Another “enhanced” groove o’ the day (that is not a thing), from a Patrice Rushen record, this time with the great James Gadson on drums. The record and tune is Shout It Out, and it’s […]
Category: funk
Groove o’ the day, ENHANCED: MORE NDUGU
This is how it goes around here, I get into a certain thing and do only that, and the blog content becomes unbalanced. What do I care, I love Ndugu Leon Chancler’s playing. You can […]
Transcription: Ndugu Leon Chancler – Blues For Walls
I say that every time I post something about him: Ndugu Leon Chancler has to be the player I love the most, for the least exposure to his playing— for years I just had the […]
Playing funk effectively
Here are a few tips on playing funk and related music, focusing on how to project to the audience and facilitate groove among the musicians while playing live unmiked, at a moderate to moderately strong […]
Transcription: Billy Hart – Batuki
UPDATE: Jeez, what a moron. Naturally I spelled the title wrong on the actual page. It’s Batuki, not Batuka. Well, we’ll fix it for the book… Here’s an interesting little bit of playing by Billy […]
Todd’s funk drill
I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this somewhere on the site, but maybe I didn’t share it as a finished drill. This is a reasonably easy thing for getting your reading, bass drum chops, effective use […]
Groove o’ the day: Go Ahead John
Getting loose definitionally with our groove o’ the day here— this one is all variations, really, and no foundational groove. This is Jack Dejohnette playing the beginning of Go Ahead, John, from Miles Davis’s album […]
EZ Zigaboo method
Should have included this when I first made this up way back when, but… here’s an EZ entry into my quite challenging and extensive Zigaboo Modeliste/Cissy Strut-style practice method. It’s a way of playing funk […]
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 – 02
Here’s the companion to the Gary Chaffee linear phrases in 3/4, which I posted the other day. This page just has the same phrases displaced by one note; the last note of each phrase, a […]
Transcription: Dave King – Rational Funk / Trading 8s
Here’s something I don’t normally do: transcribe stuff from solo/demo/“lesson” videos online. But this is a) cool, b) illustrative of something I talk about a lot here, which is UNDERLYING SIMPLICITY. The video is “Memes […]
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 […]