OK, since I do actually feel obligated to offer you something more than perversely elementary groove transcriptions and lectures on the state of drumming, here’s a transcription of the build-up section from yesterday’s tune, Over […]
Author: Todd Bishop
Groove o’ the day: now exclusively an Al Jackson feature
I include these Al Jackson grooves not because you can’t figure them out for yourselves, but because in this current technocratic, amazingness-fetishizing period of drumming, I like to keep in the front of my memory […]
How to play the brushes, part two
I had never seen this before: Steve Gadd playing on a 2″ tape box. Along with Ted Warren’s videos, the only instruction you need for brushes: (h/t to Who Is Tony?)
On the field with a great drum line
Sorry for the preponderance of video clips of late— what can I say, we’re a little scattered this week. This is a remarkable recording made by an old drum corps colleague, Nathan Beck— he wore […]
Slow tempos: the compound pulse
Following up on the subdiving post: you may have noticed that I suggested subdividing 8th notes at slow tempos— not triplets, as you might expect with music like jazz, that is often thought to be […]
George Duke 1946-2013
There was some kind of magnetism about George Duke that made you think he was going to live forever, but then it doesn’t work out that way. Hearing him on Frank Zappa’s Roxy & Elsewhere […]
DBMITW: Manny Oquendo y Libre
Timbalero Manny Oquendo (1931-2009, seen here in red, playing bongos) playing a little gig with his group Libre:
The slow click
There should really be no such thing as slow to the person playing the drums. Whatever tempo the listener is hearing, the player is going to multiply it as necessary to make a comfortable, easily-maintainable […]
Page o’ coordination: metric modulation — 2/3
Part 2 of this little three-page o’… unit. Actually, there are a couple of other previous pages you can work up as well— once you’ve learned any one page of this series, the others are […]
DBMITW: Steve Berrios 1945-2013
Very sorry that the drummer Steve Berrios, who played a lot of great music, passed away this week. On this recording he plays trumpet, as well as drums: More after the break: Playing drumset: On […]