This has turned into an elegant little exercise. Paradiddle-diddles have long been bailout pattern of choice for fast tempos— the thing you play to rest your hand a little bit, and break things up. Bob […]
CYMBALISTIC: Cymbal day
CYMBALISTIC: A new shipment of Cymbal & Gong cymbals is in, and I spent a couple of hours at the warehouse (aka Tim’s basement) playing cymbals, and picking things out for sale on my Cymbalistic […]
Practicing musically
Practicing musically, approaching the task like a musician and not an athlete, working on music, not performance statistics. I’m struggling to write an introduction, so here are some things to think about, scattergun style: Dynamics, […]
Charisma of roads, and the lack of
Apropos of nothing, I was suddenly moved to write this. I’ve done a lot of distance traveling by car and tour bus in these United States. It became a writing experiment— I really started with […]
Transcription: Steve Gadd – Waltse For Dave
More Steve Gadd on Chick Corea’s Friends— here on the flute solo on Waltse For Dave, a medium tempo jazz waltz. It has a 70 bar form: A -16 | A – 16 | B […]
Ultimate paradiddle builder – 01
Ultimate until I need it in some other form. I already see some other things I could have included. Don’t believe everything you read. This expands on an approach taken in Mitchell Peters’s Rudimental Primer, […]
Solo transcription: Steve Gadd – Samba Song
Classically Gadd solo by Steve Gadd (hey?) on Chick Corea’s album Friends— the Smurfs album. There are four records from the later 70s by Corea, with Gadd on them, that were the epitome of the […]
Very occasional quote of the day: technique and improvised music
When it comes to “technique” I don’t just want fast hands, I want fast ears! In improvised music you have to compute and consider what you’ve heard and make a decision instantaneously. Your technique, or […]
Motivation
Motivation! The art of getting off your dead butt and doing something, and/or getting others to do the same. It sounds like I’m setting up some grand exposition of that, but I don’t have any […]
Best books: The Mastery of Eric Harland
The Mastery of Eric Harlandby Alex Snydmanwith transcriptions by Snydman, Stone Cornelius, Raphael Pannier, and Terry Branam2025, 92 pages I just received this book in the mail, and it’s quite good, a very worthwhile portrait […]
CYMBALISTIC: a splendid time to get one!
CYMBALISTIC: All right then, fate has just dealt us at CRUISE SHIP DRUMMER! enterprises a big unexpected financial hit. The boys in the finance wing are not happy. So hey: If you’ve been thinking “one […]
Subtractive systems for 16ths in jazz
Some subtractive systems for voicing your snare drum and bass drum in 16ths and partials thereof, in jazz comping. It’s a very common thing, but not usually featured in the normal materials, or included in […]