Oh, and happy 4th of July. Get the transcription of Billy Higgins’s playing on this.
Year: 2018
Page o’ coordination: Afro 6 – “African”
Quite of flurry of POCs lately— a plague of POCs. I like this format. It’s good for working on more complex independence; things too hard to do with a melodic line interpretation, which is my […]
Practice loop: Watermelon Man
This is a practice loop I use a lot, sampled from the intro of Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man, from the album Headhunters. At 74 bpm it’s a little faster than one of my other favorites, […]
More Frank Butler – intro and break
Another little solo break by Frank Butler, along with something very interesting. The tune is Bobblin’— a bright, somewhat Mingus-like waltz— from the Curtis Amy & Frank Butler album Groovin’ Blue, recorded in 1960-61. The […]
Page o’ coordination: Mozambique – hands only – 01
A page of technical independence patterns for a Mozambique bell part— a hip, very useful bell rhythm. For more practical left hand parts for this bell rhythm, see my updated Page of Mozambique. Also see my […]
Maximizing syncopation rhythms
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 […]
Aka Pygmy clave
This is just a brief investigation of an interesting rhythm, a sort of clave rhythm clapped by the lead performer in the video below— a candid video of three Aka Pygmy people performing a polyphonic […]
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 […]
Drum intro: Billy Higgins – For Minors Only
Another intro, with a Latin feel, played by Billy Higgins on For Minors Only, from Jimmy Heath’s album Picture of Heath. The cymbal rhythm is reminiscent of a Mozambique-type rhythm, with an 8th rest on […]
Page o’ coordination: Midnight Special shuffle
Page o’ coordination based on the Midnight Special shuffle groove as played by Grady Tate and Donald Bailey with Jimmy Smith. We’re using two different cymbal rhythms, and the snare drum part varies, but the […]