Continuing to post some of my favorite practice loops, here are some slower tempo selections from my funk folder. Also check out my rock loops I already posted. Betty Davis – If I’m In Luck […]
Category: practicing
Chapin variations roundup
Collecting a few things we’ve done with Jim Chapin’s Advanced Techniques For The Modern Drummer over the years, to make practicing those one-measure patterns a little more musically productive. Yes, it takes more time to […]
Bad words
I hope we’re all thinking people who use words deliberately, and not as the common citizenry does: as vibe-based idea-smears. Words shape your concepts, insidiously at times— you try to do a thing based on […]
Practicing musically
Practicing musically, approaching the task like a musician and not an athlete, working on music, not performance statistics. I’m struggling to write an introduction, so here are some things to think about, scattergun style: Dynamics, […]
Motivation
Motivation! The art of getting off your dead butt and doing something, and/or getting others to do the same. It sounds like I’m setting up some grand exposition of that, but I don’t have any […]
Expanding a concept – 01
This is connected with all the fill related jive we’ve been dealing with lately. I share it with you to illustrate a thought process, not a particular set of licks. These are some things I […]
Snare drum vs. drum set training
The following are some comments I made in a contentious online conversation about snare drum training and drum set training— or playing— and the differences between the two, that I think stand on their own— edited […]
Practicing Chaffee phrases
Some things I do when practicing these recent Chaffee linear phrases, or any of the rest of them, beyond playing them as written. First, at faster tempos, the ones ending with two bass drum notes […]
New Breed tweak – left hand cymbal accents
Getting through a single system from The New Breed takes some time, longer than I want to have one hand be basically idle, playing just the 2 and 4. Let’s give it more to do. […]
How to stop – 01
Kind of a mundane item here— a multi-parter, believe it or not— mainly for teachers, about handling ordinary materials in a more real-life musical way, including how to stop in the conversation. Younger students and […]
Open handed redux
This but just me looking like an A-hole This is a long one. This is what happens every time the subject of “open handed” drumming is raised online— a kind of church revival of drumming […]
On the massive overabundance of things to practice
A nagging question with every single thing I post: Am I putting up too much, am I part of the problem— the problem being: there’s way too much stuff to practice on the drums now, […]