Another track from Sam Rivers’ Sizzle plus some bonus Barry Altschul after the break:
Month: October 2011
Todd’s methods: Son of Daku-daku-paradiddle
Right, I’m starting to regret the name I made up for this thing– until I think of the alternative, long-winded description for this very common pattern. Now if I can just bring myself to call […]
The way drum instructional videos should be
30 seconds long, no explanation, no BS, no nothing except everything you need to know about the subject: More of Ted Warren’s excellent series of brush videos after the break:
Coordination “kernels”
Here’s one for the teachers. This is an approach I’ve found helpful with students having difficulties with coordination on written patterns in jazz and Latin, and a good alternative/supplement to the usual solution of “slowing […]
VOQOTD: Joan Miró
In the beginning, it’s a direct thing. It’s the material that decides. I prepare the ground-by cleaning my brushes on the canvas, for example. Spilling a little turpentine can also work quite well. If it’s […]
I’m huge in France
Apparently a track from my 2009 CD 69 Année Érotique (the music of Serge Gainsbourg) made it onto Une brique dans le ventre, a program on French national TV this month (it starts around 4’50”). […]
Todd’s methods: Afro-Cuban in 6/8 and 3/4
Here’s something I wrote strictly for my own use, which I thought I would share for you to make of what you will. The Afro 6/8 has been one of my stronger vehicles for a […]
Paradiddle round-up
In case you haven’t gotten enough to work on with the paradiddle things I’ve posted, here are some exercises gathered from around the web. I’ve only linked to pages that actually use notation- I’m a […]
VOQOTD: Pete La Roca on backbeats
What an insult for Fusion to impose the repetitive BackBeat on Jazz drummers! How ironic, since the BackBeat is merely the handclap used by American slaves when they were forbidden to have drums! How bizarre […]
Two videos
Here are a couple of nice videos from my fellow drumming blogs while I recover from my little Oregon coast mini-vacation: First, a video on practicing by Steve Smith, from the excellent new Melodic Drummer […]
Very occasional quote of the day: Brian Eno
I used to think that, given enough goodwill, anybody would be able to “get” any music, no matter how distant the culture from which it came. And then I heard Chinese opera. – Brian Eno […]
The great Jeff Berlin metronome controversy
This has been floating around for some time. His observations are mostly good, but I don’t happen to agree with his conclusion. Watch the video, and I’ll give a few thoughts about it: His major […]