This is a page I wanted when I was practicing yesterday— whatever I was doing was hard enough that I wanted to see these written out, all together. They’re simple, so they’re good starting independence […]
Year: 2021
Cymbalistic: 16″ Holy Grail thin/med. thin crashes
CYMBALISTIC: Someone was looking for a 16″ crash, so I went over to Cymbal & Gong HQ in southeast Portland and played some nice 16″ Holy Grail crashes. Check them out: The 949 gram cymbal I […]
Delecluse patterns on the drum set
A rare-ish book outside of conservatory percussion circles, that is worth having in your permanent library, is Methode de Caisse-Claire by Jacques Delecluse. It’s an odd-sized book, so to print pages for my students I […]
Billy Elgart
Here’s a nice, short profile on avant-garde drummer Billy Elgart, I only ever knew from a couple of 60s Paul Bley records— it turns out he’s been thriving living and teaching in Germany all this […]
A 60s band: Love – Four Sail
Hey, let’s talk about a group John Colpitts (aka Kid Millions) told me about: Love, an LA psychedelic band from the 60s, with some prog-y elements— he suggested I check out their album Four Sail. […]
Transcription: Philly Joe Jones – Stablemates – intro
A little drum solo intro played by Philly Joe Jones on Stablesmates, from Milt Jackson’s record Bags Meets Wes!. It’s 16 bars long, even though there are no 16 bar phrases in the tune— the […]
Louis Bellson reading text in 4/4
Here are CRUISE SHIP DRUMMER! we spend a lot of time with the book Syncopation, and not so much with its more expansive, more serious-seeming companion, Louis Bellson’s Modern Reading Text in 4/4. I use […]
Fundraiser time
UPDATE: Bumping this to the top of the blog, scroll down for new posts. You may have noticed I’ve added a Patreon account, for those who prefer to support the site that way. Well, we’ve […]
Heavy Metal triplet groove
This is a 70s type of rock triplet feel groove that doesn’t seem to be used much any more— I don’t know why, it’s easy and fun to play, and must have an easy guitar […]
Dejohnette patterns
UPDATE: Oops, there’s a duplicate pattern in there— I think pattern 9 happens three times. And I got sloppy with my beaming standard. Oh well, it happens when you’re rushing to post stuff. Some […]
Transcription: Jack Dejohnette – Directions
Here’s that Jack Dejohnette transcription I mentioned yesterday— on the intro of Directions, from Miles Davis Live at the Fillmore East – It’s About Time. The 8th note quintuplets I mentioned happen right up front, […]