Dynamic Drumming Lessons

About this course

in this video lesson we’ll go over ghost notes I’ll first explain what they are and then show you how to best implement them within a beat I think you’ll find these subtle notes a great way to make a

beat really groove so first off ghost notes are essentially notes that you play extremely quiet you might say that like ghosts they should be more felt than heard at least that’s something I

told my students to help them remember what these notes are take a look at the sheet music provided with this lesson in the first example you’ll notice that midway through the beat there are two

snare notes with brackets around them well if you’ve already watched my lesson on drum notation you’ll know that these brackets indicate that these snare shots are to be played as ghost notes now to

demonstrate how ghosting certain notes will change the beat I’m going to first play this beat with all snare shots at an even volume then I’ll play the ghost notes at their lower volumes watch and

listen carefully as I go back and forth between these two dynamic levels that’s a pretty significant difference isn’t it well that’s what makes ghost notes so important they’re barely

audible within the context of a whole band but can make a real difference to the feel in the groove of beat let’s take a look at the second example on the provided sheet music this beat is very

similar to the first but it includes ghost notes around both the 1 and the 3 counts whereas the first pattern only had them around the third count let me play this for you now playing all ghost

notes as written you might be noticing by now that in order to play ghost notes at a low volume you want to prepare for your ghost notes by keeping your stick heights low after the previous hit in

other words if you know the next note will be a ghost note don’t bring your stick all the way up right before playing keep your stick down low and it will be that

much easier this is something you really have to focus on doing I recommend playing in front of a mirror if at all possible so you can watch your stick Heights very closely this is something

I’m constantly reminding my students about as there’s always a tendency to slowly play these notes a little louder over time let’s move on to exercise three here we’re incorporating ghost

notes within a sixteenth note triplet now the snare is only played on two of the notes within the triplet so it’s best to think of it as playing a ghosted double stroke I really like

incorporating these within beats as they can fit in quite easily watch as I play this third example beat four is very similar and is another great way to incorporate the same ghost

to double strokes I’ll play it for you now I hope you are focusing on playing these ghost notes extremely low however there’s another thing I have to remind you about you want to be sure your non

ghosted notes are still at the volume that you’re accustomed to playing them at in other words you don’t want all your snare shots to be lower in volume the whole point here is to be sure that

there is a real dynamic difference between your ghosted and non ghosted notes if they slowly become similar over time the effect is lost watch closely as I demonstrate the fifth and final

example well there you have it ghost notes are a great way to begin implementing dynamics within your drumming take these beats to your kit and work through them slowly

I’m certain you’ll really enjoy the results