Here’s a drum solo in 3/4 by Barry Altschul, on a modern arrangement of Fats Waller’s Jitterbug Waltz, from Altschul’s album Irina— a pretty obscure (to me) record you can now download off Amazon. The […]
Category: downloads
Single stroke 5s – 32nd notes
A set of exercises I improvised on my leg at the start of a rehearsal yesterday— and this would actually be good as part of a warmup. These are 5 stroke rolls in single strokes, in […]
Stairway to Heaven figure
This is something I did for a student who was looking for some help playing Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. On the out chorus— or whatever you want to call it; the song is […]
Page o’ coordination: 2SB-2BS
Another entry using this slightly different conception of my page o’ coordination series— adding various cymbal rhythms to a repeating snare-and-bass coordination pattern. The cymbal rhythms are good for jazz, R&B, Afro-Cuban, or just general […]
Page o’ coordination: linear pattern for Latin soloing
The 5+3 note phrase is one of the easiest and most useful of Gary Chaffee’s basic linear phrases. If you start phrase on the a of 2, the bass drum part makes a Latin tumbao […]
Page o’ coordination: SBSB – 01
This is an emerging twist on our old Page o’ coordination formula: practicing various cymbal rhythms along with a repeating SD/BD coordination pattern. I’ve found that this opens up some creative possibilities; I’m a very […]
Free Steve Gadd book
Here’s an excellent free book on Steve Gadd by Danish drummer Hans Fagt. Originally released in 1985, it contains the key bits— mainly grooves and solos— from some of his bigger recorded performances, from the […]
Page o’ coordination: SB / BS
For some reason* this particular pattern is always difficult for me: snare-bass/bass-snare on the second two triplet partials. So let’s work on it, adding the left foot, and varying the cymbal rhythm. If you find […]
Arpeggio exercise in 6/4 – 7th chords in C and G
UPDATE: Too many things were bugging me about the original version of this page, so I updated it. I added measure repeats so you play each thing twice, and I added an ending in which […]
Simultaneous clave triplet pull exercise
Here’s something you can do with that silly “both clave directions at the same time” idea. In clave-based Latin music, the clave rhythm is often not played with a strict march-like execution; the 4/4 version […]
NOW AVAILABLE: 2017 Book of the Blog
OK gang, the 2017 Book of the Blog is now available for purchase! It includes all of the downloadable practice materials posted on the site in 2017, plus the grooves o’ the day, plus selected […]