For the more enterprising, a handy key to interpret Ted Reed’s Syncopation in 5/8 time. It’s a little obscure for the quasi-initiated, but then… what are you doing playing in 5/8? You’ve got bigger fish […]
Category: odd meters
5/8 burnout – 01
A pattern I was working with, with a Jack Dejohnette loop in 5. See my 5/8 control pages especially for more of this kind of thing. These won’t have the options as the other burnout […]
Arabic Rhythm Cycles
Just putting a site of interest in front of you, and bookmarking it for myself: Maqam World, which talks about traditional Arabic music, including a page detailing a long list of rhythm cycles, in conventional […]
Chop busters in 7/8 – 01
A page of technical phrases for snare drum, in 7/8 time, after Ron Fink’s book of the same name. One thing I admire in anything technical is good structure— I talk about it, meanderingly, in […]
Subtractive method in 7: fills
Continuing this item from the other day, introducing some light fills, or general variety of texture, to that bossa type groove, in 7/4. This is actually really, really good for getting a basic creative playing […]
Subtractive method in 7 – 01
Extending our previous hard form of this subtractive method— in which we read rhythms from Syncopation, and voice them on the snare and bass drums according to an underlying 8th note pattern, BSSB-SBBS. We could […]
I get in fights
Smart person, or contrarian? Or flat out giant pain in the ass? What is the difference between a contrarian and FOGPITA, anyway? I don’t know. I find myself disagreeing with a lot of things said […]
Solo transcription: Peter Erskine – A Summer Place
From a funny arrangement by Peter Erskine and Danny Grissett, from Erskine’s new record Vienna To Hollywood, out now on Origin Records (hey, as is a new record I play on) which features the music […]
Rock beats in 5 with Reed
Surprised I haven’t written this before. Expanding on a rock beat method I use with all of my students, to make grooves in 5/4— from the book, you simply read one measure of rhythm, plus […]
Daily best music in the world: Dannie Richmond with Don Pullen / George Adams
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 […]
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 […]