Another GOTD by my favorite Funkadelic drummer, Tiki Fulwood. The tune is Red Hot Mama, from Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On, by Funkadelic, of course. The groove for the verse: The song […]
Category: funk
Transcription: Jon Christensen — Keep It Like That- Tight
Here’s Jon Christensen doing some nice open, dynamic playing on a slow, static vamp: Keep It Like That — Tight from Terje Rypdal’s self-titled album on ECM from 1971. We love Christensen because he’s a […]
Transcription: Raymond “Monchito” Muñoz — Caminando
Here we have a Latin percussionist funking out a little bit on Caminando, a hip cha cha* recorded by Eddie Palmieri on his great album Vamonos Pa’l Monte. The drummer, Raymond “Monchito” Muñoz, brings very […]
Survival chops: cymbal and bass drum licks
Here is a collection of moderately easy, very functional, right-hand lead licks for the drum set. Normally I would arrive at these by other means— like, by playing Stick Control, Syncopation, or any paradiddle rudiment, […]
Afro 6/8 with a backbeat
In my day we didn’t have fancy drum blogs giving us near-daily pages of nicely formatted, well-thought-out drum exercises free of charge. Our teachers just scribbled something in the margin of our tattered copy of […]
Groove o’ the day: Vinnie Colaiuta — The Central Scrutinizer
The pdf links for last week’s Zappa features are now down, so, to assuage the pain for those of you who missed them, here’s Vinnie Colaiuta’s drum groove from The Central Scrutinizer, the opening track […]
Groove o’ the day: Ndugu Leon Chancler afro 12/8
Here’s a very fun tune, with Ndugu Leon Chancler playing an unusual form of an Afro 12/8, on the late, great, George Duke’s 1977 album Reach For It. The track is called Omi. There’s lots […]
Groove and totally gratuitous lick o’ the day: James “Diamond” Williams — Fopp
I was listening to some Ohio Players, and this, from the intro of Fopp, jumped out at me. It’s not the greatest thing in the world ever, but it’s fun: The 32nd notes are legato, […]
Transcription: Greg Errico — Anti Love Song
I could’ve handled this one as a groove o’ the day, probably, since the variations over the course of the piece are fairly minor, but I felt like writing out the whole thing, and didn’t […]
Transcription: Superstition — groove variations and fills
Experimenting with a different kind of transcription here. Stevie Wonder’s Superstition— from the album Talking Book, drums played by Wonder himself— is mainly a groove piece, but the groove is highly variable, and writing out […]
Podcast — Episode 6: Todd’s playalong tracks
Hey, we haven’t done a podcast in some time, have we? I’ve been doing most of my drumset practicing along with recordings recently— book exercises and everything— and I thought I’d share some of the […]
Groove o’ the day: Al Jackson
Here’s something from the great R&B drummer Al Jackson, on the light little instrumental tune Overton Park Sunrise, from the Union Extended album by Booker T. & The MGs. On the A section he plays […]