Chad Smith interviews Ginger Baker. Most surprising occurrence: Smith never screams “WHY ARE YOU EVEN ALIVE?” Seriously. You don’t need to watch— well, any of it, actually— but definitely not past 14:40, where Smith’s look […]
Month: March 2016
EZ cut time funk method
Here’s an easy cut time funk technical study, sort of a flanker for my basic method, serving really no purpose except to set up a situation where unexpected things can happen. It’s easy to get […]
Very occasional quote of the day: nice guys
“Nice guys finish first. If you don’t know that, then you don’t know where the finish line is.” — Garry Shandling, 1949-2016 [h/t to @TheBlakeMorgan] There’s also a great exchange in Shandling’s Comedians In Cars […]
1986 Jeff Porcaro clinic
I haven’t had time to watch this yet, but it’s guaranteed to be good: [h/t to Bo Eder at Drummerworld]
Snare drum etude in 2/4 with 8th notes and triplets – 01
I’ve been interested in modulating rhythms lately, so here’s a little snare drum etude derived from my previous etude in 5/8. It’s actually the same piece— I’ve just changed the meter to 2/4, and changed […]
Cut time funk method: two-measure grooves
I’ve been working quite a bit with this cut time funk method from last year— part of what I’ve been doing instead of writing more blog posts. I’m not just writing junk to burn up […]
Daily best music in the world: end of the 80s with Bill Frisell
Another of my all time favorite records, Is That You? by Bill Frisell, with Joey Baron on drums. It’s lightly flawed with an in-your-face overprocessed drum sound, produced by Wayne Horvitz, but whatever. It’s not […]
Roy Haynes on rudiments
He talks about a lot of things, but his comments on rudiments (after 2:30) are interesting: I don’t know if I would take that completely at face value— in answering the question he seems to […]
Snare drum etude in 5/8
This week I’ve been working out of Odd Meter Calisthenics, a very good book by Mitchell Peters, which covers a lot of stuff in */8 meters. Which led me to write out a little study […]
Very occasional quote of the day: practicing eight hours a day
“Do it ’til you get to a certain point technically where you don’t do it.” — Jack Dejohnette, unpublished interview with Scott K. Fish
Transcription: Jeff Porcaro — Southbound
This is a song from my childhood which I only ever new from one line, which my college-age friend Tom, from the Big Brother/Big Sister program, used to sing at odd times: Southbound / unfold […]
Transcription: Zigaboo Modeliste — The Mob
Here’s the rest of that thing we were looking at the other day: Zigaboo Modeliste’s playing on The Mob, from the Meters album Look-ka Py Py. On the first and last A sections, he improvises […]