Tuition videos

2005 winter clinic demonstrating Latin drumming

We have a selection of video clips from Newcastle Drum Centre's '05 Winter drum clinic held at the Rye Hill College. These show the rudiments of Latin percussion styles, followed by the band demonstrating how they can be incorporated in songs. Thanks to the band, who are - in addition to Graeme Hare (drums) - Roy Pearson (percussion), Martin Fletcher (harmonica/percussion), PJ White (bass), and Wes Oliver (guitar).

The videos

The first 3 videos are a tribute to a fantastic percussion trio called 'Talking drums' that feature David Garibaldi (drums), Michael Spiro (percussion) and Jesus Diaz (percussion).

For the drum clinic I combined three of my favourite 'Talking Drums' rhythms into a short piece. You can download the notation here. (I slightly changed the notation to avoid copyright issues).

A Tribute to Talking Drums

Playing the piece with me is Roy Pearson (congas, percussion) and David Lourie (claves). You can check out David Garibaldi and the Talking Drums project at www.bumpcity.com

• Rumba
• Conga
• Mozambique (carnival style)
• Soca Rumba

This is a David Garibaldi tune. I performed this at a drum clinic in Stafford For a shop called Guitar and Son.

The following videos are examples of some of the more popular styles of Latin drumming.
Download the handout that accompanied
this demonstration here.

• Bo Diddly rhythm
  Firstly, we demonstrate the Bo Diddly rhythm. This is a Western application of a clave rhythm. You can hear me tap out a 3/2 son clave rhythm at the start of the tune.
• Bossa Nova
  Listen for the clave rhythm played on snare rim clicks.
• Mambo
  This is my syncopated version of a Mambo.
• Mambo - full band version
  This is our version of a very famous song by a band called The Champs. Tequila!
• Songo
  We used a Songo rhythm in this funk tune to show how you can incorporate Latin music into other styles.
• Songo duet
  For this songo duet, I was joined on stage by one of my students - Elly Stokoe to help me play a duet based on a Songo rhythm. (If you have a friend with another drum kit.. why not try it out?)
• Samba
  We started this tune with a traditional Brazilian samba bell pattern. The second section has more of a modern sound.
• Mozambique (in the style of Steve Gadd)
  This is a little tribute to the drumming of Steve Gadd. This is the very famous rhythm that he has made so popular to drummers all over the world.
• Salsa
  In this video, I show how to overlap different rhythms. I start with my feet playing a salsa bass rhythm, add hi hat on off beats, my right hand plays a Cascara rhythm on cowbell and finally I play a 2-3 rumba clave on the toms to create a simple melodic phrase.
• Afro-Cuban
  This is a triplet based rhythm. The 2-3 clave rhythm you can hear on my cowbell is referred to as a 6/8 clave.
• Linear Latin
  This video features my band 'The Interventionists' and is one of my own compositions, called 'Linear Latin'. I am playing Linear patterns in a Latin style.

Latin rhythm explanation and history
I have produced an information/history sheet to accompany the preceding rhythms.

Latin / African drumming workshops

If you are interested in booking the band for educational workshops and demonstrations, please visit our Latin / African workshops page.