Page of rudimental patterns in 5/8, based on a flam accent #1. We’ve just extended it a couple of notes. You could connect some of these with a whole lot of rudiments: flam drags, pataflaflas, […]
Reed singles drill
Simple system for working on singles, that I worked up with a student who plays a lot of Metal. I don’t know anything about Metal drumming, so we have to work together to come up […]
Paul Motian documentary
It took me awhile to get around to watching the Paul Motian documentary Motian In Motion— it’s great, here it is if you haven’t seen it: I liked this comment from Steve Swallow about his […]
That last Reed tweak: one further
Going one further with that last Reed tweak in 3/4, in which we played alternating triplets, beginning every measure with the right hand. Normally with alternating triplets, every second measure would start with the left hand, […]
Transcription: Roy Haynes – Bad News Blues – 02
Part 2 of Roy Haynes playing Bad News Blues on his record Cracklin’. This is Ron Matthews’s piano solo, starting at 1:51— four choruses, 48 bars. Things like this are a little bit of an […]
Transcription: Roy Haynes – Bad News Blues – 01
Roy Haynes playing Bad News Blues, from his album Cracklin’. We’ll be seeing more of this one, there’s a lot of interest in this recording. Playing a tune like this some people might simplify and […]
Know your tempos: Workin’ / Steamin’ / Cookin’ / Relaxin’
You can buy them all in one collection now. Hey, we haven’t done one of these in a while. All the tempos from four very famous Miles Davis records, with his very famous quintet from the […]
Groove o’ the day: Ed Blackwell – Love
Here’s a fast 6/4 Afro type of groove from Ed Blackwell, on the track Love, from a duo record with Wadada Leo Smith, The Blue Mountain’s Sun Drummer. There’s no tune, it’s just free blowing […]
Daily best music in the world: early Weather Report
I have a lot of writing projects going right now, and seem to be unable to finish any of them, so let’s listen. Here’s Alphonse Mouzon playing on the first Weather Report album, doing what […]
Very occasional quote of the day: artificial excitement
“I think there’s a tendency to overplay with most young drummers. Rushing is common in trying to force things to swing by playing on top a little bit. If things weren’t swinging by forcing it […]
Finessing Reed funk phrases
A baseline thing to do with Reed funk methods is to practice in two measure phrases. For example: one measure cut time funk* / one measure RH lead**. * – CUT TIME FUNK: Reading from […]