Education
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Travis Orbin on Silly String II
Exploring the Session Guru’s Latest Chop-Infused Labyrinth
Get Up! Strategies for Playing Fast and Staying Relaxed
It’s widely understood that the faster the tempo, the more relaxed your body needs to be. In some cases, however, players psych themselves out when playing fast, which in turn affects their confidence in the ability to compose beat and…
The Spivack/Wilson Approach to Technique Part 4: Advanced Concepts
As you’ve seen throughout this series of articles, technique is built on learning a series of small, progressive steps that become more and more complex. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
Brush Workshop Part 4: Rudiments
Almost every drummer practices the rudiments—with sticks. If you’re serious about learning how to use brushes, why not also practice the rudiments with them? TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
The CRASH Course to Success Part 2: Relationships
This article focuses on the second portion of my CRASH (“commitment, relationships, attitude, skill, and hunger”) concept. We’re going to look at how relationships apply to our drumming, our onstage interactions, and our overall musical career. TO READ THE FULL…
Chops Builders Part 18: Irish Spring
This month we’re going old school—with a new twist. What we’re working on is a standard exercise called Irish Spring that comprises swung double beats with smooth hand-to-hand turnarounds. This exercise has been used by rudimental drummers for decades, but…
Open-Handed Playing Part 3: Triplet Groove Systems
In this article I’d like to take the idea of avoiding crossed hands into the rhythmic field of triplets. Triplet-based grooves have their own special twists and turns. Playing these ideas open-handed can be a serious challenge, one that will…
Inner Drumming Part 1: How to Listen With All Four Limbs
Ever since I privately published my book Inner Drumming in 1983, I’ve received hundreds of letters and emails wanting to know exactly what it is and how to obtain a copy. This is the first of a series of articles…
The CRASH Course to Success Part 1: Commitment
What does it take to succeed as a working drummer? Commitment. Commitment is the word for the first letter in an acronym I created, CRASH, to illustrate concepts people can use to attract success to their lives. TO READ THE…
Focus on the Hi-Hat The Classic Swing Sound
Before small groups reigned supreme and the ride cymbal became king, the beacon in jazz timekeeping was the hi-hat. Jo Jones with Count Basie and Ray McKinley with Glenn Miller were masters of the hi-hat. Both players could swing an…
The Spivack/Wilson Approach to Technique Part 3: Continuity and Chronological Order
In this article we’ll demonstrate how strokes can be learned sequentially, in what Spivack called continuity (a continuous or connected whole) and what Wilson referred to as chronological order (from earliest to latest). TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO…
Chops Builders Part 17: Two-Hand Coordination, Triplet-Based Ride
In Chops Builders 15 and 16, we looked at two-hand coordination exercises involving 8th- and 16thnote ostinatos and various 16th-note-based rhythms. This month we’re going to shift into triplet mode. We’ll combine the two most commonly used triplet-based ostinatos—the jazz…
