Music Lesson: Rod Stewart's "Maggie May"

Introduction

Hi! Here we're looking at the Rod Stewart classic "Maggie May." The drums enter with a flam on the snare on beats three and four.

Establishing the Time

• The first thing we need to establish is where those land within the time.
• We'll hear an empty bar of time: 1, 2, 3, 4.
• Then we get 1, 2, and we hit 3, 4 on the snare.

Rock Flam Explained

These would be played with a rock flam, which is:

• Traditionally, a flam has a quiet grace note and a loud accented note.
• A rock flam involves both hands being accented, but one falling just before the other.

Main Groove

• Let's play: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2.
• Here we're into the main groove, which throughout the track is based around a steady quarter note feel played on the hi-hat, with the snare playing on two and four.

Basic Feel

• Before we change up the bass drum pattern, let's think about the sound of the hi-hats:
  • Don't put too much pressure on the hi-hat pedal.
  • Allow for a bit of duration of note to fill in the space between the beats.
  • It's not completely loose, but there's a slight length to the note.

First Bass Drum Pattern

Next, let's take a look at the first bass drum we encounter in letter A.

• It's similar to what we've played before, but we now add the and of beat three.
• The challenge here is that the bass drum isn't always falling along with the hi-hat.

Variation in Bars 5 and 6

• In bars five and six, our backbeat in bar five moves an eighth note later, creating syncopation.
• I'll play bars five and six a little so you can get a sense of how that works.

Transition to Section B

In Bar 9 of Section A, we have a simple fill that leads us into Section B.

• Here, we're playing eighth notes between the floor tom, snare, and bass drum, which only plays beat three underneath that.
• Let's create a two-bar pattern by adding the bar before it: bars 8 and 9 of section A.

Changes in Section B

• Halfway through Section B, the bass drum pattern changes:
  • Now, we'll move the additional eighth note to the and of beat two:
  • So, 1, the and of 2, and beat 3.
• In Section B, we also have crashes landing on the downbeat of the bar.
• In the last bar of Section B, we get the opportunity to play a fill for two beats, indicated by two time slashes and the word fill written above it.

Playing Section B

• I'll play the whole of Section B, including a fill to finish those last two beats of the eighth bar.
• In that two-beat fill, choose something that uses the subdivision of the track, which here is predominantly eighth notes.
• I'll demonstrate a few fills using eighth notes for you to hear how that sounds.

Letter C: New Bass Drum Pattern

At letter C, we encounter another bass drum pattern that is slightly more syncopated:

• Beat one, the and of beat two, and the and of beat three.

Practicing the Groove

• A good way to ease into that groove is to practice playing all of the ands on the bass drum while keeping the same hi-hat and snare pattern.
  • Your right foot and hand will alternate eighth notes.

Last Three Bars of Section C

In the last three bars of Section C:

• The first bar has all three sounds playing quarter notes simultaneously.
• Listen for the togetherness to ensure everything falls exactly together.
• Then, we move up into the flam figure in the final bar of letter C.

Letter D: Simplified Groove

Now we reach letter D.

• By this point, all of the difficult stuff is out of the way.
• From letter D, we'll basically play the same groove that ran through the A section:
  • Beat one on the bass drum, beat three, and the and of beat three.
• We'll maintain this for 16 bars.

Navigating the Bars

• The challenge here is that there's nothing else written out; you need to feel and read the bars as they go by:
  • You could count it: 1, 2, 3, 4. 2, 2, 3, 4. 3, 2, 3, 4.
  • Alternatively, you could just be reading it.
  • Ultimately, aim to feel four-bar phrases to know when four bars have passed.

Final Bars

• In the final four bars, we're playing that same groove and finishing with a crash on the downbeat of the next bar.

Conclusion

That's all the drum parts in "Maggie May." Within this track is a really important groove to be familiar with:

• Being able to play time while maintaining just quarter notes on the hi-hat.
• This pattern is commonly used in many classic rock feels, including "Freeze-Frame" and similar tracks.

The independence we've developed here between the bass drum and the quarter note feel with the hands is a really useful skill. You'll encounter it in many different classic rock feels.

Hope you have fun playing along with the track!