Another groovy practice loop, sampled from Journey In Satchidananda by Alice Coltrane. It’s a slow, 97 bpm swing feel in 6/4— good for getting into both of my ways of doing Chaffee’s jazz thing, as […]
Author: Todd Bishop
Syncopation rhythms: two notes
UPDATE: Download link is working now! I’ve been posting a series of syncopation pages written/organized around a single idea for ease of practicing certain things. It’s partly for my students, so I can give assignments […]
Leave them kids alone
Dumbest, wrongest quasi-educational thing I could find to illustrate this post. This little rant has been kicking around my drafts folder for awhile. I wasn’t even going to post it, but then I had another frustrating […]
Transcription: Philly Joe brush feature
I heard this on the radio yesterday— Soft Winds, from Chet Baker’s album In New York. Philly Joe Jones also had a cool drum solo on it, played with brushes. Drumming right now is in a […]
Groove o’ the day: Louis Hayes calypso
A calypso-type groove played by Louis Hayes in 1957, on the Curtis Fuller album Volume 3, on Blue Note. The tune is Quantrale, a light thing written by Fuller. Hayes plays variations on the groove […]
Very occasional quote of the day: late arrivers
“There’s a certain kind of people that are more or less late arrivers, you can – even though he was certainly on the scene and known and respected – you can hear him building his […]
Jazz waltz with Chaffee
Let’s detail something I mentioned in the Chaffee jazz post: using the patterns in that system as 8th notes in a jazz waltz. They’re three-note (or rest) patterns, so playing them two times = a […]
Hemiola funk series: back to back
Continuing this project to see how much standard funk vocabulary can be derived from two 3:2 polyrhythm licks. Here we’re doing the two main BS-BS and SB-SB hemiola licks back to back, and putting that in […]
Very occasional quote of the day: established discipline
“Bach taught how to find originality within an established discipline— actually how to live.” — Jean-Paul Sartre
Rock unisons drill
I’m very big on drills with the hands in unison these days. It strengthens the left hand, and is excellent training for playing singles solidly, in time, without rushing. This is a very basic rock drill […]