Getting back into teaching out of a book I haven’t used in some time: A Funky Primer, by my former college professor Charles Dowd. I felt it was getting a little dated, and I was […]
Author: Todd Bishop
Uptempo Stone method — 02
Here’s a little companion to our other uptempo method using Stick Contrtol by George L. Stone. This is more of an open system, and you may do it without even getting that deeply into the book […]
Tootie Heath with Monk
On the Jazz At Lincoln Center blog, drummer Tootie Heath tells how a weeklong engagement he played with Thelonious Monk went down: I played a week with Monk and, every night, Nica [Monk’s friend and […]
Why I hate “drum lesson” videos.
The guy making the thing has to guess what parts of it you’re not going to get, and guess how to explain it in a way you’ll understand, meanwhile wasting everyone else’s time who either […]
Very occasional quote of the day: Muhammad Ali
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’”
EZ Reed interpretation: triplet lick
Here’s an easy practice method for use with Ted Reed’s Syncopation, developing a triplet lick. What I like about these things is they’re finite. You do the fifteen lines, plus the long exercise, and you’re […]
Funk practice loop: Betty Davis – If I’m In Luck…
My apologies for the lack of posts lately— I’ve been very busy with gigs, and with work on my house. Mainly installing a patio in my back yard, which involves digging up and moving out […]
Page o’ coordination: shuffle bass drum variations
It’s a busy, busy, busy, busy time here— lots of gigs, lots of teaching, lots of work to be done on my house as we convert our little back house into an Air b’n’b. Nevertheless, […]
Ballard Jazz Festival happening NOW
If you’re in Seattle, get your butt to Ballard. My group will be playing tonight at Egan’s on Market from 7:40-10:00, with Rich Cole, Jasnam Daya Singh, and Chris Higgins.
Dahlgren & Fine practice order
The “harmonic” coordination exercises from Dahlgren & Fine’s 4-Way Coordination is one of the more daunting collections of junk in the drumming literature. For many years I resisted using the book at all, but I finally got […]