Hand drumming the blues?
1DrumBum--thanks for the tips on note bending! That's another thing I can add to my own bag of tricks...
As one of the many other hand drummers in the forum, bear, I've played with all styles of music. As you no doubt already know, most blues music is in 6/8 time, so if you can lock onto that groove, the rest comes easier. On faster blues pieces, a "walking" beat or a rhumba beat works well. But more than anything else, as 1DB says, it is 80% feel and 20% technique, especially on the slower stuff. And whatever beat you use, don't overplay. Most blues music is stripped-down to the raw essentials anyway, and whether it's hand or set, the simpler the better.
BTW, I once sat in on djembe with a folk duo (guitar/mandolin and violin) and it was some of the best hand drumming I'd done up to that point...keep on jammin', bear and
keep the beat goin' ... Don't keep it to yourself!
Charlie
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." --Henry David Thoreau, "Walden," 1854
"There's a lot to be said for Time Honored tradition and value." --In memory of Frank "fiacovaz" Iacovazzi
"Maybe your drums can be beat, but you can't."--Jack Keck
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