By now, you should have 40 new phrases under your belt and be able to apply these phrases into the gospel chop sequences I have given you. In this section, I have created a summary of the 40 Phrases you have learned so far and have put them into 3 Phrase Banks.

Bank 1 – Right Leading Phrases

Bank 2 – Left Leading Phrases

Bank 3 – Kick Leading Phrases

It’s time to get a little more creative and start to cut and paste, combine, and arrange these phrases into your own Gospel Chop sequences. In the following 5 lessons, you will see examples of fills that I have created by combining 4 Phrases together from the Phrase Banks. All you need to do now is pick out some phrases and arrange them in different sequences to challenge yourself. Make sure you choose and select your phrases carefully so you don’t create any awkward patterns like 3 or 4 right hands, left hands or kicks in a row. 

TASK 1 – Learn and master Combination Fills 1-5

TASK 2 – Use the Phrase Banks to create you own Fills

In this lesson you will see a collection of 10 Phrases that you can use as ‘go-to’ licks when you are improvising. These Phrases work well as stand-alone fills on their own and sound great at high speeds.

Many of these phrases have been taken from the fills in the previous section of the course and there are a few bonus phrases added in towards the end. Practise these phrases over and over paying attention to your dynamics and gradually increase the tempo.

Happy shredding!

In the following Section, you will learn to play five 3 Piece Linear Sextuplet Fills.

I created this section of the course to show that you don’t need to have a large and extensive Drum Kit in front of you to showcase your chops. I am finding that these days my gigging kit is getting smaller and smaller and is often reduced to just 3 pieces. Playing with three pieces is of great benefit because it makes you be more creative and forces you to make the most of what you’ve got.

At this stage of the course you should be getting faster at decoding and learning the Chop Sequences. The following 5 lessons are fast-tracked lessons and only include 4 parts.

Lesson Structure

1.  Demonstration @ 95 BPM

2.  Breaking It Down – Super Slow

3.  Putting It Together – Sextuplet Combination Exercise @ 60 BPM

4.  The Finished Product @ 95BPM

The summaries of the individual phrases are included in the PDF’s.

The '4 Stick Cross' #2 3 Piece Sextuplet Chop

In this lesson you will learn to play the ‘4 Stick Cross’ #2 3 Piece Sextuplet Chop. This fill features three 4 Stick Cross-over sticking’s as well as an interesting RLR sticking between the Floor Tom and the Hi Hats. The first three phrases are unique as they start on a Kick Drum stroke. 

Note - When playing 3 Piece fills, it is important to become confident leading with your left hand as it is often used to transition from the Floor Tom back to the Snare or Hi Hat.

In this lesson you will learn to play the ‘Kick Wrangler’ 3 Piece Sextuplet Chop. This fill features 9 doubled Kick Drum strokes and is very right foot dominant. It is difficult to play a high speeds because many of these Kick Drum strokes are very close together and are only separated by single or double notes played by the hands.

In this lesson you will learn to play the ‘LR Swiper’ 3 Piece Sextuplet Chop. This fill features a LR swiping motion between the Hi Hats and the Snare. There are also two ‘4 Stick Cross’ sticking’s to further complicate things. This fill is the hand equivalent of a tongue twister but flows nicely when you can transition smoothly between the Phrases. The ending is also a little awkward as it finishes in a LRLKKR sticking and transitions back into the groove with a Crash Cymbal stroke played by the left hand.

In this lesson you will learn to play the ‘Pocket Rocket’ 3 Piece Sextuplet Chop. The way that the accents and the Kick Drum notes fall within this pattern make the chop sound very groove-like. Because the accents fall heavily on beats 2 and 4, this fill could be classed as a Pocket Chop. The two left handed accents on the last beat of Phrase 1 and the third beat of Phrase 2 make this rhythm a little awkward to play at high speeds. The fill finishes with a very simple (probably the easiest in this course) RLRLKK pattern finishing on the Crash and the Snare to transition back into the groove.

In this lesson you will learn to play the ‘Fill Dunphy’ 3 Piece Sextuplet Chop. This fill takes elements from the ‘LR Swiper’ as well as the ‘4 Stick Cross’ and merges them into Phrases 1 and 2. Take note of the KRL KRL transition from Phrase 2 to 3 as well as the Crash/Snare KLRLL pattern to transition back into the groove.

Download Phrase Bank 4 - 3 Piece Fills

Phrase Bank 4 consists of 20 more 2 beat Sextuplet Phrases. Cut and paste these Phrases together to come up more fills of your own.

In this lesson you will see an example and an explanation of how to develop skills improvising with sextuplet chops.

TASK – Put on a slow metronome and begin playing various phrases from the phrase banks and combine them into an improvised solo. Keep it slow so you have time to think. Add in your own sticking’s, orchestrations and kick patterns and get comfortable transitioning between your different ideas and transitioning smoothly. Do this for minutes at a time or until you run out of ideas. You can always go back to single strokes, rudiments or just leave some space if you run out patterns to play.

It may take weeks or months to develop confidence improvising with these patterns but persistence is the key. Gradually increase the tempo if your improvisation sessions and flow will come.

In this video you will see my concluding remarks as well as some extra footage. 

The footage consists of extra exercises, bonus chop sequences, 32nd Note Chops, shredding examples and footage of me practicing in preparation for the recordings.

You’re at the end of this course now, but it’s really only the beginning because there is a lot more work to do. You can always play these fills, cleaner, faster and smoother and add new chops to your repertoire. I hope you revisit this material over and over and have many hours of enjoyable and challenging practise ahead. It is your job now to take these ideas, make them your own, build upon them and work them into your game.

Congratulations and thank you for completing this course! Stay tuned for my next course Advanced 32^nd note chops, which is coming soon. It was a pleasure making this material for you.

Cheers!

Nick