I’m working through this with a student. It’s an easy reading item for the drum set, with a narrow set of parameters, using my tresillo inversions page (lines 1-8 only), my tresillo inversion combinations page, and […]
Category: syncopation
Dejohnette-like method
The cosmos gave me a couple of instances of Jack Dejohnette yesterday— I got to work on that Jack Dejohnette transcription, and also happened to also catch him on the radio (KMHD.org, The Afternoon Bridge, […]
Syncopation exercise: p. 38 with ties added
One minor gap in the rhythms covered in Syncopation— that’s a drumming book, hahaha omg— is that there aren’t so many syncopated long notes on the “weak” beats, 2 and 4. There are relatively few ties […]
Syncopation exercise: page 38 inverted
A little writing experiment here: I’ve inverted the rhythm from the full page Exercise 1 from Progressive Steps to Syncopation, on p. 38 in current editions, famously on p. 37 from earlier editions. It’s one […]
Youtubed: practicing Syncopation
I’m feeling a little irked at the existence of YouTube drumming videos today, so let’s do a search of a subject near and dear to me, practicing the book Progressive Steps to Syncopation, and see […]
Reed tweak: filling the long gaps
Here’s a tweak to an ordinary straight 8th note Syncopation practice method: right hand plays the melody rhythm, left hand fills in the remaining 8th notes. Usually with the RH on a cymbal, with the […]
Reed interpretations: new uptempo method
All right, I found the way to use Reed at faster jazz tempos. My “the way”, anyhow. I’ve mostly been winging my uptempo jazz comping until now— I never had materials I really liked for […]
Syncopation exercise: Accents from Chasin’ the Train – 01
Companion to yesterday’s post: a syncopation exercise based on part 5 of the Chasin’ the Trane transcription— all of the accents played on the snare and bass drum. As usual I’ve followed the Reed convention […]
Bass drum rhythms for feathering
I wrote this up after listening to Mel Lewis’s history of jazz drumming tapes, where he was raving about the importance of playing time on the bass drum (he really gets into it after 43:30). He […]
Another Reed tweak
Another minor tweak on a normal Reed method, in a jazz feel. It’s good to have some easy options to relieve the tedium, and to bring more of the texture of real playing into it. […]