Part 3 of this series, where the need to write out the exercises becomes perhaps more apparent. We’re playing a basic drumset orchestration of exercises from the first page of Stick Control by George L. […]
Category: exercises
Stick Control drumset exercise – RRLL and variations
This little series presents a kind of writing problem; it has to be either very short or very long, each of which will hit resistance with users. I’ve done it the long way, simply because […]
Figure Control: 6-4 – Lilin – 01
Let’s just assume every post begins with an apology for the light posting— I’ve just been very busy with playing, teaching, and getting ready for an art show this past few weeks. This Funk Control/Figure […]
Stick Control drumset exercise – basic
This is the type of thing I usually wouldn’t bother writing out, the instructions are so simple, but the more advanced variations are challenging enough that you’ll want to see them on paper. So let’s […]
Figure Control – 6/4 – 02
Another page of Funk Control type exercises for use with my Stereolab/Free Design practice loop. We’re calling this portion of the series Figure Control since it’s not really funk, and we’re basing the exercises on a […]
Displacing a groove – 16th notes – 02
Part 2 of the previous displacement thing. This is the kind of thing that’s so obvious I don’t like to put it on the site, but it’s an intermediate step to the next thing, and […]
Displacing a groove – 16th notes – 01
This is an easy funk exercise, getting acquainted with rhythmic displacements that happen routinely in funk drumming, while relating them back to a simple groove. When this word displacement comes up, it’s usually suggestive of […]
Three Camps – isolated parts and complete piece
UPDATE: Jeez, I’m getting sloppy. Typos in the pdf fixed…. You know, I’ve never settled on a really satisfactory presentation of Three Camps— the very famous, very old rudimental snare drum piece. It’s much simpler […]
Left hand lead developer – for soloing
In soloing I tend to lead with the left a lot, and play a lot of normally alternating flam rudiments in only left hand lead form— in the past I’ve shared a couple of different […]
EZ Zigaboo method
Should have included this when I first made this up way back when, but… here’s an EZ entry into my quite challenging and extensive Zigaboo Modeliste/Cissy Strut-style practice method. It’s a way of playing funk […]
Page o’ coordination: Latin in 3 – 04
Here’s a fairly easy page of exercises in 3/4 Latin. The bell/cymbal pattern is similar to the regular Afro 6/8 rhythm, but simplified— you sometimes hear American drummers playing this rhythm in the 50s and […]
Chaffee linear phrases: adding 2s
This is a baby-step entry into adding a two-note pattern (RB) to Gary Chaffee’s linear system, which is based on 3-to-8 note patterns— dig into Patterns, vol. 3 for Chaffee’s full explanation of that, or […]