Some patterns both for giving our fast tempo playing— jazz playing— a solid, simple foundation. Also something to fall back to, when playing a tempo too fast for you. It’s an entry point, and a […]
Category: fast tempos
Daily best music in the world: Mickey Roker fast
Here is Mickey Roker absolutely killing it on the tune Impressions, on A London Bridge, a live recording by Milt Jackson. Tempo is about 334 bpm— half note = 167. And it does pick up […]
Reed interpretations: Billy Higgins-like uptempo method
Here’s a little thing suitable for jazz at fast tempos, resulting in a Billy Higgins-like sound. Billy Higgins at times. He’ll do a lot of unisons between hands, partial spangalangs, and alternating singles. There are […]
Burnout variations
Look, I didn’t call it burnout for nothing. Here are some other practice possibilities for the recent Paradiddle-diddle burnout and six stroke roll burnout pages, that came up in my own practicing. The point is […]
Six stroke roll burnout
Companion to the Paradiddle-diddle burnout page, with the same method and purpose, using the six stroke roll sticking: RLLRRL. These two pages, played this way, amount to a pretty complete vocabulary for this kind of […]
Paradiddle-diddle burnout
This has turned into an elegant little exercise. Paradiddle-diddles have long been bailout pattern of choice for fast tempos— the thing you play to rest your hand a little bit, and break things up. Bob […]
Very occasional quote of the day: Max fast – 02
SF: Some of the tempos that you play are lightning fast. MR: That’s done through combinations though! No one limb is overworking. There’s a way that it works itself out so that all the weight […]
Other things besides speed
A lot of us have very limited imaginations about how to get better playing the drums— basically, do it faster and that’s it. There are other things— sound, dynamics, touch, a number of musical considerations. […]
Daily best music in the world: Louis Hayes with Cannonball
Here’s an item from jazz writer Mark Stryker, which caught Peter Erksine’s attention on Twitter. Cannonball Adderley playing a fast tempo with Louis Hayes on drums, on an Adderley record I’ve never owned, Nippon Soul. […]
Two handed brush variations for fast tempos
UPDATE: I added some video of me practicing this. I’ve been practicing my fast tempos lately, both with sticks and brushes. I’m talking about jazz, tempos above ~290 bpm. I haven’t had to do a […]
Know your tempos: Workin’ / Steamin’ / Cookin’ / Relaxin’
You can buy them all in one collection now. Hey, we haven’t done one of these in a while. All the tempos from four very famous Miles Davis records, with his very famous quintet from the […]
Reed tweak: yet another uptempo method
Minor tweak to an ordinary right hand lead Reed system, making an approach to playing jazz at fast tempos. I’ve probably written something like this before, I can’t be bothered to check. This way has […]