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Anika Nilles part 1 - Lesson Notes!
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Anikas drumming in the song Alter Ego is very nice. The first time I saw it my reaction
was Nice fill. Nice groove. Another nice fill. etc.!

In an interview she said her approach is to program a drum part along to the sequenced
music, then go away and learn it. That means the creative part of it can be done away
from the drums - you can try lots of different ideas (that you may not be able to physically
play) and shape them until youre happy with them. Then, once youre happy with the part
youve invented, you can go away and learn to play it. !

The result is a well composed drum part that you play well (since youve worked hard to
learn the parts). In short, its not luck that every fill in this song is great.!

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Fill 1 - Quintuplets!
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Heres the first fill. You should be able to make sense of it. If not - revisit the video or the
quintuplets VIP lesson.!

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Fill 2 - 0:31!
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Heres the next cool fill!

What I like about this is the fact that its in triplets. It sounds cool coming into this from the
straight groove. Its fairly straight forward but some of the stickings might feel unnatural at
first.

Fill 3 - 0:37!

This fill sounds very simple, but its actually quite tricky to play. You have to make sure
you give the 8th notes on beats 1 and 2 their full space. Dont be tempted to turn the first
two beats into triplets. Apart from that its just a case of thinking of the strokes you need to
use to be prepared for the accents. The L in beat 2 will be an up stroke so youre ready
for the back beat.!

A good way to practice the bass drum placement is to start by just playing 8th note singles
(R L R L R L R L etc.) then add some kick notes between the L and R. Pay attention to
how your hands feel when you add the kick -their movement shouldnt change.!

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Fill 4 - 0:40!
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This is a cool fill using the cowbell and a 3 over 4 polyrhythm.!
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Basically, youre playing a 4 note pattern (R L L F) and repeating it, but youre playing it at
a triplet rate so it doesnt resolve on each beat. Instead, it takes 12 notes until the pattern
resolves, which is 4 beats. So, you can fit 3 lots of the 4 note pattern in each bar. The
right hand accent is playing 3 notes per bar - hence the 3 over 4 reference.!

Work on this slowly. To begin with keep the right hand on one sound source. That way
youll hear the 4-note pattern more easily. !

Practice counting the 1/4 notes out loud so you dont lose your place in the bar and step
the hi-hat on 1/4 notes to give you a rhythmic reference to the 4.!

Once youre happy with how that sounds begin to move the right hand between 2 sound
sources like in the fill (hat and snare, or ride and snare). Because the spacing of the snare
notes is even the listener hears that almost like a new backbeat in a different time. Thats
what makes it confusing and cool sounding.

Heres 2 bars of the 4 note sticking written out. The right hand moves from ride to snare.!

Note that the bars are the same but the ride/snare accents are reversed in bar 2. That is,
in bar 1 you have Ride - Snare - Ride. Then in bar 2 you have Snare - Ride - Snare.
Thats simply because youre alternating between them and you can only fit 3 per bar.
That can be a roadmark to grab hold of though. You know that in the even bars youll be
playing a snare on the 1.!

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Groove at 0:47!
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The reason I wrote this one out is for the sake of practicing the accuracy and togetherness
of x-stick with the kick. Also, at the end of bar 4 there are some nice syncopated
placements of the x-stick - it hits every 3rd 16th.!

Fill 5 - 1:07!

This fill is a lead into a very orchestrated chorus.!

Focus on the accents in the first half. The ghost notes are just filling in.!
At the end make sure youre playing full strokes for all those hits - you want them to be as
loud as the kick.!

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Fill 6 - 1:08!
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This fill comes every time theres a chorus. There are lots of nice things about it. !
I like the fact that it goes into triplets then back into 16ths. I also like the fact that theres no
big accents on kick or snare on beat 1 of bars 2 and 4. !

I explain how to tackle it in the video. Just remember to pay attention to the stickings. In
particular the tom/kick fill at the start of bar 3. The left hand takes the lead here.!

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Play around with the ideas and see if you can come up with your own.!
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Next week well move onto more of the song.!
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