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 […]
Category: Todd’s Methods
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 […]
Dahlgren & Fine linear funk method
4-Way Coordination by Marvin Dahlgren and Elliot Fine is one the more punishing books in the literature of drumming. I’ve written about my past issues with the book— mainly, its foundational exercises are organized based […]
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 […]
New CSD! e-book: Bossa Nova / Samba Field Manual
UPDATE: Thanks for the review, Kenneth! Time to unveil one of the things I’ve been doing instead of delivering the promised Book of Intros, which is languishing maybe 3-5 hours of work away from completion, stupidly… […]
Dahlgren & Fine workout in 3/4
Here’s a triplet workout in 3/4, using 4-Way Coordination by Marvin Dahlgren and Elliot Fine. The idea is fairly obvious, and has certainly occurred to a lot of people, but it might help for me […]
A Reed method for 16th notes in jazz— reading 8th notes
Continuing our previous Reed interpretation for comping with 16th notes in jazz, this time using the 8th note section of Syncopation— pp. 10-11, or “Lesson 4” in the new edition. The written rhythms on those […]
A Reed method for 16th notes in jazz — reading the quarter note sections
Over the course of a few posts I’ll break down my method for developing jazz comping with 16th notes, using Syncopation by Ted Reed. 16th notes are used a lot in jazz, and drummers neglecting […]