Bonus below! POCKET BUILDERS SONG ANALYSIS & SUGGESTED APPROACHES
This album of original songs written, arranged and recorded by myself were designed with one specific purpose in mind…to help you develop and improve the strength of your groove and deepen your pocket. These songs, written over about a month’s period, were inspired by some of my favourite grooves and songs that I’ve practiced while developing my playing. I would literally take a groove that I love to play, then write a song around it.
The nature of the arrangements are such that not much more than a solid groove is required to play through them. While putting these songs together, the intent was not to have drummers take up much extra time learning elaborate parts. The goal is to encourage you to settle into a groove…and just sit on it, laying down a nice, solid pocket. Most of the songs have specific elements that I love to hear from the other instruments to encourage me to really lay into a deep groove, particularly nice low & thick bass lines. When a bass line is nice and meaty, it just inspires me to support it and not clutter up the flow with a bunch of unnecessary stuff. When you lock into it and it feels nice, you just don’t want to go anywhere else! A huge part of lockin’ up with a nice groove…is feeling it. When you feel it, you respect it. And getting in the way is the last thing on your mind.
The songs are also a LOT of fun to play! There is some seriously funky stuff on this album. I had a lot of fun just putting some of the Maceo Parker inspired horn parts together in songs like ‘Pimp Walkin’ and ‘Left Hook’. You’ll have some great and productive practice sessions playing through this album and the time invested in playing these songs will hopefully transfer over to your playing next time you’re on the stage! Below, you can download the the free Song Analysis & Suggested Approaches walkthrough (pdf. file). Included in the download is a short blurb of my own thoughts on the subject of ‘pocket’ as well brief description and personally suggested approach for each tune. But ultimately, you can interpret them however you like…as long as they GROOVE. Have fun!
Also available on Streaming Sites Everywhere!