Blog
Jharis Yokley generously donated some of his time to enlighten me about how his practice routines have changed over the years, the true difference between “MCing” your own performance and a self-critical voice, whether they should being back the Guitar Center Drumoff, what excites him about young players, and more.
Also, catch my posture video from the week of September 4th.
Last week I sat down with one of my drum heroes, on Mr. Richard Spaven, for the inaugural episode of the 8020 Drummer Podcast.
(Well, the inaugural episode of the “comeback”. There are some old episodes from 2015.)
Because you’re on my list, I’m giving you access to the interview a day before I publish it on YouTube.
Richard and I discuss…
The origins of several of his songs, and his songwriting process in general
The ephemeral nature of flow-states, and how to achieve them (hint: there’s no magic bullet)
“Kids these days”, and whether social media has been a net benefit or a net harm for drumming
The importance of studying jazz, and why we both like “full takes”
and more…
If you haven’t yet seen the video of me submitting to Richard’s critique playing one of his most famous songs, check that out below.
First things first - download your free transcription here.
Many of us get our start playing jazz in school band, at pick-up gigs or jam sessions, or even in community theater. That’s great, because you can experience playing a big range of styles and eras. It’s not-so-great because the specialty techniques necessary to play jazz drums can take a decade or more to develop.
Among other things, I’m speaking about the fast ride cymbal beat.
Which leads to an experience I’m sure is familiar to anyone just cutting their teeth playing jazz drums: you’re a year or two in, and somebody hands you a chart with up-tempo swing.
Or calls Cherokee or My Shining Hour at a jam session.
Easy enough for a horn player - they can pull the horn out of their mouth and take a couple of bars off even now and then.
Or even the bassist. They can play quarters.
But you, behind the drums, are supposed to make your ride cymbal sing like Tony Williams or Philly Joe.
(New rule: if you call anything over 250 bpm you need to explain the mechanics of the ride cymbal?)
In reality, though, what are you supposed to do?
If you’re anything like I was, you default to playing kind of a polka, with quarters on the ride, 2 and 4 on the hats, and not much else.
The eventual way out of this conundrum, of course, is learning to play the ride cymbal on the “spangalang”, and getting your time perception fine enough that you can “comp” without disrupting things.
But in the (many) intervening years, you still need something to do in these situations, right?
That’s why, today, I’m sharing 5 hacks to play better up-tempo jazz beats without the hands of a Tony Williams or an Art Taylor.
(Well, four of them.)
From borrowing “up tempo beats” from the likes of Clarence Penn and Brian Blade, to “counting it in” like Tony or Max, these tips will help you fake it till you make it.
(Then we’ll delve briefly into some things you can practice on the ride cymbal in the interim.)
Enjoy this one!
First things first - download your free transcription here.
There's this "thing" I've noticed I'm doing a lot when I do fills or..."chops"...
It hadn't been conscious. It just came out.
And for some reason, I've been doing it on the hats a lot.
I do it so much, it's kind of become "my thing". So this week, I set out to explain it. And explaining it required some context. And context, as is so often the case, required Thomas Pridgen.
All of which sent me back in time to trace the lineage of my learning to "chop"...
2013/2014, I start listening to Thomas, and Nick Smith, and many of the other "choppers" who were "chopping it up" on these new platforms called YouTube and Instagram.
Flash forward a bit, and I believe I'd successfully deconstructed a couple of component parts (which I show you in the video)...
...and a general approach, from Thomas, which I call "throw it on there."
(I show a shed with Thomas and Tony Royster to illustrate what makes that approach unique.)
Flash forward still more, and I'm "throwing it on there" while attempting to do drum fills. Then something happens.
Everybody starts incorporating the dry hats as a sound.
So what happens if I...
And then the licc evolved.
I'll show you the exact licc, and ways to orchestrate it and put it in different rhythmic contexts.
Watch the video to find out more.
Enjoy!