Here’s a quick take of a tune that will be part of my set on the Europe trip this year: Mevlevia, from the Gary Burton record Ring, with drumming by Bob Moses. This is one […]
Category: 5/4
Coordination with a dotted-quarter cymbal pattern, in 5/4 — part 1
Extending this recent series of Dahlgren & Fine/Elvin-style coordination studies a bit further, here’s part one of the dotted quarter series, converted into 5/4: Swing the 8th notes and do the tom moves when you […]
VOQOTD: George Marsh on playing odd meters
“[Y]ou don’t have to play the first beat of an odd meter loudly. You have to know where it is, and the musical phrases should flow through the downbeat. Usually that takes playing the downbeat […]
Rock in 5/4: Water by PJ Harvey
Here’s a song I was working on with one of my students which happens to be timely since it’s in 5/4— Water, by PJ Harvey, with a great pop drumming performance by Robert Ellis. What […]
Cracking 5/4: further listening
Aaaand I thought we’d end this series with some more listening, starting with some more modern things: Jive Coffee – Brad Mehldau with Jeff Ballard Much more after the break: Jive Coffee – Bill Stewart […]
Cracking 5/4: issues and things, and conclusion
In this final-for-now post on playing in 5/4 I want to talk about a few stray issues, and things that you may observe happening, or happening to you. This is a work in progress for […]
Cracking 5/4: more architecture
Beyond the 2/4+3/4 or 3/4+2/4 phrasing we’ve already discussed, there are a few common constructions you should be familiar with. Just learning the things covered in the first part will take a fair amount of […]
Cracking 5/4: rock variations
I wasn’t planning on making this part of this series, but it happened to come up. I was prepping for a recording session today which will involve a couple of tunes in 7/4, and I […]
Cracking 5/4: the basics
It took me a long time to come around to accepting the type of method we’re going to use here; for years the Syncopation-based interpretive method– in which you think more like a horn player, […]
Cracking 5/4: the library
Essential. Again following my normal process of doing the easy stuff first, here is the library of practice materials I’ve used for finally getting my act together in 5/4. Normally you would put this at […]