To celebrate Devo drummer Alan Myers, who just died, here’s a transcription of Clockout, from the band’s Duty Now For The Future album. There are some non-significant variations that happen on each repeat— just play, […]
Month: June 2013
Three Buddy Rich transcriptions
London-based drummer Caroline Scott has posted three Buddy Rich transcriptions— Big Swing Face, Mexicali Nose, and Love For Sale— sort of the big three of Buddy tunes for me, plus Ya Gotta Try. Very worth […]
Groove o’ the day: Freddie Waits — African Village
Here’s another afro 6 alternative— we haven’t had any new ones lately. Played by Freddie Waits, on the tune African Village on McCoy Tyner’s Time For Tyner, released in 1968: I’ve written this in a […]
Perspectives on cymbals, part the first
You may have noticed that I’ve lately been advocating for heavier cymbals than are currently in fashion, especially among jazz drummers. After pursuing ever lighter cymbals for most of the oughts, finally settling on some […]
Alan Myers 1955-2013
Mark Mothersbaugh and Alan Myers, way back when. Very sorry to hear Devo drummer Alan Myers died today, of cancer. Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was the first record I ever […]
Page o’ coordination: 5/8 + 5/8 — 02
More fun with 5/4, gateway to all odd meters. I guess. Getting it together does seem to make the others quite a bit easier. This is our second entry using the 5/8+5/8 construction: When getting […]
Podcast — Episode 6: Todd’s playalong tracks
Hey, we haven’t done a podcast in some time, have we? I’ve been doing most of my drumset practicing along with recordings recently— book exercises and everything— and I thought I’d share some of the […]
VOQOTD: on swinging
To me, any drummer who hits the drums too hard doesn’t swing. — Peter Erskine Read the entire Drum! Magazine interview from 2000.
A page of Brazilian rhythms
Here I’ve pulled the snare drum parts from a random selection of bossa nova/samba records— by Baden Powell, Tamba Trio, Milton Banana, and others. Some of these are played fairly repetitively on the recording, some […]
Two links
Hit the link for the full-size scans. Two short items: First, someone is sharing what I consider to be the “real” sheet music for Frank Zappa’s Black Page— it’s the same copy I learned it […]
Northern Brazilian drumming
From the Vic Firth site, here’s a nice clinic on northeastern Brazilian drumming, by US drummer Scott Kettner. He discusses the folkloric/authentic forms of the Baião and Maracatu rhythms, which have a history of being […]
Groove o’ the day: Robertino Silva — Saídas E Bandeiras
Been having a little bit of writer’s block in finishing several longer pieces this week, so let’s do something easy. Here’s a simple rock beat in 5/4 by one of my favorite Brazilian drummers, Robertinho […]