Most of the regular drumming literature is poorly adapted to the special conditions of very fast tempos in jazz; the practice materials are either too dense, or are triplet-based, which obviously isn’t going to work. […]
Category: fast tempos
Transcription: Tony Williams — Seven Steps to Heaven, trumpet solo
Continuing with our Seven Steps To Heaven transcription in installments, here is Tony Wiliams’s playing behind Miles Davis’s solo, starting at 0:43, on the version of the tune from the album Four & More: The […]
Transcription: Tony Williams — Seven Steps to Heaven, head in
Man, I am getting tired of writing words. Let’s get back to what you actually come here for: drum shit. In honor of the Superbowl— which they tell me is today— here is something that’s […]
Paradiddle-diddle method for uptempo jazz
This is something I developed for both for getting some relief while playing fast tempos, and for doing a modern feel without getting your cymbal pattern lost in the weeds. The seed of the idea […]
Brushes… fast… hoo…
As I finish up the thing I’m working on, do yourself a favor and visit The Melodic Drummer for an excellent post on playing brushes at really, really fast tempos. You can also brush up […]
Todd’s methods: Son of Daku-daku-paradiddle
Right, I’m starting to regret the name I made up for this thing– until I think of the alternative, long-winded description for this very common pattern. Now if I can just bring myself to call […]
Know your tempos: what’s meant by up
In case you were wondering how fast you need to be able to play, here are a bunch of your favorite tracks spanning the break between “medium up”- where it’s still possible to swing- and […]
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. […]