UPDATE: All links should be working satisfactorily now!
Our archives are voluminous— we’ve posted a lot in our 15 years as a site. Here are some categorized links for all the major topics we’ve covered. This page is a work in progress.
Downloads
All of it, every single post with something to download.
Syncopation systems
Practice systems for use with the book Syncopation by Ted Reed, covering virtually every major area of drumming. The nerve stem of my entire method.
I’ve also written quite a few reading pages similar to Reed, for particular purposes.
Todd’s Methods are practice systems that are somewhat peculiar to myself.
Other books
Thoughts on, and materials related to other people’s stuff. Right now I can only think of:
Stick Control by George Lawrence Stone
4-Way Coordination by Dahlgren & Fine
The New Breed by Gary Chester
Charley Wilcoxon in general
Under the best books tag I discuss a lot of other well known books, and books I like.
Jazz
All my jazz materials, including a tremendous amount of straight 8th materials— the ECM feel, as it’s now generally called. Here are a few sub-categories you may be interested in:
comping
trading 4s
ECM feel
Funk
Drumming with a backbeat, with a 16th note subdivision. That encompasses a whole lot of music besides funk, and funk encompasses a lot more than just that, but that’s how we categorize drumming materials.
Latin
Caribbean and Brazilian related materials:
Brazilian / Samba / Bossa Nova / Baiao
Salsa / Cuban / Caribbean
I’ve also written a lot on these rhythms specifically: Afro 6 | Mozambique
Rock
Pertaining to drumming with an 8th note subdivision.
Snare drum
Mostly technical materials, a few original snare drum solo pieces.
Practicing
Posts related to how to practice.
Transcriptions
I’ve done and insane number of these.
Solo trancriptions, specifically.
And my Grooves o’ the day— short groove transcriptions.
Soloing/filling
Filling and soloing for all kinds of music:
Solo materials | fills
Time signatures other than 4/4
3/4, compound meters, odd meters, meter-within-meter playing.
3/4 – waltz time
Odd meters generally
meter-within-meter
5/4 and 5/8
7/4 and 7/8
Drummers
I have a few people who I have written a lot about. Hit the links to read everything I’ve written about them:
Elvin Jones | Tony Williams | Max Roach | Mel Lewis | Roy Haynes | Jack Dejohnette | Philly Joe Jones | Ed Blackwell | Billy Higgins | Airto | Ndugu Leon Chancler | Idris Muhammad | Zigaboo Modeliste
Very occasional quotes of the day
Short quotes from drummers, other musicians, and artists.
Rants
People seem to like these. Basically humorous items, where I let it all hang out.