Jazz Drummer's Workshop
Modern Drummer is the world’s most widely read drum magazine, is dedicated entirely to the art of drumming and caters to the needs of amateur, semi-pro, and professional drummers.
Jazz Drummer's Workshop - Relative Tempo
Wind instrumentalists work on relative pitch by listening to intervals (the distance between two notes) over and over again, in an effort to develop the ability to play with good intonation. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG…
Jazz Drummers Workshop - Stickings: Part II
In Stickings: Part I (November '81 MD), I presented a basic system of stickings. We will now examine ways in which the stickings can be applied to the drumset. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
Stickings—Part 1
Due to the many changes that have taken place in contemporary music over the last 20-30 years, it seems appropriate to re examine "stickings," to develop a more comprehensive and useful approach to this area of a percussionist's early training.…
Playing Melodically - Part 2: Freddie Hubbard’s Solo on “Make It Good”
Last month we took a jazz melody, Charlie Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce,” and implied its melodic rhythm on the snare. This month we’ll phrase trumpet great Freddie Hubbard’s solo on “Make It Good” from the 1967 Duke Pearson album The Right…
Jazz Drummer's Workshop - The Music of the Drums - Part 3
This article will cover two related ideas: How to make the study of drum method books musically more useful, and some technical exercises that can he used to aid this development.
Playing Melodically - Part 1: “Billie’s Bounce”
In this new series I hope to present my thoughts and pass along some experience and insights on playing jazz. These lessons will largely deal with the symbiotic relationship between playing what the mind hears versus what the hands and…
Jazz Drummers Workshop - The Music of the Drums, Pt. 2
Today's music has developed to the degree that anything conceived can be used if it's done musically. The basic drum has changed considerably since the days of the stamped pit and the slit log drums of Africa.
Beyond the Noteheads - Part 3: Varying Your Transcriptions
This month we’ll apply variations to some of the transcribed phrases from Part 2 of this series (March 2017). This process truly has no limits. I find that being opened-minded to practicing transcriptions with this method helps energize my practice…
Jazz Drummer's Workshop - The Music of the Drums - Part 1
Most of the questions I get from drummers concern "technical" problems. How to develop quicker hands; more independence and/or coordination. Technique is important, but it is not the most important part of playing music. Having a concept, playing with feeling,…
Jazz Drummer's Workshop - Bass Drum Technique
The bass drum foot should be developed with the same technical/musical objectives as the hands: control of tempo, dynamics, and syncopation. A simple approach to these objectives is to relate bass drum technique to hand technique. TO READ THE FULL…
