I’ve been a big Bill Stewart fan for quite some time now. Ever since I heard him on his first solo outing, I’ve always looked forward to the various records to which he would collaborate. One of Bill’s best collaborations is with jazz guitarist John Scofield and if I had to pick a favorite recording, it would be the amazing live record called Enroute. In this set of exercises, I decided to focus on the pattern Bill plays in the introduction of the 5/4 song “Toogs”. He plays a cool rhythm over the snare and floor tom, and I thought it would be a good idea to develop some more patterns inspired by that. Photo by Kevin Wilson The Original Idea: Bill plays a five note pattern using the RLRRL sticking. His right hand plays the snare and the floor tom while his left hand stays on the snare playing […]

July 2023 Issue