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 […]
Category: exercises
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 […]
EZ linear solo method
Ever find yourself playing too much bass drum? It’s easy to do when, like me, you practice out of Syncopation a lot. And a thing I’ve noticed in doing so many transcriptions is how sparsely many […]
Linear phrases in 3/4, mixed rhythm – 02
Here’s the companion to the Gary Chaffee linear phrases in 3/4, which I posted the other day. This page just has the same phrases displaced by one note; the last note of each phrase, a […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro-Peruvian – 01
Let’s get it out of the way up front that I know nothing about Afro-Peruvian music— I played a session with John Butler, a Portland guitarist who plays it, and he hipped me to its […]
Linear phrases in 3/4, mixed rhythm – 01
More pages of Gary Chaffee linear patterns, in two measure phrases in 3/4, with 8th notes and triplets. If I was about doing things in a logical order, I would have done these pages a […]
7/8 practice rhythms plus stickings
This was partially covered in ’15 with a similar post, but I wrote this up, so I’ll post it. Small differences in format, or in which rhythms you choose to include, can make a difference […]
A funk sticking in context: RLL – 32nd notes
Third entry in this funk stickings in context series, using the RLL pattern again, this time in a 32nd note rhythm. I do this kind of thing a lot in 32nd notes. This is an […]
Bass drum rhythms for pad practice
This is a page of bass drum rhythms I use for pad practice— I have one of those Gibraltar bass drum practice pads I sometimes use. These are good for anything with a running 8th […]
A funk sticking in context: RLRLL
Second entry in this little intermediate-level series of funk stickings in context, this time using a five-note idea: RLRLL Learn the first pattern in 5/4, and be able to count out loud along with it— […]