Another page of coordination patterns for this Afro/shuffle cymbal pattern, which I’ll go ahead and call “Afro Blues” because I feel like it. It came up in my own playing, and I’m not aware of […]
Category: exercises
Reed interpretation: triplets with breaks
I don’t why it took me over 30 years to figure this out— I’m always looking for ways to simplify things, to make them more playable. This is an alternative to a very common, popular, […]
Page o’ coordination: displacing a jazz groove
As the heading on the page says, this is a fairly ill-advised endeavor we’re covering today: displacing a jazz groove, by shifting the cymbal and hihat rhythm over to the last note of the triplet. […]
New Orleans street beat – Reed method
As promised, another method for developing a NOLA street beat, this one perhaps more musical than the last. Definitely. Here we’ll be using Progressive Steps to Syncopation, by Ted Reed, pp. 33-44— the “Syncopation” section […]
New Orleans street beat – Stone method
This is the first of two pretty-easy methods for developing a New Orleans-style street beat— or rather, for expanding on it, and playing it in a “modern” way. They’ll also be good for getting a […]
EZ Reed method with flams and 16th notes
Another “EZ” Reed method for rock/funk fills, similar to our recent triplet method, this time using pp. 24-27 from Syncopation. I won’t break it down completely, but you can figure it out by looking at the […]
Uptempo Stone method — 02
Here’s a little companion to our other uptempo method using Stick Contrtol by George L. Stone. This is more of an open system, and you may do it without even getting that deeply into the book […]
Page o’ coordination: shuffle bass drum variations
It’s a busy, busy, busy, busy time here— lots of gigs, lots of teaching, lots of work to be done on my house as we convert our little back house into an Air b’n’b. Nevertheless, […]
Page o’ coordination: Ventimiglia
This is something I wrote for working on one of my own tunes: Ventimiglia, from my 2014 album, Travelogue. It’s a bright 6/8 with a strong pull towards 3/4. The bass line is borrowed from […]
Chaffee linear phrases in 3/4 – 16th notes – 01
I’ve been trying to figure out why I never did that much with Gary Chaffee’s linear system; I find I’m a lot more interested when I vary the rhythm, and when I’m not always starting […]
Snare drum etude in 2/4 with 8th notes and triplets – 01
I’ve been interested in modulating rhythms lately, so here’s a little snare drum etude derived from my previous etude in 5/8. It’s actually the same piece— I’ve just changed the meter to 2/4, and changed […]
Cut time funk method: two-measure grooves
I’ve been working quite a bit with this cut time funk method from last year— part of what I’ve been doing instead of writing more blog posts. I’m not just writing junk to burn up […]