A set of exercises I improvised on my leg at the start of a rehearsal yesterday— and this would actually be good as part of a warmup. These are 5 stroke rolls in single strokes, in […]
Year: 2018
Stairway to Heaven figure
This is something I did for a student who was looking for some help playing Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. On the out chorus— or whatever you want to call it; the song is […]
Page o’ coordination: 2SB-2BS
Another entry using this slightly different conception of my page o’ coordination series— adding various cymbal rhythms to a repeating snare-and-bass coordination pattern. The cymbal rhythms are good for jazz, R&B, Afro-Cuban, or just general […]
Drumming technique
I want to talk about technique: the way it gets talked about it on the internet, vs. my own practices and attitude about it. We’ve had lots of adversarial posts lately— hopefully entertainingly so. A side […]
Daily best music in the world: Miroslav
Here’s a great record from 1970: Purple, led by Miroslav Vitous. With John McLoughlin, Joe Zawinul, and Billy Cobham. It’s very much in a post-In A Silent Way Miles mode, with Cobham sounding at times […]
Page o’ coordination: linear pattern for Latin soloing
The 5+3 note phrase is one of the easiest and most useful of Gary Chaffee’s basic linear phrases. If you start phrase on the a of 2, the bass drum part makes a Latin tumbao […]
Erskine on practicing
An exchange about general practice topics, from Peter Erskine’s 1978 Modern Drummer interview with Gary Farmer. GF: [W]hat would an ideal practice routine consist of? PE: When I work on the snare drum, I try […]
Idiots, you’re doing it wrong. Fools!
This is you trying to play a normal drum set. Ergonomics! The science of putting things where scientists tell you to and shutting up. Our sad devotion to this clearly absurd contraption, the drum set, […]
Groove o’ the day: Ignacio Berroa 12/8
Another funk Afro 12/8 groove, played this time by Ignacio Berroa, on his record Codes, on the tune Woody’n You. From the intro: As you can probably see he’s playing rumba clave on the cowbell. […]
Practice loop: Zorn fast 4
Here’s a good practice loop for working on the recent EZ uptempo methods. Tempo is 154 bpm, or 308 depending on how you want to count it— which is about as fast as most people […]