Letting the Snare Drum Breathe (L#34)

In this lesson, I'm talking about what I call 'letting the snare drum breathe', which means leaving room for the snare drum, as you might have guessed ;).

In a 4/4 beat, the snare drum would generally be hitting on 2 and 4, right? 1-snare-3-snare… If you hold all your notes --i.e. let them ring, it doesn't leave any room for the snare to 'breathe'. Don't get me wrong: it's not a 'bad' thing and can be done on purpose, but stopping the notes at times to make more room for the snare drum, gives a very different feel, even though you're playing the same basic rythm. And you can alternate the two, as we'll be seeing --or rather 'hearing' in this video.