Rock 'n' Jazz Clinic
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Grooving With Fives
A Progressive Approach to Phrasing Quintuplets on the Drumkit Sixteenth-note quintuplets are five notes played per quarter note. The simplest way to count them in 4/4 is, “ONE, two, three, four, five; TWO, two, three, four, five; THREE, two,…
Latin Rhythms in Pop Music
Part 1: Bossa Nova and Samba I often meet drummers who just aren’t interested in studying Latin rhythms. I’ve heard the same thing many times: “I’m never going to play a samba, mambo, songo, or 6/8 groove, so why…
Further Beyond the Barline
2/4 Hemiolas in ¾ and 6/8 Welcome to my second article discussing an approach to improvisation that will allow you to play longer and more interesting solo phrases in a variety of styles. As in the first part, which appeared…
Don't Disturb The Groove!
Part 3: Combination Patterns In this third installment we’ll combine the two techniques that we’ve been working on: broken doubles and hi-hat substitutions. Some of the grooves incorporate the entire drumset rather than only the bass drum, snare, and hi-hat.…
Rock N Jazz Clinic - Linear Coordination: Part II
Linear coordination is a tasteful learning concept and the groundwork for dexterous coordination and good counter-rhythm playing.
Rock 'N' Jazz Clinic - Linear Coordination: Part 1
One simple, very effective technique is linear coordination. Through this technique the most ingenious fills may be expressed. Linear coordination means harmoniously dividing a rhythm on different parts of the drumset, to be played by hands and feet in a…
Swing Interpretations - Modern Groove Applications
There's an interesting relationship between two-note (binary) and three-note (ternary) subdivisions that can help you develop better vocabulary and feel on the drumset. To understand this relationship, play an 8th-note triplet with your right hand while playing a straight 8th-note…
Groove Construction - Part 13: Left-Handed Split Grooves
In this workshop we’re expanding a groove concept that I introduced in the January 2017 issue, in which we split the right hand between two voices in various places throughout a phrase. This time we’ll focus on grooves that split…
Rock 'N' Jazz Clinic - The Musical Drummer
One of the questions that has come up the most times in conversations is: "What is this about form in music? How do you know where you are? How do you approach playing with other instruments on specific tunes? TO…
Groove Construction, Part 12: 16th-Note Metronome Training
In this lesson we’ll work on perceiving a metronome on various 16th-note partials. These exercises will improve your ability to hear different rhythms before you start playing them, and they’ll certainly improve your timing. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE…
