A small item for your consideration and experimentation. On a drumming forum, a user was complaining that practicing paradiddles didn’t seem to improve his hand independence— he was working on some Chapin Advanced Techniques […]
John and Nate’s jazz drumming page
I wrote this for a couple of my younger students— it’s a collection of simple jazz patterns that we went over verbally in a lesson. It’s meant to be very loose introduction to a type […]
Youtubed: practicing Syncopation
I’m feeling a little irked at the existence of YouTube drumming videos today, so let’s do a search of a subject near and dear to me, practicing the book Progressive Steps to Syncopation, and see […]
Non-mistake mistakes
“Honor Your Mistake as a Hidden Intention.” – Brian Eno, Oblique Strategies “It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.” […]
Reed tweak: filling the long gaps
Here’s a tweak to an ordinary straight 8th note Syncopation practice method: right hand plays the melody rhythm, left hand fills in the remaining 8th notes. Usually with the RH on a cymbal, with the […]
What I’m practicing
I’m at the point where I’ve published so much stuff on the site, I’m a little embarrassed. I don’t want people thinking I’m just fascinated with writing patterns. I do practice this stuff, and otherwise […]
The three bloggers listen to Milestones
Yer Three Bloggers— myself, Ted Warren @ Trap’d, and Jon McCaslin @ Four On The Floor— decided to listen to Milestones by Miles Davis, and make whatever comments occur to us. It’s one of his […]
Backsticking drill for switching grips
I use matched grip virtually all the time in playing, but about every 5-7 years since ~1986, I make a serious effort at getting my traditional grip happening. When I have it conditioned, I can […]
Daily best music in the world: Al Harewood fast
Digging around for some Al Harewood— I mostly know him from the 60s Blue Note records he’s on, but he was active into the 90s— I found this killing live track from George Benson, in […]
Reed interpretations: new uptempo method
All right, I found the way to use Reed at faster jazz tempos. My “the way”, anyhow. I’ve mostly been winging my uptempo jazz comping until now— I never had materials I really liked for […]
Very occasional quote of the day: style
“My style is copying the style of the people I love and the way I combine it and that’s nothing more.” – Ralph Peterson, interview with George Colligan
Transcription: Art Blakey – This Is Life
From maybe the first jazz record I ever checked out on my own, Golden Boy by Art Blakey. Kind of an obscure record on the Colpix label, that I dug out of my dad’s record […]