Three Brush Hacks for Slow Swing - The 80/20 Drummer

I'll admit it: I didn't touch brushes for three months. Even now it's painful to write this.

I can make excuses: It was tough between two practice spaces. I was working on a lot of gospel stuff, then transcriptions and drum covers.

But mostly it was fear.

So this week I got back on the brush wagon. And luckily, all the work I did on other aspects of my playing seemed to function like "cross training".

And I decided to bring you a sequence I practiced over slow swing. Oh: and it's in 7. Before you throw up your hands, though, don't worry: it's all applicable over multiples of 4 as well.

Slow swing is one of the hardest things in drumming, and slow swing with brushes can be death. If I were Carl Allen, sitting on the Juilliard audition committee, and I wanted give some hot-doggers a wake-up call, I'd ask for slow swing with brushes. Not a ballad, mind you: slow swing. Adult Drums;)

For the comments, are you happy to have me coming at you twice-a-week, or is it "a little much"?

3 Eric Harland Concepts - The 80/20 Drummer

People have been asking me for literally years to make a lesson about Eric Harland. But I wasn't sure how to approach it. Should I transcribe a solo from Aaron Goldberg's trio? Should I outline a track on Aaron Parks' album? As it turns out, I'll be giving you your first taste of Eric a little more off-the-cuff. From 2007-2010 Eric was practically the only modern jazz drummer I listened to. I was obsessed with capturing what he was doing. Those of you who pay attention will recall I wasn't even any good back in 2010, before I discovered the core concepts I now teach in my courses.

But that Eric vocabulary stuck with me, and now that I have better time and improvisational flow, I can execute it a lot better.

In this week's less, I explore an Eric approach to playing over slow swing, while thinking of it as 12/8, or, in this case, 21/8.

Ready for the lesson?

For the comments/reply: what’s your favorite Eric recording?

How to Play Like Maison Guidry - The 8020 Drummer

I’ve been a fan of my friend Louis Cole’s band Knower since way back. For years I was astonished that there weren’t better drum covers of his music. (Chesley Allen’s was about the only worth mentioning.)

Ready to rise to the challenge, however, is one Mr. Maison Guidry. I’m convinced Maison is to this era of drumming what Chris Dave was to the last: an evolution. People hear Maison and think “when’s he going to play some chops?” (He’s happy to oblige, if you just search his name and “chops”.) But Maison’s more interested in evolving the music. What would happen if an absolute killer checked out all the church drumming, then studied with Ronald Bruner, then checked out Mark Guiliana and Nate Wood? Maison.

So it was with no small bit of aplomb that I discovered Maison had covered not just a Knower tune, but arguably the best knower tune. And, obviously, I had to know what he was doing in the solo.

Ready to check it out? Just click below.

N

PS tour dates: Japan between October 1 and 10, Thailand between the 10th and the who-knows, and possibly Hong Kong at the end of October. OH - and I’ve been asked to do the DBK hang/clinic at NAMM 2017. A murderer’s row, and somehow I got smuggled in. That’ll be circa the third week of January 2017. Get at me!!

How to Cover By Fire by Hiatus Kaiyote - The 80/20 Drummer

Alright. I get it. For about the past year I've seen glimpses of this new band called Hiatus Kaiyote in my social media feeds. "Hmmm - lotta drum covers of these guys..."

But I couldn't be bothered. There gospel...um...idioms to be learned, I was a busy guy. What did I care what the hipsters were up to?

Serendipity found me when I needed some new music to listen to while working at a coffee shop. The bar had been getting pretty low. (The Lido cover, etc.) On a lark, I decided to check out this spacey band from Australia with the weird name and a lead singer with a penchant for welterweight headgear. And I'll be honest: I didn't get it at first. Like most of the deepest stuff, Hiatus didn't hook me from the get-go, then get boring fast. I was intrigued, and each subsequent listening revealed more layers.

So now I'm a fan. There are artists with deep music who are hopelessly pretentious. There are bands with a "devil may care" attitude, then their music sucks. Or they're nihilistic assholes. But I can see why the world's falling in love with Hiatus. They write and play their assess off. Their music is deep but joyful and unpretentious. And you get the sense they'd be cool to hang out with. Like, despite her many intimidating tattoos, Nail Palm (not her real name) would be nice to you if you ran into her at Quizno's.

So this week I bring you a cover of just one of Hiatus' many great songs: By Fire. There's so much depth in their catalogue I hope I eventually get around to covering many more standouts: Shaolin Monk Motherfunk, Breathing Underwater, The World It Softly Lulls, and Molasses just to name a few. (Those should get you started.)

Without further ado, the lesson!

N