The MadPlayer was a terrific electronic music creator/player that (unfortunately) is no longer being produced. However, you can still find them used around the web. I teamed up with the inventor of the MadPlayer to promote the device during a contest at Summer NAMM 2003 in Nashville. I gave a player away to anyone who could successfully play my Visually Mad Groove, which proved extremely difficult for most drummers to play!
The contest is long over now but if you love a challenge, then you should dig this groove. It requires both speed and coordination to play up to a decent tempo. What tempo? Well, just as fast as you can play it while keeping it clean!
Instructions: Refer to the music notation above. The T is to be played with the right stick extended across the snare drum rim with the tip touching one side of the rim. The B is played using the butt of the stick on the other side of the rim. You execute the right stick part by rocking the stick back and forth alternately striking the tip and butt of the stick on the rim of the snare drum. The left stick is held in your normal playing position and played on the snare drum head itself.
Note: The reason there are no feet involved in this groove is to demonstrate how you can simulate a cool groove using only two hands on a single snare drum, providing you have a little creativity and, although it helps to have a double-triggered electronic snare drum, you don’t need one in order to benefit from woodshedding this drill!
Have fun and stay loose,
–Tiger Bill
