Ghost Notes
A ghost note is the reverse of an accent. While an accent is played louder than other notes, a ghost note is played softer than other notes. Ghost notes are most commonly played on the snare drum and are common in Hip-Hop. A ghost note is indicated by brackets around the note.
Ghost note indicated by bracket.
This beat uses a combination of eighth and sixteenth notes between beats 2 and 3. Be sure you understand the rhythm of this one before you try to play it. If you have spent a lot of time playing the previous examples it may feel weird to have your left hand playing without your right. Practice it very slowly and you will soon get the hang of this.
Patterns like these will often flow better if the backbeat on the snare is played with a strong, loud stroke, while the snares on the off-beats (2a and 4a in this example) are much quieter. When these notes are played very quietly - with the stick dropped just a few centimeters from the skin rather than being thrown down.
As mentioned previously in this lesson, these are called ghost notes. Be sure to check out a lot of James Brown’s music - he’s the most sampled artist of all time and has been crucial in the genesis and development of Hip-Hop and R&B. Sex Machine with Jabo Starks on drums is a great example of this kind of beat.
Try making the distinction between your backbeat and your ghost notes even greater here by playing the backbeat as a loud rim-shot and playing the other snares very softly in the center of the drum. If you do this well it will almost sound like two different drums.
Mix it up here by playing the snare on 3e very softly but playing the last one on 4a strong, like the backbeats.
Playing ghost notes directly after your loud (accented) snare drums can be tricky at first. They will often occur too quickly for you to treat it like a separate stroke, so try to have 2e and 4e bounce out after the accents on 2 and 4, so they are part of the same motion. It is worthwhile spending some time with an experienced teacher to ensure you are practicing these techniques correctly.
Things are starting to get busy now. A beat like this can easily become unbalanced and lumbering if it’s not played with sensitivity. Pay close attention to your hi-hats to keep them even throughout, and try making the velocity of the ghost notes barely perceptible over the normal sympathetic buzzing of the snare wires.
