Omar =A) =xpress Yourself Transcriptions by John Riley Edited by Dan Thress Published by Manhattan Music, Inc.™ © 1993 MANHATTAN MUSIC, Inc. All Rights Controlled and Administered by CPP Media Group. CPP Media Group and Manhattan Music are divisions of CPP/Belwin. Inc. All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. Made in U.S.A, Distributed by: CPP Media 15800 N.W. 48th Avenue Miami, FL 33014 (305) 620-1500 ‘Any copying of this material in whole or in part without the express written permission of CPP/Belwin, Inc. is a violation of copyright law.Contents Key 4 Introduction 5 Constructive Criticism 7 Background 13 Posture 14 Set-Up 15 Solo! 16 Gigs 20 ‘Molasses Run 23 ting 28 Technique/Soloing 29 Solo2 30 Amethyst Secrets 34 Tune Notes 38 Discography 41 cD Constructive Caticism 6:52 Constructive Caticism—rminus drums. 4:58 Solo 1 4:34 Molasses Run 7:36 Molasses un- bass and drums 2:44 Molasses Run minus drums 6:07 Solo2 4:07 Amethyst Secrets 5:48 Amethyst Secrets bass and drums 2:51 Amethyst Secrets minus drums 5:45 Audio Cassette Sowmrv sHaen Side A Constructive Criticism 6:52 Constructive Crticism—rminus drums 4:58 Solo 4:34 Molasses Run 7:36 Molasses Run bass and drums demo 2:44 Side B ‘Molasses Run minus drums 6:07 Solo2 4:07 Amethyst Secrets 5:48 Amethyst Secrets~ bass end drums demo 2:51 Amethyst Secrets minus drums 5:45 Recorded and mixed by John Harris/Effanel Music, NYC Digital mastering by Frank Pekoc at Foothill Digital, NYC Produced by Dan Thress8x10 Rack Tom 8x12 Rack Tom 9x13 Rack Tom 14x14 Floor Tom 15x15 Floor Tom 14x22 Bass Drum (All cymbals aré Zildjian) oakens Key r Hi-Hat Cymbals Hotta Open Ha: Close Open Fide Crash Splash China Combe open wifoot-—_wifoat Bass/Snare Toms BD SD Pe SD Tom 1 Tom 2 Tom 3 Tom Tom § 4 Omar Hakim__Introduction This transcription/play along audio package features charts, grooves, and solo ideas from Omar's video Express Yourself. As with the other tran scription books in this series, featuring artists Dennis Chambers, Simon Philips, Gregg Bissonette, Steve Gadd, Kenny Aronoff, Chad Smith, and Dave Weck, the book and audio material are in the same order as in the video. For each tune, roadmap charts are provided for use with the music: minus-drums audio tracks. The rhythm of the melody, as well as any accents that the rest of the band plays. are written above the staff. The charts are left open for you to interpret the music, which contains band accents, repeat signs. solos, etc. Before you sit down at the drums, listen to the song tracks and follow along with the chart. The main grooves that Omar plays to each of the tunes are transcribed, giving you the option of recreating his great parts. For the drum solo sections, only the main ideas (themes) are transcribed rather than the entire solo. By working on the different themes, you can get an idea of ‘Omar's fil and solo vocabulary and incorporate them into your own playing Finally, the interview excerpts tie It all together. providing you with back ground and insight into this great artist. Dan Thress Express YourConstructive Criticism re PP oe Di a f Ih Nt. J) 13 ot. I Ts 4 PRAT SP dah | af ITH LH FAS TM JI 4, FH. FF) Tn DN 7} Iki FOF Pn ss FS 2 | iio Ft i FH 77 2 TT} 2 il Express Yourself 7D] Bass melody PRET) PUES ATT) ET | f To os + K—_, : MM Bass solo. 8x a. £77 FF) 3 Pm) Ts FI 2! nf FRI)? FH Tf 2 a 2 ll & PY OE) DR vB + M1, 7M Kesha st Itsy FRO FID? Pm 3 Fs FI 2 f ise dede sree eoet a STON TGs FO} 2 8 Omar HakimDh =H J) 1t5r ho | a IT-4 0 POAT ad Fe ds) Dad | mf TW Loy FA d oh HY J Sh) FM. Se DW 7) x 4). : Pm Ts FS 2 FRA 2 J Te) 24 ) « as OD SOE A Ts) pe) 7 TR aN WA aA. ——. M) openscto Express Yourself 9Constructive Criticism Grooves 10 Omer Hakim,"Solo Themes 1 Express Yourself12 Omar HakimExpress Yourself Background Let's talk about your early playing. Why did you first want to play the drums? A relative gave mea toy snare drum as a holiday gift. My mother said they put the drum around my neck — I was a kid, about 4 years old — and | started playing a march beat on the drum. Iquess it wes just natural for me. How did you get started on drumset? What did you play and practice? ‘Well | fooled around with the snare drum fora few years, and when | was ‘about 8 years old my dad bought me a kick drum, a hi-hat and a ride cym- bal. A dear family friend who was a conga player started to teach me some basic rhythms. | have to attribute a lot of my approach to playing drums to learning basic rhythms from a conga player, because they break down and put rhythms together like a puzzle. So when he taught me rhythms, he ‘would say, “Here's the bass drum part, snare drum par. ride cymbal part, ‘and hi-hat part." He would make me play each one separately and then he would make me putit all together. That allowed me to get into the sound of each component of the drum set as an instrument itself — the cymbal and the different sounds I could get out of the cymbal, the snare drum and the different sounds | could get out ofthat. the hi-hat, ete. How about studying? Did you take lessons, learn the rudiments? | got started off in a rudimental way with a guy named Walter Perkins in Queens, a great jazz drummer. He invited me over because his daughter wes in my third grade class, "My dad plays the drums,” you know. So | ‘went to his house and he offered to give me some lessons for free. | would go there every day after school. He showed me double-stroke rolls, single. stroke rolls, triplets, and got me started with some of the basics. Traditional grip? Yeah, traditional grip. | played traditional grip until | was about 15 years old. ‘What | discovered about traditional grip was that it was fine when I was just playing a snare drum, because | could tit the snare drum on the stand at an angle, and it really made the left-hand position make sense. But when you're playing a drumset you have the snare drum flat. and then you have this plane of toms and cymbals, and I discovered that lwas putting strain on ‘my shoulders, and my back was weird. | was trying to switch up all the time, and got callouses on my hands. After a while said, “Wait aminute, there's a better way to do this.” I discovered the better way when | started playing timpari. When | was going to Music and Art High School in New York, | was ‘switching back and forth from timpani to snare drum parts. And | thought, instead of building up different chops all the time, why don't I just use matched grip. And so had to change my thinking and develop the muscles for matched grip in my left hand. But then once | dd thet, it actually cleared up the problem | was having with my shoulder. and the callouses. |had from playing traditional-grip went away. And then | was able to get a more bal: anced set-up and posture, andi think that it was at that point that the whole physical aspect of my playing opened up for me.Posture Your limbs seem like they're completely loose and free — you're not worrying about your balance at all. My dad, whose name is Hassan, is a trombone player. He basically laid a trombone-player concept on me about the position of my arms. He said to me. "When you're playing, why don't you move your arms away from your body?” When trombone players hold the hom up, both of their arms and elbows are out. He said, “When you do that, your breathing is open. It’s deeper, whereas when your arms are close to your body, it's a little restricted.” Sometimes he would even let me hold his hom, and say, “Just blowa note in the horn, Take a breath.” He'd tell me some crazy stuf ke Look up, take a deep breath” — and when you look up, the air goes right down, he got me into breathing, He used to make me lay down on the floor and he'd put a phone book an my belly. He'd say, “If you're breathing right, you're going to move thet phone book, and Ithought that was a hip way to really get a sense of how | should be breathing. So that whole idea of arms away from the body, straight back, that's strictly for comfort. It actually makes everything flow out of your body more. f you're slouched over and your arms are close, you can't get your ideas from your heart and your mind to the limbs quickly, because you're trying to work through allthis bad pos- ture and breathing Omar HakimExpress Yourself Set-up When you're on the drumset, you look real comfortable, because of the way everything is set up and within your reach. Can you talk about your set-up? Years ago, a teacher that I had named Clyde Lucas suggested that once! got the snare drum in a comfortable spot, | could situate the toms differ ently. At the time, | was only using maybe two toms and a floortom. | put the first tom basicaly n a line with the snare drum, and that way | could go in a straight, smooth motion from the snare drum to the first tom. Since | now use three rack toms, | situate it so that | get an even flow from the snare rum up and across in both directions. | think it's good for posture and bal- ance on the set. | also think that seat height is very important. You should experiment with this. | think i's important if you have to play heal and toe on the pedals, or all toe to get volume and power thet you have a seat height that wil allow you to position your legs in this way. and also give you some freedom with your limbs. | ty to keep my body out of the wey as much as possible so that the music can come through. I's funny, even afterall that practice, you're still going to get out in front of an audience and that adrenalin’s going to hit you and. you're not going to think about what you practiced. And the thing is, don’t be afraid to go with it! In fact, surrender to it and just go. because you'lland, con your feet. Especially when you're playing from the heart. I really believe that. Even if you make what you would consider to be a mistake, people know. They still gett, because there's tension and dramain going for't. That in itselfis music, that’s life. | really wholeheartedly believe in that concept of playing. Sometimes | make it, sometimes | don’t! But 'm really trying to go from my heart.___ Variation Te? A ee mo z Z * Variation 2 | —_ Variation 3 16 Omar HakimTheme 3 Theme 4 * Variation Theme 6 Express Yourself 17Variation 3 soe oe Variation 2 Theme 7 3 z Variation Variation 2 Theme 8 18 Omar Hakim20 Gigs Let's talk about some of the gigs that you've done. Let's start out with, in the studio, David Bowie. That was a big record. Fun session, too What did you gain from that experience? I think that, and other projects ike't, introduced me to group of people who didn't know that played rock. I grew up playing along with records and emu- lating a lot of different grooves and consequently | feel very comfortable in a lot of different situations. What I've also discovered about going from style tosstyleis that Ihave to be very sensitive to the sound and tuning of the drum- set. Different music requires a different approach to tuning, sound, touch, and feel. The drums being very physical, i's hard to actually change styles, ‘and make each thing work. That's been a constant challenge for me, to play rook, when I sit down to play rock. To play R & B, if sit down to play R&B. And get that sound. Yes. A lot of it involves finding a balance. How did you prepare yourself mentally in a situation like, “I'm going to go in now and I’m going to work with —" Bowie, Sting, or David Sanborn? Ifyou have baena fan ofa musician orartist and you get e chance to play with that porson, what you have to remember going in is that they called you because they heard about you or they heard something that you did. They are hiring you for what you can bring to the gig ‘When | first started doing these “big” sessions, realized that before | sat down and played the drums | needed to go in and make myseff comfortable and talk to everybody. Not to feel uptight but just be myself. | think this is really important. Before you get comfortable with the music, get in there and get comfortable with the people. And then all of a sudden the music hap- pens. I's about relating to people and playing es a team. And it's hard to do that if you get into a situation and people aren't communicating. So imme- diately go in, whether joking around and having fun or just being myself, and say, “Hey, let's play some music.” Thathas always worked. You break the ice. You've got to break the ice! Again, Idon't know ifthere’s a formula because each situation is different. Some of the artists have their quirky personali- ties or whatever, and so do we. How about Weather Report? ‘That was pretty deep because needless to say | was really excited about getting that gig. Ihad been fan since high school. | knew all he music so was all set to fly to LA and begin rehearsals at Joe Zawinul’s house. When I got there the music was on the stands and Joe would say, “Lookat the the groove on the third page — let's play that.” He would isolate @ groove and ‘we would play that groove for five or ten minutes and then we would stop. ‘We wouldn't play the rest ofthe chart, we would take a break. Omar Hakim,Express Yourself Iwas thinking, “We didn't play the chart and there's. six pages here and the first gig is next week,” —Iwas freaking out. "Aren't we going to play the restof this?” and Joe would say, “Come on, let's go have some coffee, let's go talk.” What I realized after a week of rehearsing, or a week of not rehearsing, was thatthe talking that we did at the table in his yard under the umbrella, with Wayne and Joe and Victor and everybody was actually mak- ing us closer. When we did sit down to play some music, all of sudden we could complete that conversation behind the instruments that we had been having under the umbrella, And that's the human part of playing musi Ittranscends was it good or was itbed or did they play great — you know it's hard to judge that. Because you're real honest. You're just making music. Yeah, | think that's music on another level. The spirit comes through. Itis, you know — you can’t touch it Matching videos available. Contact your local music dealer or call (CPP Media at 1-800-628-1528 for more AOE ay Tg s =F Information, Dc) Se aMolasses Run — Opening Solo Eee A riation 2 GO SS = SS TT = ae maa aa aa aa a alana ga a a a a a> ae Theme 2 Variation Ending Fill =— SS rd 22 Omar HakimMolasses Run Funk — Groove solo add Keys & bass TD: ae ee TEED r Pfr? Express Yourself 23PE bape to? Fe i | mf — 1. “ oe = [FSS x i decrese. Melody a Omar Hakim[EJ Kerpoaravgitar ots f | Jade) iyi) 2nd x only J J) 33) Express Yourself 25Groove Solo and Letter (A| Express Yourself 2728 Sting How about playing with Sting? What thoughts do you have on that experience? Oh, that was a lot of fun because | got a chance to work with some guys | had met but never played with. |had seen Branford Marsalis around town at clubs. Kenny Kirkland | had known for years but we hadn't really played together. | had seen Daryl Jones playing with Miles. So when it came together it was ike, Oh, we finaly get to make some music together! | met Sting while | was doing the Dire Straits record Brothers In Arms in Montserrat. He was there vacationing. He said, “I'm auditioning drummers if you want to come by.” so | went by and it just kind of happened. | quess he probably had a lot of configurations of people and when that bunch of guys were in the room together, it clicked. The tour was a great experience because when you have a bunch of guys who come from an improvisational background playing jazz — even though Daryl has played rock, and Kenny Kirkland does anything, and Branford’s musical sensitivity is so awesome — we could kind of do whatever we wanted to do. Every night had something different happen musically ‘onstage. I don't recall acig that was boring on that tour. It was alot of fun, Sting gave everybody a chance to stretch? Yeah! And playing that music for those large audiences in those large venues — that was a great experience. Before the soundcheck, | had this litle ritual that l used to do: | used to walk the perimeter of the hall because Iwanted to get a sense of where my energy needed to projectin the partic. ular place. I's a spiritual thingin a way because when you playa clubit's very close, it's very tight — you can see the people at the back of the room. But ina big hall, when you look out you mostly see a red “exit” sign way up in the back. So I said, Well let me walk to that exit sign and look at the drum- set and see what that looks like. Somehow in my mind, it was like | knew how far to throw my vibe. And see what they were experiencing, looking back at you. Yeah, because | felt i'm doing the gig right, the person in the last row will be dancing as hard as the person in the first row! Omar HakimTechnique Early on in my playing, | worked on rudiments — the alphabet, the ABCs of drumming. | aways say to other drummers, when you lear the alphabet of @ language as a kid, you memorize it, it becomes a part of you and then @s You build your vocabulary and you speak to people, you're not thinkng the alpha bet anymore. You forget it andjust express your thoughts in conversation: ‘Tome, technique and the rudiments should be treated the same way. Learn them, spend time on them, get them down pat, practice them at diferent speeds and dfferent dynamics, and then when it's time to express yourself in a solo context — forget that stuff. And use those things to help you ove around the instrument — that's all they're for as far as 'm concemed Soloing Express Yourself interms of soloing, lalways try to base my solos on what's happening with the composition, That's very important to me. I've moved away from actu. ally planning a solo, I'm gonna play this and I'm gonna play that. A lot of times, 've Seen guys learn these things, their rudiments, and practice thelt licks at the house and then get out a a gig and instead of improvising. stort to kind of fall back on the things that they've practiced. I think we can take some of the pressure off ourselves by looking at it from a compositional standpoint. Instead of, “I've practiced allthis stuff and I've got these chops and Ive got to use them”, why not let the music inspire you to that level of passion, thet level of excitement where al of a sudden the music feels to ‘you that you ust have to use that fast roll where you're playing azilion miles {an hour around the toms, because all of a sudden the music, the compos tion, has called fort. So your solos then are completely spontaneous, or YOU have certain sections in your mind worked out? Usually on tour when you're playing the same songs every night, it takes ‘a week or 80 to start feeling comfortable — you're stil kind of finding your way around. Asit goes on, you find a couple of signposts that you 2" USE. But even if| do get a couple of those, | will stil try to live on the edge and look for some adventure every night. Then people really get a sense of the spontaneity of “This is happening right before my eyes, I fee! that this per son is taking me ona ride here.” You can tell when somebody's just kind of going through the motions: ff you're actually playing with thought and feeling and responding © the auc- ence and to the other musicians onstage. that's when you're making music tome, 29Solo 2 Theme 1 Variation Variation 2 30 Omar HakimTheme 3 ¥ Variation Express Yourself 3Theme 5 Theme 6 Variation 32 Omar Hakim6004 eee! 7 aoe Theme 8 33 Express YourselfAmethyst Secrets Latinish Groove Intro Fill Fill Melody vr) pH dd Jt. tdi | “4 a) 2 SO HY v4 — Z Le — LS 34 Omar Hakim” JH 1 >-J—+ ia eto i do To egHuD, 2 dd DY D] 7x solos 1B) tet eae Tt JH. “Ptart t ; Ao t Db JH a J 1) YH) ») HH v1) nf i ) >) >) J—+- + J Jodo) EH J > f Express Yourself“J ear? db) HH r)ad | —=_ J 1) DY ») dH 1) dW Da d+ IK) + ‘l 36 Omar HakimLetter |A| Variation Letter Letter [C| = fr Oe SS ree 7 2 FT he ——— yo x * Ending Vamp Letter |F Seite = > 2 3 z Variation Express Yourself 3738 Tune Notes Constructive Criticism | wrote that particular track on the piano. I didn’t have a drum beat out front for that. let the piano dictate the mood from section to section. | think when Iwroteit, | probably set up a drum machine beat just to play, so'dhave some time, and | improvised different melody sections and some chord sections, Molasses Run “Molasses Run” was actually written from a drumbeat. | was practicing many years ago and | came up with that rhythm, and I ran and got a tape recorder and started to record it. think | recorded about ten minutes of it, and then | played piano on top. When I started putting that rhythm together, | think | was really ust playing it slowly. It was one of those things where while lwas practicing. just stumbled upon the rhythm. Amethyst Secrets | wrote that for Weather Report and they never recorded it, 0 | ended up keeping it. Again, recorded the piano on tape and | was just responded to the mood. | had the piano and | had a click track and | pumped it through @ sound system in my basement and| just started to play along with it. Do you usually start writing from a chordal instrument or from the drums? | write from wherever it happens, because | figure if | don't have a set process, | will ehways come up with something different. | think on the Rhythm Deep album, the title track was from @ drumbeat. | actually wrote the groove of that song in ‘85. It didn't come out until five years later. had cone of those eight-track analog tape recorders and | recorded the drums conto that. It was about ten or twelve minutes of that groove, and then | sterted improvising the keyboard part over it. After! made the tape! spliced it and made a form. |had come up with these different parts and in a sense it was over a jam. felt needed to tum itinto a song and I really don't want to re-record it because | like the way it feels, so I just spliced the tape together. | took sixteen bars from here and made a verse, and | found another sixteen bars somewhere else and made it the chorus. 'm always, trying different things. When someone describes in words the groove that they want you to do, how do you begin creating that feel? ‘What Itry to dois not be afraid to experiment with the rhythms they give me. Het them know, OK, I'm going to try a few things here for you and you pick the things that appeal to you. At that point, I'l start fooling around with the bass drum and snare drum pattems. If the bass drum and snare drum pat- tem is pretty set and they're in love with that, | will try to alter the things around them — the hi-hat parts. cymbal bel things. rides, and try to find a way to give those rhythms some different motion in the stuco. Omar Hakimmight also do a whole diferent tuning on the acoustic drums and try come up with something that's sonically interesting. For certain sessions | will ring in electronics and mix some of the “live"-ness and the human ness with the sampled sounds that they tke. You really have to organize your thoughts when you're making records, ‘especially for pop and R & B music. You need to think compositionally. in terms of drum fils and parts and how to bring the “hook” ofthe song in and how to set the verse up just right. When you're doing those kinds of ses sions. it's not about playing the chart or making a track, it's about playing the song, | really try to go in with that attitude — learn how to play these songs ‘And for any drummer going in the studio, | would recommend that when you are working foran artist or songwriter, sit down. get a copy of the rics and read them. Try to get into the mood of what they're trying to get across. Even though it’s just rhythm, you have the power to alter the mood of a record, through all the different colors that are contained in the drumset What are some of your favorite records that you've played on? | enjoyed all three Weather Report records, those are special for me. On Sportin’ Life, Domino Theory and Perception, | really got a chance to be myself in the context of jazz, electronic music, rock and funk — it kind of made me call on everything, It was funky and it was be-boppy and it was swingy and it had the eneray of rock because we were playing full throttle The records didn't always capture what we were doing live, because they had very interesting concept of how to approach a mix, but the playingl'm very proud of. | like what did for Sanborn on As We Speak. Sting’s Dream of the Biue Tur: tles was a lot of fun. And my own record, for that matter, | feel real happy about that from a compositional standpoint and there are some cool drum- ‘ming moments on there. | had some fun. 4 ‘Omar Hakim's book Let It Flow ig also available from ‘Manhattan Music. Contact your local music dealer or call CPP Media at 1-800-628-1528 for more information Express Yourself 3940 R & B Influences Asa kid, | was @ big Earth Wind end Fire fan. | really loved them. | also liked ‘Bernard Purcie'’s work on Aretha Frenklin’s records. Not any one record in particular, but you should probably pick up a few of those. You gotta get some of the early James Brown records, for feel and forthe funk, because ‘alot ofthe funk that’s happening now is really from that. Sly and the Family Stone, Iwas a big Sly-head, ond that was really a combination of R&B and rock. | also listened to a lot of the records from Philadelphia International. Definitely go back and check Motown stuff out, for sure. | can't point out any one record, some of them I can’t even tell you who the drummer was. but for feel and for groove and for vibe, definitely listen to Motown. Also.'rm a big Stevie Wonder fan. From what | understand, Stevie played drums on a lot of those records in the '70s. Music of My Mind, Fulfiingness’ First Finale, Songs in the Key of Life, those were really masterpiece projects. ‘When llisten to some of those records now, they sound totaly different to me. | guess because as I have grown over the years, | know more about what lam hearing, Back then, | was definitely listening as a fan and respond- ing to the overall thing. Now I listen to them as sessions in a way. I try to understand why the musicians made certain choices. Fusion Influences Well, Return to Forever, definitely. When | was a teenager, l used to follow Chick and Stanley and Lenny White and Bill Connors, and then after Bill Connors, Al DiMeola all around New York In fact, | was playing in a band that used to open for them, s0 | got a chance to see them while the bard was developing. They made brillant records, to me. And to see them live was even better than the records. | would tell anybody who wants to study the fusion thing to definitely go backand lookat the records that those guys made in the 70s. It was really incredible stuff | also was a big fan of Bily Cobham with John McLaughlin and the Mahav- ishnu Orchestra. Inner Mounting Flame, and Birds of Fire were two records that really knocked me out. ‘Also Weather Report. Long before | got in the band, there were some records with Chester Thompson, Narada Michael Walden and Alex Acuna ‘on drums — they were awesome. The two records that | really love are Black Market and Heavy Weather. Those records just floored me. The ones after that were also excellent records, 8:30 and Mr. Gone. Between those three groups, my ears were always full Omar Hakim