I guess there’s no getting around it: we’re all about the 6/8 these days— there’s a whole bunch more of this on deck. This is a Chuck Kerrigan syncopation exercise, from his very useful Syncopated […]
Category: downloads
How to play Jordu
About time I did another one of these: here’s Jordu, by Clifford Brown, as played on the definitive recording, Clifford Brown & Max Roach, on EmArcy. It gets played a lot at the high school […]
Drum intro: Art Blakey — Straight, No Chaser
Every part of this is just so classically Art Blakey— except maybe his touch, which is somewhat gentler than usual. This is his intro on Straight, No Chaser, from Thelonious Monk’s album Genius of Modern […]
Snare studies for developing some Afro-Cuban bell patterns
There is so much heavy coordination involved in learning the Afro-Cuban styles that it’s easy to neglect simply getting the bell patterns right— which is a lot like playing jazz without spending any time working […]
Page of Guaguancó
Lately I’ve been whittling away at my ignorance of Afro-Cuban/Salsa drumming, and here we’ll look at Guaguancó (say wah-wahn-CO), or Rumba Guaguancó, a very distinctive and popular style I first became acquainted with via a […]
Page o’ coordination: 6/8 clave in the right hand
Hey, we haven’t had a page o’ coordination in awhile. I’ve been spending a lot of time with the Afro-Cuban stuff lately, via our page of Mozambique, the 6/8 page from last year, and with […]
Page of Mozambique — UPDATED
I’ve been working with our earlier page of Mozambique quite a bit (yes, I do in fact practice the non-transcription stuff I post here), and thought it could use a bit of refining, so here […]
Transcription: Terry Bozzio — Rubber Shirt
Let’s consider this a special feature for the funds drive; like the other Zappa thing this week, I’ll be taking it down in a few days and submitting it to Drum! Magazine, so get it […]
Survival chops: six-stroke rolls
Or as I usually call them, “Swiss” sixtuplets— that’s my own coinage, based on an overheard conversation between two drum corps legends, George Tuthill and Alan Kristensen, who were my corps director and percussion instructor […]
Transcription: Frank Zappa — I’m A Beautiful Guy
This is a fairly epic two-minute thing I should really be submitting to Drum! or Modern Drummer, but— well, actually, I’m going to do that, so you’d better get this while you can, because I’ll […]