Gospel Style Drumming with Eric Moore

Gospel Chops have become an essential part of drum solos, shed sessions and the arrangements of large mainstream productions. It is hard to imagine modern drum set playing without these fast and impressive figures. But where does this style stem from and what is behind the breathtaking licks?

Eric Moore received international recognition for this exact style of playing. He is about to take you on a journey to the roots of Gospel Drumming.

Those are to be found in the christian African-American churches of North America. The services in those religious groups usually include a band playing. The drummer has a central and outstanding role within those musical groups. Hits and unison accent figures are very common in this musical context. Drummers as well as the other musicians use fills to enrich the music besides the accents. This is the context from which the typical gospel chop figures derive. Many famous drummers like Brian Frasier-Moore, Aaron Spears, Larnell Lewis or Eric Moore state that they learned to play drums in church and that gospel music is their musical root. All these musicians are active in very different styles. Therefore gospel chops and licks can be found in many genres and musical contexts.

Even if the gospel chop figures sound very overwhelming and unplayable in the beginning, the basic patterns behind the licks are often surprisingly easy to play.

Our Gospel Style Drumming courses start at this exact point. They give you the tools to incorporate these figures into your playing.
Take a glimpse behind the scenes of gospel drumming in the first course. Eric Moore talks about the roots and development of this genre and shares tips on how to improve your timing and pocket. After this Eric heads directly to gospel chop licks. By using simple figures like single strokes, double strokes and paradiddles as basis for gospel chop licks, you learn how to create impressive figures using simple material. Besides that Eric explains how to incorporate hi-hat chokes and how the backbeat on beats 2 and 4 can be implemented with gospel chops. All this material opens up new possibilities for your playing. But it is not sufficient to just play the isolated figures. You also have to learn how to incorporate these licks and use them in a musical way. The third and last course of the series provides a play-along to work on these topics. Eric Moore demonstrates how he handles this exact play-along and what steps he goes through when dealing with a new musical piece. He gives you inspiring examples of how he uses gospel chop licks.

Eric Moore has worked in a vast variety of musical genres throughout his career. While he became well known as a rock music drummer for the band Suicidal Tendencies, he is now touring the big arena stages of the world with Eros Ramazotti. But regardless of the diversity of his projects, he always managed to incorporate elements of his musical roots and characteristic gospel figures. By doing so he has become highly recognizable and is one of the most in demand members of the international drumming community. Throughout countless drum festivals, clinics and masterclasses he also became a well known and respected educator. Learning gospel chops from one of the drummers who made this drum style world famous is an exceptional possibility. Do not hesitate to start and jump into the world of Gospel Style Drumming with Eric Moore!