You’ve probably noticed by now that I do a lot with Ted Reed’s Syncopation? Here are two more methods which I have developed (along with my Rock beats with Syncopation piece) to introduce my intermediate […]
Category: exercises
More metric modulation: 4:3 warm-ups and more
My last hastily-slapped together piece on 4:3 metric modulation was such a hit with my Drummerworld.com poeple, that I thought I should backfill some preparatory exercises for it. Here the emphasis is on keeping the […]
Wilcoxon rhumba studies in 5/4
Here I have rewritten a page from the Wilcoxon Drum Method, which I’ve been using a lot lately. I’ve put his “swing or rhumba” studies (p. 31, two-measure syncopation and accent studies in 4/4) into […]
Basic big band set-ups
Another in the recent series of easy stuff, here is a page of basic set-ups for ensemble kicks on the & of 4. You can apply these to my earlier piece, Kicks and Set-ups Using […]
4:3 metric modulation in jazz
Here’s a little thing I put together to develop the 4:3 cross rhythm/metric modulation in jazz. Normally you actually want to explain an advanced concept like this, but really, if you don’t recognize it right […]
Todd’s Methods, Pt. 1: daku-daku-paradiddle
New series: quick and dirty presentation of some of my practice methods. The idea is to write them up fast and on one page, so explanations may not be as thorough as everyone would like. […]
16th note fills using Syncopation – Part 1
This is the first part of a method for working on 16th note fills, which I developed for my intermediate students. It requires some selective reading, but in a constructive way- the same type of […]
Three Camps
This is a traditional rudimental piece going back to at least Civil War days- it consists of accented rolls in a triplet pulsation. Originally it functioned as a sort of camp alarm clock, as part […]
Kicks and set-ups using Syncopation
Here’s a little method I devised for working on basic big band-style kicks and set-ups, using Ted Reed’s Syncopation. Like many of the ways of working with Reed, it involves some selective reading/interpretation, but in […]