Gene Krupa playing with a quartet in the 1950s. This has a nice vibe, and doesn’t get ridiculous about showcasing Krupa. His accompaniment on the tenor solo on Little White Lies (starting at 19:06) is […]
Author: Todd Bishop
Tresillo inversion combinations
A library item for fairly hardcore individuals: two measure combinations of all of the tresillo inversions from the item at that link. This whole area of rhythm is extremely fertile to me— it’s all familiar […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro 15
Hey, as long as we’re working on weird, non-traditional perversions of the natural world, here is a page of “Afro 6” groove in 5. Or 15/8, which is a triplet feel in 5. This groove […]
Q&A: Cuban for jazz
I got a surprisingly tough question from a reader the other day: What’s a good book for playing Cuban styles in jazz? Part of the difficulty with answering this is, what do we mean by […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro 9/8 – “African”
I was practicing this POC from last year, and wanted a version of it in 9/8, and here it is. I called it “African” only for the middle of the triplet rhythm on the hihat, […]
Practice loop: Fela Kuti – This Is Sad
This is a really cool practice loop, sampled from This Is Sad by Fela Kuti, with Tony Allen on drums. You could try to cop the actual groove, or just play anything over it and […]
Reed triplet method with RH accents
Writing yesterday’s piece I realized I’ve never posted a really satisfactory explanation of the RH accent triplet solo method— a very useful way of practicing Progressive Steps to Syncopation, which I’ve relied on a lot […]
Practice tips for drummers with limited time
Get it, use it. Here are some suggestions for people learning to play the drums, but who have limited time to do it… 1-2 hours a day to practice. That’s most people, actually. As you’ll […]
Tresillo and cinquillo inversions
I’ve got way too much painfully unfinished stuff in the docket right now; about a dozen long written pieces languishing in my drafts folder, some in-depth practice materials in development, an ambitious new book project, […]
EZ linear quarter note rock method – drills
Here are a few specific drills for use with the EZ rock method from the other day. Not every single thing you play using this method is going to sound great, but it’s a solid […]