From the This portion of the recent This/not this: polyrhythm post, I’ve written out C.K. Ladzekpo’s list of basic polyrhythms every Ewe learns while growing up, along with our now familiar 6/8 bell pattern: You […]
Category: Afro-Cuban
This/not this: polyrhythm
This post was going to be a survey of YouTube videos on polyrhythm, but most of them were so bad, it was shaping up to be a real bloodbath. So let’s just summarize by reviving […]
Todd’s African triplet lick
I call this an African idea, but really it’s just a thing that keeps happening when I solo with an Afro 6 feel; it’s African by vibe. And it’s not really a “lick”, it’s more […]
Lighting round: four new books
New to me, anyway— I think these have all been around awhile. I thought I’d give my rapid-fire opinion on some things I just got in the mail: Daily Drumset Workout by Claus Hessler We’ll […]
Page o’ coordination: bass drum variation in 6/8
Are you getting to the point that you can work these up in a few days, and then retire them, yet? We’ve done a big pile of these POCs, but they cover a fairly narrow […]
Afro 6/8 exercise: getting the 3/4 pull
More on this. All I can say is, my readers should be absolutely killing it with their Afro 6/8 in the next 6-12 months. This is a basic counting and coordination exercise I’ve been using with […]
The Abanico
The Abanico (meaning “fan” in Spanish) is the name of a stock set-up that occurs in Salsa, Afro-Cuban music, whatever you choose to call it. It is played by the timbale player— the timbalero—to bring […]
Page o’ coordination: 6/8 Rumba clave in the left hand
Like I said: a lotta 6/8. That feel has always been one of the stronger elements of my playing, but I thought I’d see what happens if I do a whole lot of more work […]
Afro 6/8 with a backbeat
In my day we didn’t have fancy drum blogs giving us near-daily pages of nicely formatted, well-thought-out drum exercises free of charge. Our teachers just scribbled something in the margin of our tattered copy of […]
Kerrigan syncopation exercise in 6/8
I guess there’s no getting around it: we’re all about the 6/8 these days— there’s a whole bunch more of this on deck. This is a Chuck Kerrigan syncopation exercise, from his very useful Syncopated […]
DBMITW: Rumba in Havana
Preoccupied with tour-related stuff this week, so here’s a Rumba group playing in the street in Havana: