Play that until you can read exercises 1-15 plus the 16 bar exercises without stopping, and then improvise; I'll get to work on the second part, which sounds much hipper.
Get the pdf.
Drum lessons in Portland, Oregon, with Todd Bishop
Todd's methods: triplet funk with Reed
I guess it's going to be nothing but Todd's-this/Todd's-that this week. Fine. This is preparation for an old thing of mine I was just working through with a returning student, and I realized I had never written it up. I like using the easy parts of Syncopation- this uses the opening quarter note section to make a half-time feel triplet funk groove:
Play that until you can read exercises 1-15 plus the 16 bar exercises without stopping, and then improvise; I'll get to work on the second part, which sounds much hipper.
Get the pdf.
Play that until you can read exercises 1-15 plus the 16 bar exercises without stopping, and then improvise; I'll get to work on the second part, which sounds much hipper.
Get the pdf.
Several big band drumming books
A couple of new/old big band drumming books dropped into my lap recently, so what the heck, I thought I'd round them up for you:
Studio & Big Band Drumming by Steve Houghton - 1985
This has been the definitive book on the subject for almost as long as I've been playing. Includes an essential, very concise but thorough explanation of terms and notation in professional charts. There are one or two page introductions to swing, rock, "Latin" and country styles. The swing section is good, the single page of Latin grooves is pretty dated; people have gotten much more serious about authenticity with those feels since the mid-80's. Probably most important for drummers are the pages on articulating a horn part, the "eighth note rule", and jazz phrasing. There are also many pages of sample ensemble figures, and authentic playalong charts.
College level. 68 pages, with 2 CDs of recorded figures, ensemble passages, and studio charts.
Stage Band and Drummer's Guide by John Pickering
"A guide to reading and understanding stage band charts." An excellent older book from Mel Bay, though I don't know how easy it will be to find a copy. I got mine used on eBay. Completely focused on chart interpretation, which it covers very thoroughly; aimed at somewhat more inexperienced readers, but explanations are presented with subtlety, and are not dumbed-down. Short on actual drumming vocabulary/technique- for that, get Houghton or Rothman. Includes many pages of sample figures.
High school to college level. 96 pages.
It's Time for the Big Band Drummer by Mel Lewis and Clem DeRosa
A unique book which I assumed was out of print until I found it at Steve Weiss Music- maybe it is out of print, and they've just got old copies on hand. It has just eight pages of Lewis' opinionated guidelines on every aspect of the instrument itself- drums, cymbals, heads, sticks, brushes- and two pages of musically-oriented technique, with the whole remainder of the book dedicated to chart analysis. Using a grand staff with the lead trumpet part on top and the drum chart on the bottom, the authors look at several well-known Thad Jones/Mel Lewis band charts, including Cherry Juice, Thank You, and Central Park North, with notes on interpretation.
College level. 46 pages.
Take a Break by Joel Rothman
More narrowly focused than the other books- and more specific about exactly what you are supposed to play- this thoroughly explores creative ways of setting up kicks. There is characteristically little in the way of written text- Rothman is an author who always seems to respect the role of the teacher, and does not over-explain his materials. And as always, he keeps a practical, playable approach. 66 pages.
High school to college level.
Honorable mention: Get Your Fills Together by Sonny Igoe
Another great out of print book, which I just saw in my friend Steve Pancerev's library. It's a classic I used briefly when I was in high school, and was able to leaf through Steve's copy, but didn't take in enough to say anything intelligent about it. Get a copy if you can find it.
This has been the definitive book on the subject for almost as long as I've been playing. Includes an essential, very concise but thorough explanation of terms and notation in professional charts. There are one or two page introductions to swing, rock, "Latin" and country styles. The swing section is good, the single page of Latin grooves is pretty dated; people have gotten much more serious about authenticity with those feels since the mid-80's. Probably most important for drummers are the pages on articulating a horn part, the "eighth note rule", and jazz phrasing. There are also many pages of sample ensemble figures, and authentic playalong charts.
College level. 68 pages, with 2 CDs of recorded figures, ensemble passages, and studio charts.
"A guide to reading and understanding stage band charts." An excellent older book from Mel Bay, though I don't know how easy it will be to find a copy. I got mine used on eBay. Completely focused on chart interpretation, which it covers very thoroughly; aimed at somewhat more inexperienced readers, but explanations are presented with subtlety, and are not dumbed-down. Short on actual drumming vocabulary/technique- for that, get Houghton or Rothman. Includes many pages of sample figures.
High school to college level. 96 pages.
A unique book which I assumed was out of print until I found it at Steve Weiss Music- maybe it is out of print, and they've just got old copies on hand. It has just eight pages of Lewis' opinionated guidelines on every aspect of the instrument itself- drums, cymbals, heads, sticks, brushes- and two pages of musically-oriented technique, with the whole remainder of the book dedicated to chart analysis. Using a grand staff with the lead trumpet part on top and the drum chart on the bottom, the authors look at several well-known Thad Jones/Mel Lewis band charts, including Cherry Juice, Thank You, and Central Park North, with notes on interpretation.
College level. 46 pages.
More narrowly focused than the other books- and more specific about exactly what you are supposed to play- this thoroughly explores creative ways of setting up kicks. There is characteristically little in the way of written text- Rothman is an author who always seems to respect the role of the teacher, and does not over-explain his materials. And as always, he keeps a practical, playable approach. 66 pages.
High school to college level.
Honorable mention: Get Your Fills Together by Sonny Igoe
Another great out of print book, which I just saw in my friend Steve Pancerev's library. It's a classic I used briefly when I was in high school, and was able to leaf through Steve's copy, but didn't take in enough to say anything intelligent about it. Get a copy if you can find it.
Six stroke rolls around the drums
I'm just cranking them out today. I've been using the last paradiddles around the drums thing so much I decided to write up something similar using another familiar solo pattern, the six stroke roll (as it's often called) in a sixtuplet rhythm: RLLRRL. What they really are is a paradiddle-diddle inversion. I've written them in 6/8, but you can play them in 2/4 as sixtuplets, or as 16ths in 3/4, giving a 6/8 feel, or as 16ths in 4/4, for a meter-within-meter thing. Or as triplets within a fast 4/4. I'll write up an outline of the possibilities when I have the time. This rudiment is usually played with accents on the singles- I suggest playing these with and without them.
Refer to the paradiddles post for more ways of practicing these.
Oh, and go see Andrew @ the Melodic Drummer- he's put up some around-the-drums conditioners of his own.
Get the pdf
Oh, and go see Andrew @ the Melodic Drummer- he's put up some around-the-drums conditioners of his own.
Get the pdf
Kernels of Cascara
My students have been doing so well with my "kernels" concept that I've decided to write up a real challenge for them: cascara with the clave in the left foot. It was the hip thing du jour two years ago, and it will still blow away the other kids around the band room. The kernel of the kernel concept is to find the natural clumps of notes within a pattern, and practice them in isolation at the final performance tempo, or close to it, and then stringing them together.
As I've said before, the cool thing about this approach is that it helps fairly inexperienced drummers to get difficult things up to speed in fairly short order. It also insures that the internals of the pattern are solid. I've found it to be a nice addition to the usual slow-to-fast way of overcoming coordination challenges, and much more effective than the equally common (in the practice room, anyway) brute force approach, in which students inevitably spend a lot of time practicing mistakes.
Instructions are in the pdf; it's a good idea to count each kernel out loud as written as you play them. After mastering the coordination by this method, it's important to bring it back around to perceiving the groove in its usual musical sense, paying special attention to how you are interpreting the palito pattern in the right hand and the clave in the left foot.
Get the pdf
As I've said before, the cool thing about this approach is that it helps fairly inexperienced drummers to get difficult things up to speed in fairly short order. It also insures that the internals of the pattern are solid. I've found it to be a nice addition to the usual slow-to-fast way of overcoming coordination challenges, and much more effective than the equally common (in the practice room, anyway) brute force approach, in which students inevitably spend a lot of time practicing mistakes.
Instructions are in the pdf; it's a good idea to count each kernel out loud as written as you play them. After mastering the coordination by this method, it's important to bring it back around to perceiving the groove in its usual musical sense, paying special attention to how you are interpreting the palito pattern in the right hand and the clave in the left foot.
Get the pdf
On "open-handed" drumming
 |
| Fine, now spend another hundred years learning to do it almost as well with your left hand. |
It's a question that comes up with many students in the first five minutes of playing the drums: Why not play the hihat with your left hand? If all you have to do is tap-tap-tap the hihat and occasionally tap the snare drum thingy, wouldn't it make more sense? I generally put the subject to rest with a 1-minute explanation, and never hear about it again. The student understands that it's the normal way of playing and adapts.
But for some people it's just intolerably compromised and irrational-seeming; they complain about having to "cross your arms", about the left hand being "trapped", and the impossibility of hitting a lot of crap with your left while in that posture. There seems to be something of a rigid engineer's mentality at work; the people who seem to be drawn to this way of playing are the types prone to conceiving of the drums (and music itself, ala prog) as some kind of elaborate contraption, and often seem to be more into tinkering around, devising and "perfecting" systems and theories than into actually playing.
I have several big problems with it:
- Lateral coordination = easy, cross-lateral coordination = hard. Your body is wired to play your right side together, and the language of drumming is built around the coordination of the leading/"ride" hand and the bass drum. It's not as apparent in the early stages of development, when the roles of the limbs can seem arbitrary, but much of the more advanced improviser's language hangs on it.
- Your lead is your voice. Jazz drummers- who spend years or decades developing a swinging touch with their right hand- know this, but it applies to everyone. Your lead hand is your primary conduit for musical ideas- you develop a certain refinement and ease of expression with it, and largely orchestrate the rest of your playing around it. You already have a well-developed lead- use it. If you don't have a well-developed lead- get to work getting it together and stop fooling around with marginal techniques.
- And it's a pointless duplication of effort. Are we really going to learn what is physically an entirely different beat just to switch from the ride cymbal to the hihat? Really?
More ranting after the break:
Other things to consider:
- Nearly every single good, great, and famous drummer plays the hihat the normal way, with the crossover. More than 99% of them. The idea that their playing is inhibited creatively because of it is ludicrous, and if they can deal with it, you should be able to, too. The handful of well-known drummers who do the open thing are generally maverick types (Lenny White and Billy Cobham, for example) who are also technical monsters. The one good drummer I've personally encountered who plays that way is a lefty who decided to switch to a regular right-handed set up.
- The actual crossover is very small, and- since we use ~16" long drum sticks- does not involve crossing arms or hands. I accomplish it by a little ~15-degree pivot at the shoulder, which swings my hand a few inches to the left, and- due to the nature of geometry- moves the bead of the stick a good deal farther. At moderate volume, I can still play my toms with my left from that position.
- Yes, developing open-handing playing is a technical challenge, but are we really that lacking in hard things to work on? There are many other equally challenging things which will grow your playing musically as well as technically. Like seriously studying Afro-Cuban or Brazilian drumming, or jazz, or the Gary Chester method, or the Chaffee method, or dozens of other things I could name.
- If playing the hihat normally is a persistent problem, there are other solutions that do not require hundreds of hours of relearning everything backwards to a professional standard. Raising your hihats, or getting a remote hihat are both instant fixes. And it's always "permissible" (in my book) to do special grooves open-handed as the situation requires; I call that the Don't Stop Believing exception:
So, my reservation about open-handed playing is not that it is pointless (though it is)- I'm not against doing pointless things in principle, but I am against doing them for bad, primitively-conceived reasons, which is usually the case with this technique. For an alternative view, see Open-Handed Playing by Dom Famularo and Claus Hessler.
First-inversion paradiddles around the drums
This came up in my own practice today, and I went ahead and wrote it up. I've been doing a fair amount of this kind of thing lately- straight conditioning for getting around the drums- mostly using the very traditional Joe Cusatis books. I try not to think of this as learning licks; it's more about programming into my muscle memory some moves that I might not do on the fly. First inversion paradiddles (that's the RLLR LRRL sticking) are one of the key patterns for playing "hip", and I use them a lot, so they're a more logical starting place for me than regular paradiddles.
Notes:
Get the pdf
Notes:
- Practice measures individually, then in the following sequence:
Ex. 1-2, 1-3, 1-4... 2-3, 2-4, 2-5... 3-4, 3-5, 3-6... etc.
On sequences, play each measure once or twice:
Ex. 1-2-1-2..., or 1-1-2-2-1-1-2-2... etc. - Notes in parenthesis are for making transitions between exercises without a crossover.
- Practice these in the quarter note = 120-160 range. You should be able to fly around the drums with these.
- Typo alert: Ex.8, second beat- play the right hand double on the floor tom.
Get the pdf
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)