For fun I’ve pulled at random some four measure comping phrases from recordings featuring Billy Higgins on drums. Sort of at random: I’ve grabbed the first thing I heard on the track that stands out […]
Category: comping
Transcription: Frankie Dunlop — Green Chimneys / Rouse’s solo
2024 UPDATE: Oops, apparently Ben Riley plays on this record. I need to look at the sleeve before posting these things. It sure sounded like Frankie Dunlop to me. Thanks to Andrew Wicks for the […]
Quarter note-ism
The usual theory of practicing is that as you master really hard stuff, you’ll be super-good at the easy stuff. What often happens is that hard stuff just starts sounding like normal drumming to you, […]
Philly Joe starts a chorus: The Theme
Another micro-transcription looking at how Philly Joe Jones plays the beginning of a chorus. The tune is The Theme, from the Miles Davis album Miles (what it says on the cover), or The New Miles […]
Philly Joe plays an entrance: Oleo
Lots of action here this week, but here’s a little something for you… the new Book of Intros is still on its way… finishing is always the hard part, and there’s always more to do […]
A Reed method for 16th notes in jazz— reading 8th notes
Continuing our previous Reed interpretation for comping with 16th notes in jazz, this time using the 8th note section of Syncopation— pp. 10-11, or “Lesson 4” in the new edition. The written rhythms on those […]
A Reed method for 16th notes in jazz — reading the quarter note sections
Over the course of a few posts I’ll break down my method for developing jazz comping with 16th notes, using Syncopation by Ted Reed. 16th notes are used a lot in jazz, and drummers neglecting […]
“Skiplet” analysis— a line of music
Continuing with the analysis portion of this skiplet-based method of jazz coordination-thingy, in which, in order to learn independence vs. a jazz time feel, we orient everything around the three close-together notes of the cymbal […]
Page o’ coordination: Elvin’s waltz — inverted feet
Once you start doing an Elvin-like thing, the pull of that dotted-quarter rhythm can be very hard to resist; it’s effective, it builds tension, and it feels good to play it, but you need to […]
Page o’ coordination: hihat splash in 3/4 — 02
Hey, I kind of like these things— we’ll see several more pages o’… with hihat splashes, in the near future. This format has become one of the major things we do here, as I’ve had […]
Page o’ coordination: across the barline in 5/4
This is a classic situation when you start improvising in 5/4: you get a little cocky about your ability to just vibe the meter and come out OK, and in a few moments you observe […]