Here’s an easy way to modernize your melodic phrasing when playing an ordinary thing using Syncopation— everyone knows about playing the melody parts from the book on the snare drum and bass drum, along with […]
Category: exercises
Linear 8ths in 9/8 – 01
This is how it is, I get busy teaching, doing my taxes, preoccupied with other stuff, and not able to hit the drums for a week, and everything dries up. No ideas and I feel […]
Three Camps for drum set: 16th notes – SSBB
More of Three Camps adapted for drum set, with a 16th note SSBB pattern, in a jazz feel. Let’s call this an advanced page, because there’s a little extra 16th note filler on the snare […]
Cliché control
A little writing experiment, like my old Funk Control pages, and my Philly Joe solo page. Here we have a lot of jazz soloing clichés, to practice in combination with each other. Similar to a […]
Bothadiddles
A small item for your consideration and experimentation. On a drumming forum, a user was complaining that practicing paradiddles didn’t seem to improve his hand independence— he was working on some Chapin Advanced Techniques […]
Reed tweak: filling the long gaps
Here’s a tweak to an ordinary straight 8th note Syncopation practice method: right hand plays the melody rhythm, left hand fills in the remaining 8th notes. Usually with the RH on a cymbal, with the […]
Backsticking drill for switching grips
I use matched grip virtually all the time in playing, but about every 5-7 years since ~1986, I make a serious effort at getting my traditional grip happening. When I have it conditioned, I can […]
Reed interpretations: new uptempo method
All right, I found the way to use Reed at faster jazz tempos. My “the way”, anyhow. I’ve mostly been winging my uptempo jazz comping until now— I never had materials I really liked for […]
Page o’ coordination: grocery store hemiola – 01
So-called because I found myself unconsciously tapping this out in the grocery store parking lot while waiting for them to bring out my groceries. …incidentally, for the sake of limiting your exposure to COVID-19, I […]
Velocity stickings for Syncopation, Lesson 10
For a couple of my students I’ve written a set of velocity stickings to use with Lesson 10 (pp. 22-23) in Syncopation. They’re designed to be played fast, hey? These will be a godsend for […]
Stone flam beats as independence patterns
I like doing this once in awhile: converting familiar materials into another format. Rhythm patterns (plus filler) can be converted to sticking patterns, accent patterns can be converted to rhythm patterns, sticking patterns can be […]
“Snare Conditioner” in 6/8
I mentioned to Adam Osmianski that I wanted a 6/8 version of his transcription of the found-music malfunctioning air conditioner drum solo, and he encouraged me to go ahead and do it myself, so here […]