A page of beats based on a snare drum rhythm used a lot by Idris Muhammad. It’s a sort of one-bar clave, an inversion of the rhythm commonly called tresillo, starting on beat 3. I’ve […]
Category: rock
Rock drill
Here’s a rock drumming practice system, that is related to my harmonic coordination improved method, and also this post on developing rock fills. I’ve been using it with students of all ages, and have been […]
Tresillo rhythms – EZ rock orchestrations
UPDATE: pdf link works now. I’m doing too many things this week. I’ve been running some students through this, and it sounds good. A more accessible version of my funk control series. Some basic rock […]
EZ fill developer
This might be more of an item for teachers. This is a sketch of a method I’ve found to be effective for teaching younger students to play fills, and play them in time, with both […]
EZ linear quarter note rock method – drills
Here are a few specific drills for use with the EZ rock method from the other day. Not every single thing you play using this method is going to sound great, but it’s a solid […]
Daily best music in the world: tax day
Listening to the Japanese band Boris while I finish my taxes. First rock band I’ve liked in a long time— mashing up all of the 90s (or the first half, anyway) and making it better.
EZ linear quarter note rock method
I may have written this up before, but I can’t find it in the archives, and I probably didn’t include the embellishments I’m going to tell you today, so what the hell, let’s do it […]
Practice loop: Black Sabbath / Breakout
Practice loop sampled from Breakout, an instrumental jazz odyssey-type number from Black Sabbath’s 1978 album Never Say Die. Tempo is quarter note = 57 bpm. Nice and slow, good for getting into my very challenging […]
EZ rock beats in 5/4 – 02
More “EZ” rock beats in 5/4, this batch written to be easy to play at fast tempos, in 2+3 and 3+2 phrasing: Ways of practice— good for any page of grooves: • Repeat each pattern […]
EZ rock beats in 5/4 – 01
For one of my students, an easy page of rock beats in 5/4. We did one of these a few years ago, but this page illustrates the 2+3 / 3+2 phrasing of this time signature, […]
Funk drill tweak
This is a minor tweak to my standard funk drill using Ted Reed’s Syncopation. It was played by mistake by one of my students (6th grader), but it sounded good so I decided to keep […]
EZ RH/RF lick in 16th notes
More easy rock stuff, this time developing a basic RH/RF pattern in 16th notes, adding various left hand parts, and moves between drums and cymbals: Play all of the exercises many times, then improvise combinations. […]