Tag: exercises Page 1 of 3

Basic paradiddle funk

Man, there’s just a whole lot of stuff besides blogging on my mind lately— like a Europe tour and recording project— so we may not see a lot…

Rudimental Reed: five stroke rolls

I’ve been fooling around with applying some rudiments to the long exercises in Syncopation, by Ted Reed. We’ll start humbly with it, converting the written quarter notes (and…

Hemiola basics

The hemiola— also called the 3:2 polyrhythm– is a basic polyrhythm using layered even two and three note rhythms. What I’ve done here is outline some ways of…

Six stroke rolls around the drums

I’m just cranking them out today. I’ve been using the last paradiddles around the drums thing so much I decided to write up something similar using another familiar…

First-inversion paradiddles around the drums

This came up in my own practice today, and I went ahead and wrote it up. I’ve been doing a fair amount of this kind of thing lately-…

Bass drum variations for bossa nova

Bossa nova can be a very static style for novices- I’ve noticed in teaching that they have a hard time getting away from the standard, repetitive pattern. And,…

Todd’s methods: Afro-Cuban in 6/8 and 3/4

Here’s something I wrote strictly for my own use, which I thought I would share for you to make of what you will. The Afro 6/8 has been…

Big band figure builder

Here’s another installment of a thing I’ve been doing with several students, using Syncopation lesson 4 to get familiar with the basic moves and reading associated with setting…

Paradiddles with 16th note triplets

Here’s a companion to the other pages of paradiddles I’ve posted, this time using an embellishment used in Wilcoxon occasionally- a 16th note triplet in place of the…

Simple variations on Syncopation, Lesson 4

That’s pages 10-11 for those of you with the old edition– as you can see I’ve given up completely and started referring to the parts by their new…