A quick little item— I know I’ve posted it before in other forms, maybe this time will be the best. For jazz students, this may be the most useful thing on the site for soloing […]
Category: jazz
Page o’ coordination: basic triplet texture in 5/4
Continuing this little series. You could warm up for this by just playing the original 4/4 page, repeating beat 1 at the end of each measure— effectively playing ||: 1-2-3-4-1 :||. Like we originally played […]
Page o’ coordination: basic triplet texture in 3/4
Same deal as the recent triplet texture in 4/4 page, done in 3/4. A simple linear triplet pattern with added bass drum variations. I already did this with a student, looking at the page in 4— […]
Subtractive patterns for jazz hihat
What this new subtractive method is good for: making it easy to create and communicate rather specific, specialized orchestration/voicing systems on the drum set. Like, for the hihat in jazz— I have never cared for […]
Chip Stern plays Papa Jo’s drums
Papa Jo JonesPhoto by Rick Mattingly Item from writer Chip Stern, best known to me for conducting a lot of great interviews in Modern Drummer magazine, including one with Papa Jo Jones. He has a […]
Subtractive method overview
Here’s a broad overview of this subtractive thing I’ve been working with. It’s a new approach, but not unprecedented, and I think it’s worth exploring. The idea starts with a Stone-type 8th note sticking pattern, […]
Page o’ coordination: basic triplet texture in 4/4
Here’s a straightforward page o’ coordination for learning bass drum variations along with a basic triplet texture with the hands, in a jazz feel. The hands are doing a simple linear sticking pattern— a paradiddle-diddle […]
Notes on the first playing gig in some time
I had my first actual jazz club gig since COVID the other night, thought I’d share some playing notes about it. This is the type of thing we talk about here. The rhythm section was […]
Reed interpretations: special voicing – 01
This came out of the groove part of my recent Country Rock thing. It’s a kind of subtractive method for voicing the snare drum and bass drum. Not unlike my John Riley-inspired “that with interruptions” […]
Page o’ coordination: yet another Elvin 5/4
Here’s a page o’ coordination based on Elvin Jones’s playing on Lazy Afternoon, from Grant Green’s album Street of Dreams. It’s a medium slow 5/4— the tempo is about 109. He plays the ostinato below […]