Free · with sound
Groupings like 5+5+3+5, Tigran Hamasyan and Nate Wood ideas, and a Skip Step-style study to hear and practise.
Summarised from M. Daunt (2018), Neoteric Drum Set Orchestration. The original musical roles mention kick and snare; these exercises use phone-friendly wood, bell and rim sounds. Teaching summaries, not transcriptions.
The small divisions of the beat provide a shared timing grid. Daunt finds mostly sixteenth-note playing, with occasional eighth notes, dotted values and sixteenth-note triplets. Changing the subdivision adds movement without changing the tempo.
Practice · Count quarter notes while alternating two and four quiet taps per beat. Keep the beat unchanged.
The Court Jester, section three, 1:47–2:52; printed pp. 29–30, 54.
Unequal groups can sit inside ordinary bars. Vardavar uses 5+5+3+5+5+4+5 sixteenths: 32 subdivisions, filling two bars of 4/4. These are accent groups, not seven new time signatures: the irregular surface and the steady meter coexist.
Practice · Speak each group, accent its first syllable, and keep quarter notes with your foot.
Vardavar, 0:00–1:52; printed pp. 45–48, figures 4.1–4.9.
Hamasyan can build a piece around a repeating grid rather than a conventional solo form. The thesis gives The Grid as 5+5+7+5+5+5 sixteenths, another 32-step cycle. Different splits of the same length produce different phrase shapes.
Practice · Compare the two 32-step presets (Vardavar and The Grid). Their length is identical even though their accents differ.
Discussion of Hamasyan's composition, printed p. 14.
Three quarter-note beats and two dotted-quarter beats fill the same six eighth notes. Regrouping 2+2+2 as 3+3 makes a triple-meter bar feel compound-duple without making the bar longer. Daunt hears this implied 6/8 in Wood's opening pattern.
Practice · Play the 3/4 → 6/8 preset and switch your attention between three low pulses and two higher pulses.
The Court Jester, 0:23–0:33; printed pp. 17–18, figures 3.1–3.3.
Four dotted eighth notes fill one bar of 3/4: each lasts three sixteenths. A kick on the first and a snare on the third implied pulse create a backbeat against the original three-beat frame. The new pulse is faster; the bar length stays the same.
Practice · Set the polyrhythm metronome to 3:4. Layer A (3) is the original quarter-note reference.
The Court Jester, 1:21–1:27; printed pp. 24–25, figures 3.22–3.24.
An ostinato is a repeating figure. Wood often gives one or two limbs a steady subdivision pattern so the others can reinforce the bass, catch melody fragments or embellish. Repetition provides a reference that keeps irregular accents understandable.
Practice · Keep an even upper voice while the low voice marks the irregular group starts.
The Court Jester, 4:11 onward; printed pp. 38–43, 54.
Hamasyan hears drum phrases as low and high gestures. Wood maps lower ensemble notes to kick-based sounds and higher notes to snare or cymbals. The kit follows melodic contour as well as rhythm; low and high are relative roles, not exact pitches.
Practice · Turn on Wood / bell contour with the Vardavar preset to hear alternating low and high group starts.
Printed pp. 15–16; Vardavar, pp. 45–46; The Court Jester, pp. 31–36.
Different kit voices can trace different ensemble layers at once. The kick often doubles the bass or lower piano rhythms while snare and cymbals catch melodic accents. This is selective support, not an obligation to double every note.
Practice · Sing a short melody over a steady foot pulse, then give only its key accents to your other hand.
The Court Jester, section two, printed pp. 22–28; summary p. 54.
Moving from closed to open hats, ride, bell, stack or crash changes the texture without necessarily changing the rhythm. Wood also controls length: a closed hi-hat or choked cymbal matches a short ensemble cutoff, while open hats suit sustained sounds.
Practice · Repeat the same attacks with short and ringing sounds. Treat sustain as part of the arrangement.
The Court Jester, printed pp. 18, 33–34, 42; Vardavar pp. 47, 53.
Hamasyan's beatboxing expresses low and high roles through contrasting syllables, making the imagined drum phrase audible before it is played. The thesis links this vocal approach with his deliberate kick/snare contrast.
Practice · Say "dum" for low and "da" for high at the group starts, then move those roles to two surfaces.
Printed pp. 15–16, figure 2.1.
Very quiet notes fill the spaces around stronger structural attacks. They outline subdivisions and add texture without competing with the melody. What matters is the dynamic contrast, not a particular sticking.
Practice · Compare plain playback with Ghost-note texture; the accent structure should stay in the foreground.
The Court Jester, printed pp. 24–26, 36; Vardavar p. 52; summary p. 55.
Raise the level to see more concepts.
Pianist Tigran Hamasyan and drummer Nate Wood build grooves from irregular groupings that still fit inside ordinary bars. Understanding that double layer (odd accents over a steady pulse) is the key to playing them without getting lost, and it applies to any style: modern jazz, progressive metal or Balkan music.
Many concepts in the guide (4 against 3, 6 against 8, 5 against 8) can be heard on the polyrhythm metronome. The level you choose carries over between both pages.
A way of splitting a bar into unequal groups, like 3+3+2 or 5+5+3+5+5+4+5. The bar keeps its length; what changes is where the accents fall. That's why these rhythms can sound 'odd' while still fitting into 4/4.
The 5+5+3+5+5+4+5 pattern adds up to 32 sixteenth notes: exactly two bars of 4/4. The irregular accents sit on top of a steady meter, which is why it feels odd but still lines up.
Say each group out loud, accenting the first number: '1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3…'. Keep a steady pulse with your foot or the soft blip, and slow the tempo until it feels easy.
No. They are teaching reductions based on published analysis (Daunt, 2018). They help you hear and feel the rhythmic ideas, not reproduce the recorded drum parts.
Higher levels show more concepts in the guide, from basic groupings to superimpositions, fills and phrase structure. The same level is shared with the polyrhythm metronome.
