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. […]
Category: syncopation
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 […]
RH lead triplets – useful excerpts from . 38
This is a little bit of a half baked item, illustrating something we did in a lesson. Should be useful for teachers, may not make a ton of sense if you’re not familiar with this […]
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 […]
Basic 8th note rhythms with variations – two bar phrases
Item for one of my students. I generally have people learn their rock beats through Syncopation— once they can do a few basic beats reading them in the conventional way, we go over to my […]
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 […]
Reed singles drill
Simple system for working on singles, that I worked up with a student who plays a lot of Metal. I don’t know anything about Metal drumming, so we have to work together to come up […]
Finessing Reed funk phrases
A baseline thing to do with Reed funk methods is to practice in two measure phrases. For example: one measure cut time funk* / one measure RH lead**. * – CUT TIME FUNK: Reading from […]
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 […]
Reed Linear Quarters – beat 4 displaced
With a student I’ve been working on a Blue Note type groove a la Cantaloupe Island, and the linear quarter notes lesson (pp. 8-9) in Ted Reed’s Progressive Steps to Syncopation* seemed a good place […]
Reed interpretation: short rolls
An easy thing to do with Syncopation, adding short rolls. This will be a no-brainer any time you want to work on your rolls without a lot of extraneous stuff, using familiar materials. I wrote […]
Reading round up
I’ve been using my pages of syncopation rhythms a lot in teaching lately— similar to what’s in Ted Reed, but written for a specific purpose, either for a specific drum set application, or to do […]