{"id":33085,"date":"2021-12-31T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/?p=33085"},"modified":"2022-08-20T09:44:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-20T16:44:18","slug":"best-prince-drum-beats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/best-prince-drum-beats\/","title":{"rendered":"The Top 5 Prince Grooves (According To Prince&#8217;s Drummer)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7fKM6Xq6JgY\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Are you ready to get your funk on? Hannah Welton worked with Prince from 2012 until his passing in 2016 as part of his backing band, 3RDEYEGIRL. A product of the social age, she got her big break when Prince discovered her on YouTube, so it&#8217;s no wonder Welton emphasizes the importance of practicing regularly and sharing your playing online (&#8220;Because you never know who&#8217;s going to come across your work!&#8221;)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A bonus of working with Prince was that he was an exceptional drummer and groove writer himself, so when you were playing parts he&#8217;d written, you knew they&#8217;d be perfect for each song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enough of the backstory. Bring on Hannah Welton&#8217;s 5 favorite Prince grooves!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>&#8220;Let&#8217;s Work&#8221;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Prince asked Welton to keep the tip of the stick on the top of the hi-hat to get an even-sounding beat (say bye-bye to accents and a heavy-handed rock approach). She&#8217;d also accent the kick that fell on the one, and play pickups on the kick softly so the bass drum part would ebb and flow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/drumeoblog.s3.amazonaws.com\/beat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/31104149\/1letswork.svg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-33136\" width=\"840\" height=\"82\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>&#8220;Purple Rain&#8221;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Because this song was such a massive hit for Prince, Welton wanted to make sure she approached this song with integrity. It can be tempting to try and fill the space when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/how-to-play-a-rock-ballad-like-a-pro-todd-sucherman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">playing ballads<\/a>, but letting a simple groove do its thing means the other instruments and vocalist can shine. <br><br>This groove is similar to the one in &#8220;Let&#8217;s Work&#8221;, but unlike that song, this has more of a driving hi-hat with accents. Welton would move to a soft ride part in the chorus to let the cymbal sing, and add crashes, ride bell and fills in the solo to elevate the section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/drumeoblog.s3.amazonaws.com\/beat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/31104154\/2purplerain.svg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-33137\" width=\"841\" height=\"96\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>&#8220;777-9311&#8221;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Originally performed by The Time, Prince used a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/a-drummers-guide-to-electronic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">drum machine<\/a> for this groove, so it can be hard for human drummers to recreate it perfectly. Welton picked apart each aspect of the groove. She&#8217;d try to figure out what the hi-hat was doing, then listen again to what the kick was doing before deciphering how they worked together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drummers (human ones, that is) tend to add an extra snare pickup on the &#8216;a&#8217; of 4 going into the top of the phrase, but that&#8217;s not how it sounds on the record &#8211; so pay attention!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/drumeoblog.s3.amazonaws.com\/beat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/31104203\/37779311.svg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-33138\" width=\"842\" height=\"101\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>&#8220;Mountains&#8221;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Welton used a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/live-hybrid-drumming-mike-sleath\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Roland SPD-SX sampling pad<\/a> to get the claps in this song. But before bringing in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/the-ultimate-guide-to-drum-samples\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">samples<\/a>, she had to make sure she was comfortable playing the part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Break down the first groove first &#8211; don&#8217;t move onto the phrase with the toms until you&#8217;re comfortable with the part that comes before it.  When you&#8217;re ready, keep in mind that the samples come in on the &#8216;and&#8217; of 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/drumeoblog.s3.amazonaws.com\/beat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/31104208\/4mountains.svg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-33139\" width=\"841\" height=\"244\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>&#8220;Musicology&#8221;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Now <em>that&#8217;s <\/em>a funky groove! Welton learned this part from previous rehearsal recordings played by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/john-blackwell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Blackwell<\/a>. Later on, Prince wanted to make it even more funky, so he pushed back beat 4 &#8211; just enough to create some tension &#8211; and a snare pickup as it goes to the top of the phrase. He also wanted Welton to &#8216;dance&#8217; on the hi-hat using a dynamic touch. The only rule? It <em>has<\/em> to be funky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musora.com\/musora-cdn\/image\/quality=85\/https:\/\/drumeoblog.s3.amazonaws.com\/beat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/31104211\/5musicology.svg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-33140\" width=\"842\" height=\"510\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you enjoyed this lesson, Hannah is a featured coach for Drumeo members (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">check out the free 7-day trial<\/a>), which includes an upcoming course all about how to write the perfect drum parts. Don&#8217;t miss it!<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe class=\"email-form-include-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/weeklyemail\" frameborder=\"none\"><\/iframe><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prince&#8217;s former drummer Hannah Welton demos her favorite grooves and explains exactly how Prince wanted them to be played.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":192,"featured_media":33089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4019,4016],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drummers","category-songs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33085"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33142,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33085\/revisions\/33142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drumeo.com\/beat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}