The way I used to do things

I've been listening to some old rehearsal cassettes and demos and whatnot, and my God, I used to be an animal. This is an unreleased track, a cover of an Albert Ayler tune, from my Origin of Species record— play this loud:





To most people it sounds very aggressive, and it is, but that is a specific effect. It's not just mindless bam-bam— I was also listening hard, playing the tune, and trying to make music, just like every other time I play with people.

I worked through a lot of shit this way— it put some things in my playing I couldn't get any other way. Like if someone was going to be an abstract expressionist painter, you would expect him make a lot of big messes and waste a lot of paint on the way to being good at it. You learn by throwing it out there and doing a lot of things and seeing what works and what doesn't work. You can't work out your thing in advance in linear order, and you can't avoid people ever thinking you've made a mistake.

You also can't be worrying too much about what's correct— what your drum teacher would say, or your band director, or the people who always come after you if you play a loud sound, or even people who you might like to call you for gigs. With this group we decided to give ourselves the freedom to play whatever we wanted, and that ours would be the only opinion that counted. What made it sound like something (some of it) was that we did a lot of listening— 70s Miles, Keith Jarrett's American quartet, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Bill Frisell, Sun Ra, delta blues, James Brown, all manner of African music— sub-Saharan and Moroccan. Anything with Charlie Haden on it. We were trying to do something good the way those things were good. I was certainly never thinking about anything to do with drum technique— except how it related to getting a sound— I was trying specifically to listen and not think about what I was playing on the drums.

I was pretty doctrinally committed to this way of playing for maybe 7-10 years; eventually I figured out that there were some limitations to it, and I decided to let some other things in and let my playing change, so I could be more deliberate when I wanted to. But there are a lot of things I can do that other good players can't do, because I did this.

More paradiddle combinations in 3

More Stick Control-style paradiddle combinations in 3. I find these really useful:

Once again here are the basic ways to do these on the drum set— the only way I do these. I basically never sit at the practice pad and run sticking patterns at an even volume.

R = RH-cym + BD / L = left on snare and/or toms
R = BD / L = both hands in unison on drums or SD+cym
R = BD / L = LH on snare drum - ADD RH on cym in stock rhythm of your choice

I think the most efficient use of your practice time to practice the first way more with the RH lead exercises, and the second way more with the LH lead exercises. That is if you're not doing them all, all ways. There are a lot of exercises and there are only so many hours in the day. The easiest, laziest, most useless practice advice people give is “DO EVERYTHING.” You're supposed to do everything eventually, in the short term, you have to prioritize rationally. Hence the thing I said above...

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The chart reading pyramid

METAPHOR— DO NOT TAKE LITERALLY

I've gotten quite good at reading charts. By which I mean I've gotten quite good at ignoring charts. As a rule I avoid reading as much as possible— I've gotten burned too many times trying to follow somebody's lousy arrangement, only to realize I could have played twice as well by just listening and playing. But sometimes it's unavoidable, and either way, you should know how to interpret drum charts, lead sheets, and arrangements.

Here I've put together a list of pieces of information you get from whatever piece of music someone hands you in a playing situation, in the rough order in which you process them:


1. Title
Do I know this tune? Have I played or heard it before? Is this the familiar form of the tune, and I can throw the chart away, or has somebody written an arrangement that I'm going to have to actually read?

You have to just listen to a lot of records, play a lot of gigs, learn a lot of tunes— especially tunes you know people in your town are playing, which are therefore likely to come up on gigs you'll be playing.



2. Meter
Looking at the time signature at the top of a chart, along with the context (what kind of band is it, what other tunes have you been playing this evening?), will tell you a lot about what you're going to play. If every tune on the session has been a swing tune, it's probably going to be another swing tune.



3. Style
Most of your actual job is to play time in the style of the tune. There may be a style indication on the upper left of the chart, or above the staff if there is a style change during the tune. If there is no indication on the chart, and you don't feel confident about guessing based on the meter and the context, you can ask the person who called the tune. If it's an actual arrangement with a drum part there will usually be a style indication, and the arranger will probably have sketched out a crappy drum groove, or indication of a swing beat.



4. Form / roadmap
Is it a standard form, or a modified standard form? Is it a non-standard form, meaning you'll have to follow the chart carefully all the way through? Is there a written intro apart from the normal form of the tune? If there is a D.S./D.C.? Do you take it on the head only, or also during the solos? Or only the last time through? Is there a coda? Is there a fine? Do those apply only to the ending of the tune, or every time through? Those are things that are often ambiguous on charts, and you're not stupid for asking. Is there a solo form that is different than the form on the head of the tune? Usually you can spot this on the page— it may just be simplified chords for blowing, or it may be a different form just for the solos.



5. Harmonic rhythm
Typically this means how many chords there are per measure— often one, two, or four, or one chord for multiple measures. Obviously we're not playing chord changes on the drums, but paying attention to them helps you keep from getting lost, and helps you reorient yourself when you do get lost, and it can also represent energetic changes that you want to reflect in your playing.

Use your eyes and ears, follow the chart, and pay attention to the changing color of the chord progression as you play through the tune. Notice the difference in sound when there is one chord per measure vs two or four. Mentally flag the chords that jump out to your ear— if are any special spots that sound significant, you can use that to reorient yourself if you get lost. Look and listen for that chord to happen elsewhere in the chart.



6. Stops/breaks
This is the first order of actual specific playing instructions you need to observe: places in the arrangement where you're supposed to stop playing time. On lead sheets they're often indicated with “N.C.” in the place of a chord symbol; on actual arrangements they're indicated by normally-written rests.

Be able to stop and start your grooves cleanly, be able to count rests, and be able to do some simple lead ins getting back into the groove.



7. Other arrangement elements
Dynamics, written bass lines, tempo changes, feel changes, fermatas. Know what these and other common notations mean. Be able to play a time feel to fits, supports, or at least doesn't clash with the a bass line in whatever rhythm.



7. Figures
Things the rest of the band plays that you're supposed to play along with them, and possibly set up— either with a simple setup of one or two notes, or with a fill. In big band style charts there will be section figures written above the staff which are optional/informational, and ensemble figures written inside the staff that you are definitely supposed to play.

This is actually a fairly large area of study. Learn to read syncopated rhythms, dotted rhythms and ties using mainly 8th notes and quarter notes (a la Ted Reed's Syncopation), as well as 16th note rhythms, 8th note triplets and quarter note triplets (see Louis Bellson's Reading Text in 4/4 or The New Breed)— to a lesser extent. Learn to set up syncopated kicks with one or two notes on the snare drum or bass drum, or a combination of the two, with or without extra embellishments. Be able to fill in a way people can follow, ending cleanly on any beat. Good books for working on this are Studio and Big Band Drumming by Steve Houghton, and Drum Set Reading by Ron Fink.



9. Melody line
The actual written melody of the tune. This may be very important— with a tune like Evidence, on which the drummer usually plays the entire melody rhythm on the drums— or fairly inconsequential—many standards don't have a strong rhythmic element, and are often played loosely by the lead instrument, in which case you just play time. Usually you do something in between, catching a few salient points in the melody line (often tied notes, other long notes landing on an &, isolated notes, or other obvious accented notes), and possibly filling in the spaces in the melody with comping or actual fills.



10. Drum notation 
The last thing I ever want to read in a piece of music is an exact drum part. If a chart has actual drum notation in it, you can usually consider it to be a loose suggestion, or an example of the type of thing the arranger wants— you don't have to play exact grooves and fills. You may use the written drum part to inform the way you play the style; if it says “LATIN” at the top of the page, and the arranger has written out a kind of mambo beat, you wouldn't play a samba. On a funk chart you may pay attention to the bass drum rhythm, which may be intended to line up with the rest of the rhythm section. Often you can tell from the way they've sketched out the swing beat whether you're supposed to play in 2 or in 4.

Daily best music in the world: Roy Haynes Hip Ensemble

Hip Ensemble is Roy Haynes's fusion band that was around for a couple of years around 1970. Or is it just the title of the one record under Roy's name? I don't know, man. Anyone born before the 1990s is accustomed to a measure of uncertainty in life. Whatever: here are a few new bootleg tracks (courtesy of Fabio Baglioni) by this great band, plus part of the albums Hip Ensemble and Senyah, which had (mostly) the same personnel:

Paradiddle stick control patterns in 3

I don't know what's going on, but I'm using a lot of Stick Control-type stuff in practicing lately. Sometimes you just want things written as a sticking. Here I've written out some paradiddle variations in 3 that I was improvising on the drumset:

I don't believe you need to spend a lot of time in life playing 8th note sticking patterns on the practice pad at an even volume. You got all you needed of that in the first few years of playing the regular stuff in Stick Control— you don't need to do that with these pages. Add accents, or do them on the drums like this:

1. R = RH-cym + BD / L = left on snare and/or toms
2. R = BD / L = both hands in unison on drums or SD+cym
3. R = BD / L = LH on snare drum - ADD RH on cym in stock rhythm of your choice

These are fun to play in 6/4 with my Lilin or Free Design practice loops. They can also be played as 16th notes in 3/4.

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Hours

The true struggle comes in the practice room, facing those drums everyday for 10 hours.
— Famoudou Don Moye

When I was in college I decided that, at some point in their career, everyone who can play practiced 4-8 hours a day, for a period of years at least. I just got that impression from my teachers, from going to clinics, and from reading Modern Drummer magazine.  Today I finally decided to check; I got into my MD archives and pull as many actual quotes as I could about the number of hours people practiced.  

These quotes are all out of context, and spoken in the '70s and '80s— within the first decade of many of the players' professional careers— so don't draw too many ironclad conclusions about anyone's practice habits over their lifetime. David Garibaldi and Steve Smith, for example, were touring heavily at this time. John Guerin was probably doing recording dates 350 days a year. Most of them also talked about spending an equal amount of time listening to music, and playing with people— often practicing less when they were playing more. 

I know teachers who tell their students to practice four hours a day, eight hours a day. If you can't accomplish what you want in an hour, you're not gonna get it in four days.
— Buddy Rich


I practiced my ass off! I practiced eight hours a day. I would get up in the morning - grab a towel, put on a tee shirt and swimming trunks and go down in the basement and practice until everyone came home. I was sixteen years old[.] I would practice EVERYTHING! I practiced with records and without records. I practiced straight time, with a metronome and without a metronome. I practiced soloing with everything - sticks, brushes, mallets and fingers, and I practiced 4/4, 3/4 and 5/4 time, Latin beats... everything. I practiced everything I felt like - but I had to feel it.

There was a point when I was practicing 6 to 8 hours a day, 4 to 5 days per week. I just had all these things I wanted to work on.
— Butch Miles


Working on the road doesn't really give you that much of an opportunity to practice, but I still like to work out for at least three or four hours.
— David Garibaldi


I haven't practiced in ten or fifteen years. I'm just about to start again. When I was 19, I practiced six hours a day for about three months. I feel a need to do three months of practice; the next three months it does me good.
— John Guerin

You can play all day on the drum set if you want to, but you can accomplish more in ten minutes of good practice as opposed to two hours of wasteful practice. The amount of time isn't necessarily important.
— Peter Erskine


I used to practice seven and eight hours per day.
— Gene Krupa


A  minimum  of two hours a day, mostly on muffled drums. I normally practice an hour at home, and an hour or so at the studio.

I used to practice eight hours a day.
— Ed Shaughnessy


When I say practice I don't mean just for my hands either. I mean creative practicing, working on an idea. One idea for like two hours.

Some drummers have more natural ability than others. Some drummers need a half hour, others need four hours. It's an individual thing,

There's no such thing as you must practice 6 hours a day. You practice until it happens. Until whatever you want to happen, happens.
— Joe Cocuzzo

I would practice for four or five hours every day, and if I didn't practice that many hours in a day, at least I would practice something every day. I really noticed that, if I practiced every day, it made a difference.
— Steve Smith


[W]hen I was a kid, I'd come home from school and I would get on that practice pad for at least a couple of hours. Until I was about 17, that's all my life was. I didn't have girl friends or anything. That was it.
— Eddie Marshall


Sometimes an hour and a half, sometimes six or seven hours a day. It all depends. I go in cycles. Sometimes I can practice a whole lot every day; other times I'll be gigging a lot and won't practice at all.
— Casey Scheurell


Holy shit, I've been sitting here and practicing the Barimbau six hours a day.
— Mickey Hart


From 3:00 in the afternoon until 6:00. Three hours a day, seven days a week, forever!
— James Black


I don't think I could do anything for eight hours. I would get too bored doing one thing that long. Now, I could maybe play with a group for that period of time. But doing something like that for eight

hours in a room by myself—I don't have that kind of attention span. For two or three hours? Yes. But, eight hours? No. I know a lot of people who do that. If somebody practices for eight hours a day, they should be a monster.
— Terri Lyne Carrington


I practiced. I practiced timpani for five hours a day when I studied with Vic Firth, and I practiced five or six hours a day when I was getting mallets together with George Gaber. That's the only way you're going to get good at something. 

I was practicing six, seven, eight hours a day, learning to play like a rock'n'roll drummer.
— Kenny Aronoff


When I sit at the drums for four or six hours—whether I'm playing one rhythm for a long period of time, or playing with a rhythm machine or something like that—it creates a real trance-like quality. That's what I love best about drumming. That trance. It's the happiest place for me. It's the deepest place inside and it makes me understand "why" I play the drums.
— Michael Shrieve


 During the school term, I would practice several hours a day—all on drums.
— Kenny Washington


I would be practicing every day for like ten hours.
— Marvin “Smitty” Smith


For three months, I diligently did two or three hours a day of just Accents and Rebounds at a very slow tempo.
— Andy Newmark


Each student is an individual. One person may be able to handle a half hour tops. That individual might not be able to handle more. I had a student once who would practice eight to 11 hours a day. If

I were to practice half of that time, it would drive me crazy. The most I ever practiced myself was three hours a day for one year, and I almost ended up bananas. So you have to be realistic; you have to deal with your own particular situation.
— Chuck Flores


My most productive time was during my first year at college. I had the whole summer off, I didn't know anybody, and I was up at school alone. So I made up a practice schedule, and hit it ten to 15 hours a day for about three months. I went through two summers of that, and it never got under six or seven hours, even when school was in session.
— Dave Weckl


You've got to practice five to seven hours a day.
— Louis Hayes

There was nobody twisting my arm to practice six to eight hours a day.
— Terry Bozzio


Play at least ten minutes a day on the drum set.
— Paul Motian

Stick Control - CSD! version

UPDATE: Download link working. You'd think I'd have that part of it down.

Everybody and his literal dog practices the first page of the book Stick Control, as do I— at least I teach it, and use it on drumset for certain things. I've said before the reasons I'm not that in favor of it, but so many people use it, and understand drumming this way, I'll work with it. It has its uses. The following item takes the most useful 36 exercises of the 72 in the book, and puts them in the order in which I teach them. I think these are the patterns that are either good for your hands in a specific way, or that apply well to the drum set.

If you're just getting your technique together, do these on the snare drum or practice pad, two to four repetitions, or up to one minute of each exercise. I think you should do them at an easy tempo and a slightly challenging tempo. The first, easiest drumset application is to play your left hand on the snare drum, and your right hand on any cymbal, with the bass drum in unison. See my Funk Control series for clues on other ways of doing this, or contact me (see the sidebar) for a Skype lesson about it.

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(h/t to Andrew at The Melodic Drummer, who did this before me)

Page o' coordination: Jabo shuffle

If you watched that video of Jabo Starks playing with John Scofield et al, you'll notice that he does some hip stuff on the bell of the cymbal behind the trombone during the bridge between solos. Here's a page for working up that independence— but it's mostly an excuse for spending a lot of time copying the way he plays his bass drum, snare drum, and hihat.

If you watch the video carefully, you'll notice that although we're hearing a strong quarter note pulse (dotted-quarter, since we're in 12/8), he's actually not ghosting any part of the bass drum rhythm, as I've notated here. I've given a couple of alternative bass drum rhythms— you could also practice all three bass drum rhythms leaving out the notes in unison with the snare. There's also a little more going on with the snare drum than just the backbeats I've indicated here, but they're basically inaudible. The backbeats are what you should be thinking about. And notice that the snare drum backbeats aren't perfectly in unison with the bass drum— they fall a little late, so there's a big, fat flam between the two drums. It would also be worth it to spend some time copying his hihat technique— he taps his heel on 1 and 3, and plays the hihats with his foot on 2 and 4.

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The 1

And some more listening for the passing of Jabo Starks: