Hearkening back to one of the very first pages o’…, in which we worked on developing an Elvin Jones-style waltz, the way he played it on John Coltrane’s Your Lady. It’s an interesting groove, with […]
Category: exercises
Page o’ coordination: triplet pattern with cymbal variations – 01
A slight variation on our usual page o’ coordination thing; here we’re doing a set triplet pattern on the snare drum and bass drum, along with various cymbal parts— some are standard rhythms, and some […]
Odd meter Harr: flamadiddle study in 5/8
I’ve said before, I practice out of Haskell Harr’s Drum Method a lot. It’s the stodgiest traditional rudimental snare drum book available this side of the Moeller book, but it uses accurate modern notation— many […]
Stick Control in odd meters – 02
Continuing from the previous post on adapting roll exercises in Stick Control to odd meters— see that post for an explanation; I’ll just give examples of a few more possibilities. Like this rather advanced way […]
Ghost notes developer
Ghost notes are currently an extremely hot topic in internet drumming land— it seems funny that there would be so much hoopla about an embellishment, but whatever. I use them all the time in my […]
Stick Control in odd meters – 01
One thing about practicing odd meters: they really force you to know what you’re playing. You have to understand rhythm and you have to know exactly where you are all the time— unless humiliating trainwrecks […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro 6 across the barline
We haven’t seen one of these in awhile— seriously, I have posted more stuff on this Afro 6 groove than anybody in the world, and if you have thoroughly practiced any three or four of […]
Chaffee linear phrases in 4/4 with inversions – 01
I’ve found it helpful to practice Gary Chaffee’s linear materials in inversions— not always starting the patterns on beat 1. We’ve already done that in 3/4 with 16th notes and with triplets; today we’ll do the […]
FUNK CONTROL: alternative set 1 – complete
I’m working out the format for putting this “Basic Funk Ideas” series into book form, tentatively titled “Funk Control.” The top of the page, labeled “Basic rhythm and iterations” shows the source rhythmic idea for […]
Double bass drum: 5 and 7 stroke singles
A student request. This is the first thing I’ve ever written for double bass in my life— I don’t play it, it’s not my thing. It doesn’t matter. This page of exercises will work for […]
Bossa/Samba bass drum workout
It says “workout”, like it’s some kind of technical challenge, but it’s really a page of exercises for opening up some musical possibilities with your bass drum when playing sambas and bossa novas. A lot […]
Three Camps in 5s
Another variation on the very famous old rudimental piece Three Camps, this time based on five-note groupings. We’re in 10/8, counted in 2— 5+5/8: All forms of this piece are excellent for working on endurance […]