I use a kind of circular motion to achieve my desired sound, as was taught to me by Sam Woodyard. The quarter note is being accented slightly, yet consistently, creating a driving and danceable feel. Digging in is what we used to call it! Some guys referred to it as scooping ice cream. Remember that at a medium tempo, the quarter note rules, yet it is still somehow based on the triplet! Up-Tempo Ride: If I increase the tempo further the triplet will, as a matter of course, flatten out and become more of an eighth note feel. It is still played as dotted eighth and sixteenth, but it straightens out some naturally. We can take this a step further by introducing more syncopated ideas on the ride to achieve a broken time feel. A great example of this can be heard by Tony Williams on Miles Davis records. Up-Tempo […]

July 2022 Issue