An interesting groove by Billy Kilson, on A Seeking Spirit, from Dave Holland’s Prime Directive album, one of the big records of the late 90s. If you’re not familiar, he had a very high powered […]
Category: odd meters
Transcription: both versions of Flower Punk
I can’t believe I never posted this. Back in 2017 I transcribed both versions of Frank Zappa’s Flower Punk— the original, played by Jimmy Carl Black, on the Mothers of Invention album We’re Only In […]
Page o’ coordination: basic triplet texture in 5/4
Continuing this little series. You could warm up for this by just playing the original 4/4 page, repeating beat 1 at the end of each measure— effectively playing ||: 1-2-3-4-1 :||. Like we originally played […]
Hemiola funk patterns in 5/8
Here’s a nice easy page of hemiola funk patterns in 5/8— based on our friend the 3:2 polyrhythm. World’s fastest way of getting your students playing hip stuff in 5, if you already (wisely) ran […]
Page o’ coordination: yet another Elvin 5/4
Here’s a page o’ coordination based on Elvin Jones’s playing on Lazy Afternoon, from Grant Green’s album Street of Dreams. It’s a medium slow 5/4— the tempo is about 109. He plays the ostinato below […]
Page o’ coordination: pseudo-Latin in 7 – 01
A page of independence patterns for a quasi-Latin groove in 7/4. The cymbal part is based on a Mozambique rhythm, and there the similarity to any real Latin music ends. This is not a style, […]
Another set of patterns for improvisation
File this in the same category as the recent “extended shuffle” stickings page— it’s a unified set of patterns based on a simple idea, organized to make them easy to improvise with. They’re not new […]
Syncopation in 5/4 – another format
A little throwaway item, as I continue working out the formatting for my upcoming book, Syncopation in 5/4, to be released God knows when. The problem is how to deal with phrasing the measures 2+3 […]
Chapin exercises in 5
This is what you do during quarantine when it’s too hot to practice or doing anything else serious: capture jpegs of a well known drum book, open it up in Paint.net, and cut it up […]
Syncopation rhythms in 5/4
Hey, who wants some practice rhythms in 5/4? Here are several pages of them. I’m working on a new book, Syncopation in 5/4— companion to my other book Syncopation in 3/4. There are some formatting decisions […]
EZiest swing in 5/4
Teachers’ item here. In working with various beginners, younger students, and hobbyists, you have to be flexible and creative in how you show them things. At those stages, differences in how people learn are really […]
Alternating triplets displaced
Developing an independence idea that has been happening spontaneously in my practicing— triplets alternating between the snare drum and bass drum, with odd breaks. Play the foot part with the bass drum or hihat. These […]