I don’t know what younger drummers’ current perception of Peter Erskine is, but when I was a student he was one of the top guys, always thought of as being exceedingly musical, with a great […]
Year: 2023
Bishopdiddles
Minor item, corralling some similar sticking ideas that have been floating around the site. I noticed that with paradiddle-like stickings, I like inverting them so the double is up front, right after the first accent. […]
P. 38 canon
This is purely a writing experiment, pay no attention. Like, run away to some other web site right now. Actually this is a pretty good exercise for working up an Ed Blackwell kind of solo […]
Reed tweak: alternating cymbals on rock drill
Incrementalism is the word du jour around here— lately we’ve been all about supplementing/altering some basic Reed systems in small ways, to make a living, evolving thing out of it, and not just pure formula. […]
Garrison soldier / combat soldier
There were four platoons in the company, and of them all, Second Platoon was considered the best-trained and in some ways the worst-disciplined. The platoon had a reputation for producing terrible garrison soldiers— men who […]
Categories of what we’re doing
Following is a very half-baked item that has been in my drafts for a long time. It’s a broad-ranging subject, and not the kind of thing you can just bang out, and have it be […]
Time economics of drum videos
Taking a break from a whole lot of teaching, business related emails— there’s a Seattle cymbal meet coming up, and a Germany trip in October— and whatnot. I get irritable when I don’t get to […]
Solo transcription: Ben Riley – Bemsha Swing
More Ben Riley! From the same record as yesterday— Thelonious Monk Live At The It Club— and in fact this is the very next tune they played at the gig, Bemsha Swing. So, two drum […]
Solo transcription: Ben Riley – Blues Five Spot
Solo by Ben Riley on Blues Five Spot, from the Thelonious Monk record Live At The It Club. Great record, and core literature. I think of Ben Riley’s playing as maybe the cleanest shot we […]
Very occasional quote of the day: loud and meaningless
“A drummer can be very, very loud and that can be just totally meaningless. Sometimes it can be very, very loud and it can be extremely exciting. So, it’s really not a question of how […]
Cymbalistic: videos are up – event dates
CYMBALISTIC: Videos and descriptions of the new cymbals are up, check them out at Cymbalistic. I’m putting a lot of ears on them ahead of upcoming events in Seattle and Germany (see below), so many/most/all […]
Sidebar: it’s things you do with rhythm
It is funny, I find myself typing the words SYNCOPATION and REED an awful lot, but this entire category of thing is not owned by that one book and that one author. We really talking […]