Right, so it looks like we’ll be doing a lot with this triplet feel this week— mainly getting comfy improvising within this 12/8-style blues, soul or pop groove. Think Lopsy Lu, Higher Ground, Isn’t She […]
Author: Todd Bishop
Basic funk with mixed stickings
Bad title, because I prefer to think of these as based on a cymbal rhythm, not a sticking, but whatever. Next title will be so apt it will blow the doors off this place. These […]
Linear patterns in 7/8 – RLBB
UPDATED 8/27: Added one thing to the pdf. Another page of stuff to play with last year’s smoking John Zorn “Solitaire” practice loop in 7/8, this time developing a very common four-note linear pattern, RLBB— an […]
Page o’ coordination: “Afro Blues” bell – 02
Another page of coordination patterns for this Afro/shuffle cymbal pattern, which I’ll go ahead and call “Afro Blues” because I feel like it. It came up in my own playing, and I’m not aware of […]
Reed interpretation: triplets with breaks
I don’t why it took me over 30 years to figure this out— I’m always looking for ways to simplify things, to make them more playable. This is an alternative to a very common, popular, […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro shuffle bell pattern
This is something that came up in playing Back At The Chicken Shack, a shuffle by organist Jimmy Smith . We play a pretty open interpretation of the style on that tune, not a strict Blue Note […]
Transcription: James Black – Hook And Sling, pt. 2
This is something very special— it’s probably classical music to anyone well versed in New Orleans music, and anyone in the sampling world, but I only heard it for the first time recently: James Black […]
Page o’ coordination: displacing a jazz groove
As the heading on the page says, this is a fairly ill-advised endeavor we’re covering today: displacing a jazz groove, by shifting the cymbal and hihat rhythm over to the last note of the triplet. […]
New Orleans street beat – Reed method
As promised, another method for developing a NOLA street beat, this one perhaps more musical than the last. Definitely. Here we’ll be using Progressive Steps to Syncopation, by Ted Reed, pp. 33-44— the “Syncopation” section […]