Playing 'After beats'

 ( This also explains a student's mind shift when hoketing [see Amadinda])

One of the more common rhythms for snare drum in a concert band are 'After beats', the Bass drum plays the 'Down beats (1,2,3,4,etc.) and the Snare drum plays the 'ands' of the beats. Normally the instruction process starts with the teacher having the student counting all of the eighth notes (1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &), but playing only on the &'s. This is a good introduction but it shouldn't stop here. As the student improves with their stick control, their ability requires a different way of thinking.

The first thing is to find the Tempo that the student is comfortable playing. I choose a Tempo slightly slower than this.

  1. I have the student play all of the eighth notes along with a metronome.

 2.  They continue to play all of the eighths but the downbeats are played on the rim of the drum. 

  3.  Now they play the downbeats either in the air or on the side of their leg. At this point they hear the metronome on the down beat and the drum on the after beats.

  4.  Unbeaming the eighth notes presents them with visualizing how the 2 parts fit together.

  5.  At this point they play only the 'Afterbeat', and they can feel the interplay of the 2 parts.

  6.  This is where the mind shift takes place. As they are playing, they think of their part as the 'Downbeat' and the metronome is playing the 'Afterbeat'.  If they think they are playing the 'Downbeat', they feel they have control over the tempo and the metronome is following them.

  7.  The final step is for them to not think of 'Downbeats' or 'Afterbeats' but rather hearing 2 voices producing 1 rhythm. Now they are ready to increase the tempo. 

This is not achieved in 1 lesson, it takes weeks of practice for the student to play afterbeats properly even at a moderate tempo. However, with time most of my students have been able to play afterbeats at 144 bpm. One particularly adept student was able to play them at 240 bpm!