Education
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John F. Williams: Studio Pioneer
Greatness in music is greatness in character. No more fitting epitaph could pay tribute better than this statement on the loss of drumming great Johnny Williams.
Latin Jazz Drumming Part 3: Mambo Bell Ideas in 3/2 Time
Welcome to the third installment in our series on Latin jazz drumming. In this lesson we’ll focus on mambo bell variations in a 3/2 time signature. The inspiration for this month’s column comes from an audition experience I had several…
The Duality of 16th-Note Meters
Time signatures such as 15/16, 17/16, and 29/16 can bring out anxiety in drummers who aren’t familiar with them. The truth of the matter is that they’re only slightly different from quarter-or 8th-note meters, which are far more common.
Funkify Your Swing Feel
Fusing rhythms from one style of music to another can help a player develop new ideas and fresh rhythmic approaches that might not have yet been previously explored.
Creative Triplets For The Advanced Player: Part 2
Syncopated figures could be used within an underlying framework of 8th-note triplets.
Drumming And The Practice Pad
Some drummers hate practice pads; others are never without them. Some teachers recommend practice pads; others say that you should practice on the drums.
Creative Triplets For The Advanced Player: Part 1
The following two-part article has been designed to help you improve your ability to fill or solo using syncopated jazz figures amidst an underlying pulse of 8th-note triplets.
Teaching By Intimidation
Imagine how you would feel if, on your first drum lesson with a new teacher, the teacher said,
Eights And Sixes
We’re going to build upon the Eights and Sixes exercise that I introduced in Part 1 of this series by adding double strokes and rimshots into the routine.
Music As A Game
In his book Effortless Mastery, jazz pianist, composer, and author Kenny Werner wrote, “Don’t forget: Music is something we just made up. It doesn’t actually exist as anything but a game for us.”
Five-A-Diddles
Throughout their careers, great drummers such as Zigaboo Modeliste, David Garibaldi, and Dave Weckl have opened our imaginations to the possibilities of paradiddles and their inversions.
Funk In Five
In this article, we will develop some funk patterns based on the following left-foot hi-hat pattern. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
More Questions And Some Answers
I find that there are young drummers today asking some of the same questions, as well as some new ones. So I thought it was about time to address a few of those questions. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE…
Dennis Chambers’ Half-Time Shuffle
In this lesson, we’ll focus on variations of a groove that Chambers plays on the song “Babylon Sisters.” TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
