This is something I was doing with a Skype student recently. We’re working on jazz solo vocabulary, currently getting fluent with common jazz rhythms using basic drum set orchestrations— developing a basic Billy Higgins/Frankie Dunlop-like […]
Category: syncopation
List of basic orchestrations of a syncopated rhythm
This is just a one-page summary of elementary drum set orchestrations of a syncopated rhythm, written Ted Reed-style. I’m teaching my simple solo method to a couple of students, so a printed list of the […]
A simple solo method
Here’s a simple, non-technical solo method I was just working on with a student… …a SKYPE student… did you know I teach lessons via Skype? I do. Anything you ever have questions about on the […]
Three-note syncopation rhythms
Here are a couple of pages of syncopation rhythms in 4/4. Most of them can already be found in Progressive Steps to Syncopation, in one form or another, but sometimes I want to have certain […]
EZ uptempo jazz method – 02
It’s not so much a method as it is “some things to try”, using pp. 10-11 (“Lesson 4”) in Ted Reed’s Syncopation. Last time we looked at ways of making a broken time feel using […]
EZ uptempo jazz method – 01
There is at least one other EZ uptempo jazz method— oh look, here’s another one— but this one is first in a series of similar things I’m writing now. If you learn to be creative […]
Linear funk with a broken cymbal rhythm, using Syncopation
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’ve developed quite a robust collection of funk methods here, using Ted Reed’s Syncopation. If you learned them all you should have some real creativity going by now. So here’s […]
EZ “harmonic” independence
Fairly EZ. EZ compared to the thing it’s based on. This is something that came out of practicing the harmonic independence section of 4-Way Coordination by Dahlgren & Fine. Looking at that book makes you […]
The hard way
Lately I’ve been noticing a lot of talk about doing things the hardest way possible— among drumming students there’s a great fear of “crutches” and “cheating.” The path of least resistance offends people’s protestant work […]
Todd’s funk drill
I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this somewhere on the site, but maybe I didn’t share it as a finished drill. This is a reasonably easy thing for getting your reading, bass drum chops, effective use […]
EZ linear solo method
Ever find yourself playing too much bass drum? It’s easy to do when, like me, you practice out of Syncopation a lot. And a thing I’ve noticed in doing so many transcriptions is how sparsely many […]
EZ Tony-like method: two variations
We’re calling this “Tony Williams-like” on the thinnest possible pretext, of course— playing it, it reminded me of some things he did on Frelon Brun, is all. These are two even easier things you can […]