UPDATE: Download link works now! This is an easy, non-technical method for learning jazz solos/breaks/trading, which I devised in lessons with an older Skype student. It involves a few basic patterns, and several easy practice […]
COVID SPECIAL: Practice loop archive
End of ’20 UPDATE: Get the new updated 3 gb archive, with tempos! Hey, since everyone is confined to home, with nothing to do but practice, I thought I’d share my personal archive of sampled practice […]
From the zone: Al Foster intro
Hey, it looks like everyone but me is getting a lot writing done right now. I have a couple more of these “from the zone” items to share— a series where people send in their […]
Page o’ coordination: Olé – 01
A Portland jazz educator asked me about what Elvin Jones was doing on the tune Olé, by John Coltrane, so I wrote this up. He plays a few different major patterns, and this might be […]
Annals of wrong things: UNUSED POTENTIAL
Here’s a little sub-rant of my other recent teaching rant. I wrote this in January, and wasn’t going to post it— it’s kind of silly. But people seem to enjoy these, and it’s not totally […]
Long rolls, Reed format
A supplemental Reed item— this is about the level of thing I’m capable of right now. Not written out of any pressing need, hahaha, except this is a basic thing it’s not easy for intermediate […]
Best books: 143 Binary Algorhythms Applied to Paradiddles
This book has been out for a couple of years, but fellow Portland drummer Ed Pierce just brought it to my attention: 143 Binary Algorhythms Applied to Paradiddles. …possibly the worst book title ever, but who […]
Accented singles with rumba clave
I was playing along with a loop sampled from the track below, and wanted to have this page to work with. We’re doing accented accented singles— with a three note and five note spacing— along […]
From the zone: cycling patterns
Since I am completely blocked for writing anything other than profane tweets right now, here are a couple of things from the practice room of our friend in Berlin, Michael Griener. It’s a very elegant […]
Transcription: Philly Joe Jones – Gone
From the Miles Davis album Porgy & Bess, here is Philly Joe Jones playing Gil Evans’s arrangement of Gone. It’s mostly just drums and horns, with a lot of drum breaks, plus a bridge where […]
Daily best music in the world: Elvin plays brushes
You would think with all of this extra quarantine time I would just be writing up a storm, but I’m actually kind of blocked this week. So here’s Tommy Flanagan’s Overseas—a nice record with Elvin […]