Hello and welcome to the second lesson on odd groupings. In this lesson we are going to take a look at a few accents and get comfortable with the building blocks that we will need to progress through later lessons.  We are also going to have a quick look at some groupings of 3, and two very simple ways of playing them.

1. This is your baseline.  You want to just loop standard unaccented 16th notes on your hands, with a left foot 1/4 note pulse for a few minutes.  Try and focus on keeping the notes quiet, controlled and (most importantly) even.  We want to relax so that the hands and left foot lock together in a relaxed manner.
2. This exercise is trickier than it looks if you haven’t had much experience with accents.  I want you to take each bar on its own and run it for a couple of minutes (ideally with a click).  The first bar is simply accenting the “1” in the right hand.  Then we displace it one 16th note to the “e”, this will be on your left hand.  Then again, another 16th note back to the right hand of “and” then finally the left hand of “a”.  As you work through these bars, make sure you do not displace the left foot.  That should remain on the 1/4 note pulse.  Once you feel happy with each bar, we can play it as a four bar phrase.  As you increase the tempo, really focus on keeping all the unaccented notes even and at the same dynamic, with the accents clear and consistent.
3. A great way to test your new found comfort with accents is to play a grouping of three notes over 16ths.  This is because in the one bar of 3/4 we have an accent on every possible location.  Also, by keeping it in 3/4 it resolves in just one bar so it is much easier to get into the flow of it.  As before, pay attention to your left foot as it is all too easy to move it to the accents and then you are implying 8th note triplets instead of the straight 16ths.
4. This could easily be labelled 3b!  We have simply carried on the grouping of three through 4/4.  As three times 5 is 15, we have a remainder of one, so this pattern is no longer smooth as it doesn't properly resolve, “resetting” every bar.  Once you are feeling comfortable with this, start moving the accents around the kit.  Start with right hand to the floor tom and left to the high tom, then try the hats, ride and crash, with and without the bass drum as well.
5. This is a little more of a challenge, especially if you play RLL though triplets a lot.  It should sound identical to exercise 3 but you may find it harder to keep the left foot playing 1/4 notes.  Stick with it.
6. The final exercise is an extension on the previous one again.  It should sound identical to 4 but as with 5, you will probably find it harder to lock in with the left foot.  Take your time to really get it and nail the double accent as you loop it.  You will find when you start moving this around the kit you will end up playing different ideas than 4.  Finally, when it comes to using this pattern as a fill you have a couple of options to help make it flow smoothly.  Firstly, play it as written and just crash with the left hand on the one.  The second option is to replace the very last 16th note accent with a bass drum.  This keeps your right hand relaxed and makes it very easy to hit any cymbal on your kit.

I hope you got a lot out of this lesson.  Make sure you take your time with each of the exercises as in the next lesson we are going to increase the difficulty and start looking at some more advanced groupings and combinations, and have some fun!

Hello and welcome to the first of my lessons for the Istanbul Mehmet Blog.

1. This is the simplest style of groove in 7/8.  It follows the standard “money” beat with a simple 1/8 note removed.  Spend some time getting comfortable with how this feels.  A little piece of advice, when counting only count to “sev” not “seven”.  This is because “seven” has two syllables and your brain will try and normalise your groove and all too easily you can end up playing 4/4.  The way to start counting this would be; one, two, three, four, five, six, sev.
2. Now we add our basic 1/4 note accent on the hi hats.  As we loop this, the jumping/skipping sound is accentuated and it makes the odd time signature feel even more odd.
3. With number 3 we have switched the accent to the off beat.  Take your time with this as it’s easy to get caught out and put an accent on beat one when you loop it.
4. This is the main focus of this lesson.  We are effectively playing example 2 into 3.  We are now playing in 7/4 which allows us to keep the accents rolling.  This gives the groove better flow and “evens out” the odd time signature.
5. In the final example we are just playing the accent pattern.  This gives it a nice chunky sound, but again doesn't feel too “odd”

I am going to end this lesson by saying that although this lesson is a basic introduction to one of the ways that you can make odd time signatures feel less odd and more musical, the core principles will really help your playing in 4/4 as well.  So have some fun.

Good evening people, It’s been a while since I wrote on here, but I thought I would talk about the new show I am doing and my cymbal choice!  I am happy to announce that I am now drumming for The Phil Collins Experience which boasts a 10 piece live band starring ‘DEANO’ the UK's no1 Phil Collins tribute artiste and impersonator. The show is a two hour production covering Phil Collins & Genesis greatest hits…‘Sussudio’ ‘In The Air Tonight’ ‘Against All Odds’ ‘Invisible Touch' 'I Can't Dance' to name a few.  It also features songs from Phil’s Oscar winning movie soundtrack ‘Tarzan’. With playing such a back catalogue of songs, I was after bright sounding cymbals for the show, so I tried my Radiants cymbals, but for some reason, they did not seem to be working for me. I then tried my Session series cymbals,which provided me with the sound I was after. I knew from playing the first song that using this model was the right decision.  They really are a versatile all - around cymbal! they have a mixture of the Radiants and the Traditional in there! Playing with a 10 piece band, I needed a  pair of hi hats that would cut through the band and these do! If you have not seen the hi hats, please check them out, they are impressive, they have a  heavy bottom which gives a very crisp sound! Now for my ride cymbal, I have a number of different ride cymbals, and I always find myself using the same one, my 21” 50’s Nostalgia, however this time I have gone for a 21” Session Ride, whats good about this is that it has a power bell on it, this is little bigger than the usual bells! With a lot of songs we are playing, I find myself doing a lot of bell work, so this cymbal is just right! My set up on this show consists off: 14” Hi Hats & 13” Hi Hats 8” 10” & 12” Splash, I am using this as a stack cymbal, it sounds killer in songs like Sussudio. 18” 19” & 20” Crash 15” Holy Crash 18” & 20” China 21” Ride My next couple of shows with The Phil Collins Experience are: Friday 16th September -Winding Wheel Theatre, Chesterfield Saturday 17th September-Thwaites Empire Theatre, Blackburn Until next time .... Rick

Hello again. The Searchers have just returned to work after 2.5 weeks off, which may not sound like a long time, but in Searchers World, that is! The holidays for me included doing a session, organising and playing at my engagement party, Rome, seeing Take That and trying to relax while organising a wedding for next year. My partner Sam and myself got Engaged July last year, but due to work commitments, our Engagement party was July this year. We decided that rather than trying to watch and book a decent band, I knew enough talented musicians to be able to put a top notch band together. The band was a collaboration between the Meatloaf tribute I play in and 2 very good muso mates. The members were Matt Shaw (who won the UK Stars in their eyes tv show in 2008, as meatloaf) Tabitha Wild (Great Female singer who I have done several Summer seasons with at various UK holiday parks) Mark Wikinson on guitar, Adz Wimbolt also on Guitar, Andrew Weeden on keys and Allan Burls on bass. Due to everyones commitments, a set list was agreed in May and Andrew took over as MD and send everyone the arrangements for all the songs and on the day everyone was reading score, but it sounded like a band that had rehearsed for months. Even the venue manager was impressed and wanted to book us! You never know, it might take off one day. The wedding arrangements are about 60% there in case you wanted to know. We left for Rome early Sunday 10th July, The day before We were sat in Hyde Park, watching Olly Murs and Take That. As you can tell, Sam and myself don't like being in one place too long. It was the first time I had seen both Olly and Take That and I must confess, I loved it. The whole day was full off live music with 4 other acts on before and everyone on the bill was able to lift the crowd and get people dancing. I had decided a week before to drive to London and pre book parking nearby. The trains home after an event like this are always full and with an early start the next day, we needed as much sleep as possible. We left at Take thats last number and after a 10 minute walk to the car, found ourself on the A40 and heading home as the fireworks started in Hyde Park. As for Rome, it was the first time Sam and myself had been there. I had been in Rome a few times in 2007/08, but that was at the railway station catching a train to Civitavecchia to jump on a costa cruise ship. This was 4 days in Rome to explore. It is majorly hot in July! it was about 37c every day with no breeze, but Sam and myself managed to see most of the sights and the city. The first night we had a real Italian pizza in Italy near our hotel.....and it was awful! We stayed clear of that restaurant for the rest of our stay The Roman ruins are a must for anyone exploring Rome. The Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon are a few that stick out. I have so many pictures from nearly every angle of them all. We returned from Rome late Thursday 14th, Friday 15th was a major food shop to buy most of the food for our engagement party on Sat 15th! We know how to relax..... The session I did was for a London based band and while I can't say too much about it, was great fun and the songs are very catchy with some great guitar riffs. Hopefully something good will emerge from that session, but time will tell. I was able to use my large kit for both the session and engagement party. The carrera custom with gold hardware (24, 10, 12, 14 snare, 16) with 8 Istanbul Mehmet crashes/splashes. For my engagement party, I used a Roland TD30 to trigger the sounds and a Roland SPD-SX for some of the Meatloaf samples. This was the first time I had used a hybrid kit and I loved it. I also managed to fit in a very quick video shoot for Istanbul Mehmet. Myself and a few other artist were asked to make a quick video of themselves with their cymbals. Hopefully soon you will be able to see everyones efforts. The Searchers returned to work on July 22nd and its always fun coming back after a long lay off, just to see whose put weight on and who has forgotten the songs! 3 shows that weekend all went very well without any issues. Even the 6hr drive from my house to Fleetwood was not that bad. That was another subject I wanted to mention. The travelling. While most bands will travel together, We don't Thats not because we don't like each other, its because we are scattered over the UK. So in the UK we travel separately. Abroad, special Australia, we travel together, taking it in turns to drive. We cover on average 33k miles a year. Which puts a lot of strain on your car, with 2 sometimes 3 services a year. But we all love what we do and while the UK roads seem to be getting more and more congested, getting on that stage and playing to the fans makes it all worth while! Till next time, take care and see you soon!