Reading · Glenn Kotche's Substack

Recorded on 7.14.26 backstage in VA Beach. The Dome venue where Wilco was playing had a really nice backstage area - replete with a couple of metal whale nicknacks. I couldn’t resist checking out their sound and when I did, this beat emerged. Actually, it started with just two whales (metals) until I discovered more in another room after I accidentally broke one of the pair I was using. Of the other two I found, one had a different pitch than the others, so I decided to incorporate that one too. Once I had the three whales (metals) I just alternated measures between the two low ones - but kept the rhythm and the higher pitched whale the same too. This gave the beat an impression of having a chord change which I really liked. When it was still just two whales, I couldn’t decide between a samba or mambo foot pattern, so tried both. Since the right hand melody and left hand hemiola rhythms are syncopated, I wanted the feet to be the anchors. That’s why I went with classic foot patterns. Yes, they’re ingrained after years of practicing beats that utilize those, but also they’re interesting, feel good but aren’t too busy - they’re still supportive to whatever is happening on top. Also, I thought something more basic like quarter notes on the bass drum for instance, might be too boring. In total there are four related beats: three metals (whales) with each foot pattern and two metals (whales) with each foot pattern. This post contains some of these and at various tempos. The snare drum part is probably my favorite part of the beat though. It's a three subdivision hemiola over the syncopated Afro-Cuban-esque right hand melody and foot patterns. Of course, the RH part can be on anything: toms, cym and bell, cowbells, wood blks etc. Anything with two or three pitches or tones to it - so explore!

Here are a few more examples that I recorded while learning the beat but didn’t include on my original IG or website posts.

This one is a bit slower and uses the mambo foot pattern with two metals:

This one is similar but faster. You can tell I’m starting to comfortable with it and testing whether I should goose the tempo a bit or relax the snare drum part subtly or bring out one of the voices slightly or figuring out where to get the best tone from the whales. That’s why I love the repetition - it allows me to focus on various details in the moment that eventually refine and define the beat.

This one uses a samba foot pattern - that I’m still struggling with here - trying to get everything to lock in but during that process, some things drift out of place which I actually don’t mind at all since that illuminates deficiencies and highlights what I need to work on.

And this one used three whales with the mambo foot pattern. I can see and hear while watching this how during it I realized that I need to focus on the foot pattern first and get that solid and then when that’s feeling good, add bit more space in the snare drum part - phrasing it more like a human voice than a percussive hemiola. After that, the right hand melody falls into place. Rehearsing drumbeats is a lot like rehearsing an ensemble, all the parts need to be conscious of the whole and where they fit in. That can be applied to phrasing, dynamics, articulation, feel etc. Each part needs to sound good on its own - but in the context of the ensemble or whole.

And finally, here are some pictures and the scores for those of you trying this out at home.