A thing we do here is to rewrite/re-organize existing materials to make them better for practicing certain things. I hate hunting around the page while I practice, flipping pages, dodging things that are no good […]
Category: Stone
Jazz fundamentals: more stick control for jazz
Another jazz fundamentals item, that pairs nicely with Monday’s thing. These are some stick control patterns designed to be played on the drumset, for a specific jazz vocabulary lesson. That’s a lot of what we […]
Stick control exercises, mixed rhythm in 2/4
A page I’m using with some of my students, to learn to fill, and develop basic facility on the drum set. We’ve been doing a lot with parts of my harmonic coordination method— which is […]
Three voice / four note patterns
Continuing in the vein of the recent three voice/three note patterns item. Let’s call this series “things I have always been against writing that I am now writing.” I’ve been playing around with an online […]
Four on the floor: Stone meets Ghana
Here’s something very rare, an idea to base your whole life on: Stone-type patterns based on Ghanaian bell patterns. This is from Jon McCaslin over at Four on the Floor, given to him by the […]
Best books: 143 Binary Algorhythms Applied to Paradiddles
This book has been out for a couple of years, but fellow Portland drummer Ed Pierce just brought it to my attention: 143 Binary Algorhythms Applied to Paradiddles. …possibly the worst book title ever, but who […]
Book reviews: Two new Stone books
Two new works by and about George Lawrence Stone have just been released: Technique of Percussion is a compilation of articles Stone wrote for International Musician Magazine in the 1940s-60s. It’s over 400 pages long, […]
Stick control patterns for jazz
Because some novice jazz students get hung up on the idea of left hand “independence”, here is a little set of exercises for helping coordination between the hands when playing jazz time. We’re using some […]
Rubadub with Stone
Reversing a years-long boycott, I’ve been using the book Stick Control quite a bit for drum set applications lately. I guess it’s unavoidable that sometimes in playing the drums, we think in terms of stickings. […]
Stick Control for consistency
Here’s an interesting video by Matt Patella, a drummer and teacher who knows a lot about the whole Stone/Morello world of drum technique. He talks about George L. Stone’s intentions for his book Stick Control, […]
More paradiddle combinations in 3
More Stick Control-style paradiddle combinations in 3. I find these really useful: Once again here are the basic ways to do these on the drum set— the only way I do these. I basically never sit […]
Paradiddle stick control patterns in 3
I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m using a lot of Stick Control-type stuff in practicing lately. Sometimes you just want things written as a sticking. Here I’ve written out some paradiddle variations in […]