Another little oddball Stick Control related item, for drum set: some Stone-type sticking patterns with accented unisons added, on beats 2-4, and on beat 3. Introducing the idea— if you like it, you could obviously […]
CYMBALISTIC: new cymbals in!
CYMBALISTIC: A fresh round of cymbals is in— it’s been a rather slow year, so I haven’t been getting a ton of new stock. You should be using these things. Cymbals. Made by Cymbal & Gong. […]
Very occasional quote of the day: go ahead
“Don’t be afraid. Go ahead and play.” – Charlie Parker, quoted by Miles Davis, interview by George Avakian
Transcription: Max Roach – Commutation
Here’s Max Roach soloing with his left hand on Commutation, by J.J. Johnson, on Johnson’s record First Place. A nice little self contained lesson item— there’s some trading after this solo I didn’t bother with. […]
Three Camps in first inversion paradiddles – UPDATED
Updating a really horrible looking page I wrote ten years ago. Musescore actually kind of rocks, this took me no time at all, and looks way better. Musescore would make me work to make it […]
Musescore: conclusions
So, that Billy Cobham transcription pretty well settled it: Musescore is a perfectly fine replacement for the soon-to-be-self-annihilating[? -tb] Finale. For my purposes: writing drumming materials, and lead sheets. There are a few very minor […]
Squarepusher beat
This came out of a mistake by a student, when we were working on some basic ghost note materials. Some things considered to be “advanced” come up naturally in the form of mistakes and general […]
Double time Reed tweak: one step beyond
Launching to the outer limits of what you can reasonably do with Syncopation, verging on losing the melody rhythm as a point of reference. Or not, see what you make of it. Using one of […]
Daily best music in the world: a good first jazz album
If we learned about music in a nice orderly way, where everything started at a logical beginning with music that was clear and expository, this would be a good first record for finding out about […]
Funk warmups – cymbal on offbeats
A page of groove fragments, really, for one of my students— to help get oriented working out of New Breed. We were having some difficulties with this particular cymbal rhythm. You could play this […]
Transcription: Jack Dejohnette – Boo Ann’s Grand
Jack Dejohnette open drum solo from Boo Ann’s Grand, on the Jackie McLean 1967 album Demon’s Dance. Tempo is about 241— about as fast you can do this kind of stuff. This is burning for […]