Here’s a five note pattern that I play all the time, without ever knowing what I’m doing with it. I’ve written about a couple of these accidental items before— an 11 note pattern and my grocery store hemiola thing.
When other people play this— a very common modern thing:
…I do the following thing. Sort of a Tony-like lick. It’s actually a Gary Chaffee pattern exactly, but I re-made it up in this voicing specifically. It’s always a little bit sketchy, because not everyone is comfortable hearing that, and I don’t know how to get out of it— I have to wing it, with varying degrees of grace and success. So here it is written out in a couple of repeating forms, and as a two-to-eight beat long fill, ending on 1:
Practice the repeating forms, then practice the fills as part of a longer phrase in a modern jazz feel.
I recommend practicing it this way, too, accenting on the beat every beat:
All of the fill examples end on 1; I’ll also be figuring out how to end those with an accent on the last note of beat 4.
I am happy to help you with any of the materials on the site, and with anything else drumming related— contact me for private lessons, online world wide, or in person in Portland, Oregon. All levels of players, and all people, are welcome.
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