In the last few months we’ve done a number of tweaks to the basic right hand lead method used with the book Syncopation, and I thought it would be good to summarize them on one […]
Category: Reed tweaks
Reed tweak: alternating cymbals on rock drill
Incrementalism is the word du jour around here— lately we’ve been all about supplementing/altering some basic Reed systems in small ways, to make a living, evolving thing out of it, and not just pure formula. […]
Sidebar: it’s things you do with rhythm
It is funny, I find myself typing the words SYNCOPATION and REED an awful lot, but this entire category of thing is not owned by that one book and that one author. We really talking […]
Reed tweak of a tweak: ending a solo phrase
Here’s a very small but useful tweak of a tweak: remember the Reed system with alternating triplets, hitting the accents on cymbals + bass drum… except we’d leave out the LH cymbal hits? It’s a good […]
Reed tweak: RH lead with a backbeat
Another real simple tweak to a basic right hand lead method used with Syncopation: adding a half time feel backbeat. We’ve been doing a lot with this lately, and it’s turning into a very robust […]
Reed tweak: quasi-right hand lead
I really do try to practice when I practice, not just do writing sessions for the blog. But these things just come up. This is yet another small change to the straight-8th right hand lead […]
That last Reed tweak: one further
Going one further with that last Reed tweak in 3/4, in which we played alternating triplets, beginning every measure with the right hand. Normally with alternating triplets, every second measure would start with the left hand, […]
Reed tweak: alternating triplets in 3
This came up while I was practicing out of my book, Syncopation in 3. An extremely ordinary practice system used with Syncopation is to a) swing the top line rhythm, b) fill in the remaining […]
Reed tweak: yet another uptempo method
Minor tweak to an ordinary right hand lead Reed system, making an approach to playing jazz at fast tempos. I’ve probably written something like this before, I can’t be bothered to check. This way has […]
Marking up Reed for chart reading practice
Continuing the kicks/set-ups Reed tweak— in aid of that kind of practicing, let’s mark up the full-page exercises in Syncopation some more. You may not want to look at these changes all the time, so […]
Reed tweaks: kicks and setups with RH lead triplets
An online student in Europe is working on his reading with me, in preparation for an audition, and we’re talking about kicks and set ups. There’s a minor tweak to a common Reed solo/fill method— […]
Reed tweak: more paradiddle fill-ins
Adding to a similar thing we did early this year, here are some more possibilities for filling in an ordinary right hand lead Reed method— that’s the one where you play the book rhythm on […]