[Practicing is] very tedious and easily becomes tiresome… but when it really gets on my nerves, that’s when I know I should keep on with it. – Philly Joe Jones, Down Beat Magazine, March 1959
Category: practicing
Playing JPFMR
Playing the page jazz patterns for massive repetition— some pretty ordinary jazz patterns— the way I typically would practice that kind of thing. I’m not learning them for the first time, so I’m free to […]
Very occasional quote of the day: practicing
I don’t think I’ve practiced two hours in 20 years. But it’s different with me than it is with a lot of younger guys, because I’ve been playing practically every night for 20 years. If […]
Practice makes permanent?
I see this phrase again and again. I guess it’s not entirely wrong, maybe, but taken the wrong way, as things always are today, it results in some wrong thinking. Here’s what a random jive […]
Funk loops embedded – 01
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 […]
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 […]