Roger Hawkins

Roger Hawkins is one of my all time favorite drummers.  

When I think about him I think of three things: pocket, tone and Aretha!

“Sweet Sweet Baby” from “Lady Soul” is a favorite example of his deeply funky feel and unique way of driving the band.

A defining characteristic of Roger’s approach are the subtle variations he adds into his groove. 

The first example from this track is the repeating theme of opening his hi-hat on the “and” of “3”.

Another is the "2 - and - a" pattern on the hi-hat.

A non repeating and more sparingly used idea is the  snare buzz on the "+" or "a" of beat "4."

He drives the band with his simple 8th note bass drum pattern and occasionally adds in variations to the shape of the song. Here is a transcription of the first Verse, Pre Chorus and Chorus of “Sweet Sweet Baby.”

Tone 

Roger Hawkins drums when recorded by Tom Dowd are my favorite recorded drum sound. I asked my friend and recording engineer Jeff Yurek for his thoughts on this recording.

Jeff Yurek - My initial thoughts listening to the record were that the drums were recorded using a very minimalist technique. Most likely they’re using great, classic mics (that will cost many thousands of dollars today) in a great room (Atlantic Studios on Broadway in NYC). In terms of technique, I thought probably two mics, possibly a ribbon mic overhead, placed very low (by today’s standards) and definitely a spot mic on the kick drum.

The sound is all about the tuning of the drums, a very sparse drum set. Most importantly, it’s  Roger’s touch. You simply cannot achieve this sound with the hard hitting hi-hat technique commonly employed by modern drummers. You can just feel how low the overhead mic is and it’s not something we do a lot of today. It’s this low mic that’s just kind of near everything, probably closest to the snare side of the kit and capturing all the drums ringing in sympathy with each other, all this kind of glue and vibe in between the notes. 

When you have someone who can play the hats/cymbals with such light touch and hit the drums appropriately hard that’s all it takes.

In terms of post-processing all I really hear is a bit of EMT plate verb added in varying amounts on different songs. I don’t think there is a significant amount of compression (for context The Beatles were in the middle of popularizing super compressed drums right at about the same time- Sgt. Peppers was release at almost the same time). Compressors were not numerous in studios. Even if you wanted to compress the drums, you’ve most likely only got one comp and you’re recording the whole band live, so you’re going to use it on Aretha to keep her huge dynamic range in check. Keep in mind also that they’re recording to tape which does compress transients depending on how hard you push it so it’s not like zero compression the way it would be today if you just ran two mics into a ProTools LE rig.

Mic choice (ribbon mics also naturally compress transients, see below), placement and maybe a bit of EQ (sounds like some low-end boost on kick for sure) get you everything you need.

You don’t quite see the whole set up in these pictures but you can see that the mic set-up is pretty close to what I described above with the addition of a second overhead on the floor tom side (this is very much like the Glynn Johns approach used on many Stones records from the same period.

As I thought, the snare-side overhead is quite low and it is a ribbon. I believe it’s an RCA77 (http://www.coutant.org/ribbons.html). This type of mic is just amazing for drums. They kind of soften or compress transients and have this wonderful fat midrange quality that is just amazing on snare drums. I cannot tell what he’s got going on on the tom side but it may also be another 77 and of course we cannot see the kick drum spot mic but you can see that there is a stand in the center which is likely holding this mic.

What’s interesting here is that the drums on the record are in mono, usually panned to one side, but Tom Dowd did record stereo information. You are left to wonder how this was captured on the tape machine and when the decision was made to reduce to mono. He had 8 tracks to work with (famously Atlantic had this already since about 1960) so did he record the drums across two tracks with Left & Right overheads (summing the third kick mic across both channels) or simply reduce all three to a single track. It is also possible that he simply did not record the floor-tom side mic or only mixed it in on tunes where Roger played fills.

12/8 Subdivisions

This lesson is the first in a series demonstrating of one of my favorite exercises.

The exercise focuses on improving your comfort level with 12/8 Afro patterns, solidifying your time and eventually expanding your possibilities in improvisation.

In the first lesson I'll be showing you a few basic ways a 12/8 pattern can be subdivided.

The first step is to take any 12/8 afro pattern you like and write it out in 6/4. 

You can do this by writing out all 12 notes of the pattern but instead of arranging them in 4 groups of 3, arrange them in 6 groups of two.

To start out we will keep things simple. The hand pattern for this demonstration will be a basic sticking.

Another aspect of this exercise is the use of your voice. I’ve gotten a lot of value from incorporating my voice into exercises while practicing.

To start we will sing the rhythm that's created by the sticking pattern in your right hand.Then we will use simple foot patterns to subdivide the hand pattern. The first is a dotted whole note.

Once you have mastered this exercise singing the right hand rhythm, go back and play it again singing the right foot rhythm.

Next we will divide the hand pattern into 2 parts using dotted half notes.

Then three half notes.

Four dotted quarter notes.

and finally 6 quarter notes.

Its important to have a strong sense of both sides of these rhythms. The rhythm thats created in your right hand, and the rhythm subdivision in your right foot. This exercise is the foundation that we are going to use to expand your ability by using different hand patterns, as well as using the subdivisions created in your feet as starting points for improvisation using the rhythms scale and other jumping off points for improvisation.

I hope you enjoyed this lesson. In the next lesson I will go over how to practice this material with or without a metronome, and along with primary source recordings.

Ill have that up sometime soon. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me. All my info is at my website www.andrewhalljones.com. Im also available for Skype lessons if your interested in digging deeper into any topics. Have fun practicing, and remember: Time with music is time well spent.