Let’s do one of these for the rhythm in the Nexus practice loop. You’ll recall, with this Funk Control / Figure Control series what I do is take a single performance rhythm and put a […]
Category: funk
Todd’s funk drill – another tweak
Another small tweak to my Reed-based funk drill, improvised by a very talented 6th grade student of mine. It’s very obvious, and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. Maybe I did, […]
New Joel Rothman title
In the mail I just received a new book by Joel Rothman: Drumming Outside The Box – for Rock & Jazz. It’s basically a library of patterns focused around creating an unbroken rhythm on the […]
Funk drill tweak
This is a minor tweak to my standard funk drill using Ted Reed’s Syncopation. It was played by mistake by one of my students (6th grader), but it sounded good so I decided to keep […]
Groove o’ the day: evolution of Songo – 01
First of a mini-series of Afro-Cuban grooves o’ the day, transcribed from the history of Songo video below. Grooves are by Changuito, the percussionist who created the Songo drumming style playing with the Cuban band […]
EZ RH/RF lick in 16th notes
More easy rock stuff, this time developing a basic RH/RF pattern in 16th notes, adding various left hand parts, and moves between drums and cymbals: Play all of the exercises many times, then improvise combinations. […]
Groove o’ the day: Contortions – Designed to Kill
Here’s kind of a hip funk-type groove from the late 70s, by James Chance and the Contortions. It’s New York scene shit— arty discordant high energy punk/funk jams with a charismatic front man, and not […]
Practice loop: Watermelon Man
This is a practice loop I use a lot, sampled from the intro of Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man, from the album Headhunters. At 74 bpm it’s a little faster than one of my other favorites, […]
The 1
And some more listening for the passing of Jabo Starks:
Transcription: James Gadson – Shout It Out
UPDATE: Text updated after I stupidly (but defensibly!) misidentified the drummer as Ndugu Leon Chancler. When you print out the pdf, scratch out Ndugu’s name and put James Gadson. Here’s something great from James Gadson, […]
NEW E-BOOK: EZ Rock Drumming – A Short Course For The Mastery Of Rock Beats
Hey, we’ve got another new e-book now available on Amazon: EZ ROCK DRUMMING A Short Course For The Mastery Of Rock Beats It’s the definitive explanation of my Syncopation-based rock method, which has been covered […]
Free Steve Gadd book
Here’s an excellent free book on Steve Gadd by Danish drummer Hans Fagt. Originally released in 1985, it contains the key bits— mainly grooves and solos— from some of his bigger recorded performances, from the […]