Welcome to Drummer Steve Pemberton's Official Website

REVIEWS: Palm Beach Daily News: "A Benny Goodman medley... gave the audience an opportunity to enjoy a great, exhilarating drum solo by Steve Pemberton. Gene Krupa himself would have surely enjoyed his display of rhythmic mastery." - Nicole Rattinger (February 23, 1999)

LA Jazz Scene: "Pemberton urged the band on with his powerful, swinging drumming, while getting in a strong solo on this tune."  They also said, "and once again, Pemberton pushed the band with an exciting force." - Bob Comden (February, 2006)

DRUM TIME TIPS

Select a Tip:

Time Tip #1: NEW ORLEANS 2ND LINE STYLE
This transcription is a great 2nd Line style example. When I recorded the audio sample, I took the basic pattern, shown below, and then enhanced it by altering some of the notes and accents. By playing it this way, I created some interest in what I was doing and "made it my own". Have fun with it!




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Time Tip #2:FUNK PATTERN USING ROLLS
Enjoy the following two measure funk pattern that utilizes a five stroke roll at the end of the second bar.  Be careful not to rush the two sixteenth notes in the second bar on the '+' of 2.




NEW Audio Clip for this exercise...

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Time Tip #3: LATIN PATTERN WITH LEFT FOOT EMPHASIS
Develop your latin chops by playing the standard "clave" pattern with your left foot (hi-hat). Practice by playing a bossa nova pattern with the rest of your limbs.  Expand into additional styles of latin patterns as you get comfortable with your left foot's new ability.  Some drummers have actually played the pattern on cowbell with their left foot while soloing.


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Time Tip #4: ROCK PATTERN - TIME SHIFTING
To develop a strong sense of time, and to come up with some interesting rock patterns, take a basic rock beat and shift the snare drum/bass drum notes 1/16th of a beat later. Keep your right hand ride cymbal and/or hi-hat (straight eighths) in their original position.   Continue through the whole cycle of shifting your notes, and you will come up with sixteen different rock patterns to play with.  Some will be useful and some may just be good for practice exercises.  This "time shifting" is done very well and used often by Dave Weckl. Study the example below...




The audio example plays through each line two times... and it always goes back to line 1 to re-establish the main pulse. Check it out!

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Time Tip #5: JAZZ SHUFFLE
For a nice variation on a jazz shuffle pattern, instead of playing all of the shuffle pattern on the ride cymbal, try playing the hi-hat with the foot on the "ah" of each beat and just playing straight quarter notes on the ride cymbal.  This is an interesting change to a common pattern, develops your left foot coordination and allows you to really dig in and drive the band with those ride cymbal quarter notes.


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Time Tip #6: TWO OFF-BEAT ROCK PATTERNS
I hope you can use these two rock patterns. They are good practice for getting away from the 2 & 4 snare drum backbeat.  Enjoy!


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Time Tip #7: 3:4 OSTINATO ROCK PATTERN
This rock pattern superimposes a 3-beat pattern, repeated 4 times over three measures. It can be used for playing time or as a nice solo drum break. If everyone in the band can find "one", it's a fun pattern to play around with!




Listen to this ostinato-like drum pattern (mp3 format)

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If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me through the link above or below.

All drum instruction copyrighted: ©2008 ChriStevRyan Music Productions