Some things I’ve been playing through this week— promoting some previous posts, and rounding up some very useful practice systems. Basically I’ll just play down p. 38 (formerly and famously p. 37) from Syncopation the following ways:
1. Rhythm on BD/cym, fill in 8ths on SD, various stickings, as in my rock drill.
2. Rhythm on BD/fill in with LH, add &s on cymbal also as in my rock drill
3. Rhythm on SD/toms, fill in 8ths with BD – alternating sticking, LH flams on single notes, as in this linear Reed tweak.
4. Swing rhythm on BD/cym, fill in triplets on SD, alternating sticking, as in my jazz drill. Also roll the snare drum portion— same rhythm, all snare drum notes become double strokes.
5. As above, omit LH cymbal hits as in this triplet method.
6. RLLR-LRRL paradiddle inversion
7. As above, omit LH cymbal hits as in that triplet method.
8. Rhythm on BD/cym with RH, fill in 16ths on snare with LH, with Dejohnette-like treatment of longer runs of SD 16ths.
If you ever wonder how players learn to make a dense, Jack Dejohnette-like funk, rock, or solo texture on the drums, this is how it’s done.
Here are each of those methods done to the first line of p. 38:
I’ve been doing this mostly along with this loop. At this tempo it might take an hour to play the whole thing, with digressions. I also did it with a slower loop I made from this song by The Beta Band.