With today’s “2-3-4” method, I’m getting into the “give your practice idea a name so people will remember it and treat it like it’s a thing” racket. This is a pretty easy method for use […]
Category: jazz
Transcription: Billy Higgins / Tears Inside
Tears Inside, from Pat Metheny’s album Rejoicing, is such a favorite track of mine, I’m surprised we haven’t done anything with it before. I did transcribe the drum intro for the forthcoming[!!!] Book of Intros. So […]
GOTD & POC: Elvin Jones — That 5/4 Bag
First-ever combined Groove o’ the Day and Page o’ Coordination. We’re completely off the chain. From Elvin Jones’s second album as leader, Dear John C., here is the major groove for That 5/4 Bag, with […]
From the zone: Five in seven in six in four
A little Thanksgiving treat shared on Facebook by my friend Steve Pancerev: Let’s walk through this— it’s difficult, but not impossible. I see a jazz rhythm there, and a crazy independent part with a double-beamed […]
Transcription: Roy Haynes intro
You know what, I still owe you a BOOK OF INTROS. The thing has been languishing a few short hours from completion for quite a few months now. Perhaps me drawing attention to that fact, […]
Assembling a basic Elvin Jones-style waltz
Here’s a page of elements for putting together a basic Elvin Jones-style jazz waltz— I hate to treat his playing so reductively, but what are we supposed to do? It’s a thing, it’s sometimes asked […]
Basic jazz method with varying cymbal pattern
Please forgive the lack of posting here— it’s been in the high 90s/low 100s in Portland for over a week, and it’s putting a serious damper on my productivity. The climate in the Pacific Northwest […]
Quarter note Reed method: Maiden Voyage
People, I am all about the quarter notes these days. This is an easy method using the rhythm of the vamp from the Herbie Hancock tune Maiden Voyage— we’ll combine that rhythm, played on the […]
How to really play jazz drums
I received this question by email: I wondered if I might trouble you with a small query about a video I recently watched: It’s called ‘How To (Really) Play Jazz Drums’ and it’s presented by a […]
Jazz language?
Great blog post by Bill Plake: “The Problem With Studying ‘The Jazz Language’”: The other morning I was giving a first lesson to a jazz guitarist ( a university student) and was struck by something […]