Do you think most of what you play in real life is hip, complicated, multi-layered, polyrhythmic, hybrid-rudimental madness? Sir, it is not. Most of what you play is normal, obvious, easy stuff. You want to […]
Category: Todd’s Methods
Two alternative Dahlgren & Fine routines
YAAAH As I’ve mentioned, I’m getting a lot of productive work done with this much-loathed book, 4-Way Coordination, by Marvin Dahlgren & Elliot Fine. Mainly I’m using the worst part, the “harmonic” coordination chapter, for […]
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 […]
NOW AVAILABLE: 2017 Book of the Blog
OK gang, the 2017 Book of the Blog is now available for purchase! It includes all of the downloadable practice materials posted on the site in 2017, plus the grooves o’ the day, plus selected […]
Open hihat funk application using Dahlgren & Fine
Wow, suddenly it’s the end of the year. In coming days I’ll be throwing up as much stuff as I can to fill out any remaining content gaps in the upcoming 2017 Book of the […]
Countermanding the tsunami
Thanks to everyone who has purchased the new e-book, 13 Essential Stickings, and I hope you’re pleased with it. As you can see, there’s nothing in there you haven’t heard of— it’s really a case […]
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 […]
NEW E-BOOK: 13 Essential Stickings
Here’s part of what I’ve been up to other than writing new blog posts— I’m releasing a new e-book today: 13 Essential Stickings for the Modern Drummer. If you ever get overwhelmed by the amount […]
Page o’ skiplets – 01
This is not a great method to self-teach, but for the few intrepid individuals this will help, or for the teachers out there whose students struggle to pick up jazz independence, this approach may help […]
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 […]
Todd’s funk shuffle drill
This is a loose collection of stuff with which you can drill a rather busy, modern funk shuffle feel or triplet funk feel, a la Lopsy Lu or The Brecker Brothers’ Inside Out: OK, those […]