This has been an item of interest for a long time— playing fast in a slow tempo. In a master class Peter Erskine mentioned that Jack Dejohnette was the only drummer he knew who could […]
Category: fills
More 3/8 fills – 01
Here are some things I was playing around with while playing my page of 3/8 fills— embellishments on things on that page. Some odd stickings, or normal stickings I would play in an odd way. […]
Fills in a 4/8 framework – 01
Continuing the concept of that last thing, Fills in a 3/8 framework. Here we’ve got four 8ths of space to deal with, a cymbal accent, and three 8ths of fill. I’m very pleased with how […]
Fills in a 3/8 framework – 01
UPDATE: I added a couple of 2/4 options for running the fills by themselves, and also changed the practice phrases— the jazz phrases need a dedicated treatment beyond the scope of this post, so I took […]
First inversion paradiddles around the drums
Updating a very crummy looking page I wrote in 2012— some calisthenic patterns moving the highly hip and useful RLLR-LRRL paradiddle inversion around the drums. Drill them blazing fast, and also for control and accuracy […]
Chaffee linear patterns – first exercises
I’ve needed this page several times recently— the first basic orienting exercises for the Gary Chaffee linear patterns: RLB / RLBB / RLRLB / RLRLBB / RLRLRLB / RLRLRLBB Mainly, playing the repeating patterns as […]
Chaffee linear phrases – beginning with LH double
Getting back into Gary Chaffee’s linear materials a little bit— originally outlined in the Time Functioning volume of his Patterns series of books. Since first working on this system as a student, it has been a […]
That Steve Gadd lick
More on that Steve Gadd lick from the Full Compass transcription. It’s essentially a familiar kind of four note tom ruff ending on the beat with the bass drum, with an extra snare drum note […]
Transcription: Billy Higgins – Blackjack
Billy Higgins playing on a funky vamp with some kicks in it, on Blackjack, from Donald Byrd’s album of the same name. It sticks with the rhythm figure all the way through, and Higgins plays […]
EZ fast rock – 02
The first EZ fast rock page was a hit with my students, so here’s another like it, more in a fill/variation direction. Combining patterns to make two-measure phrases, most of these will be the second […]
Reed tweak: linear fill in another setting
A similar item to another recent thing, with a Reed system I use pretty often, but don’t talk about much— with the hands plaing the book rhythm, and the bass drum filling in the spaces. […]