Plotting out an intensive couple of lessons with a younger student, who has been doing extremely well with his playing the past year, but who is deficient reading 16th note rhythms. It’s not unexpected that […]
Year: 2024
Daily best music in the world: Dannie Richmond with Don Pullen / George Adams
Title track from Earth Beams, a great record by George Adams & Don Pullen, with Dannie Richmond on the drums— all three are Charles Mingus band alumni. Richmond was a key partner in that relationship […]
One measure 5/4 triplet fills with Reed!
Another one of my hack and slash jobs. This is something I improvised in a lesson— a student is working on some of the Pages o’ Coordination in 5/4, based on an Elvin Jones groove, […]
Very occasional quote of the day: productivity
If people saw the way I lived, they’d realize that I spend a huge amount of time just relaxing and goofing off, watching baseball on television, going to movies, taking walks, playing jazz, and practicing […]
Transcription: Chester Thompson – Gibraltar
Here’s Chester Thompson playing on the tune Gibraltar, an extended groove number on the Weather Report album Black Market. The first thing I ever transcribed was Chester Thompson playing with Genesis, and I associate him […]
How to stop – 01
Kind of a mundane item here— a multi-parter, believe it or not— mainly for teachers, about handling ordinary materials in a more real-life musical way, including how to stop in the conversation. Younger students and […]
Very occasional quote of the day: Grady Tate on reading
“I never dealt with drum music as such, because ninety-five percent of it had nothing to do with what’s happening in the band. So many people have destroyed their careers by reading exactly what’s written […]
Open handed redux
This but just me looking like an A-hole This is a long one. This is what happens every time the subject of “open handed” drumming is raised online— a kind of church revival of drumming […]
Syncopation Ex. 1 – modified for speed
Another one of my cut and paste jobs, this time inflicted on Syncopation Exercise 1, from Reed. P. 37 or 38, depending on the edition. I’ve modified it so there are no more than two […]
Andy Newmark’s set up
Pilfered from a Modern Drummer interview in 1984, here is Andy Newmark talking about his drumming set up. He’s a session drummer, and was real active in the 70s and 80s especially. I excerpted some […]
YouTube solo analyzed
Elaborating on a question I answered on a forum— someone was asking about the playing in the video below. Here is a little bit of analysis of it, and some suggestions about how you should […]
Transcription: Charli Persip blues
Charli Persip playing a medium blues with Oliver Nelson: J&B, from Nelson’s 1961 record Main Stem. Persip is really enjoyable to listen to, and has a little bit of Roy Haynes’s edgy, modern thing happening. […]