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. […]
Category: practicing
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, […]
Limitations of loops
There’s a good post about playing along with recordings, that everyone should read, over at Ted Warren’s Trap’d blog. Since he commented about playing with loops vs. whole tunes— and I do a lot with […]
Yolanda Mero on practicing the piano
More from the book Piano Mastery by Harriette Brower, here is Yolanda Mero (1887-1963)— like everybody in this book, the type of language she uses is dated, and a little long winded, but everyone will […]
Practice phrase for Chapin
A very small item here, for making your time practicing single measures of independence patterns a little more productive. Try it when practicing Chapin— that Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer— or for any other […]
Brute force freedom
Not Mickey Roker, never will be In the Josef Hoffman piano technique post I said: We read this now and put an emphasis on the freedom part, but he’s talking about freedom through massive technical abilities— […]
It’s suspect: nothing but singles, doubles, and flams
New recurring (maybe) feature, inspired by Modern Drummer’s It’s Questionable column. I’ll call it It’s Suspect, and say a few words about an annoyingly wrong but persistent drumming myth. This question was asked on a […]
Converting 3/8 hemiola patterns to 2/4
That’s it, CRUISE SHIP DRUMMER! is now an all what-I’m-teaching-in-lessons web site. I’m preoccupied with other stuff right now, travel plans and whatnot. I started doing this around 2013, and quite a bit lately— changing […]
Too perfect
Perfect and boring For a long time I thought robotic perfection was basically impossible to achieve for people not practicing massive hours… so you may as well just try your best to achieve it. Lately, […]
Max wants you to turn off YouTube
“We used to listen to records and take off the record what the person was doing. You didn’t see the person. You’d just hear it. We’d figure out what was happening with our ears. Then […]