Cracking 5/4: the library

Essential.

Again following my normal process of doing the easy stuff first, here is the library of practice materials I've used for finally getting my act together in 5/4. Normally you would put this at the end of the series-- like in an appendix-- but I thought people might like a chance to order one or more of these books to have on hand when we get to the real discussion.

You don't need to own all of these, by any means-- the Humphrey book along with the Rothman and the blog posts will be enough to give you a very robust introduction into this meter.


Drum set books:

Even in the Odds by Ralph Humphrey. Essential. Includes sections on swing and rock feels in 5/4, as well as extensive solo materials. The section in 5/8 is also helpful. This is one of my favorite method books on any topic-- you can read my earlier review for more on this one.

3, 5, 7, 9, Jazz! by Joel Rothman. Jazz and generic Latin. This was my primary supplement to Even in the Odds. Jazz comping materials have an Elvin-like bent to them, using the middle of the triplet, and quarter note triplets. Good materials for developing ECM and Latin feels, and common kicks/anticipations as well.

Jazz Drummer's Workshop by John Riley. Good, concise introduction to the meter in a swing feel. Illustrates a similar process to Humphrey's, and to what we'll be discussing in the rest of the series.

Four Way Coordination by Marvin Dahlgren & Elliot Fine. Independence studies in a swing feel.

Continued after the break:

Hemiola applications: funk

Here are some very straightforward funk applications derived from the 3:2 polyrhythm in 4/4 in the hemiola basics post. By isolating each measure, revoicing the parts slightly, and adding obvious things like a downbeat on the bass drum or backbeats on the snare, you can make some familiar-sounding funk grooves. I've broken it down into steps for my students:

I've given a couple of optional embellishments-- on part one the bass drum on the 'e' of 4 causes the polyrhythm to bridge the barline, running from the 'e' of 4 to the 'e' of 3; on part two the open hihat on the & of 1 emphasizes that note as the beginning of the polyrhythm.

Get the pdf

Cracking 5/4: listening

Here's the first in a series on playing in 5/4. Since everything in music follows from listening (and this is the easiest type of post for me to write), we'll start with some recorded examples:

5/4 Thing - Elvin Jones / Coalition - drums by Elvin Jones
I've got a partial transcription of this one lurking somewhere. I'll try to dig it up and isolate something like a primary groove out of it:



Much more after the break:

Groove o' the day: Ed Blackwell

Here's another simple afro feel played by Ed Blackwell on Mu, the duo record with Don Cherry. It's also available on the Cherry album Cool. This also could've been written as two measures of 3/4 or 6/8:

An easy change to this groove which would give it more of a 6/8 feel would be to add dotted quarter notes with the left foot, the right foot, or both feet.

YouTube audio after the break:

Transcription: Elvin Jones - Your Lady

Lately I keep doing the bulk of the hard work on these things, only to run out of steam in the last 12 bars, but David in the comments was able to shame me into finally finishing this up. Here at last is the intro and head of John Coltrane's Your Lady, from the Live at Birdland record, with Elvin Jones on drums. This contains the groove that inspired my "Elvin's Afro Waltz" series, which has been dominating my own practice time recently. The essence of that groove is a linear left hand/BD/HH part in 6/8 played under a standard jazz waltz cymbal pattern-- see the first entry in the series for an explanation of that.

There can be a pretty wide range of dynamics within the parts on each measure-- especially on the lower side; in making the transcription there were a lot of places where I've written a rest, though I suspect Elvin was ghosting a note to the point where it is inaudible. In general I've tried to minimize notating the internal dynamics of the parts-- it would be easy to go overboard with that, rendering the thing unreadable-- so it'll be up to you to study that closely. I think it's best to use this as a listening and study guide, rather than as a literal map for duplicating the performance.

Get the pdf

YouTube audio after the break

Transcription: intro by Art Taylor

This is Art Taylor's 8-measure intro from the tune Jackie-ing, from Thelonious Monk's 5x5. I'm working on a long, challenging Joey Baron transcription and needed a little palate-cleanser, that's all...

What he plays doesn't seem to be connected to the tune, particularly. Most of the action happens in the last half of the first phrase, and the middle of the second phrase, with a little set up into the the tune at the end. He bridges the phrases with running 8th notes on the cymbal, and accents on the & of 4 and on beat 2.

Get the pdf

YouTube audio after the break:

VOQOTD: Hit it loud.

“Hit it! Don't be afraid to hit it— loud, you dig? Hit it loud.”

-Thelonious Monk
















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Groove o' the day: Ed Blackwell stick and brush

This is one of my favorite things ever, anywhere: Ed Blackwell's opening groove on Charlie Haden's tune Chairman Mao from the first self-titled Old And New Dreams record, on Black Saint (there's another one on the ECM label, which is also great). Here Blackwell plays with a stick in his left hand and a brush in his right:

The brush hand makes the rhythm with a fanning move, which you can hear by listening to the recording; the stick hand just plays the rim click on 2 and the tom on 4. Play the bass drum softly-- when my old band Flatland used to play this tune I would often play it in 4, as Blackwell does when the groove changes a little further on, which has a nice driving energy (on that recording I'm playing the drums with the back ends of rattan-handled marimba mallets, by the way).

More Stick Control in 5/4

Another nice addition to your 5/4 practice library: Andrew Hare @ The Melodic Drummer has taken my Stick Control in 5/4 thing a step further, applying an Alan Dawson interpretation to it, filling in the stop that was built in to my idea, and writing it out in the familiar Stone-looking format. It must be time for me to bring this back into my practicing-- lately my Elvin thing has been monopolizing all of my 5/4 time.