Practice Room – August ’15

Another member requested video this week – practice footage! I recently got my hands on this awesome vamp to practice to. It’s from the song ‘Water on the Brain’ by Allan Holdsworth and it’s so much fun to play to. It’s mostly 4/4 with a 7/8 bar here and there. These are my first few attempts at playing it. I know the song very well from hearing it at concerts and on CD’s but actually sitting down to negotiate your way around the form and accents is another thing entirely. This kind of playing forms quite a lot of my practice and it’s important; learning how to put things together and play around accents and work on sound, feel and dynamics. It’s just as important to try this kind of playing yourself and watch someone else do this kind of practice as it is to work on strict exercises. Any questions, please feel free to post below in the comments.

7 Comments. Leave new

  • Pruet
    August 29, 2015 5:45 pm

    Could you please explain how to count and apply the technique to this song Louie.

    Thank you.
    Pruet

    Reply
    • PBD
      August 30, 2015 3:17 pm

      Hi Pruet!

      Thanks for the question. I’ve just added a PDF with the accents for the A section. All the 16th notes are written so it’s easy to follow along.

      The first thing to do is go through the accents very slowly so you understand where they are and that it’s mostly 4/4 with a 2/4 and 7/8 bar. Then try to play along with the music but only playing the accents. Then sit down at the drums and play a groove and catch the hits with the bass drum. Once you are very comfortable with the form and the accents you can start to add fills in the gaps.

      The section after this is just four bars of 4/4 with an accent on the ‘a’ of beat one.

      The important thing, and the only way to solo with something like this, is to be VERY comfortable with the music/accents/form. Listen to the original by Holdsworth over and over until you can sing the song in your head.

      Hope this helps! I will post a lesson on some of the things I played but you’ll see that it’s just very simple stuff. Lots of simple 16th note patterns that just include dynamics and interesting accents.

      Thanks,

      Louie

      Reply
  • simon
    June 4, 2016 4:06 am

    hi ,Louie could you show the pattern you were playing at 7.38-7.45 its amazing .cheers Simon

    Reply
  • John Cushon
    November 9, 2022 8:57 am

    Is it possible to get the drumless track?

    Reply

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