I like these Reed interpretations using the early part of the book. You can just play through fifteen lines of exercises, plus a 16-20 bar exercise, and be done with it. FINITE ASSIGNMENTS, people. Not […]
Category: Reed interpretations
Basic fluency in 12/8
Right, so it looks like we’ll be doing a lot with this triplet feel this week— mainly getting comfy improvising within this 12/8-style blues, soul or pop groove. Think Lopsy Lu, Higher Ground, Isn’t She […]
Reed interpretation: triplets with breaks
I don’t why it took me over 30 years to figure this out— I’m always looking for ways to simplify things, to make them more playable. This is an alternative to a very common, popular, […]
New Orleans street beat – Reed method
As promised, another method for developing a NOLA street beat, this one perhaps more musical than the last. Definitely. Here we’ll be using Progressive Steps to Syncopation, by Ted Reed, pp. 33-44— the “Syncopation” section […]
EZ Reed interpretation: triplet lick
Here’s an easy practice method for use with Ted Reed’s Syncopation, developing a triplet lick. What I like about these things is they’re finite. You do the fifteen lines, plus the long exercise, and you’re […]
EZ Tony Williams-like method
EZ-ish. The concept is extremely simple, anyway. Scarcely worth writing up, but here it is. And when I say Tony Williams-like, I mean “it reminds me of one thing he kind of did on a […]
Orchestrations of a figure: Groove Elation
Today we’ll do a little survey of ways of orchestrating on the drums a rhythmic figure— the bass line from the tune Groove Elation, by John Scofield. It’s a bright New Orleans-influenced thing, with a […]
EZ cut time funk method
Here’s an easy cut time funk technical study, sort of a flanker for my basic method, serving really no purpose except to set up a situation where unexpected things can happen. It’s easy to get […]
2-3-4 Method
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 […]
Simple one-handed Reed interpretation
UPDATE: Download link is working now… This is a simple exercise which arose while working on my Zigaboo Modeliste-like half time feel funk method. It will be easy to master— it’s fun to work on […]