- Hi, Todd Sucherman here at Drumeo.
I want to share an experience that helped me unlock
the mysteries of ghost notes.
When I was a kid, literally a kid, eight, nine, 10 years old
and I'd be listening to Lenny White with "Return to Forever"
or Billy Cobham.
A lot of what they're playing,
a lot of the fast ghost note things,
I didn't know what they were.
I didn't know how to figure it out.
And one of the benefits to having older brothers
that were musicians,
there's always different records coming in the house.
And I got turned onto the Jean-Luc Ponty record
"Enigmatic Ocean" that had Steve Smith playing, 1977.
So this is before Journey.
And there's something about his playing
that just spoke to me.
It was like the sun poking through the clouds.
I could understand things, I could hear the stickings,
I could hear the different articulations,
even though it was very challenging drumming.
And there was one track in particular called,
"Enigmatic Ocean Part II"
that was just blistering ghost notes, in this pattern.
And I thought I had a handle on some of it
and when I was 12 years old I wrote Steve Smith a letter
through Modern Drummer magazine
and Steven wrote me back a six and a half handwritten page,
including his transcription of a couple different grooves
from "Enigmatic Ocean."
So, when I could see it and then hear it,
that sort of unlocked the whole mystery of ghost notes.
Of where I could place the softer notes in between accents
and then I could go back and I could listen to Lenny White
and Billy Cobham and there was a clarity.
I could understand things now.
So, if you're not hip to this,
I'll play it in its, the simplest form of the way that
he played it in the song.
He changes a few of the symbol patterns
but it's 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2.
1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2.
So, you've got, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2.
1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2.
So, that's the...
Okay so, that's the basic pattern that's happening
between the left hand and the bass drum.
So, the bass drum is...
It's just like a Brazilian bio rhythm.
Okay.
That's what's happening with the hand.
Now we can accent the back beats on two and four.
There's a ghost note right after the back beat.
So I'm really concentrating on nailing the back beat,
ga-ga, ga-ga.
And getting that dynamic relationship
where those two notes are apart.
My snare drum is up so I'm getting a nice karate chop.
I can just line drive, boom right into the back beat.
Rim shot and then, tap.
So now, if we play the right hand with the right foot.
And all that is, is...
Steve also would just accent just beat four
and leave two alone.
So, that would be this.
One, two, three four.
And now we're free to change
the high hat ostinatos to the ends or...
So from there I was able to understand
all these other drummers.
Or just play...
And then start playing other things
because now I understood the relation ship
of where ghost notes can be in between
the bass drum notes played with them.
The spaces, and as I got older
and improved, I was able to experience
the freedom of being able to play
the notes wherever I want to put them.
So that was really the big giant key to the city
when I go that from Steve,
that just opened up all these possibilities
and make me a man.
Well thank you for watching.
Steve was kind enough to pass the information
on to me back in 1981.
So I'm happy to pass this on to you.
Thanks for watching, and we'll see you soon.