Title track from Earth Beams, a great record by George Adams & Don Pullen, with Dannie Richmond on the drums— all three are Charles Mingus band alumni. Richmond was a key partner in that relationship […]
Category: odd meters
One measure 5/4 triplet fills with Reed!
Another one of my hack and slash jobs. This is something I improvised in a lesson— a student is working on some of the Pages o’ Coordination in 5/4, based on an Elvin Jones groove, […]
Stick Control in 7 by Ralph Humphrey
A little item from an old issue of Percussioner International magazine, which I just found in my mom’s basement— the Steve Smith issue, from November 1987. Here Ralph Humphrey shares some paradiddle-based stick control patterns […]
Solo transcription: Joey Baron – Goldfish
Joey Baron’s solo over a 7/4 vamp on Goldfish, from Dave Douglas’s 1997 album Stargazer, to which I’m listening a lot this week. There’s not a ton of drumistic content to it, it’s more of […]
5/8 flam accents
Page of rudimental patterns in 5/8, based on a flam accent #1. We’ve just extended it a couple of notes. You could connect some of these with a whole lot of rudiments: flam drags, pataflaflas, […]
EZ rock in 5 – 3+2
Extending this EZ fast rock / rock in 3 series, with quarter notes on the cymbal: here are some beats and ideas in 5, phrased 3+2. I wrote this series to illustrate the difference between […]
The big 7
Please pardon the lack of content. I’ve been occupied with other things this week, like our upcoming cymbal meets in Germany, and those couple of gigs with all the odd meters. Which worked out well— I […]
5/8 control, part 2
Hastily scribbled practice notes It has been an interesting journey this week, preparing this challenging music— moderately challenging, I guess; there are a few grooves in time signatures I’m not used to, but I’m being […]
5/8 control
Sid Catlett would always tell me, “Art, when you’re in trouble, roll. Just relax, you know what I mean?” Let’s talk about something I’m preparing for, kind of a hairy gig coming up next week, […]
EZ ECM: entry to 7/4
Hey, a few broad, non-technical creative possibilities for playing a straight-8th, ECM-type texture in 7/4, which also apply to using Ted Reed’s Syncopation on the drum set broadly. First, we need some rhythms to work […]
Practice loop in 7/4: Freddie Hubbard / Heidi-B
While I finish up my taxes, here’s the practice loop I was playing with when I was doing that Reed in 7 thing: Heidi-B, from Freddie Hubbard’s album Sweet Return. Tempo is quarter note = […]
Reed in 7/4
Another one of my little photoshop* pranks of an existing drum book— here putting some rhythms from Progressive Steps to Syncopation into 7/4 time. It’s fun. * – Actually I do it using Paint.NET. I […]