I feel like this A big problem for many students is how to get from practicing exercises in a book to real playing. It’s actually an issue for everyone, but in this post we’re just […]
Category: performance practices
Jazz stick roundup
these 5Bs are kind of like One thing my German friends made me realize is that I use really big friggin’ sticks. For many years I’ve used one stick: the Vic Firth SD-11 Slammer. It’s […]
How to play Autumn Leaves
Playing Autumn Leaves should be a no brainer for a drummer: it’s an easy standard, and one of the first tunes everyone learns. No problem, except some players always do a certain zombie jam session […]
Hell of notes
I want to talk about my own playing a little bit. Here’s an item from a little free-jazz show with Portland musicians Ryan Meagher and Noah Simpson a couple of nights ago: What is going […]
Moron bad drumming
We are all Hector Berlioz. Following up on my bad drummers post from some weeks ago. I hate to even say bad drummers, because playing badly is not an immutable thing. I like to think […]
On hearing other drummers sound bad
A few thoughts that occurred to me while playing a jam session last night. I was the house drummer, and a couple of different people sat in who were playing some problematic stuff. The first […]
All about rolls
Some examples. This is more or less the complete practical theory of drum rolls as I know it, as gleaned from about 38 years as a student, player, and teacher in a community of professionals […]
The chart reading pyramid
METAPHOR— DO NOT TAKE LITERALLY I’ve gotten quite good at reading charts. By which I mean I’ve gotten quite good at ignoring charts. As a rule I avoid reading as much as possible— I’ve gotten […]
Microtiming jive
Microtiming is a term that gives me hives every time I hear musicians use it. To me it suggests misaligned priorities, a disappearance up one’s own rear end, and the resulting degraded musical abilities. The […]
A rant: limits of playalong tracks
You playing along with a backing track. So, I watch the YouTube videos of drummers playing along with their playalong tracks, and sounding pretty OK, and I think you know, I probably wouldn’t sound any better […]