Billy Higgins drum solo in 5, on the tune 5/4 Thing by George Coleman, from the album Eastern Rebellion by Cedar Walton. The transcription begins at 5:44. It’s short, kind of a percussion interlude. A […]
Category: odd meters
Page o’ coordination: Afro 15
Hey, as long as we’re working on weird, non-traditional perversions of the natural world, here is a page of “Afro 6” groove in 5. Or 15/8, which is a triplet feel in 5. This groove […]
Rudiments in 5/8
A page of snare drum rudiment practice phrases, written in 5/8, in a 3+2 phrasing. Keep this with your copy of Haskell Harr (book 2) or Rudimental Swing Solos. These can all be played at […]
Groove o’ the day: Street beat in 7
Here’s a New Orleans street beat-style groove in 7/4, played by Bill Stewart. The tune is 7th Floor, from John Scofield’s album Hand Jive. This is the basic groove from the intro of the tune; […]
EZ rock beats in 5/4 – 02
More “EZ” rock beats in 5/4, this batch written to be easy to play at fast tempos, in 2+3 and 3+2 phrasing: Ways of practice— good for any page of grooves: • Repeat each pattern […]
EZ rock beats in 5/4 – 01
For one of my students, an easy page of rock beats in 5/4. We did one of these a few years ago, but this page illustrates the 2+3 / 3+2 phrasing of this time signature, […]
Accents in 5/4 – mixed rhythm – 01
Exhibit A for why we keep writing. I was practicing yesterday, and I thought hmmm I want to work on this one thing, and out the thousands of pages of drumming materials in my studio, […]
Chop busters in 5/8 – 01
Hey, two odd meter things in two days. I’ve really turned around my thinking on the value of this subject— it really forces you to have a heightened awareness of rhythm, which is a good […]
Groove o’ the day: Tombo in 7/4
More from Airto’s great record Fingers. I got burned last time crediting the drumming to Airto when it was really another great drummer da América do Sul, Osvaldo Fattoruso; this time I think it really is […]
Rock in 5/8 – 01
5/8 and 5/4 are good meters to practice to if you want to improve your concentration, and disrupt playing habits. Five-note patterns in general, too. For many years my playing was extremely 3 oriented; whatever […]
Meter-within-meter: 5/8 in 4/4 rock – 01
This is something inspired by Joey Baron’s playing on Bill Frisell’s Child At Heart— I always come back to the same few things, and that’s a particularly fertile, mainly simple, piece of drumming. Some of […]
Practice loop in 5/4: Everything’s All Right
I’ve had a busy week here, ending with going to Seattle for the weekend to play in/hang out at the Ballard Jazz Festival, so let’s ease back in to blogging with a practice loop— a […]