Let’s talk some more about the album My Morning Jacket released a couple of months ago. In my last post about My Morning Jacket, I wrote that this album probably has drummer Patrick Hallahan’s best performance with MMJ. Today’s tune is called “In Color,” which is a standout for Patrick across the entire MMJ discography.
The song is a rather sensual blues number, but instead of dissecting any sort of seductive drumming, I want to look at Patrick’s playing during a big jam/guitar solo that happens in the middle of the song. His drumming has some very good pacing throughout this section, with each measure ending with increasingly intense fills.
I think the following measure provides a good synopsis. It has a taste of a lot of the moves Patrick uses on this tune — some funky playing between the kick, snare, and cymbal; some disorienting rhythms; and some fast singles:
By this point in the solo, Patrick begins to use familiar motifs over and over, especially the rhythm right after beat seven in the excerpt above.
It's kind of a weird-looking pattern, but as long as you maintain an 8th note pulse, you shouldn't have trouble navigating it. Consider how you would read these two examples:
It’s just that easy!
Edit: Well, actually, I decided to tweak the engraving on that rhythm. I’ve updated the PDF, but I don’t have the energy to make new screenshots.
Last time, I mused about my confusion regarding how many toms were used in the studio for this LP. I know I've seen MMJ use as many as four toms in concert, but I swear I can only hear two on this album. He might be using four, but that's kind of the problem with using more than two toms — most people will just hear “high” and “low” unless you’re rolling down the drums like Neil Peart. So that’s what I have notated.
That’s all for this year. See you in the next one.
