A couple of very little half time funk things, just significant enough to be worthy of mention. They’ll be folded into a complete method, if and when I get around to writing it. I’m going […]
Category: Reed tweaks
Reed tweak: BD triplets, with options
Posting sparsely this week due to holiday festivities, and doing a ton of work on site stuff, promotional stuff, getting my Patreon presence happening, other stuff. There’s a lot in the works for ’26. This […]
Reed tweak: paradiddle inversions – Jack’s option
This is a sticking variation on the 16th note RLLR-LRRL paradiddle inversion system, that was improvised by mistake by one of my students, age 15. We have a different relationship to mistakes on this instrument. […]
Reed tweak – figure on cymbals
Here’s a method for practicing filling in figures, that will work with most Reed systems, and involves accents on both the cymbals and the drums. For the examples we’ll use 8th notes accented to match […]
Fill phrase with RH lead on toms
We’ve got a good little fill unit going here lately— usually these might be taught with a single instruction, “groove first measure / RH lead second measure”, and that’s mostly enough, but, reading from Syncopation, […]
Reed tweak: expanding a fill phrase
Opening up a stock fill phrase I use with my students, reading, as ever, from Syncopation. A couple of easy moves for not being so barline oriented. This has a pretty energetic feel, with a […]
Cymbal variation with Reed
Sketching out a thing I was working with after listening to some Jack Dejohnette. We do a lot of things with Syncopation with the cymbal and bass drum in unison, this introduces some variations in […]
Reed tweak: paradiddle inversion to toms
Another pretty substantial tweak to one of my other Reed systems— converting a very ordinary system, accented triplets, to paradiddle inversions— RLLR-LRRL. Actually there’s very little to it, I just think it’s worth spending some […]
Reed interpretation: extra accents
I was thinking of Dejohnette when I was working this out. A standard way of playing Reed is as running, alternating 8th notes, accenting the book rhythm on the cymbals, plus bass drum. Often playing […]
Reed tweak: RH lead – Guy’s variation
One of my students, age 12, accidentally invented a really good way of handling the right hand lead Reed system. You have to watch out for things like that. Sometimes mistakes point to a better […]
Reed tweak: RH lead triplets – fast within slow
This has been an item of interest for a long time— playing fast in a slow tempo. In a master class Peter Erskine mentioned that Jack Dejohnette was the only drummer he knew who could […]
Double time Reed tweak: one step beyond
Launching to the outer limits of what you can reasonably do with Syncopation, verging on losing the melody rhythm as a point of reference. Or not, see what you make of it. Using one of […]