Anika Nilles part 1 - Lesson Notes Anika’s drumming in the song song Alter Ego is very nice. The first time I saw it my reaction was “Nice fill. Nice groove. Another nice fill. etc.” etc.” In an interview she said her approach is to program a drum part along to the sequenced music, then go away and learn learn it. That means the creative part part of it can be done away from the drums - you can try lots of different ideas (that you may not be able to physically play) and shape them until you’re happy with them. them. Then, once you’re happy happy with the part you’ve invented, you can go away and learn to play it. The result is a well composed drum part that you play well (since you’ve worked hard to learn the parts). In short, it’s not luck that every every fill in this song is great. Fill 1 - Quintuplets
Here’s the first fill. You should be able to make sense sense of it. If not - revisit the video or the quintuplets VIP lesson.
Fill 2 - 0:31
Here’s the next cool fill
What I like about this is the fact that it’s in triplets. It sounds cool coming into this from the straight groove. It’s fairly straight forward forward but some of the stickings might feel unnatural unnatural at first.
Fill 3 - 0:37
This fill sounds very simple, but it’s actually quite tricky to play. You have to make sure you give the 8th notes on beats 1 and 2 their full space. Don’t be tempted to turn the first two beats into triplets. Apart from that it’s just a case of thinking of the strokes you need to use to be prepared for the accents. The ‘L’ in beat 2 will be an up stroke so you’re ready for the back beat.
A good way to practice the bass drum placement is to start by just playing 8th note singles (R L R L R L R L etc.) then add some kick notes between the L and R. Pay attention to how your hands feel when you add the kick -their movement shouldn’t change. Fill 4 - 0:40
This is a cool fill using the cowbell and a 3 over 4 polyrhythm. Basically, you’re playing a 4 note pattern (R L L F) and repeating it, but you’re playing it at a triplet rate so it doesn’t resolve on each beat. Instead, it takes 12 notes until the pattern resolves, which is 4 beats. So, you can fit 3 lots of the 4 note pattern in each bar. The right hand accent is playing 3 notes per bar - hence the 3 over 4 reference.
Work on this slowly. To begin with keep the right hand on one sound source. That way you’ll hear the 4-note pattern more easily. Practice counting the 1/4 notes out loud so you don’t lose your place in the bar and step the hi-hat on 1/4 notes to give you a rhythmic reference to the 4. Once you’re happy with how that sounds begin to move the right hand between 2 sound sources like in the fill (hat and snare, or ride and snare). Because the spacing of the snare notes is even the listener hears that almost like a new backbeat in a different time. That’s what makes it confusing and cool sounding.
Here’s 2 bars of the 4 note sticking written out. The right hand moves from ride to snare.
Note that the bars are the same but the ride/snare accents are reversed in bar 2. That is, in bar 1 you have Ride - Snare - Ride. Then in bar 2 you have Snare - Ride - Snare. That’s simply because you’re alternating between them and you can only fit 3 per bar. That can be a “roadmark” to grab hold of though. You know that in the even bars you’ll be playing a snare on the ‘1’. Groove at 0:47
The reason I wrote this one out is for the sake of practicing the accuracy and togetherness of x-stick with the kick. Also, at the end of bar 4 there are some nice syncopated placements of the x-stick - it hits every 3rd 16th.
Fill 5 - 1:07
This fill is a lead into a very orchestrated chorus.
Focus on the accents in the first half. The ghost notes are just filling in. At the end make sure you’re playing full strokes for all those hits - you want them to be as loud as the kick.
Fill 6 - 1:08
This fill comes every time there’s a chorus. There are lots of nice things about it. I like the fact that it goes into triplets then back into 16ths. I also like the fact that there’s no big accents on kick or snare on beat 1 of bars 2 and 4.
I explain how to tackle it in the video. Just remember to pay attention to the stickings. In particular the tom/kick fill at the start of bar 3. The left hand takes the lead here. Play around with the ideas and see if you can come up with your own. Next week we’ll move onto more of the song.
