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 […]
Feathering by not feathering
Here’s kind of a funny video by Alvin Atkinson that was shared by a forum user asking about about feathering the bass drum in jazz— the technique for playing jazz time that includes running quarter […]
Buy records: a screed
Go to places like this and buy things. I was half an hour early for an appointment with Tim at Cymbal & Gong— picking out a career ride cymbal for one of my students— so […]
Listening to The Musings of Miles
Listening to a Miles Davis record I never really heard before: The Musings of Miles. It’s a lower profile item in Miles’s catalog. These listening to albums posts are a test for me, because I normally […]
Transcription: Ahmad’s Blues – fours
Hitting the ground running with this 2024 business, here’s Philly Joe Jones trading fours with Red Garland on Ahmad’s Blues, from the Miles Davis album Workin’. Joe sounds quite beautiful, hand made, and direct after […]
Groove o’ the day: Dave Weckl Afro 6
Hey, happy new year— let’s roll in 2024 with a snazzy Dave Weckl groove, which inspired some conversation. It’s from 1994— hey, 30 years ago now— and Weckl is in his zone. He’s been writing […]
CYMBALISTIC: new cymbals are in / SPECIAL
2024 UPDATE: All right, the special is obviously OVER, but, hey, Cymbal & Gong are such special cymbals that even if you have to pay the shipping they’re a bargain. Career instruments for players, just […]
Playing charisma
Charisma: Compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others. – some dictionary In becoming better drummers and musicians— and in being lovers of music, and of percussion in music— I think, finally, we’re […]
Jazz coordination – feet in unison
This page is for one of my students— his jazz playing has a nice feel with just his hands, but with the feet involved it gets a little uncentered. So we’re going to experiment with […]
Daily best music in the world: Happy holidays
Here’s some nice Christmas morning listening, which I’ve certainly shared before— Before We Were Born, by Bill Frisell. This was my first exposure to Joey Baron’s drumming, around 1990-91. I used to play these gigs […]
More on New Breed
Since that last piece about the book The New Breed, by Gary Chester, I’ve been working with that book fairly seriously— I can already play the drums, it won’t kill me to spend some time […]
Hemiola inverted and combined
An easy page of rhythm exploration here, inverting a polyrhythm, combining inversions, and then inverting that. I’ve been encouraged to write these things after noticing that, starting with a simple 3:2 polyrhythm (or hemiola), running […]