This isn't a blog talking about the intricacies of left hand independence. Or about whether or not there is an imbalance on the male to female ratio in the drumming community. NOPE! I just wanted you to know that you cant play the funky drummer beat.
Oh, you can?
Tell me, whats the real hi hat pattern? does it swing or shuffle, straight 8ths maybe? what about the grace notes, how many are there really? Listen up, that beat is so dope, so sampled, and so funky that it has been taught on youtube a million times, played by Benny Grebb (THE GREATEST DRUMMER OF OUR ERA), and even slowed down to 70 BPM in attempts to figure it out, but when you listen to any of those and go back and listen to how Clyde Stubblefield played it in any of his recordings, you will find that nobody in the history of drumming has ever made it sound that funky. PERIOD. No amount of Online Drum Lessons, No Amount of Benny Grebb hour long listening sessions will change the fact that, you cant play the funky drummer.
What we learn from this is, every drummer has their own personal swing, touch, feel. That dude found the perfect beat that expressed his personal feel in such a way that it became HIS and HIS alone. The next challenge is, can we do that? Can I be so comfortable, so relaxed, and have such a bank of technique and experience to draw from, that the next beat I make, can actually be so much my own, that others cant repeat it, not because its so hard... but because theres so much of my actual self in it, it's as unique as my own fingerprint.
Thats what the funky drummer beat is... Clyde Stubblefield's fingerprint, left 60 years ago, on an old drum set somewhere in America. Challenge Accepted. Just give me another 40 years or so!
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