The Flying Brick Lick Trick

[five eight]

A drummer friend was talking about doing the flying brick fill in 12/8. I wasn't sure I grasped it by name alone so this is the enlightening explanation he passed on to me that I want to pass on to The House:

"The flying brick fill is solid unison 8th notes between floor tom & snare.
Everybody uses it in 4/4. It's more of a challenge in 12/8 because usually
the speed of the 12 notes would exceed the speed of 8 notes in 4/4. So, I
always had trouble with this in 12/8. First, it was difficult for me to
play repeated unison notes consistently. Then, to get from the floor tom to
the nearest crash in time was difficult. So the groove would suffer
whenever I attempted the flying brick. Then when I saw 2 different drummers
on the same night, use the same simple trick, I thought to myself, "what an
idiot I am for not figuring this out about a hundred years ago". You simply
omit the last note or 2 or 3 (depending upon tempo) on the floor tom, while
the left hand continues to play the complete figure on the snare. Most
people will not notice this "slight of hand" which gives your right hand
plenty of time to aim and hit the crash at the perfect time. "Never
sacrifice the groove", I tell my students."

This guy teaches 80 students and plays in a big horn band, see www.bigdogrevue.com. A guitarist I know told me this drummer is the best musician he's ever played with. I asked why and he said because 'he knows the music inside out.' That's a hefty chunk of advice in itself from a guitarist. We drummers have to OWN our beats. Anyway I hope MD didn't do an article on the Flying Brick last month.

[Dazzler]

Interesting. The best drummers I know that play 12 quavers in unison on the floor tom and snare to set up a big band are Irv Cotler and Butch Miles. They manage to do this at fairly 'up' tempos, but I don't think that they miss out any notes. They've just got great technique, and you're right, it IS hard to do.