This is the first of several easy pages of exercises for developing kind of an essential thing in funk and fusion drumming, which is not quite a fill and not quite a groove— it’s more […]
Category: exercises
Reed method: fast rock – advanced
I hope you— students and teachers— are using my Reed method for playing rock beats. I think it’s one of the better things I’ve come up with— it’s just a more musical way of learning […]
Double paradiddle-adiddle
Look, it’s not my fault. I never told you I was going to have cool names for the things I make up. Direct your derision at the founding fathers of drumming who put us on […]
Paradiddle-adiddle
This may already be a “hybrid” rudiment, but I wouldn’t know, because that is not my bag. I’ve posted a few modified paradiddle things in the past (like my “3.5-adiddle”), and this is a new one […]
Page o’ coordination: Elvin’s Afro-waltz – starting off the 1
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 […]
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 […]