Good music for a very windy day here in Portland, from Glen Moore, bassist from the band Oregon, who lives in town: This record Nude Bass Ascending is basically a perfect album— it has held […]
Year: 2014
Advice for beginning drummers
Obligatory inspirational picture 1. Play every day. Consistency is the main thing. At some point in your playing career, you will need to put in many hours every day, for several years at least, if […]
70s west coast drum corps guys: do you remember this one?
“Have another beer, have another beer, roll another joint and smoke it, smoke it”? It’s a funny little onomatopoeic 70s thing that goes with a roll exercise, which I overheard an instructor do, once— I think it’s […]
Snare drum workout in 6/8
I’m all about the one-page workouts these days, so here’s another one, for snare drum, in 6/8. The first goal is just to be able to play each of the patterns individually; probably some of […]
Micheal Shrieve on Whiplash
I’m not going to say anything more about the new hit drumming/jazz education melodrama Whiplash until I’ve actually seen it, but I will let you know about another great drummer, Michael Shrieve, sharing his thoughts […]
Philly Joe starts a chorus: The Theme
Another micro-transcription looking at how Philly Joe Jones plays the beginning of a chorus. The tune is The Theme, from the Miles Davis album Miles (what it says on the cover), or The New Miles […]
Page o’ coordination: basic — 01
This whole Pages o’ coordination series has been something of a nightmare of difficulty; they’ve been for advanced players, at least. I thought I’d see what I could do on the other end of the spectrum, […]
Very occasional quote of the day: figuring things out
Elvin Jones on Haskell Harr and learning the rudiments: “I did go through [Harr’s snare drum book] as a matter of fact. I went to public school in Pontiac, Michigan, so I didn’t do anything extra. […] I didn’t have […]
Survival chops: triplets and 16th notes, accented
Here’s a page of stuff that should be handy, with some accented 8th note triplets and 16th notes in 3/4 time. Playing 16th notes at the end of a run of triplets is something I […]
Erskine on Whiplash!
If you don’t know your subject well enoughto convey the real emotion of it, there’s always this. This is fun— they’ve interviewed Peter Erskine in re: the new smash sensation amazingly great jazz drumming education […]