Average White Band -- "Pick Up the Pieces" drum cover, (read description for discussion abt "taffy")

AWB, you know the drill. So I've been working on the "taffy". It's this grouping of notes that gives a lot of funk drumming its "viscosity", for lack of a better term. I think the way most drummers would think of it is as a linear phrase. Start with a on the snare, then a hi-hat note just a tad bit before a note on the kick (they almost sound in unison, but not quite). But they're executed as if they're part of the same overall movement (this is dancing, so it's not limited to one part of the kit or one limb). The snare note in that phrase is a "ghost" note, and if you play two or three of these in sequence that's one of the signature "moves" of first-gen funk drumming. "Pick Up the Pieces" has a lot of "taffy" in it. I've seen this interpreted as a sort of constant bed of "ghost" notes on the snare, but I think the funkier way to think about it is each note is intentional (Clyde Stubblefield actually talks about this, but I think people missed what he was getting at) and part of a larger phrase involving the hi hat and the kick drum. So, taffy. It's a good thing to develop, IMHO. Still working on it.