From the zone: Elvin 9/8

Let's see if I can make a series out of this— it will depend on people sending me cool stuff out of their personal notebooks. Meaning, you should send me cool stuff out of your personal notebooks. Anything with the stink of the practice room about it— I don't care what it is, or how rough looking it is. A stepped-on photocopy of a scan of a photocopy with coffee stains on it is fine. Even just a digital photo of your page 37.

This page of triplets in 3/4 was sent to me by Dutch drummer and teacher Marco Zondervan:

It looks like it's meant to be played with the right hand and the feet, while playing the cymbal pattern of your choice. Both feet are written on the same space on the staff, except when they're played in unison.

Our series title comes from the short basement dead-end hallway which houses the percussion department at the University of Oregon, which was known (in the 80's at least), as the zone. I have a suspicion that it was given that name in the 70's by Ralph Hardimon, but I would have to call some people up to confirm that. I took my first drum lessons there, and practically lived there during my college years. We would refer to the zone the way many people refer to the “woodshed” or “shed”, except it was an actual place.