I spend so much time talking about how great Ted Reed’s Progressive Steps to Syncopation (commonly known as “Syncopation”) is, and how you can do everything with it— and should— and how it’s the only book you […]
Category: syncopation
Heavy funk drill
Going from Ndugu-actual to Ndugu-esque. This is a 70s style funk drill that dovetails nicely with some other things we’ve been doing lately— see the other links in that linked post. I think jazz drummers […]
Syncopation exercise in 3/4: quarter / dotted-quarter spacing
Another Ted Reed-style syncopation exercise, designed for a special purpose. This one is in 3/4, with all notes spaced two or three 8th notes apart— quarter notes or dotted quarter notes, or their equivalents with […]
Syncopation rhythms: two notes
UPDATE: Download link is working now! I’ve been posting a series of syncopation pages written/organized around a single idea for ease of practicing certain things. It’s partly for my students, so I can give assignments […]
Rhythms for Reed samba method
A special selection of syncopation rhythms for use with this multi-post samba method in progress (the main post is still to come), but obviously you can do other things with it. It would be good for […]
Syncopation exercise: singles, doubles – 2-3 8th intervals
Another original syncopation exercise. The last one had single notes, spaced one or two 8th notes apart. This one has one or two notes in a row, one or two 8ths apart. Both are really […]
Syncopation exercise – singles, 2-3 8th intervals
Let’s start a little series here: some full page syncopation exercises, each designed for a special purpose. Good for fluency and ease of practice with certain practice methods, good for a particular challenge with others. […]
Ruff bossa on the drums
This is something I was working on with a Skype student* recently: ideas for practicing Alan Dawson’s “ruff bossa” method on the drum set. …first, nobody ask why it’s called ruff bossa, because I don’t […]
3/4 rhythms – a special set
See, this is what I’m talking about: no matter how much drum stuff gets written, no matter how many thousands of pages of drum books I have in my studio, and even after having written […]
Preparation for Reed triplet studies
A page of short triplet exercises that are preparation for some of the major practice methods I do with the book Syncopation: the right handed solo method, and the so-called “Ruff Bossa” method, found in […]