Billy Higgins playing on a funky vamp with some kicks in it, on Blackjack, from Donald Byrd’s album of the same name. It sticks with the rhythm figure all the way through, and Higgins plays […]
Month: May 2024
EZ fast rock – 02
The first EZ fast rock page was a hit with my students, so here’s another like it, more in a fill/variation direction. Combining patterns to make two-measure phrases, most of these will be the second […]
All American Drummer Solo No. 128
Here’s a raggedy little video I made of Solo No. 128 from Wilcoxon’s All American Drummer— in response to an online question. Never played it before, I worked it up in about 15 minutes. Tempo […]
One note / two notes
A little rhythm project, building rhythms based on sequences of one and two notes, spaced in a natural way for one hand— bell rhythms, essentially. It’s a good approach for teaching people who are new […]
Daily best music in the world: Tootie with McCoy
Here’s a nice performance on brushes by Tootie Heath, on Five Spot After Dark, from McCoy Tyner’s album Today And Tomorrow. I don’t know how it passed under my radar that he died just last […]
Concert piano clickbait
Here’s an interesting YouTube account, giving concert piano the full clickbait treatment. It’s kind of fascinating, applying all the usual BS traffic-baiting moves to this area of music, that is nothing if not highly serious— […]
RIP David Sanborn
So long to the saxophonist David Sanborn. He was one of the great lovers of all kinds of music— you can watch his show Night Music on YouTube, it was on in 1988-90, and he brought on […]
HOT TOPIC: beat displacement
Make them all go SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: I’m about to finish my out of town project that has been consuming a lot of my time, so hopefully we’ll resume regular posting soon. …aaaand I just got a […]
Very occasional quote of the day: mesmerized
“The fault with most drummers is they get carried away, mesmerized by the sound of the instrument.” – Larry Ridley, Jr. Modern Drummer, July, 1981
What it is: reading music
The world is teeming with resources. I was just involved in an extended, very contentious online discussion on the topic of reading music— Is it good to be able to read? Is it better to learn, […]
Reed tweak: linear fill in another setting
A similar item to another recent thing, with a Reed system I use pretty often, but don’t talk about much— with the hands plaing the book rhythm, and the bass drum filling in the spaces. […]
Subtractive method: key to BSSB-SBBS
If you’re not doing anything with this system, you should give it a try. It’s a way of orchestrating rhythms from Syncopation (or rhythms from wherever) between the snare drum and bass drum, based on […]