A great extended interview with Joey Baron by Cologne pianist Pablo Held. Part three has the most drumming and performance related conversation in it, but follow the link and watch the other two videos, too: […]
Year: 2018
Harmonic coordination whatsis
Hey, we’re kicking around a lot of half-baked stuff on the blog these days, but I… look… if you want to see someone disappearing down the practice materials rabbit hole, visit my friend the saxophonist Dave […]
Moron bad drumming
We are all Hector Berlioz. Following up on my bad drummers post from some weeks ago. I hate to even say bad drummers, because playing badly is not an immutable thing. I like to think […]
Rub-a-dub lesson: Equinox
Here’s an easy little lesson for doing this rub-a-dub business in a musical context, using the tune Equinox by John Coltrane. Equinox is based on some very common jazz rhythmic figures, so this should be […]
Page o’ coordination: basic jazz waltz – 01
After doing this feature for about five years, I finally get around to doing a basic jazz waltz. Doing easy stuff wasn’t supposed to be its purpose, but it’s a familiar format, and not everyone […]
Cymbals are IN
UPDATE: Videos for most individual cymbals are now on YouTube, including the Swish and Krut. Videos for more Holy Grail cymbals coming tomorrow. Amazing day Friday picking out cymbals at Cymbal & Gong headquarters here […]
Syncopation p. 37: rub-a-dub method, mach 1
Now this is the level of drum geekery I aspire to, with the defiantly gibberish post title, and everything. I was writing out a very laborious explanation of the next steps in my evolving quasi-Mel Lewis […]
Chaffee linear patterns in context – 02
Yes, I’m determined to finally resolve some minor issues I have in practicing Gary Chaffee’s linear thing. Today let’s work through a short phrase that will be useful in jazz settings, starting after the 1, […]
Practice loop: Sivad
This is a fun one, and just about my favorite ~45 seconds of music in the world: the opening of Sivad, from the Miles Davis album Live Evil. Tempo is 86 bpm. Rock out.
Developing a method for rub-a-dub
I’ve been working up a practice method for learning what Mel Lewis called rub-a-dub— I hate to use his term, because I only just saw it explained for the first time in Chris Smith’s video. I don’t […]
Chaffee linear patterns in context – 01
Gary Chaffee’s linear system— found in book 3 of his Patterns series— is a major entry in the literature of drumming, but it has always felt unfinished to me. There are some extra steps required […]
CYMBALISTIC is on line
OK, it’s time to go public with this sucker: CYMBALISTIC, my new site retailing Cymbal & Gong cymbals is now on line. In case you hadn’t heard, Cymbal & Gong is a Portland company which […]