Or so says blogger, and composer Aaron Gervais. I thought he was mainly into trolling artists on economic issues, but then I saw this post, “Most Artists Don’t Really Get Creativity”, and I thought, OK, […]
Category: performance practices
VOQOTD: the drummer’s job
I just try to play the compositions, not so much imposing any particular kind of rhythm on any particular tune or composition—but to try and interpret the composition as if I’m an accompanist, fundamentally. And […]
Do your verry best
From Edward B. Straight’s The Straight System, a drum method from 1922, here is a page of performance tips so you can thrive as a society/theater band drummer in the 1910s and 20s: Some of […]
“When in doubt, groove.”
Branford Marsalis’s drummer Justin Faulkner gives a drum clinic at the Seattle, and says lots of great stuff: Part 2 is after the break: [h/t to S_Funk at Drummerworld]
On playalongs, pt. 2: play exercises
Stuff like this. Anything. Why not? Back from tour and easing back into blogging, here, with part 2 in this thoughts on practicing along with recordings series. Today we’ll discuss the value of not just […]
How to play Stablemates
The bop tune Stablemates, by Benny Golson, is something of a test piece for drummers. As now-Portland pianist George Colligan said, “Stablemates can be revealing for a drummer….”, and Golson himself said “It moves around […]
On playalongs, pt.1: use real music
That’s the idea. I was working on a single post about practicing along with recorded music— something I’ve been doing a lot of lately— but it was running long on me, and taking forever to […]
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 […]
Massive brain dump
Blogger is acting funny this morning, not letting me upload images, so instead maybe you should visit Jon McCaslin’s Four On The Floor for a trove of great stuff he has posted under the innocuous […]
“Bulletproof”?
I was directed to a musician’s blog that’s quite good, and seems to be worth keeping up with on a regular basis. The name makes me cringe: it’s called The Bulletproof Musician, which I’ll say […]