“Have another beer, have another beer, roll another joint and smoke it, smoke it”? It’s a funny little onomatopoeic 70s thing that goes with a roll exercise, which I overheard an instructor do, once— I think it’s […]
Year: 2014
Snare drum workout in 6/8
I’m all about the one-page workouts these days, so here’s another one, for snare drum, in 6/8. The first goal is just to be able to play each of the patterns individually; probably some of […]
Micheal Shrieve on Whiplash
I’m not going to say anything more about the new hit drumming/jazz education melodrama Whiplash until I’ve actually seen it, but I will let you know about another great drummer, Michael Shrieve, sharing his thoughts […]
Philly Joe starts a chorus: The Theme
Another micro-transcription looking at how Philly Joe Jones plays the beginning of a chorus. The tune is The Theme, from the Miles Davis album Miles (what it says on the cover), or The New Miles […]
Page o’ coordination: basic — 01
This whole Pages o’ coordination series has been something of a nightmare of difficulty; they’ve been for advanced players, at least. I thought I’d see what I could do on the other end of the spectrum, […]
Very occasional quote of the day: figuring things out
Elvin Jones on Haskell Harr and learning the rudiments: “I did go through [Harr’s snare drum book] as a matter of fact. I went to public school in Pontiac, Michigan, so I didn’t do anything extra. […] I didn’t have […]
Survival chops: triplets and 16th notes, accented
Here’s a page of stuff that should be handy, with some accented 8th note triplets and 16th notes in 3/4 time. Playing 16th notes at the end of a run of triplets is something I […]
Erskine on Whiplash!
If you don’t know your subject well enoughto convey the real emotion of it, there’s always this. This is fun— they’ve interviewed Peter Erskine in re: the new smash sensation amazingly great jazz drumming education […]
DBMITW: Portland song
New video by my partner Casey Scott!
Philly Joe plays an entrance: Oleo
Lots of action here this week, but here’s a little something for you… the new Book of Intros is still on its way… finishing is always the hard part, and there’s always more to do […]
Things I learned at a Billy Mintz concert and clinic, and hanging at Revival Drums
Get it here. I already knew this, but I was reminded of how great is the distance between things we can talk about and write about with drumming, and the actual music itself. The actual […]
Daily best music in the world: earlyish Steve Gadd
Here’s some really great funk drumming by Steve Gadd, from 1975, on a fairly obscure album: Mobius, by Cedar Walton. Gadd invented or perfected much of the drumming language that is now usually just called […]