People, I am all about the quarter notes these days. This is an easy method using the rhythm of the vamp from the Herbie Hancock tune Maiden Voyage— we’ll combine that rhythm, played on the cymbal, with the linear quarter note drum parts from Syncopation, by Ted Reed. That’s pp. 8-9, or Lesson 3, if you own the new edition of the book. Normally I would explain every step of the process, but you can figure it out. Open up your copy of Reed, print the pdf, and go.
Usually the cymbal notes will be played with the right hand, but you can catch some of them with the left, if you’d like. And improvise whatever sticking you like on the snare drum notes, move them around the drums, adding flams or whatever embellishments you like. Take advantage of the simplicity of the method to fit that stuff in. Practice lines 1-15 with and without the pickups, then test yourself with the 16 bar exercise.
Practice loop:
If for some unpardonably lame reason you don’t own this record, the complete original track is after the break:
Very Clever!!! I'm sitting in with a band, and was searching for ideas to work around the repetitive rhythm, without falling into a trance 🙂