UPDATE: I added some video of me practicing this. I’ve been practicing my fast tempos lately, both with sticks and brushes. I’m talking about jazz, tempos above ~290 bpm. I haven’t had to do a […]
Author: Todd Bishop
Reed tweak: quasi-right hand lead
I really do try to practice when I practice, not just do writing sessions for the blog. But these things just come up. This is yet another small change to the straight-8th right hand lead […]
Solo transcription: Joey Baron – Goldfish
Joey Baron’s solo over a 7/4 vamp on Goldfish, from Dave Douglas’s 1997 album Stargazer, to which I’m listening a lot this week. There’s not a ton of drumistic content to it, it’s more of […]
Groove o’ the day: Greg Errico – If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picked Up
By request here’s a groove by played by Greg Errico on If I’m In Luck I Might Get Picked Up by Betty Davis (née Mabry) on her self-titled album. Which was also produced by Greg […]
Kicks and setups with Reed – 01
We covered this cursorily back in 2011, let’s talk about it again, with some more detail. “Kicks and setups” is big band drummer speak for one of the major jobs of a jazz drummer, or any […]
Listening to Sorcerer
Phew, long post here, but the topic merits it. Let’s listen to the Miles Davis record Sorcerer, with his famous 60s quintet including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. I bought it […]
Very occasional quote of the day: privilege
“The only sensible way to regard the art life is that it is a privilege you are willing to pay for.” – Robert Henri, The Art Spirit
Transcription: Roy Haynes – Bad News Blues – 03
Part 3 of Roy Haynes playing Bad News Blues on his record Cracklin’. Booker Ervin’s tenor solo includes a chorus of stop time, two choruses of blowing, then he trades choruses with Roy. This is […]
Reed interpretation: slow tempo / fast singles
I guess you could do this with Reed— or just practice the page below by itself and start using it. NOTE: After completing this post, I see that I wrote two very similar things back […]
5/8 flam accents
Page of rudimental patterns in 5/8, based on a flam accent #1. We’ve just extended it a couple of notes. You could connect some of these with a whole lot of rudiments: flam drags, pataflaflas, […]
Reed singles drill
Simple system for working on singles, that I worked up with a student who plays a lot of Metal. I don’t know anything about Metal drumming, so we have to work together to come up […]
Paul Motian documentary
It took me awhile to get around to watching the Paul Motian documentary Motian In Motion— it’s great, here it is if you haven’t seen it: I liked this comment from Steve Swallow about his […]