Gary Chaffee’s linear system— found in book 3 of his Patterns series— is a major entry in the literature of drumming, but it has always felt unfinished to me. There are some extra steps required […]
Category: fills
Groove o’ the day PLUS : Airto – Fingers
UPDATE: Correction from the comments, it is Fattoruso on drums! I’ll put the correct credit in the 2018 Book of the Blog. Until then, you’ll have to pencil it in onto your printout. Here is […]
A simple solo method
Here’s a simple, non-technical solo method I was just working on with a student… …a SKYPE student… did you know I teach lessons via Skype? I do. Anything you ever have questions about on the […]
More practice phrases for EZ fills
Here are some more practice phrases to use with my page of EZ one-beat fills with tom moves, in a fast 4/4, and a slower tempo with the fill in 32nd notes. On the original page, the […]
EZ uptempo jazz method – 02
It’s not so much a method as it is “some things to try”, using pp. 10-11 (“Lesson 4”) in Ted Reed’s Syncopation. Last time we looked at ways of making a broken time feel using […]
EZ one-beat fill with tom moves
I think this is my third or fourth take on this particular subject since I started blogging, but it can take awhile to find the best format for teaching basic things. These days I like […]
Chaffee linear phrase as 32nd notes
This is a thing I was working on with a student— this particular Chaffee-style linear phrase (5/3/5/3) happens to work really well as a fill— it sounds impressive, and it’s really easy to play. In […]
Linear phrases in 3/4, mixed rhythm – 01
More pages of Gary Chaffee linear patterns, in two measure phrases in 3/4, with 8th notes and triplets. If I was about doing things in a logical order, I would have done these pages a […]
A funk sticking in context: RLL – 32nd notes
Third entry in this funk stickings in context series, using the RLL pattern again, this time in a 32nd note rhythm. I do this kind of thing a lot in 32nd notes. This is an […]
A funk sticking in context: RLRLL
Second entry in this little intermediate-level series of funk stickings in context, this time using a five-note idea: RLRLL Learn the first pattern in 5/4, and be able to count out loud along with it— […]
A funk sticking in context: RLL
This is the first of several easy pages of exercises for developing kind of an essential thing in funk and fusion drumming, which is not quite a fill and not quite a groove— it’s more […]
Transcription: Terry Bozzio / Dancin’ Fool – the cool parts
This is one of the cooler things in drumming to come out of the late 70s— Terry Bozzio’s fills on Frank Zappa’s Dancin’ Fool, from the album Sheik Yerbouti. I must’ve listened to this 500 […]