UPDATE: Bumping this to the top— there are a couple of newer posts below this… Video of my visit to Cymbal & Gong headquarters in southeast Portland, with company owner Tim Ennis, selecting cymbals for […]
Author: Todd Bishop
Preparation for Reed triplet studies
A page of short triplet exercises that are preparation for some of the major practice methods I do with the book Syncopation: the right handed solo method, and the so-called “Ruff Bossa” method, found in […]
Soloing on a form
don’t let this happen to you “My idea of a drum solo is that you play like you sing. It comes from different things you listen to. And the beauty is always in the simple […]
Cymbal day TODAY
CYMBALISTIC: FYI, I will be visiting Cymbal & Gong HQ today and picking out cymbals. If you are looking for anything special, feel free to send a text message at (503)380-9259 (USA) until about 2:30pm […]
Stick Control for consistency
Here’s an interesting video by Matt Patella, a drummer and teacher who knows a lot about the whole Stone/Morello world of drum technique. He talks about George L. Stone’s intentions for his book Stick Control, […]
Groove o’ the day: two by Idris Muhammad with Melvin Sparks
Two similar grooves played by Idris Muhammad with the guitarist Melvin Sparks. The tunes are also very similar, following the same basic template. Both grooves have this as the main snare drum rhythm: It’s a […]
CYMBAL DAY on Friday
THIS FRIDAY: I’ll be visiting Cymbal & Gong HQ to select cymbals for sale on my Cymbalistic site. Many will be for my upcoming Germany sales trip (June 4-12, Berlin/Dresden/Munich), but if you need a […]
Page o’ coordination: Rumba clave – hands only
Page of exercises for coordinating the left hand with rumba clave played with the right. It’s not pure independence practice in the abstract— most of the patterns are related to the clave rhythm in a […]
Very occasional quotes of the day: L.H.O.O.Q.
“[…] I had had Genius pushed at me all through school: Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Ibsen, G.B. Shaw, Chekov, all those dullards. And worse, Mark Twain, Hawthorne, the Brontë sisters, Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, it all just laid […]
Groove o’ the day: Al Jackson – Soul Dressing
Hip groove from Al Jackson on the tune Soul Dressing, by Booker T. and the MGs, from their 1965 album of the same title. They recorded so many of these tight little 45s, R&B miniatures— […]