Here are some more practice phrase ideas for the tom ruffs. This is an underrated item, it should be a lot of fun. Rock out. As the stickings on patterns 1 and 2 indicate, when […]
Transcription: Billy Hart – Don Is – 01
I’ve been listening to this record a lot in the last several months— Enjoy The View, by Bobby Hutcherson, with Billy Hart on drums, plus Joey de Francesco and David Sanborn. The tune is Don […]
Very occasional quote of the day: electronics
“A kid who doesn’t have to whack the drums to me is kind of missing something. He is going to buy a bunch of pads and not even know what it is like to lay […]
Songo brushup
I have some dates coming up where I need to use a Songo-type groove (the chart says “samba”, but it’s really not)— which I don’t have to play that often, so I’m brushing up on […]
How not to hit a drum
Hey, it’s been awhile since I’ve watched a drumming video, and rendered the tidal wave of complaints and irritations that come with it, so here are some comments I wrote when someone made me watch […]
Rhythm cycles
Here’s a page to print out and staplegun to the wall by your drums: a summary of some major practice rhythms, and their inversions. Sometimes you don’t need a readable page, you just need a […]
Rock fills with Reed – 01
Bringing these recent right hand lead Reed tweaks into some basic day to day rock vocabulary. I’ll illustrate these using the tom ruffs we looked at recently— try them with any of the other things […]
Confidence
“Hello. Good evening. Hope I’m Funny.” -Richard Pryor, That N___’s Crazy “So who’s that big dumb ass out there on the hill?” “That’s Steve Carlton. He’s maybe the greatest left-hander in the history of the […]
Solo ideas in 3/4
We’ll be seeing more with this format— solo and fill ideas for a certain amount of space between cymbal/bass drum accents. It’s the normal frame for fills, but I don’t see fill studies written that […]
Half time funk shuffle – 01
Here’s a page for my students, working through the basics of a half time funk shuffle groove. It gets mentioned a lot more online than it comes up in real life, but it’s a thing. […]
CYMBALISTIC: Germany tour wrap up
CYMBALISTIC: Hey, I’m back home and recovering from a very successful Germany excursion, and about to resume regular posting! I’m never sure how things are going to go, but I ended up selling almost all of […]
CYMBALISTIC: BECKEN DEUTSCHLAND 2023 – LET’S GOOO!
CYMBALISTIC: OK everyone, I’m heading to Germany today, with a case of wonderful Cymbal & Gong cymbals for your approval, enjoyment, and merriment. The deets: I will show cymbals in Frankfurt on Wednesday, Berlin on Friday, […]