The Nashville Drummers Project

Transcription #3 - Richard Scott

In this installment of the NDP transcription series, we take a look at some killer grooves from one of Nashville’s most hard-working and creative up-and-coming drummers, Richard Scott (check out Richard’s NDP interview here - http://bit.ly/dTaTbW).  Here is a little insight into each of these grooves from the man himself:

“Rooftops” - This groove is one of my all-time favorites!  It was fun to experiment with fresh takes on one of music’s best grooves - the blues shuffle!  After trying more traditional hi-hat patterns such as swung eight notes, we decided the quarter note hat was the way to drive the track.  That presented a challenge since it seemed to open up some space that wasn’t necessarily desired.  So, the added ghost notes were used in hopes of retaining that awesome blues shuffle feel that we wanted for the track.

“The Wind” - During the pre-production process, Gabe and I had talked about some percussion ideas for the last section of this track.  We talked about overdubbing hi-hat triplets or reversing the groove and overdubbing cowbell.  Out of those talks came a groove that melted the two ideas together.  It started as a way to recreate the groove in a live setting without using a percussionist.  The result of that ended up being the groove Gabe liked best.

“Change In The Making” - One of the best parts about having a gig with Addison Road is playing this groove every show (it’s also one of my favorite lyrical themes of the show)!  Making the groove sit just right is the most fun/challenging part about playing it.  One of the keys to making it right is balancing subtle ghost notes with a fat rock groove.