Here I’ve reorganized the recent straight 8ths in swing warmups page to be a much larger, New Breed-like system of independence, mostly based on single beats of triplets played on the cymbal and hihats, including a straight 8th cross rhythm. This is covered differently in the book New Breed II, by Gary Chester, and one of his students, who completed the book after Chester’s death.
The essence of the method in The New Breed is to add an independent rhythm part to a set ostinato, and counting/singing each of the component parts. In the book’s terms, we are adding a melody rhythm to a repeating system.
The method of practice is:
- Play an ostinato. With metronome.
- Add each of the rhythm parts, first on the snare drum, then on the bass drum.
- While playing those combined patterns, count or sing as indicated at the bottom of the page— count beats, triplets, and straight 8ths, and the rhythm of each part of the pattern.
- New Breed suggests doing this with the RH playing the cymbal part, and with the LH playing it.
Do a couple of the simple systems, then do a couple of harder ones that interest you. Set a timer, get in, and get out. By its nature it’s a very expansive method— you could spend your whole life exhausting the possibilities, and some apparently do, but it’s not necessary… nor desirable, I think. Overworking this type of thing results in a kind of crystalline, Dave Weckl sounding thing, that isn’t really appropriate for jazz playing. We’re looking for some fine control that is there when we need it.
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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