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 […]
Category: Todd’s Methods
Subtractive patterns for jazz snare and bass
Continuing to develop this subtractive method, here are some good patterns for snare drum and bass drum in a jazz feel. I’m digging the system. It allows me to put whatever part I want consistently […]
EZ Reed method – Jack’s way – 02
Continuing a very easy system I’m using with a younger student— I feel kind of cheated that I wasn’t taught this myself, and that I haven’t been teaching it all these years. This is as […]
World’s shortest jazz solo exercise
A quick little item— I know I’ve posted it before in other forms, maybe this time will be the best. For jazz students, this may be the most useful thing on the site for soloing […]
Back to Dahlgren & Fine
Basic unit of Dahlgren & Fine UPDATE: I’ve been hitting this all week, covering most of the pages in question every day, tempo around quarter note = 126. It’s very interesting— all kinds of unrelated […]
Subtractive method: batucada
This developing subtractive method is becoming really interesting. It makes it much easier to write and communicate more complex orchestrations than in the past— which is not an end in itself, it just makes it […]
Subtractive patterns for jazz hihat
What this new subtractive method is good for: making it easy to create and communicate rather specific, specialized orchestration/voicing systems on the drum set. Like, for the hihat in jazz— I have never cared for […]
Subtractive method overview
Here’s a broad overview of this subtractive thing I’ve been working with. It’s a new approach, but not unprecedented, and I think it’s worth exploring. The idea starts with a Stone-type 8th note sticking pattern, […]
Page o’ coodination: prep for subtractive method with Mozambique bell
I wrote this for my own use— I was attempting to do that recent subtractive Reed method with the more complex Mozambique bell rhythm, and it will go much faster to see the warm up […]
Reed interpretations: special voicing – 01
This came out of the groove part of my recent Country Rock thing. It’s a kind of subtractive method for voicing the snare drum and bass drum. Not unlike my John Riley-inspired “that with interruptions” […]
Half time country rock with Reed
This swingy country, folky, gospel type of half time feel groove is all over the music of the late 60s/early 70s. You Can’t Always Get What You Want, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, for […]
Delecluse patterns on the drum set
A rare-ish book outside of conservatory percussion circles, that is worth having in your permanent library, is Methode de Caisse-Claire by Jacques Delecluse. It’s an odd-sized book, so to print pages for my students I […]