A quick little transcription project, before I get into making a lot of cymbal videos. These are the rhythms for the horn riffs on some Charles Mingus tunes. A riff is a repeating background figure, […]
Month: February 2019
CYMBALISTIC: Cymbal day 2/26/19
Cymbalistic news: I visited Cymbal & Gong HQ in southeast Portland yesterday to play cymbals and acquire stock, and the word of the day was GREAT LITTLE RIDE CYMBALS. Phrase of the day. I played a […]
Rub-a-dub lesson: Fables of Faubus
Another example of rub-a-dub applied, using a passage from the Charles Mingus tune Fables of Faubus. In previous lessons we’ve just used this idea on the head of some tunes as an exercise. Here we’re […]
Beginning snare drum books
Winner 1 A brief roundup of some available beginning snare drum books— books for first year students who have never played before, roughly age 10 and up. May also use them with more experienced players […]
Syncopation p. 37 in 16th notes
Continuation of this item, in which I transcribe exercises by Ted Reed into 16th notes. Here I’ve done the famous page 37 exercise. I won’t be doing any other pages because that would be obsessive […]
Hemiola funk series – BS-SB
Further exploring hemiola rhythms in various meters and drum set orchestrations… there will be several more posts like this coming soon. It’s a simple idea that nevertheless needs to be written out, and it takes […]
Practice loop: Black Sabbath / Breakout
Practice loop sampled from Breakout, an instrumental jazz odyssey-type number from Black Sabbath’s 1978 album Never Say Die. Tempo is quarter note = 57 bpm. Nice and slow, good for getting into my very challenging […]
Page o’ coordination: that with interruptions
A rare opportunity to do a POC in 4, with lightning turnaround, no less. I attended a clinic by John Riley and Terrell Stafford in Portland this afternoon, and they were each telling what they […]
Hunting the Tony cymbal
Cymbal, and player, and stick, and microphone. UPDATE: It took a little longer than I thought, but the cymbal “Eloi” mentioned later in the piece has been sold. I’m sure there will be others. In […]
Transcription: Brian Blade – Alabama
Here’s an easy look at some medium tempo playing by Brian Blade, on the swing portion of the tune Alabama. From Pursuance, Kenny Garrett’s album of the music of John Coltrane. The transcription begins where […]
Groove o’ the day: Street beat in 7
Here’s a New Orleans street beat-style groove in 7/4, played by Bill Stewart. The tune is 7th Floor, from John Scofield’s album Hand Jive. This is the basic groove from the intro of the tune; […]
Playing weird tunes
You go through stages of learning jazz repertoire. In high school I would play Charlie Parker tunes on the snare drum— just the melody rhythm. Then I learned about some standard forms, like 12-bar blues […]