Just in case any one needs to see it written out, here is my preferred primary exercise for developing doubles, which I referenced in the YouTube open roll round up. Each note should be played […]
Year: 2015
YouTube round up: open roll technique
It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these, in which I go on YouTube and comment on the things brought up by searching a basic drumming term; punishing the guilty, rewarding the innocent, and […]
2015 Europe tour
We’re on light posting for a few days here, clearly, while I’m focused on some other stuff. LIKE MY 2015 EUROPE TOUR; it looks like we’ll be on the road from approximately December 2-21, 2015. […]
Very occasional quote of the day: “You shouldn’t be able to do that.”
A pull from Ethan Iverson’s Whiplash/Buddy article, which deserves its own space: A story about Mel Lewis: Mel hated giving lessons, but finally a kid talked him into letting him come by a record session […]
Rational Funk with Dave King
Bad Plus drummer Dave King’s Rational Funk series of videos are pretty genius, and hilarious: They brought me to mind of the old Book of the SubGenius, a blurb on the back of which goes […]
Brazilian 3
Continuing our recent batch of downloads for odd meter Samba and Bossa, here are some parts for putting together some grooves in 3/2, or in 6/4. This isn’t an incredibly odd meter for Samba, but […]
Daily best music in the world: Samba in 3
Or is it Bossa in 6? And I’ve never gotten a definitive answer on the genre name of this mostly-instrumental, piano trio, jazz-influenced, lounge-oriented form of Bossa/Samba, which we’re listening to here. Right now I’m […]
A crappy victory lap
DEP’T OF CORRECTIONS: I thought he was going to say “Come on, swing, you mother— SWIIIIIING! YEAH! YEAAAH!”, but in the actual movie he saidthe only stupider cliché possible: “Faster! FASTER!” By the way, I don’t want […]
Page o’ coordination: “Latin in 3”
“Latin 3” is not a style name you often hear; it’s not a true Cuban/Salsa style that I’m aware of, and is not a super-common Brazilian style. But jazz musicians will call for it occasionally, […]
Brazilian 5
While I’ve got you pumped out of your minds about odd meter Brazilian styles, here’s a page of Samba and Bossa Nova in 5/4: Learn all combinations of the above parts, then improvise variations on […]
Whiplash drinking game
Waitaminit, 3&2&? What the hell are you writing in a school chart, and why are you doing it in ink? Well. I finally saw the movie Whiplash, and I’ll say it definitely exceeded my expectations in the magnitude of […]
Page o’ coordination: anticipations — 02
Here’s a companion to another recent POC in 4/4.We’re doing pure coordination in a jazz idiom here, and not an actual groove— hopefully that’s obvious— we’re just strengthening some of the internal structure of our […]