Ostinatos / Circles / Jon Fishman, Steve Gadd & open-handed (and minded) hi-hatting

I rather dread introductions to new folks at family and non-music workplace-type gatherings. "What do you do?" someone asks, "I'm a musician" I reply. Generally what follows is "oh you're in a band!" ("how cute" is usually implied, but sometimes stated), or what is for me the toughest question of all, "what kind of music do you play?" Um, all of it?

Seriously, I try! Secretly I envy guys like Travis Barker with their neck tats and hi-hats above their heads; they decided early on to do one thing and either succeed or fail. There was no chance of that for me. In my earliest days it came from Neil Peart. What was he doing with those temple blocks and that glockenspiel? I've got to learn how to play those! Then as a teenager I actually attempted tabla and put in at least the ol' adolescent-try to learn various hand drumming techniques. My every free afternoon was spent as a voracious hunter/gatherer of LPs, cassettes and CDs of basically anything that looked remotely interesting from anywhere on earth. And once I read Mickey Hart's Drumming at the Edge of Magic it was over; all these years later I still see that as the launching point of the ethnomusicology dissertation I will eventually finish (seriously, I will).

Somewhere about 8 years ago whilst pectoral-deep in a phase of learning everything I could about reggae--which included stints in the house band backing 7-8 Caribbean singers at night at The Western Front in Cambridge MA--I had a talk with myself. Obviously I had no real career in reggae (but I'm proud of these albums). It was time to move on.

Circles being what they are, mine led me back to where I began at rock n' roll. Actually, I still play everything, but my bread and butter these days is rock and jam and fusion music. And though it doesn't necessarily apply directly, every minute I spent trying to trot like Horsemouth on Marcus Garvey or drop anvil-heavy backbeats like Style Scott with the Roots Radics informs every minute I play now.

Tomorrow night I'm heading into NYC to see a band I loved as a kid, Phish. It's funny for me because I was there when the original fire burned and saw countless Phish shows between '92-96. It was seminal, but I've definitely moved on. The fandom I was open to as a young man is a closed door now, but I still deeply appreciate their dedication to bizarre music and in particular to focused improvisations.

From the drummer perspective, what I admire most about Jon Fishman is the way he crafts parts that are as much a part of a song's composition as any harmonic element. My enduring favorite (let's be honest: I really only know Phish songs pre-1996...) is "Stash," a song with an extended improvisation anchored mostly by a hi-hat ostinato that Fishman plays open-handed (Figure A). Here's a version from a show I attended as a youth.

Figure A: The bottom is HH played with foot, the top with hand. Fishman usually plays the top as an open HH sound

 In the earlier versions of the tune he has "go-to" right hand and bass drum patterns (Figures B & C), but they're negotiable.

Figure B: The bass drum ostinato

Figure C: the "starting point" pattern Fishman plays with his right hand on the ride cymbal, often on the bell

Because the pattern is played with his left hand on the HH, Fishman uses his right to punctuate on toms, snare and cymbals in a pocketed but rhythmic fashion. The consistency of the HH pattern creates a lovely little canvas on which Fishman, and the band, can paint happy little squirrels, distorted Picassos, or just toss handfulls of colors. The lack of a backbeat increases the dynamic range and allows the jam to simmer; Fishman isn't enforcing groove or time, he's just keeping the string taut.

In this newer version Fishman employs the same concept but orchestrates it with his left hand on a woodblock and his right on the snare for much of the jam. The effect is similar but the groove is a bit more defined.

Though I heard this approach first from Fishman, he didn't invent it! I'm not sure Steve Gadd did either, but let's just say he owns it. He uses the same hi-hat pattern with a deeply funky backbeat during the solos on this version of "Way Back Home" by the Gadd Gang. He also takes advantage of the open-handed approach to add colors to the groove by way of toms and cymbals with his right hand.

Finally, why don't I be brilliant and put up a video of myself playing a variation on the beat right after Gadd... Ok, here it is! I love this groove. I used a version more like Gadd's during this recent Max Creek take on the tune "Peace Train." I sometimes use a version more like Fishman's in the open section of Max Creek's "I Will Always See Your Face" too.

Some Ideas to Practice:

1. Put Figures A-C together. 
1. Hint: if Figure A is kicking your butt, try starting just by playing 8th notes with your foot. Add the in-between LH notes later
2. Hint 2: Trying playing 8th notes with your right hand quietly on snare (this is more of the Gadd sound), this amounts to just playing straight 16ths between your two hands and may make it easier to get going
3. You can also try doing this with any bass drum pattern, such as the 3 extra I've put below (Figures D-F)
2. Begin experimenting with your right hand. 
1. You'll probably find at first that your right hand is stuck on the downbeat 8th notes. Try making all but "2" and "4" ghost notes and you off on the Gadd groove. 
2. Try reading rhythms from Syncopation with your right while keeping the ostinato with the other limbs
3. Double time:
1. The syncopation rhythms. Performed as written they'll all fall on the downbeat 8th notes your right hand would usually play. Double timed they'll crossover the hi-hat pattern more and you'll develop more independence.
2. The bass drum patterns. Or half time them. They all have two easily-phrased relationships to the 16th-note pattern of the left foot and left hand.
4. Improvise!

Extra Bass Drum Patterns, Figures D-F: