The clave lead the way, with Horacio’s opening performance consisting of many complex and intricate patterns, all based around the clave being played on Horacio’s left hand. Without dropping a beat, he also managed to bring in a great cowbell pattern with his left foot while simultaneously wowing the audience! Later into the performance he started to bring in some fantastic double bass drum patterns, and even some interesting cowbell beats which really got the audience going.

After this colossal display of playing, Horacio started discussing some more rhythmic concepts involving more specifically the Rumba clave. Starting off with a simple example between both hands, he slowly started bringing in different ideas, such as playing in different groupings against the clave. He then took these concepts further, by mixing different groupings together, and bringing them in at different points in the clave cycle. These concepts ended giving everyone in the room a new approach to using the clave that we could all apply to our playing.

Horacio was soon banging out some tremendous grooves that most people had trouble counting…let alone playing! With these interesting groupings and complex counting systems, Horacio managed to get the audience to join in, by clapping on certain beats of the pattern. With the beat changing all the time, it became a challenge to keep track of where to clap, and how many times to do it.

One last topic Horacio covered was about being yourself when you play, rather than trying play exactly like your drum idols. What he meant by this was that borrowing and using ideas from other drummers is ok, but trying to replicate exactly how someone else plays could hinder you in the long run. This can take away your own unique playing sound, which is something all drummers should try and preserve.

Pulling off a great master class for any drummer is not an easy task, but Horacio managed to do a second of these right after the first, with as much energy, and enthusiasm (if not more) than before.

by Craig Zindani (Drumtech One Year Diploma)