"flashing lights" mike Johnston, MIKESLESSONS.COM

[mortenlc]

Why are you getting the good part in the song ?? ;-)

[driftwood3322]

At 4:28 is he just alternating doubles between his hands and feet? (rrkkllkkrrkkllkk?)

[bajanalpha4]

@driftwood3322 either that or rrkllk over and over because there is a cross over that goes rklkrkl...this could just be the double stroke version of that

[driftwood3322]

@bajanalpha4 Thanks for the response bro. I figured out that its actually rrllkk rrllkk instead of rrkllkrrkllk like you mentioned. Since it's a six note pattern it works out boss for 16th note triplets. Just thought you may want to know! Peace man

-Mike

[dracolich345]

@driftwood3322 He did a video on it its called "crossover fills" RLK played as a tripplet First one: R on hi-hat/ L on Floor Tom/ Kick Second: R on Floor tom/ L on hi-hat / Kick Third: R on snare drum/ L on Floor tom/ Kick Fourth: R on hi-hat/ L on hi-hat/ Kick First: R over L Second: R and L seperate Third: L over R Fourth: R and L come together Hope that helps, if not, just check out "Mike Johnston Crossover Fill" in the search bar

[driftwood3322]

@dracolich345 Hey man, thanks for the response! I've already seen that video, and I figured out that it was the same fill like you said, only every hit is a double stroke. Instead of rlkrlk repeated it's rrllkk rrllkk. Now I've got something to work on for a while. Peace!

-Mike

[petalumatube]

Yes!



[MrBigboichris]

dude that lick u did around 4:22 was so pretty and smooth.. watchin earlier parts i didnt expect somethin flashy like that

[wagonwagonwagonwagon]

the four bars around 3:15 are great

[anesthetic85]

Ha Ha Ha, "we took his ass out!"

[TheJoshtree123]

wow now i know how absolutely shit I am

[TheDuvalier]

how are you taking kanye out of the track when he also made the instrumental?

[DJOTCUTS]

@TheDuvalier if im not mistaken, Kanye didnt make the Flashing lights beat.

[Drumminsince89]

"we took his ass outta the track"..nice

[xjaycubairon]

Mike, I just showed you up on my computer desk and keyboard. Haha.

[DanyCowman]

2:40 :O

[goatneck]

4:51 is like he can control space-time with his drums! D:

[DROONEY1994]

4:28......the moment when you stop drumming along to watch mike tear that kit apart :L

[LSweener012]

sucks it was posted in 240p...we need some high quality pleeeaaasseee

[redshirt905]

how can you not like Mike Johnston

[omosap1]

Why do he keep the most rithmic part of the music for himself? If he wanna do a fill trade the background music should be the same

[wordlife777e]

@omosap1 why..does it matter if its still 4/4 and same tempo...we are the rhythmic part...right? :D

[rblanchard12]

@omosap1 you dont need to trade with him to this song. put the song on your ipod and do it yourself. he is just showing you a method of practicing for situations like this. take it and make it your own,

[louielw]

awesome



[bajanalpha4]

at 2:40...can someone tell me what it is Mike does? It sounds like KRLKKRL?

~~Smiley~~

[minkusink6]

5:02 alrighty guys so you can i'm amazing at drums, ha dude you rip man, this is very beneficial, awesome video, you are Great at drums sir!

[Salamander014]

"I'm not gonna laugh at you 'cause I can't see you"

thanks for great words of encouragement mike

[BateristadeTucson17]

where could we get the drumless track of this ?

[GrandMasterJ14]

he is C R A Z Y

[winner0loser]

LOL. Kanye got burned.

[Tryin2FindTime]

..............................­.......... :o

[smashingpoop]

i think every drummer should jam on this song...

[MrPmoneyTV]

that was all nice but wut wre u doin @ 4:50

[rut300]

@MrPmoneyTV

an AWESOME polyrhythm

[drumhead40]

thanks for everything Mike

great attitude man!!!!

[apostalic111]

Could you break down some of these fill?

[DeathCail]

LOLOLOL, 5:04 "We don't have to shed for competition." That's because there is no competition, YOU WIN!!!

[DeathCail]

I am envious.

[Piercarlo777]

I am Brazilian and here in Brazil I've yet to see someone who teaches so well as mike johnston .. congratulations and thanks for your amazing videos

[2eastjosh]

sure you get to fill during the FUN four bars. Leave us filling in the no-one-is-playing field. Haha! I like it though. You have some pretty cool ideas.

[drumminggod91]

trading with virtual mike is still pretty discouraging haha

[jedphelym]

"When someone is better than me."

A statement up there with "once in a blue moon."

[drumking8t9]

what type of camera system are you using? Im looking to buy one similar asap. Please let me know

[kyjello12]

loose!



[jonathantc08]

What kind of heads are you using?

[YANFRASIER]

your snare....o mah godddd so tastyyyyy

[mhanuelandre]

como hablas 

[beastlyninja1]

3:57 gotta love the crotch shot

[brandonwit]

Mike johnston is an octopus but with only two arms! BRRUTTAAL

[gtrocksyosocks]

I remember when mike was teaching me how to apply paradiddlediddles to the kit. Boy times have changed.

[etron91]

This guy isnt human anymore ...wish i could play like him... :)

Mike you are awesome :-) <3

[jimjamkillsnerds]

3:08 what time signature is that?

[TheSmar09]

the fill at 4:27 to 4:28 is freakin BEAST

[john1234brasil]

Can someone plllleeaassee send me some good 4by4 songs please... Thx

[TheSkylie]

3:56

Great fill! Too bad you crashed on my one!

[Kudan26]

3:08-3:13 extreme polyrithm D:

[NYTROOPA]

@Kudan26 no polyrhythm its metric modulation.

[Kudan26]

@NYTROOPA o_O

can you explain that?

[NYTROOPA]

@Kudan26 I am new to drums. So I am going to butcher this. Metric modulation means implying a different tempo over the same tempo. The song has a 16th feel to it with snare on 2 and 4. He implies a different tempo by going into double time. So he is counting 8ths, 1+2+3+4+ but at the pace of the 16th notes in the song. He could make it sound even faster by counting 1/4 notes at the speed of 16ths. You can find videos that will explain it better. Hope i helped a little.

[Kudan26]

@NYTROOPA Actually I belive that is kinda a polyrithm he is not chaning the mesure too weird (it is still measures of 4) but the song is at 1 measure and he is playing other, well at least I knew thats a polyrithm

maybe im wrong cos he is just playing 1 measure, and the song is in other, but it still sounds kinda polyrithm

[19pacman]

what heads are on the toms and what heads is on the snare

[AngelouDrums]

no sea mamon putooooo!!

[newsounddrums]

this is what i need to shed thanx mike for real

[musicismyzen]

by far best fill practice i have ever gotten been jamming to this for like 3 mounts now

[13TeK11]

this is a totally awesome track for improvisation :D

[rabit0001]

you did an incredible job there my friend, very groovy!!no offense, but i can't help thinking that you picked yourself the rhythmical more interesting parts out of the song:)

nevertheless it's a pleasure to listen to you.

[Malamacha]

I bet Kanye is like "man, he just glorified my song" xD

[Malamacha]

You must have sold your friggin' soul to the devil!!! This is without a doubt, FUCKING AWESOME DUDE!!!!

[ako541]

i was doing this and i was all blam slicka ka blam blam kick shabba bing !!!

[Itsnotandy]

u fricking blow my mind

[safarozane]

the lick at 4:30 is freaking sick!!!

[hubbadubchub]

I love how freakin insane he gets at the end haha!

[Tymiinator]

This guy is absolutely -excuse my language- fucking ridiculous. An inspiring man.

[BRADPTC]

that crossover was sick i would so screw that up

[texassucks101]

Hahaha:D Loved what you said about Kanye(:

[javi9446]

@27mikemikemike lolol nahh dude

[DiseasedSquidwurd]

I treated this as a drum battle. :) I lost.. :(

[Goldtacto]

@DiseasedSquidwurd me too :(

[drummerjafet09]

phat

[kyjellyish]

hey mike i started drumming about a month and a half ago. do you have any early drummer advice? i kinda picked you to learn from. what heads to you use?

[rblanchard12]

@kyjellyish he uses his signature heads from aquarian on all of his drums. you can special order them from aquarian if you want the same exact tone that he gets out of the.m the are rlly great heads!

[thickpooxbox360]

@rblanchard12 he doesnt have signature drum heads........

there the 2 ply coated 1s

[sambrady92]

@thickpooxbox360 well he does but whether he's using them or not is another question ha :) x

[thickpooxbox360]

@sambrady92 nope he doesnt have sinture heads at all , he has a signature snare , he will soon have signature sticks by vater , but no signatre heads just endorsed by aquarian but the heads he uses were out for years before , only connection he has with those heads is he uses them

[sambrady92]

@thickpooxbox360 ah fair enough! i thought i saw his name on them once... honest mistake enit x

[essjkid05]

dante's version still kills everybody's version. good job though.

[kshepthedrummer]

4:27........how the.....what in gods na........WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT

haha i need to practice

[NouveauNick]

@kshepthedrummer just sped up doubles man! Hit that metronome!!!!

[kshepthedrummer]

@NouveauNick haha i know its just looks sick lol

[shushumna1]

btw i know there are not 499 thumb ups and one thumb down on this particular video

[shushumna1]

i'll bet the only reason mike made this video was because the one out of 500 haters said "maan, if we just traded fours id show you how a real drummer plays"... hahaha

[Dieterbe]

very cool.

at two points (3:09 and 4:52) I noticed Mike does something crazy with the tempo.

Probably something polyrhythm stuff. Who can explain how it works? everytime i try to figure it out I get confused :)

[kmojnihbu8]

@Dieterbe hes manipulating a 3 over 4 polyrhythm. He makes the tempo of the song the 3 in the 3/4 polyrhythm and then switches over to the 4. It makes it sound really off time because he keeps the snare on 2 and 4. If you still don't understand, tell me and ill try to explain it again.

[Dieterbe]

@kmojnihbu8 and @thickpooxbox360 thanks. I've watched his polyrhythm video again and experimented a bit today. I find the 3/4 polyrhythm really hard, but i noticed i am already familiar with a 2/3 (or 4/6) polyrhythm which is much easier to play. Especially if you have experimented with triplets in normal 4/4 beats. So I've been working on beats that i can do with my 4/6 polyrh. and that way I can play similar "speedups" and "slowdows" that sound great but don't make my head explode :D

[kmojnihbu8]

@Dieterbe awesome man! keep experimenting and you can make some crazy things.

[thickpooxbox360]

@Dieterbe yea your right its a polyrythem , 3/4

basicly the slow parts are him playing in the 3 and the faster ones are him playing in the 3

ope it helps

[idrumkingdom223]

fucking thank you

[mrtridente]

so if you could see me you would laugh?

[marty3699]

what a very cool and helpful idea.

[dogpuppet]

I love this video!!!!!!!!!

[berad777]

"due to what his ass did to taylor..."

perfect hahahah

[Diamondbug]

The pattern at 2:40 is kick RL kick RL kick kick RLRL

[dannyisthedrumer]

@Diamondbug how do you know?! lol

[Diamondbug]

@dannyisthedrumer it's a linear drum fill. listen for it an you'll hear it.

[rboeger]

@dannyisthedrumer he's right, but mike johnston plays it starting on the second kick RL, so it would be kick RL kick kick RL(This L is the snare hit)RL kick RL.

[drummer265]

@dannyisthedrumer its from his linear drumming book. its one of the linear grooves.

[infantfinite]

@dannyisthedrumer You can hear the pattern just like that if you listen close enough.

[16shadowman92]

@dannyisthedrumer i heard him switching between kick RL kick RL kick kick RL and kick RL kick RL kick kick RLRL

[jgg2007]

@dannyisthedrumer he played it

[shadexh2o]

@dannyisthedrumer Lol it's essentially a right handed double paradiddle followed by a left handed paradiddlediddle. Except Mike the right hand part to the kick and singled everything else

[gchsdrummerboi2007]

@Diamondbug It's actually kick RL kick kick RLRL kick RL...

[sebastianluik]

@Diamondbug That is correct! It' in the gospel pack.

[sharkm87]

@Diamondbug close..its K R L K K R L R L K R L.

[fujifan169]

@Diamondbug wouldnt it rlly be,  Kick RL Kick Kick R L Kick RL? or else the back beat in 2 and 4 would be on the kick.

[shadow9Ox]

@fujifan169 yeah you're actually right about the kicking pattern

[Diamondbug]

@fujifan169 yeah but the actual pattern for the linear roll is kick RL kick RL kick kick RLRL , he just starts it from the second kick in this vid

[fujifan169]

@Diamondbug so bassically what I and everyone else was saying? haha and im not sure i would classify it as a "linear roll" the way mike plays it. just a linear groove

[Diamondbug]

@fujifan169 yes it IS wat u said, i was merely explaining why i said it was that

[samakor]

@Diamondbug Thats right, except the second kick is at the start of the bar so K R L K K R L R L K R L and all in triplets

[benjaminja77]

@Diamondbug its KRLKKRLRLKRL... he posted a video on it

[CheffMLG]

@Diamondbug duh, it was his video challenge lick

[Jeremyyongxinwu]

@Diamondbug Wait Wait, i dun think so! :P It's starting with "kick rl" instead!

It's kick rl kick kick rLrl kick rl instead of kick RL kick RL kick kick RLRL

Note the "L" as an accent btw!

I found it here: DRUM LESSON with Mike Johnston "Linear Drum Fills" - 1st result.

At the end of this video he talks about it (at around 7 minutes 40 seconds) and if you listen, it's exactly like

kick rl kick kick rLrl kick rl ! Hope you can play it! IT'S AWESOME :D

[rippyondrums]

I'll be jamming to this , and then making one for us to jam to :P. Of coarse, I'm no where nearly as good as you, but i still love to play!

[thepunksnotdead101]

wats the cymbal u use on the left at 4:16

[thickpooxbox360]

@thepunksnotdead101 its a stacker , paiste 20 series 16' inch crash with a 10 inch splash on top

[papertowelzftw123]

howd you know im on a laptop? haha. i love this.

[turqize]

holy nuggets 2:40 i want that. pretty sick

[Ilike2playdrums]

I've always been intrigued by drummers that seem to hit cymbals on the way to a drum in time. BTW as I'm sure it has already been said 4:26 looks damn amazing for such a simple pattern, and if it's the last thing I do before I die, I WILL learn to play it that well.

[dm6testa777]

what up drummers check out my videos thow i dont have a acoustic set i am very limited to what i can do put i still make it happen

[bebejase]

how is he doin that @ 2:40 ??!?

[amesailor]

@bebejase he's playing linear patterns.

[ThemJazzyBeats]

@bebejase

I think the pattern is f r l f f r

[byLivio]

Mike J at his best!

[Mynameismeg]

that metric modulation part is so sick.

[E31994]

OMG THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA LOVE IT! I think I beat you once Mike! (I lost 50 times though)

[fmdss89]

miiike come on to brazil pleeeeeeeeeeease!!!! 

[TopsyKrretts]

whats with all this spanish shit

[Ilike2playdrums]

@TopsyKrretts ummm... maybe they're people who don't speak english?

[mr1985able]

This is sick

[AMIDEADYET1231]

is there another one of these?

[6Hendrik]

I wish mike would teach us, how to do such beats like 2:42 - 2:54.

[DHill305]

what size and type of snare do you have? and man youre tight work.

[duddy74]

3:09 WHAT

[carabata64]

esa porqueria no sirve para hacer musica, es solo para el ego del baterista que se dedica a mistrar tecnica... muy poco musico...

[jzchambo65]

@carabata64 no es cierto , depende del genero...

pero si obviamento el ni otro baterista tocaria asi en una cancion.

[carabata64]

@jzchambo65 entonces.... no sirve... la tecnica sola es para los salames... escucha a gente seria como brian blade, stanton moore, jack dejohnette, steve jordan etc... y te vas a dar cuenta...

[jzchambo65]

@carabata64 si hombre es cierto si tocan mucho, yo haste tengo libro de jack dejohnette y el dvd stanton moore jeje

pero donde a deja dave weckl, vinnie colaiuta, y cientos de otros

pero los gustos de todomundo si son differente, se tiene que tener una mente abierta, no conformarse a un solo estilo, como musico, saber a tocar todo...

[carabata64]

@jzchambo65 pero weckl te sorprende al principio cuando arrancas a estudiar... despues te das cuenta de que es un paloma barbaro, che que groso yo quiero el dvd de stanton donde lo conseguiste ? mata el groove que tiene, tengo muchos discos de galactic y 2 de el solista

[jzchambo65]

@carabata64 oh si cierto, oh y el dvd de el se llama groove alchemy, si es verdad que stanton si es bueno. me gusta los baterista como el estilo de el pero tambien asi los de gospelchops, uyyy no esos si tocan muchos.

[carabata64]

@jzchambo65 a mi no, los de gospel tocan todos igual... hacen esos fills contundentes pero todos tocan de la misma manera, me aburren....yo prefiero los musicos de jazz o los de funk grooveros. ssaludos

[jzchambo65]

@carabata64 na bro, no se puede comparar por ejemplo, eric moore, spanky, y aaron spears todos son differentes. y muchos de los btristas gospel son musicos exelente.

[carabata64]

@jzchambo65 te repito, todos tocan igual.... y estudian tanto para terminar tocando con Cristina aguilera o los Backstreet boys.... osea una perdida total de tiempo....a mi solo me interesa que la musica sea buena... soy baterista hace 15 años, doy clases y sigo estudiando.

[jzchambo65]

@carabata64 jaja no mi hermano, todos no son igual. iguales son los baterista de rock/metal. muchos baterista de gospel brillan en muchos generos, unos de los baterista que yo conosco es un moreno que toca gospel, pero es un duro para tocar musica latina/smoth jazz/funk/etc. osea es bien redondeado para muchos generos, tremendo musicos, es cierto que hay baterista de gospel que lo unico que hacen es remates, puro es un pocito ignorant decir que TODOS suenan igual

[winnerbaby44]

@carabata64 they play for christina aguilera, p diddy, backstreet boys coze thats where the money is dude! they have bills to pay, and its all music at the end of the day

dont be retarded

[carabata64]

@winnerbaby44 chupame la japi, que sabes de musica vos ? baterista de gospel....

[winnerbaby44]

@carabata64 I know more about music than you do apparently.. go listen to dave weckl.. as good as he is, he plays for crowds of 10 people sometimes. you think that happens to gospel cats??

ahah you are nuts

[jzchambo65]

@winnerbaby44 well put my friend, gospel drummers are where its at hah

I hate when people are narrow minded like that and say dumb stuff like that just make 'em look stupid lol

[kplt1234]

3:03 - 3:14

holly shit !

[EminemOctober17]

More than just drumming......!!!!! amazing

[pdp420]

wow im so horrible at trading fills. NEEEEDDD WORKKKKK

-dsum mikes lessons.

[nfcforlife1985]

a single tear just fell