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 […]
Search Results for: label/Reed
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 […]
Syncopation exercise: downbeats and &s
A full page syncopation exercise with the notes spaced a quarter note a greater. Some practice systems only work well, or work well at faster tempos, when there are certain limitations in the reading material, […]
Josef Hofmann on piano artistry
Some quotes from the pianist Josef Hofmann from Piano Mastery by Harriette Brower. Published in the 1920s, it’s the type of thing you’d have to go to the library and dig around in the stacks […]
Uptempo rock practice phrase
Here’s a quick one— a practice phrase combining two practice systems from the rock drill I posted recently, that’s good for fast tempos. It flows really nicely. I give you so many open-ended practice systems, […]
Syncopation rhythms – quarter note triplets
The need for this arose when I was practicing yesterday, so here we go— two pages of syncopation rhythms including quarter note triplets and inverted quarter note triplets. You know what to do. Get the […]
Cliché control – 5 stroke singles
Another Cliché Control page for learning to solo in jazz, combining stock licks. This time centered around 5-stroke singles: RLRLR or RLRLB. We’re squarely in Philly Joe / Art Blakey territory here— and a lot […]
Reed tweak: paradiddle fill in
Some of these Reed systems are so sprawling that you can spend months working your way through them. This one is nice and limited. There’s exactly one thing to do, and relatively few lines from […]
8/8 rock method
An easy little two-part system for rock and funk drumming. It’s a way of livening up a rock groove without breaking away and doing an actual fill— using an 8th note texture, played between the […]
Louis Bellson reading text in 4/4
Here are CRUISE SHIP DRUMMER! we spend a lot of time with the book Syncopation, and not so much with its more expansive, more serious-seeming companion, Louis Bellson’s Modern Reading Text in 4/4. I use […]
Marking up Reed
You know, I think we should all own multiple copies of Syncopation— first because they tend to get destroyed through use, second so we can pencil in our own changes without turning the book into […]
A needlessly difficult book
This has been sitting in my drafts folder for a few weeks. I wasn’t going to post it, but I’m having a hard time finishing anything lately. So here we are: A book I’ve never […]