Any advice for getting my left hand going on the snare. I can do the 2 and 4 on the snare thing but I'd love to get a little extra out of the left hand and snare in between.

If you have exercises or practice techniques please post em up.

Thnx

Thank you

Yes I read.

The Chuck Silverman site is just what I was looking for. I'll look into the book after I play with this for a while.

Thnx again

I think the best way to approach this is to start with snare drum technique - i.e. just your hands, out of the context of groove playing. A simple exercise is to take a 4/4 bar of 16th notes and write them out with various accent patterns (or you can use the last pages of Syncopation...). Start with basic patterns, like the first 16th-note of every group, then just the second, then the third, etc. Play these using low/tap strokes about 1" off the drum while playing all accents from 6" or more so that there is a real difference in the two sound levels.

A slightly more complex way of going about it would be to start with various paradiddle inversions (i.e. the first few pages of Stick Control) and, say, play all RH notes accented (as above) and all LH notes unaccented (ghosted). Then, switch the accent/ghosting to the opposite hand. Strive to maintain just two sound levels - have all your ghosted notes be even in volume and all your accents even in volume.

I would also start working on my left hand alone. For instance, you can play the groups of accented 16th notes as in my first example with one hand. Start as slowly as you need to, and concentrate on having two distinct sound levels and staying relaxed as you move from accented to unaccented notes.

Eventually, when you have some dexterity built up in your left hand, get into the flam-based rudiments and flam exercises.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, enlist the aid of a teacher to help you with stroke motions  - i.e. up/down/tap strokes.

An understanding of rudiments will be key to playing attractive and unique ghosting patterns.

Use the entire snare realstate as well along with stick height to add more variation to your ghosting patterns.  I like to go way out toward the edge to play some of my ghost patterns because the snare sounds soo cool when struck at that location ( my 25 year old black beauty has a wonderful ring that is to die for when played lightly toward the edge ).  Using the outside edge is also a nice alternative if your not immediately proficient at controlling stick height.

Some (including Weckl) strike the ghost notes with a bit more angle of attach.  With this they achieve not only a lighter volume but a different tone.  Ghost notes are often supposed to be "felt" not "heard".  I've been working on this for a while but unfortunately the feel is not there yet.  This one of my favorite demo's of ghosting...  Not a lot of ghost notes at all but the blending with the hi hat is phenomenal.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6x6uoNqH-_A" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/6x6uoNqH-_A</a>

If your just getting started with it, this vid might help...  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/5TAUHxiBwxQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/5TAUHxiBwxQ</a>

Work on developing an EXTREME difference between accented and unaccented notes. Play through a bunch of accent exercises, with the unaccented notes whisper-soft, and the accents absolutely SLAMMING.

Another key ingredient of ghost notes is the blending of sounds. When guys like Gadd, Weckl, or Colaiuta play this stuff, it's often extremely difficult to tell which notes are on the snare, and which are on the hat. Spend some time listening to these guys, learning some of their licks. Rod Morgenstein had an excellent book/cassette focusing on ghost notes - if you can find it, that would help.

One of the trickiest aspects of ghost notes is that your left hand will often be called on to play rapid groups of accented and unaccented notes - it can be pretty tricky. For example, try this 16th-note exercise, and also come up with your own variations. Remember to keep the unaccented noted (in lower case) MUCH softer than the accents (in capital letters).

R l r l  L l r L  r l l R  L l r l

Notice how the left hand has to play a 3-note group consisting of non-accent, accent, and non-accent, all in a row, at beat 2. Tricky stuff, but it sounds great when you nail it.