Chords for Simon Phillips - Drum Lesson: "Odd Times"

[Dbm] _ [Ebm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ [G] Yeah, it's a funny thing that it's_
I have a theory.
As you go around the world,
_ you start off in the East, let's say, but let's start at East European.
[Gm] Because once you go into Asia, then a lot of things [Cm] change musically.
But Eastern European, there's a lot of incredible music that is in odd meters.
And it's all folk music.
[F] You don't even have to be a musician to [Cm] play in 9-8.
Most farmer's wives in Bulgaria dance in 9-8.
They don't even think about it.
It's normal for them.
It's culture. _
_ So it's interesting that Eastern European musicians play [D] odd meters very well.
_ They don't necessarily play a fat groove in 4 that well.
It's a little_
It's not in the pocket.
Then you whiz over to the West Coast of America, [Cm] Los Angeles, and the pocket is great.
But now getting to play in 7 or 13, it's a little awkward because it's not part of the culture.
Now over the last 30 years, that has changed.
[Gm] But when I was growing up and listening to odd meters and learning to play,
I would come in contact with [G] a lot of American musicians at the time
who only a few of them were really [A] into the odd meter stuff.
Most didn't do that.
So a lot of it is to do with what you're used to hearing and what culture is.
But at the end of the day, _ _ what my thing was, was to assimilate these weird times
but make them feel [Cm] like they're played by a West Coast musician.
I worked [F] really hard on groove.
[G] I thought to myself, it doesn't matter if it's in 4 or if it's in 7 [D] or 9 or 17.
It should [G] basically feel the same.
It should still be the groove of the song.
If you think about it, you can tap your foot like this in any meter.
[A] At some [G] point, it's going to come around.
If you get used to playing a meter, counting 4 through it,
and that [Eb] downbeat becomes the upbeat,
so 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1, [D] 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
[G] you know like that?
_ [F] _ _ _ _
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
you know that kind of thing?
It will catch up.
So that's kind of how I play.
I'm playing a [A] lot of times.
_ _ _ There's a [G] song we [G] do.
Let's start in 7.
Groove in 7. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ What happens with the high end?
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Db] _
_ _ _ [F] It's a big 4.
No, it's actually a slow [G] 7.
So that's my little, let's say, key.
It's not a secret, but it's a key to playing these things.
Just always look through the bar line.
Same as you were playing in 4.
When you're playing 4-4, you don't count.
3, 4, 1, you know?
Right.
[Eb] So you've got to try to get [C] that when you're playing in 9 or [Gb] 5 or 7.
_ [Eb] _ It's just, again, you've got to get used to doing it.
[D] But that's my [Ab] thing, is to make it swing.
Just make it music.
It shouldn't be any [N] different.