Behind The Beat w/ Arthur "L.A." Buckner | Lesson 2: The Dilla Feel (Part 2)

McNally Smith College of Music master's student Arthur "L.A." Buckner shares key concepts he employs in hip-hop, R&B, neo soul and gospel drumming in this exclusive 4-part lesson series.
"Episode 2: The Dilla Feel (Part 2)" resumes Buckner's examination of innovative hip-hop producer J Dilla (A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu, The Roots, Common), who utilized intentional rushing of snare notes when constructing beats.
Buckner explains how drummers can play in the gray area between straight and swung notes on the hi-hat, while deploying "unquantized" snare hits to emulate this purposefully out of sync feel.
For more on McNally Smith College of Music visit: www.mcnallysmith.edu

[@owilliams8371]

Beautiful lesson & playing. And nice production. You guys should do more lessons with this dude or he should start his own channel!

[@SepiaSepiaKR]

I find it interesting: We humans perceive off-tempo playing negatively, UNLESS it's constant and consistent or varying consistently(As in the slider example). Psychoacoustics is dope.

[@j.lombardo]

Leonardo Lanza We perceive a single pitch as being evenly spaced and timed events happening constantly and consistently. Probably the same reasoning behind both

[@dimokol]

Play it once it's off tempo repeat it it's music

[@bawol-official]

@@dimokol Music and mathematics are circular in its symmetries if you think about it. If you where to ‘loop’ any length of sound(s), two entirely different time signatures will eventually meet up to complete the circle(that’s why you don’t have 3/78883920 time signatures, this creates too much invariance to be used practically, they are in time with each other when they eventually meet at the 1 and that could take a long time depending on the offset of the meters)

[@dimokol]

@@bawol-official Not a big fan of maths anymore since I'm being bombarded by mathematics courses at my informatiks uni but you're totally right on this one

[@deguselassie7363]

Damn bro, you just explained my generation of music..big ups

[@sanityinaseaofmadness7353]

Yeah, I love these two videos because they focus on subtlety. I know the clips are 2+ years old, but I would love to hear how they could be applied - with the same level of subtlety. For example, someone who plays sloppily does the things they describe, but not in a controlled manner - so the question becomes "when should they make an appearance". Either way, as a drummer of several decades, these are the kinds of concepts I love watching/considering/discussing. Thanks again for the videos!

[@flownad6]

Amazing lesson! This was always a mystery to me. Thank you

[@mdomme65]

The kit sounds so good…perfection. Not to mention the playing…

[@Zsilu3]

amazing series of videos ! Props to you you Arthur L.A. Buckner ! Best explanations AND demonstrations of Dilla grooves, ideas. It was actually thanks to producers from Japan like "Mistu the beats" and "Grooveman spot" that I got to learn about J Dilla and it really got me into this whole vibe of "drunk drum feel" haha :D ... Thanks bro, and thanks to McNally Smith College to push for this kind of alternative drumming and creative process to be shared and illustrated properly

[@int3533]

One thing about Dilla is his ghost kicks they are super swung like way more than a 16th note triplet almost reminds me of count bassey orchestra

[@leighton_lam]

Yep the ghosted kick notes before a downbeat are real fun to play once you get it, somewhere between a 16th triplet and a 32nd straight note!

[@tdesu]

Amazing series, thank you

[@Wheel333]

These are great ,thanks man.

[@elevendrums9067]

really nice feel, thanks

[@cronologia348]

Great, keep it going

[@Glow0110]

Dooooope, thanks for sharing this video series with the world brother :)

[@BxCortez2050]

Awesome drummer my dude thanx for vids

[@bawol-official]

The groove you play at the beginning reminds me a lot of Figaro by MFDOOM

[@timandtheocean]

Shizzle me nizzle sound. so dope

[@hugovonbratwurst9443]

Beautifull

[@handsomegrooves]

handsome grooves - yes indeed!

[@AdamStachelek]

I would love a lesson on how you rationalize the variations of timings in your head to make this consistent. This is an incredibly good lesson.

[@andrewgithinji8404]

Feel

[@dancefredericko]

I wonder why it's so few people did watch this

[@taomingo5520]

seems like alot of drummers are still into the flashy style of drumming rather than the pocket and groove.

[@ChckYourHead]

I searched for this video but I just didn't know how to google it.

[@TheBawss90]

Lot of people don't know that the Dilla feel, or septuplets, is behind the whole genre and neo-soul and rnb, so it's quite difficult to google or find when you don't search for it

[@GQM3Z]

great, thanks. One question, do you rush the hhat same with the snare? (i mean the hhat on the "n") Because there would be a flam between snare and hat which I cannot hear (maybe I am mis-hearing). thanks again :)

[@AndyjustB]

way cool..I have learnt somethingI I was sent here by the 80/20 drummer, Nate ;)

[@brandonday2494]

4:07 Yaaassss.

[@drrodopszin]

I can't imagine how much practice one should put into coming off from the grid once you are able to work with the metronome... Arthur is amazing.

[@diegomaestre7051]

Great lesson, and of course that groove needs feeling, black feeling, God most to be Afro!

[@tdrum21]

Great stuff here. Thanks for this. When you play the rushed snare every other time do you match the hi hat to that or flam them?

[@mdrums1428]

but you can still do it differently to produce different feelings

[@andrewgithinji8404]

6:27💃💃

[@bolivianguyexperienc]

te amo negrooo!!!

[@gregoryscott3858]

The engineer's Sample Replacement is a bit heavyhanded for me...

[@duncanmcneill7088]

To me it sounds like one of those breaks in rehearsals where the drummer goes for a coffee and the guitarist gets behind the kit while he’s out. Seriously, it’s really difficult for someone so accomplished on their instrument to make it sound consistently wrong. The Dilla feel really fails the “head nod” test - maybe that’s the point...

[@pomecole]

Love these! Please do not continue to play the audio when the drums aren't going to line up with it. Extremely annoying.

[@pauledsall5849]

It makes vinnie,Steve, Virgil, look like idiots. Honestly , it’s not good I, it doesn’t groove , you guys are pulling yourselves about how good it is.

[@crosssecurity1990]

I just don't get it, it sounds terrible with no groove or feel. You are a great player that seems to be trying to play out of groove and time... not digging this feel can't understand it being used on a track.