Cruise Ship Drummer!

DBMITW: Joe Henderson

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:33:00 +0000

Another long one: Joe Henderson with Al Foster and Dave Holland:

VOQOTD: Elvin

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:37:00 +0000

“Don’t ask me to show you anything, because if I could show you, we would all be Max Roach.”

- Elvin Jones, from part 2 of Ethan Iverson's Billy Hart interview

Ethan Iverson interview with Billy Hart

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:22:00 +0000

Here's part of another great interview by the Bad Plus' Ethan Iverson, this time with Billy Hart:

Miles and Tony
Tony, for his age, seemed to me more thorough in the study of the jazz tradition of drumming than anybody I’ve ever come across. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other guys. But the more I learned, the more I realized that he had somehow gotten that history together. And it is not just patterns, it’s the reason why… I guess it would be in any kind of musical tradition, certain chords or accents or whatever present an emotion that been tried and true over a length of time, which I guess “speaks” or is traditionally accurate or correct. Tony had that. It wasn’t just that he played this rhythm or pattern, it was that the pattern belonged there traditionally. A lot of people today might play a Tony Williams pattern, but they play it just because they heard it…they don’t know why or how it works.

There is that video you played me of the Miles Davis quintet with Herbie and Ron playing “Autumn Leaves.” There are some tensions in the piano and bass, and Tony responds by playing a simple shuffle on the snare and cymbal, which is kind of an advanced response to the tension.

Except that it so correct! You can see Miles is immediately influenced and affected emotionally. And then you back to Philly Joe or anybody, hear them do it, and go, “oh right.” It’s like a change of color or a heightened intensity. (As opposed to starting a tune that way---if you start a tune there, you have to stay there.)

One of the interesting things about the Miles band is that there were a lot of details about the tunes that incoming members have to learn, like the cymbal beat and piano tremolos on “All Blues.” Tony and Herbie interpreted those parts in their own way, but still they clearly knew the details.

That’s something else that Tony said. Someone asked him about getting the gig with Miles just before he was 17 years old. There must have been other good drummers, right? Tony said, “Hard to know. I’d like to ask Miles myself. I can’t say that I was better than anybody else. But I was definitely prepared for the gig. There was nothing Miles could play that I didn’t already know.”

Keep reading- important stuff about time after the break:

Time issues and the Wes Montgomery ride cymbal story
Basically, what he wanted was just what I didn’t have: more of a clear understanding, a clear direction of keeping time. I couldn’t do it. So Wes gave me a lesson that showed me that I didn’t have a clear cymbal beat. Which is how I learned how to play. [...]

What did Wes tell you? He certainly didn’t say, “Billy, could you play a clearer cymbal beat?” [Laughter.]

It happened again with Stan Getz. He did the same thing to me. It’s interesting how you learn things—I wonder how someone like Tony Williams learned it so correctly? Or how Elvin Jones learned it so correctly…well, anyway, someone had to tell me in the most embarrassing way possible, you know? But at least I learned it—or became aware of it, anyway.

Wes said to me, “Billy, what’s that you’re doin’ with your cymbal?”

And I said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Wes.”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“Wes, I don’t know what the f--- you’re talking about.”

“OK , Billy, let me put it this way: the s--- ain’t laying.”

Now, how am I supposed to know what that means? Well, of course I did know what it meant, you know what it means...how do you put that in words? “It’s not perfectly in sync?” Or “It’s not causing the kind of euphoria that we refer to as swinging or grooving?” Well, anyway, the way he put it was: “The s--- ain’t laying.”

Did he just tell you that just once?

No, no. Being a younger person, I wasn’t going to accept it, so I said, “OK, well, he means he wants me to play that old-fashioned, old-style-ass cymbal beat. If he wants it, f--- it, I’ll do that, but I still have my other three limbs. With my left hand and right foot I’ll still help the evolution of the planet in a positive way, without this buffoon imposing his own old-fashioned-ass ways. So, two or three months later, he says to me, “Billy, what’s that you’re doing with your left hand?” And we went through the same thing again.

With all the limbs, I suppose.

Well, I don’t think we had to deal with the high-hat. But it definitely went down with the snare drum and the bass-drum.

In keeping time, this kind of time, since the music started out as a sort of dance music, that meant the drummer was in jail, if not a slave. (A modern drummer like Nasheet Waits would consider it hard time on a chain gang.) So, it took evolution to get out of that, but once cats tried to do that, then they were really leaned on in terms of how to keep the beat. Basically, it boiled down to: “You can try some of this s---, but if the beat transfers one iota, it’s out!” Kenny Clarke told stories of how, after a while, he could look at the leader’s face—the leader wouldn’t have to say anything, he’d just start packing up his drums, ‘cause he knew he was fired. So, when you’re playing this dance music, what ends up happening is that guys begin start developing this independence in a very clear way, because the time could not waver. How it starts is with rudiments—stuff you do with your hands. After a while you play them with your hand and your foot while keeping time. As the thing evolved, the rudiments evolved too, so the s--- between the left hand and the right foot got even more complicated. There were three guys were able to take this into a very clear fruition right around when I was comin’ in. The three guys are Edgar Bateman, Donald Bailey, and, of course, Elvin Jones.

Donald Bailey was particularly important to me since I took his place with Jimmy Smith. Even if I hadn’t been that interested in this approach, I would have had to learn it to play the gig.

By the time I get to Wes, I’ve had three and a half years to work on all of this. Wes, you know, his concept of a very f---ing advanced drummer was Jimmy Cobb.

[Laughter.]

Now, Jimmy's great--one of the greatest. He's also one of my mentors. But Jimmy keeps time so that he STARES at his [right] hand and cymbal as he plays. It’s like a computer graph, where you make sure everything is in sync. Suffice to say, I didn’t quite play like that! And that was Wes’ favorite drummer, right? So there was a WIDE space between us…and I had to get it together. In one club in San Francisco the bandstand was next to the wall, and the wall was next to this glass painting that acted like a mirror. So I could sit there, and watch myself play…check out my posture. Sitting there watching myself, that’s how I learned to play Wes’ beat.

Wes never mentioned Jimmy Cobb to me, which would have been a simple thing to do, but maybe he didn’t realize Jimmy was from Washington and that I knew Jimmy’s playing. Whatever, he just said it wasn’t laying.

What about the snare and bass drum?

The snare drum, (as I understand it) relates to the treble clef of any ensemble. (The bass drum relates more to the bass clef.) That means your snare drum could be the trumpet section of a big band. It implies a certain tradition of arranging, whether it’s Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Thad Jones: it’s how you put that in the mix. That’s what Wes needed, that tradition.

One of my perceptions about Jimmy’s Cobb’s beat is that it feels kind of aggressive or even like it’s rushing.

H’mm. Well. That’s interesting.

There’s a way of playing on top of the beat which makes things happen… like Ron Carter, Tony Williams, or even Louis Hayes …it definitely works and is accurate musically. It’s a definite way of playing and it doesn’t rush. All you have to do is have that attitude. If you don’t have that attitude, it will rush. But if you know what you’re doing, it is just a way of playing. (I have really only become aware of this approach as a clear concept in the last ten years or so.)

Now, Jimmy, that’s not his real way of playing. In fact, I think that Washington, D.C. (where I’m from) has a way of producing drummers that play behind the beat. But Miles tried to get every drummer to play more on top.

Really?

Oh yeah. Definitely!

When I listen to the records I feel that Philly Joe is more laid back on the beat than Jimmy.

It’s a serious conflict if you naturally feel the beat in the front and the bass player feels it behind (or vice versa). There’s a professional way to resolve the situation that explains Philly Joe. If you’re playing behind the beat and you don’t want it to slow down, you play more upbeats. That’s where the shuffle comes in. That’s why the shuffle is valid and correct, because it resolves that situation. If you want to lay back, then you use more shuffles. There’s a certain euphoric sensuality to laying back in certain situations, but you don’t want to lose your erection. To keep it up and lay back at the same time, you shuffle—and Philly Joe was great at that.

Philly Joe’s rim click on the track “Milestones” is pretty on top—unusually so, for him. It’s as ahead as it can be and still feel good.

Well, that was probably Miles. Miles always wanted his drummers to play on top. Same with Stan Getz, even with ballads… I was very uncomfortable playing ballads with Stan Getz since it was never fast enough for him. Never! I grew up playing with Shirley Horn—you can imagine how different that was. A modern day cat who is the same way is Geri Allen. It doesn’t matter what I do. I’ll say to her, “How was that, Geri?” And she’ll say, “Oh, that was great! Except, it still feels like it is slowin’ down.”

What about McCoy Tyner?

Well, he plays on top of the beat. So, if anything, he might be the opposite. He might want you to pull him back a bit. He wants that isometric thing.

Oh, right. Like he had with Elvin, of course.

Absolutely.

Read part 1 of Ethan Iverson's interview with Billy Hart

DBMITW: Jon Christiansen with Enrico Rava

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:25:00 +0000

(h/t to Mers on cymbalholic.com)

Very occasional quote of the day: on forethought

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:21:00 +0000

"[T]his shit is an accident."
- Paul Motian

Another new drumming blog

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:43:00 +0000

I'm really trying to put a finish on this bloody book of transcriptions this weekend (it's ending up being about 150 pages long), so while I'm fooling around with that, you can go check out (and bookmark, and blogroll) Chicago drummer Jeffrey Lien's new blog, The Drummers Way. So far his stuff is centered around very substantial teaching tips, transcriptions, and studio/pop/rock drumming. Very much looking forward to seeing how the blog develops. Go pay him a visit.

Pinstripes reconsidered

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:06:00 +0000

Here drummer and Modern Drummer writer T. Bruce Wittet takes another look at the now-humble Remo Pinstripe. For a good part of the 70's and 80's they were the drum head of choice for many, many players, until they went out of style in a big way in the early 90's. Their rise and fall tracks roughly from the beginning of Steve Gadd's massive popularity through the end of Dave Weckl's.

For good or ill, their long, funky tone and cushiony (taffy-like?) response shaped both my touch and musical approach to the toms for some time; when you tune them low as I did, they felt good and sounded best when you lay into them. You had to play through the head, which caused me to develop something of a funk drummer's touch. Even though, with two plies of mylar glued at the edge, they are inherently a muffled head, the body of their tone is long. Because of that slow response, your ear would tell you to play more single notes, and less, well, dense drummer junk.

So T. Bruce's big reveal relates to his first MD piece, a 1978 interview with Jack Dejohnette. Naturally, the heads Jack was using at the time:

Clear Remo Pinstripes, oh yeah. And did he sound good! In the break between shows, we sat in figure-8 relative to my cassette recorder and I stumbled and blurted out questions I dearly needed to ask, throwing aside my script. One of these concerned the wonderful tom sound I’d just heard. Jack explained that these new heads, Pinstripes, were perfect because they muffled the circumference, and thus the weird overtones, allowing a more focused tone to emerge. He told me he preferred tuning them really tightly stating, “it’s a jazz tuning, that’s all”.

Then in conversation with Quebec drummer Gordon Wood:

So we got talking about taboo subjects, when I broached the topic of my gig this coming Saturday, wherein the artist, with whom I’d recently cut an album, wanted “loose, groaning, fat-sounding, organic drumheads”. I awkwardly mentioned to Gordon, “You know, this may sound old-school but last night I put Pinstripes on two of the toms I’m gonna use Saturday and they sounded pretty amazing”.

Gordon agreed fully and we discussed the merits of Pinstripes, unfettered by the folly of fashion and the drum police. We were simply seeking deep tone. Gordon recently had played a backline drumset, Pins top and bottom, and he told me that when he struck the floor tom and heard a robust boooom there was no arguing that this was a throaty, traditional big drum sound. When I asked him about any dearth of stick attack, no was the response.

In his conclusion:

My Ambassador problems are long standing. Maybe it’s me—it must be due to the weight of testimony against what I’m saying—but I’m not fond of a certain boing I hear, and of a brittle feel, from a new Remo Ambassador. Maybe I oughta let them break in, ditto with Evans G1. For that matter, I’d much rather play the ultra-thin Diplomat (the thinnest batter head available from Remo) or the Evans J1 [...] than the regular mid-weight batter any day of the week. This is not fashion. I can tune any head the way it ought to sound at its optimum. So can you. Thing is, I appreciate the feel of a drumhead as much as the tone and, thus, I’m not going to submit to fashion[...]

One thing I have never tried with Pinstripes is tuning them high (other than in drum corps, on tenors- for which they are the best head in the world)- I have to say I'm a little bit tempted...

Go read the complete piece.

Submitted without comment

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:09:00 +0000

Drum chart: Along Comes Mary by Cal Tjader

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:54:00 +0000

Pillaging the archives while I'm working on tour/book-related junk, I turned up another Cal Tjader drum chart, written by me a couple of years ago. I'll try to do more of these in the future- it's a nice alternative to complete transcriptions. The groove is a bright chacha all the way through.

Get pdf | get El Sonido Nuevo by Cal Tjader | get Along Comes Mary

YouTube audio after the break:

Todd's Methods: Stick Control in 5

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:35:00 +0000

So much for writing nothing. I've been doing a lot of practicing in 5/4 lately- I've always quite sucked at it, frankly- and finally getting it together for real has been a curious process. Very different from 4/4 or 3/4, for not-obvious reasons. We'll go into that another time.

This method is so simple that I would be very surprised if it wasn't already in use, though I've never heard of it: you add a quarter note at the beginning, middle, or end of each exercise from the beginning of Stick Control.

Much of learning this meter involves learning some very "regular" patterns, with more emphasis on beat 1 than drummers of my, ahem, sophistication are usually comfortable with. This method is good for cracking that and getting at a more modern language. It works best at brighter tempos, in a fusion/funkish style, or the even-8th ECM feel, depending on how you accent and use the bass drum. Don't be too much of a mechanic in how you run these things; if something other than what I've written out falls under your hands easily, do it. The patterns all speak a little differently- try to find what each one is good for and develop it accordingly.

Get the pdf

DBMITW and news

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:16:00 +0000

We'll be on light posting for the next couple of days while I do a bunch of work on publicity for my new record of the music of Ornette Coleman, Little Played Little Bird (which you can pre-order in the side bar); and booking spring and fall Europe tours, and putting together volume one of "the book of the blog" for 2011.

That's right, that's not a twelve-word typo: Thanks to the magic of online publishing, you'll soon be able to purchase our materials from 2011 in book form for a very reasonable figure. Volume one will be around 100 pages of transcriptions, and volume two will cover practice materials- I haven't calculated the length yet. The cost will be less than you would spend in printer toner printing them all out yourself. Stay tuned...

In the mean time, enjoy some 1980-ish LA-style fusion with John Serry, featuring Carlos Vega- this is one of the first records I ever owned, which my brother handed down to me:

More of this old favorite after the break:

The club scene

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:42:00 +0000

Here's a great piece on understanding the, well, near-dead state of live music in clubs (professionally, anyway), and what musicians can begin to do about the situation, by LA pianist Dave Goldberg.

It opens:

AS I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR GIGS LATELY, I’ve never seen so many free and low paying gigs. Well the economy is bad, so I can understand that a little bit. However, it is no longer good enough for the musician to be willing to perform for little compensation. Now we are expected to also be the venue’s promoter. The expectations are that the band will not only provide great music, but also bring lots of people to their venue. It is now the band’s responsibility to make this happen, not the club owner.

Just the other day I was told by someone who owned a wine bar that they really liked our music and would love for us to play at their place. She then told me the gig paid $75 for a trio. Now $75 used to be bad money per person, let alone $75 for the whole band. It had to be a joke, right? No she was serious. But it didn’t end there. She then informed us we had to bring 25 people minimum. Didn’t even offer us extra money if we brought 25 people. I would have laughed other than it’s not the first time I’ve gotten this proposal from club owners.

Much of the focus is on educating club owners, but musicians also need to internalize concepts like this:

If you want great food, you hire a great chef. If you want great décor, you hire a great interior decorator. You expect these professionals to do their best at what you are hiring them to do. It needs to be the same with the band. You hire a great band and should expect great music. That should be the end of your expectations for the musicians. The music is another product for the venue to offer, no different from food or beverages.

He makes this important point, on something which has long baffled me about the expectation that musicians to bring their own personal flash mob to each and every gig:

When a venue opens it’s doors, it has to market itself. The club owner can’t expect people to just walk in the door. This has to be handled in a professional way. Do you really want to leave something so important up to a musician?

And even when an amateur group is able to pack the place with friends and family:

The crowd is following the band, not the venue. The next night you will have to start all over again. And the people that were starting to follow your venue, are now turned off because you just made them listen to a bad band. The goal should be to build a fan base of the venue. To get people that will trust that you will have good music in there every night. Instead you’ve soiled your reputation for a quick fix.

Every musician should read the entire piece and reorient their thinking about their relationship with clubs.

(h/t to clownbaby90 on Reddit)

All the grooves from Maggot Brain

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:46:00 +0000

Many of these are highly variable, so it may be presumptuous to declare that I'm giving you all the grooves from this record, but that's the name of the series... I guess that's what I get for picking subjects in my sleep (this came on the headphones last night). Anyway, here in broad strokes are the grooves from Funkadelic's epic Maggot Brain, with drumming by Tiki Fulwood:

UPDATE: Not only should I not pick topics in my sleep, I should not transcribe when I'm on my first cup of coffee: Hit It And Quit It makes much more sense with measure three as the 3/4 bar, and the last measure in 4/4. That's what it is, in fact. So get out your pencils and move that barline one beat to the left- I'll update the original when the book comes out in 2013.

Get the pdf | get Maggot Brain by Funkadelic

Select YouTube audio after the break:

DBMITW: Gadd with Chick

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:20:00 +0000

I'm working on putting last year's transcriptions into book form today- which, thanks to the miracle of online publishing, should be available for you to purchase shortly. So you'll just have to enjoy these two recordings of Steve Gadd playing with Chick Corea. For many, many drummers these are two career-altering, life-changing tracks:

Get The Mad Hatter by Chick Corea

Get The Leprechaun by Chick Corea

Other people say good things

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:48:00 +0000

It's a slow writing day for me, but there are lots of good things afoot at our brother drummer blogs right now:

@ Trap'd: Inspired by Art Taylor, Ted Warren outlines some easy things you can/should do to give tunes some shape. Here is a savagely-edited teaser- go read the entire piece:

1. Rapid volume changes- One of the things I noticed that Art Taylor did in the tune I saw is that even though he didn't switch cymbals for each soloist, he did change the volume level of his cymbal throughout the piece to cause a texture change. [...]

2. Changing cymbals- This is probably the most common and easiest way of signally changes between soloists and sections, however, it is most effective when you know the form of the tune you're playing! [...]

3. Changing comping textures- Another great thing I noticed in the Art Taylor footage was how when he went from the Tenor to the piano solo, even though he didn't change cymbals he went from quite prominent bass drum/open snare comping to mainly a click on beat 4 and very quiet bass drum. [...]

4. Changing implements- Going from brushes to sticks is a great way to let the listener know the head is over and the soloing has started. [...]

5. A couple of more things about bass solos- Bass is not only usually the quietest thing in the band, it's also the instrument that gets lost most easily due to low frequencies being harder to hear. [...] So it's generally a good idea to thin out the texture of your timekeeping as well as the volume. Don't thin out the strength of the time or the commitment to the form though. [...]

Also see Warren's recent piece on transcribing and listening, where he says nice things about us.

@ The Melodic Drummer: Andrew Hare offers one burning post after another, this time dealing with the Philly Joe beat- go find out what it is. A nice companion to the Trap'd piece above is Hare's series on transitions, along with a post on endings.

@ Four on the Floor: Jon McCaslin has a ton of great little stuff. Read his Monday Morning Paradiddle for a, ahm, potpourri of good stuff- a number of well-selected clips, MLK on jazz, Elvin with Coltrane, Greg Hutchinson warming up, and more.

Paradiddle-diddle method for uptempo jazz

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:52:00 +0000

This is something I developed for both for getting some relief while playing fast tempos, and for doing a modern feel without getting your cymbal pattern lost in the weeds. The seed of the idea comes from Bob Moses (see "Non-independent method" in Drum Wisdom) and John Riley (see "Fast face-lift" in Jazz Drummer's Workshop). It's actually pretty straightforward, once you're able to read through this batch of syncopation exercises using the method outlined in the last post; first move your right hand to the ride cymbal, leaving the left on the snare, and add the hihat on the &s, with your foot:

We'll need to convert the 16th notes of the exercise to 8th notes, so one measure of 16ths becomes two measures of 8ths. If you can't do that instantly, start by counting 1-2-1-2 instead of 1-2-3-4:

Think of the 16th notes as 8th notes. Counting your fast tempos in a moderate 2 is actually preferable to counting a fast 4:

After the break I'll give a few options for the bass drum part.

For the paradiddle-diddle portion:

Also try all of the above without the BD on the accented note:

For the other parts either play the accented notes, or both of the cymbal notes:

In actual playing you'll want to use the bass drum much more sparsely than that, obviously. Practice the bass drum and the accents in general at a moderate volume, with the idea that in real music you'll want to make occasional bigger punches.

Todd's paradiddle-diddle interpretation

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:56:00 +0000

This is the first practice method for the pages of syncopation exercises I posted the other day. Today I'll give it to you just for the hands only, then later I'll show you how I apply it to the drum set, first for uptempo jazz. As I mentioned, there are only three note values used (or their equivalent with ties or rests): dotted quarter notes, quarter notes, and single 8th notes.

For three-8th note durations:

For two-8th note durations:

For single 8ths:

I've given the sticking just on snare drum, and on snare drum and hihat to illustrate its shape a little better. Don't overplay the accents, particularly on the RRLL sticking- just put a little emphasis. This is a very right hand-heavy method- it's a good idea to also start it with the left.

Example after the break:

This exercise (line 7):

Becomes:

Or:

Dave Tough's Advanced Paradiddle Exercises

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:56:00 +0000

Here's an out-of-print classic, scanned and made available for download thanks to Denver drummer Todd Reid. God knows if it will ever be made commercially available again, or if anyone even owns the copyright, so I guess this isn't the world's worst pirating offense. In any case, if the book only exists in a few senior citizen drummers' libraries it's effectively dead, and that's unacceptable to me. It needs to survive as part of our literature. So here:

Get the book.

h/t to dmacc at DW

Syncopation exercises with dotted quarter notes

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 01:20:00 +0000

This is one of many pages of original Syncopation variants I've written up, in this case restricted to combinations of dotted quarter notes, quarter notes, and single 8th notes. I've devised a few interpretive methods that work well within that limitation, which I'll be sharing, well, maybe real soon, since it looks like we're having a few snow days here in Portland...

Get the pdf

Groove o' the day: Billy Cobham in 17/16

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:08:00 +0000

I present this just as a curiosity, because I've never encountered this meter anywhere before (maybe in a percussion ensemble piece?). But you can see how we usually deal with the odd #/16 meters; often they will be broken down into a regular meter + some 16ths. The solo section of Frank Zappa's Keep It Greasey, you'll remember, is in 19/16, interpreted as 4/4+3/16. Today's example, Spanish Moss from Billy Cobham's 1974 album Crosswinds, is in 17/16, played as 3/4+5/16 (with the 5/16 further broken down to 2+3/16).

Here's the main groove, plus a couple of more embellished versions that occur frequently throughout the piece:

Get Spectrum by Billy Cobham | get mp3

Drum! mag update

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:27:00 +0000

See this issue for my last piece.

I've just been informed that my new Drum! magazine piece will be printed in the April, 2012 issue, which will hit the streets in February.

Visit Drum! magazine online.

Batucada on the drum set

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:13:00 +0000

We haven't done anything new with samba in awhile, because I'm still digesting all of the stuff we've done previously. But here's something new that came up yesterday, using open and muffled tones on the bass drum to emulate the surdo. It would also be helpful to run the third surdo parts from O Batuque Carioca, as well as my bossa bass drum variations, and the standard dotted-8th/16th samba pattern with this. This feel combines well with samba cruzado, which we've discussed before.

Notes:
- Play the snare drum with the "tripteenth" feel; the '#' and the 'a' of each beat of 16ths line up almost exactly with the first and last notes of a triplet. Play with or without the buzz on the 'e', with sticks or brushes.
- Use either hihat pattern. The second pattern uses a closed note on beat 1, and a splash on beat 2.
- Play staccato bass drum notes as a dead stroke- bury the beater in the head to make a muffled sound. Play the tenuto notes as an open tone, allowing the beater to rebound. This works best with a drum with little or no muffling.
- Bass drum patterns with rests are preparatory studies. Patterns without rests are performance patterns.
- Also substitute dotted-8th/16th rhythm for the 8th notes or the 16th-8th-16th rhythm on the performance patterns.

Get the pdf

YouTube examples after the break:

...or, to just fail.

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:29:00 +0000

I would add:

- Think of your work as being in competition with that of all artists, everywhere, at all levels of the business, past and present.

- Imagine that your every creative move and decision is being judged by people better than you.

- Be dominated by your weaknesses. Be oblivious to your strengths.

h/t to Ed Domer and Universal Audio

Another Drum! Magazine piece

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:59:00 +0000

Oh, hey, it looks like Drum! Magazine is going to publish another piece of mine, "Cross Rhythms Using Stone", which outlines a polyrhythmic application for using the 3/8 portions of Stick Control in 4/4, on the drum set. Just awaiting final confirmation and street date...

Transcription: three Philly Joe intros

noreply@blogger.com (Todd Bishop) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:50:00 +0000

Must do shorter, faster posts. That last one took way too many hours. Here:

Get the pdf

Get Dance of the Infidels | get Hank by Hank Mobley
Get I'll Never Smile Again | get Interplay by Bill Evans
Get Philly Mignon | get Here to Stay by Freddie Hubbard

YouTube audio after the break: