Here’s another practice loop, with a page of things to play with it. What I’ve done here is sample two measures from Herbie Hancock’s Cantaloupe Island, and write out a page of fills to fit […]
Category: exercises
Natural sticking timing exercise
This is something I’m working on with some students: a timing exercise using natural sticking, modified slightly from something we used to play in drum corps. Natural sticking, briefly, is a method of sticking hand-to-hand […]
Page o’ coordination: anticipations — 03
[NOTE: PDF link is working now! -t] So, today is going to be jazz comping day, in our little fund raiser. If you haven’t made a cash contribution yet, please do. Help give me some […]
Linear phrases in 5/4, mixed rhythm — 02b – inversion
Moar Chaffee phrases in 5/4! This is an inversion of the last set: we’re offsetting the phrases, so the listed phrase starts on the second note of each measure. The attraction there is that it […]
Linear phrases in 5/4, mixed rhythm — 02b
Here’s another set of Gary Chaffee-style linear phrases in a mixed rhythm, in 5/4— a continuation of part 2, which has four beats of triplets and one beat of 8th notes. I’ve found this to […]
Half-time feel funk: advanced method — open hihat
Here’s the next step for this half-time funk method we’ve been doing, using Syncopation, by Ted Reed. On the intermediate method and on this one we’ll be using the pages with quarter notes, 8th notes, […]
Half-time feel funk: intermediate method
Here’s the next phase of our little half-time feel funk method, using Ted Reed’s Syncopation. We’ll use pp. 29-30 out of Reed, with the quarter notes, 8th notes, and 8th rests, along with the page […]
Linear phrases in 5/4, mixed rhythm — 02 – inversion
I feel bad posting more practice stuff, when I’ve barely gotten to hit the drums myself this week, what with taxes, dental work, teaching, painting the house, and on and on. But back in the […]
Half-time feel funk: basic method
Here’s a basic method for working with the half time feel funk grooves from the other day. We’ll be reading out of Syncopation, by Ted Reed, pp. 10-11 (from the old edition) or Lesson 4 […]
Linear phrases in 5/4, mixed rhythm — 02
UPDATE: pdf download link fixed! Another batch of Chaffee linear patterns, in a different mixed rhythm than before, in 5/4. There will be four pages of this one; two of the basic phrases, two of […]
Basic cut time funk beats
Today we have a page of basic funk grooves in 2/2— cut time, half-time feel, whatever you want to call it. I haven’t given a cymbal part, because we’ll be doing some different things with […]
Snare drum workout in 4/4
Working out of Buster Bailey’s snare drum book Wrist Twisters— one of the great books of technical snare drum studies, by the way— I came across a simple pattern I liked, and I wrote up […]