[Jared Falk]

This is the *official* discussion thread for the Latin Drumming System.

Latin Drumming System « click this link to learn more about the Latin Drumming System at LatinDrummingSystem.com.

Use the "Add Reply" button above to post your questions or comments.

[Poco Askew]

The LDS is a love/hate thing for me. I love the beats. They really pull me in. I hate that I can't play most of them (yet). I haven't spent enough time on this System, but I think it will end up being my favorite. It has everything. Independence, slow tempos, fast tempos, paradiddles and flams used in beats and fills around the kit, lots of 16th notes (hands and feet), one handed 16th's on the hi hats, 16th triplets and mixed triplet partials, 16th rests, dotted 8th rests, open/close hit hats, accents and ghost notes, lots of cross sticking, and of course, more cow bell.

While demonstrating the various fills (there's about 100 of them), Mike uses some awesome generic Latin beats to set up the fills and then does variations on the beats. Not only do you learn the fills, but you get ideas about how to work the core beat in different ways around the kit. I wish they were notated in the workbook, but with the generic beat notation and the multi camera angles, you can figure out what's being played. I like that the different styles start off very simply with just the hats, or bass, or cow bell, and are then rapidly built up with the rest of the kit (until they're impossible) .

Most of these beats look deceptively simple. Then I try to play them. Probably more than any other System, this one will make you The Time Keeper and a black belt in independence. IMO, if you can play these beats, you will be better at playing everything, including jazz, funk and rock. You may not be a master blaster, but you'll have more groove than 90+% of the drummers out there and be able to count any music you run across.

[drumgeezer]

Well. Now I want this

[Matt Shank]

Bump.

[Dealas]

Poco, how've you been doing on the LDS? Any breakthrough yet?

And where's the video?

[Poco Askew]

Dealas, on Apr 25 2009, 04:53 PM, said:

Poco, how've you been doing on the LDS? Any breakthrough yet?

And where's the video?

No breakthroughs (yet). My video is queued up right behind yours.

[Dealas]

Oh, so that's how it's gonna be?

[Poco Askew]

Dealas, on Apr 28 2009, 11:48 AM, said:

Oh, so that's how it's gonna be?

You had to have seen it coming.

[DrummerChef]

Poco Askew, on Apr 28 2009, 03:20 PM, said:

You had to have seen it coming.

Like a freight train!

[Scorpian3]

drumgeezer, on Dec 22 2008, 07:23 AM, said:

Well. Now I want this

Me Too

[drummerpablo1]

I bought it to add variety to my playing style, but honestly I can't get from the clavé (<----- note the accent) beats to Bossanova beats. I haven't moved past there: I'm still working on the Bossanova before I go on.

I need more work on coordination. I can get the hand parts moving and the feet parts, but not all four at the same time.

Thanks to this album I noticed the Bossanova snare part on The Doors' "Break On Through". It's a fun song to play.

[Bogdan]

Hi

I was wondering the Cascara seems to be as a cmbination of singles and doubles -RLRR LRLR RLRL RRLR (I mean in hands part),
Would it be suitable to use sometmes in Latin style paradidle we know RLRR LRLL or RLRR LRRL RRLR LRRL.

This post has been edited by Bogdan: 14 July 2009 - 06:23 AM

[drummerpablo1]

A General Criticism

I'd like to begin by saying that I despise the advertising style of these drumming systems.

I understand that, in order to make money, a heavy amount of advertising is necessary.

However, when I started using freedumlessons.com, it was during a 'countdown', shouting at me that this was the last store would be open and after midnight that night I would have no opportunity to buy it.

I bought the Latin Drumming System and checked the site on the next day, only to find that the countdown had restarted, and every day after that the countdown restarted for about good week.

This style of advertising, while in my case gaining a customer, lost something for freedrumlessons.com; I no longer respect them.

That advertising promotion and others following it are dirty.

It's quite possible I'm simply being a total hippie, of course.

The Latin Drumming System

This being said, I can get on to the actual music.

I have been fortunate to begin drumming through a high school Drum Corp, which gave me quite a foundation in technique, something I apply to all aspect of my drumming on the tenor quints as well as the drum set.

Whereas Drum Corps have a massive appreciation for technique, my translation of excessive drags and rolls on to the drum set has been received with much criticism by my peers; although a lot of music calls for the use of technique and technique can be used tastefully, most music (especially popular music, including most rock) holds extremely little applications for technique.

I was infinitely frustrated, for I spent hours every day drilling at complex sheet music, and all of this work was rarely appreciated in a band context.

Little by little I became aware of another type of technique, one focusing less on ability to play many note but rather how; as opposed to shoving as many notes as possible into each measure, a lot of challenging rhythmic music focuses on playing offbeat music [and for a great example of this, look into the insanely challenging book "Rhythmic Illusions" by Gavin Harrison - that book will give the average drummer years of material to work with].

Latin music is a great manifestation of offbeat music: in general, the music will be relatively easy to play technically while being confusing and initially hard to pick up on rhythmically.

Most technical drummers with knowledge of rhythmic music theory hit a wall if they focus, like I did, on playing massive quantities of notes, whereas offbeat music supplies a source for groovy yet challenging rhythms that are note all that difficult to play.

I believe that, to the technical and simple drummer alike, offbeat rhythms such as the Latin grooves provided in this system provide inspiration for a new type of originality and add feels to the music that would otherwise not be encountered.

Michalkow is a pretty good teacher, but I imagine most of the people buying this System would be alien to this music; two easy ways to compensate for this are consistent practice and listening to a good amount of Latin music (with Santana serving as a phenomenal bridge between Rock and Latin genres, albums such as "Santana" and "Moonflower" having a lot to teach).

All in all, the Latin Drumming System teach rather well all of the rhythms I've grown up listening to in South Florida, and is a good source of variety and depth in music; I recommend it.

[jeffcorpse]

A VERY good teaching tool! I love being able to add variety to my playing and love the layout and how easy it is taught.

[jkfrench]

Just started getting into the LDS, even though I've had it for a little while, and I have a question:

Is the notation (both in the workbook and on the the video) wrong for #7 of the Cascara? Specifically shouldn't the hi-hat pedal for the first staff be on beats 2 & 4, not the & of 2 and 4 (like it's printed in the workbook/shown on the video). I looks like Mike is playing on beats 2 & 4. I mean the first staff of #7 should be identical to the second staff of #8...i.e #8 is correct, right?

Just making sure I haven't totally lost it yet

[Janado]

jkfrench, on Oct 29 2010, 10:15 PM, said:

Just started getting into the LDS, even though I've had it for a little while, and I have a question:

Is the notation (both in the workbook and on the the video) wrong for #7 of the Cascara? Specifically shouldn't the hi-hat pedal for the first staff be on beats 2 & 4, not the & of 2 and 4 (like it's printed in the workbook/shown on the video). I looks like Mike is playing on beats 2 & 4. I mean the first staff of #7 should be identical to the second staff of #8...i.e #8 is correct, right?

Just making sure I haven't totally lost it yet

Hey man

In the video Mike plays the hi-hat on beats 2 and 4, so it's a typo on beat #7 on both sheet music and DVD.

Take care man and have fun with the LDS, lots of fun .

This post has been edited by Janado: 29 October 2010 - 05:44 PM