Continuing from the previous post on adapting roll exercises in Stick Control to odd meters— see that post for an explanation; I’ll just give examples of a few more possibilities. Like this rather advanced way […]
Category: Todd’s Methods
Stick Control in odd meters – 01
One thing about practicing odd meters: they really force you to know what you’re playing. You have to understand rhythm and you have to know exactly where you are all the time— unless humiliating trainwrecks […]
EZ Tony Williams-like method: another setting
Here’s something that was leading me into a very modern, hiccupy, vaguely Chris Dave-like jazz concept. I was practicing along with the Coltrane recording of Big Nick, a medium-slow swing tune, and found myself doing […]
EZ Reed interpretation: another triplet lick
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 […]
Basic funk ideas: four iterations – 01
A companion to our Basic funk with mixed stickings page from the other day. Here we take that same set of patterns, run them through some standard funk/fusion orchestrations, and learn to transition smoothly between […]
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 […]
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 […]
New Orleans street beat – Stone method
This is the first of two pretty-easy methods for developing a New Orleans-style street beat— or rather, for expanding on it, and playing it in a “modern” way. They’ll also be good for getting a […]
EZ Reed method with flams and 16th notes
Another “EZ” Reed method for rock/funk fills, similar to our recent triplet method, this time using pp. 24-27 from Syncopation. I won’t break it down completely, but you can figure it out by looking at the […]
Uptempo Stone method — 02
Here’s a little companion to our other uptempo method using Stick Contrtol by George L. Stone. This is more of an open system, and you may do it without even getting that deeply into the book […]