last bar.

• Challenge: Try playing the left hand with the right foot to see how that feels.
  • This might lead to flams, where the two drum voices don’t land together.

Practice Recommendation

Let’s aim to make them land as closely together as possible, committing ultimately to playing left hand snare.

• Final Bar:
  • Nice and simple: rest on beat one, play the snares on beats two and three.
  • Choose your sticking, but I still recommend hand to hand, whether it’s left to right or right to left.

Keep practicing, and have fun with it!