NO I’m getting a little punchy from working on this new book, so I just started writing rules about gear. Consider the following to be LEGALLY BINDING. Failure to comply may result in a SUBSTANTIAL […]
Hemiola funk series: SS-BB / BB-SS
Another permutation on this basic hemiola funk format I’ve devised, doubling up on the BS, forwards and backwards… wait. I’m deliberately not really giving you a finished concept here— I just wrote this up to […]
2019 in review
2019 basically = billionaire blood diamond heir rampages around Los Angeles making up new traffic laws to promote downright ugly vanity truck. Let’s take a break from me inching painfully towards completion of the new 2019 Book of […]
Happy holidays
Merrry Christmas and whatnot everyone, here’s a playlist with all 5 1/2 hours of Scott K. Fish’s 1984 interview with one of my favorite drummers, Frankie Dunlop. Put this on while your turkey cooks, or […]
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 […]
Very occasional quote of the day: technique
There are a few technique-related posts coming up, and after last week’s teaching rant, this quote from Bill Evans is particularly timely. Italics are mine: “Technique we always think of as being a thing having to […]
CYMBALISTIC: New cymbals— Holy Grails and flats!
In Istanbul, manufacturing Cymbal & Gong cymbals. I’ve just posted videos for a new batch of cymbals, handmade in Turkey by Cymbal & Gong, personally selected by me for awesomeness in the purpose of playing […]
Three Camps – 16th notes, combination stickings
The traditional rudimental piece Three Camps is a good framework for drilling speed and endurance, and to that end I’ve written several paradiddle combination stickings to use with it. I’ve been playing it as 16th […]
1985 Mel Lewis clinic
Surprised I haven’t already shared this Mel Lewis clinic, given in the Netherlands in 1985. He talks about his familiar opinionated subjects: playing the bass drum, drum sounds, fighting with recording engineers. Somewhere in there […]
Transcription: Ignacio Berroa fills
Another thing I caught on Portland’s great jazz radio station, KMHD: Cleopatra’s Needle, by Steve Turre, with some cool featured drum fills played by Ignacio Berroa. The tune is simply a repeating 8-bar fusion riff […]