Some quotes from the pianist Josef Hofmann from Piano Mastery by Harriette Brower. Published in the 1920s, it’s the type of thing you’d have to go to the library and dig around in the stacks […]
Stickings in Finale
A quick thing for you frustrated Finale users*: Here’s how you write stickings. You probably tried adding them as text, and met with bitter failure, then you tried them as lyrics, met with bitter failure, […]
Subtractive method: an alternative approach
I just saw this from brother writer Jon McCaslin, over at the excellent and much hipper-named Four On The Floor blog: a Syncopated Stick Control method, which he’s using to bring some rhythm interest to practicing Stone. […]
This week’s drill
Some things I’ve been playing through this week— promoting some previous posts, and rounding up some very useful practice systems. Basically I’ll just play down p. 38 (formerly and famously p. 37) from Syncopation the […]
Very occasional quote of the day: rich and famous
R. Crumb and son Jesse, in the movie Crumb: Jesse: You didn’t go to art school and you’re rich and famous. R.: I’m not talking about rich and famous, I’m talking about learning how to […]
Playing Airegin
The title is Nigeria spelled backwards, usually pronounced AIRa-jin. I took a minute in the shower this morning figuring out how to pronounce it actually like Nigeria backwards: ah-ee-REE-jine. JINE rhyming with JIVE. A little […]
Grooving with a feathered bass drum
A couple of weeks ago I made some comments about hearing some younger drummers, and someone asked me to elaborate on this part of it: [I was hearing people] feathering the bass drum in a […]
Groove o’ the day: Linha da Passe
Bright samba groove from one of my favorite Brazilian drummers, Milton Banana, who was most active in the 60s/70s. The tune is Linha da Passe, which you’re most likely find on Banana’s compilation album Sambas […]
The paradiddle inversion method, with triplets
Here’s how to fit that late paradiddle inversion system into a triplet or 12/8 environment. For clarity, we’ll base it off the accented triplets pages from Syncopation— pp. 53-58. Advanced students can then figure out […]
The natural sticking / fill lesson
These are some steps I was running through with an adult beginner, to get oriented with some normal things you do on the drums, and to practice counting 16th notes. There are a number of […]
Groove o’ the day: Airto Afro 6
An Afro 6* groove played by Airto, on the intro of Casa Forte, on Flora Purim’s 1974 record Stories To Tell. It has some big shot LA musicians on it, including saxophonist Hadley Caliman, who […]
Reed interpretation: paradiddle inversion – key and warm-ups
Preparatory page for a Reed system using the highly useful RLLR-LRRL paradiddle inversion— we’re doing a lot with it for a reason. It’s easy to play fast, works great on the drums, and fits a […]