We continue this month with more of my favorite ways of interpreting the classic Ted Reed book Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer. This time we explore ways of converting the written manuscript from its original form to 3/4. The following applications can be used with any of the seventy-two repetitive one-measure examples from pages 29, 30, and 33–36, or the thirty-two-measure “melodies” from pages 37–44 (of the original printing). Let’s begin by taking a look at Example 1 from page 29. In converting that phrase to 3/4, three measures of the original manuscript will equal a four-measure phrase in 3/4. There are several ways that you can think about this conversion as you practice. First, try reading the original manuscript and omit the barlines in your mind. Another approach is to write new barlines in 3/4 with a red pen, so you can see each measure clearly […]

July 2014 Issue