Roy Haynes trading fours with Kenny Burrell on Well, You Needn’t, from Burrell’s 1959 album A Night At The Vanguard. They’re playing trio, with Richard Davis on bass. The whole record is really cool— nobody’s […]
Bossa warmups
Five pretty-easy Syncopation systems for getting warmed up with some bossa materials. And for getting it together in the first place, if you’re just learning the style. Use with pp. 38-45 in Syncopation. Play all […]
The future’n you
A quick one: We’re in one of those phases of doomerism about the future— not of liberal democracy in the face of an ascendant techno-fascist kleptocracy, or of the planet as a livable place for […]
Very occasional quote of the day: improving time
“I think the best way to improve your time, is to play with musicians that have good time. Getting the feeling for how its supposed to be and working on it will improve time. But […]
Transcription: Art Blakey – Safari
A little drum break and Latin groove from Art Blakey, on Safari, by Horace Silver, originally on Horace Silver Trio, vol. 1, on Blue Note. Originally a 78 release, actually— the recording is less than […]
Matt’s double bass drill – 01
One of my students is a Metal drummer, which is kind of unusual for me. Part of our lesson time is workshopping methods for improving his double bass drum technique. I’ve had him do a […]
Groove o’ the day: Jack Dejohnette – 47th Groove
This is from kind of a dark horse album, Irresistible Forces, by Jack Dejohnette’s Special Edition— under which name he released several records between 1980-94, with different lineups. I listened to the next record a […]
NEW BOOK: Rants – vol. 1
All right, here we go, my new book is DONE: Rants – vol. 1. Drummers, drum media, and the internetby Todd Bishop. 290 pages. Get it: on CYMBALISTIC | on LULU All right, here we […]
Subtractive method: EZ bossa system
A simple thing that works shockingly well for creating a functional bossa groove that breathes. You’ll recall that this “subtractive method” is a way of revoicing the rhythms in Syncopation, based on how they line […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro 6 with RH move – 01
Two of these in a row. I’m too occupied with finishing this new book— Rants, vol. 1— now at the critical “done, and it all looks wrong” stage of editing. So I need a few […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro 6 – new LH basics
Basic left hand variations with a basic form of the an Afro 6/8 groove, with the “short” bell rhythm. Finally updating a page I did way back in 2012, that I still use all the […]
Comping: triplets to 16ths – 01
A little companion to that butchery of the Chapin book I committed the other day. Here we’re starting with a single ordinary triplet pattern, and then showing some ways of converting it to straight 8ths […]