2 Spanky Inspired Licks - The 80/20 Drummer

Poor Spanky has been the subject of more photoshop shenanigans than he deserves. Just for being killing. This week, I bring you two things I invented that Spanky would hopefully smile on.

This past year, I've gravitated toward two "sounds" a lot: first-two-triplets, and kick-drum polyphony. The latter means instead of using the standard palette of kick/cymbal, snare/cymbal, anything goes. Kick/snare. Kick/floor tom. (Sean Wright inspired some of this at NAMM, too.) The only rule is it's clean and intentional.

The first of this week's licks is a first-two triplet thing you can throw in to make a groove funkier.

The second is a five-note fill that sounds fresh, but is still grooving.

Hope you enjoy!

2 "Nate Wood" Fills - The 80/20 Drummer

A little less than two years ago, Nate Wood agreed to do a shed and an interview with me. I was frankly surprised. His facebook message to me was something like "Love to! When's good?"

As a fellow fan of the short replies (favorite response to "do you want to do a gig xyz details?" is "YES"), I liked him immediately.

Nate then proceeded to make me look like a rank amateur. It wasn't even that he pulled way more chops. It was that he made chops seem like a cheap gimmick.

Well, payback's a bitch.

No, I'm kidding;) Nate's welcome back anytime he wants to give me another lesson in humility. But I did lift 2 licks from him. Or rather I'm pretty sure he played them. The same way Jeff Tain Watts is pretty sure Elvin played most everything that later came out in Jeff's playing, after decades of listening to Elvin. I've listened to a lot of Nate over the years, and I 89% guarantee he's played something pretty-much-like-this;)

Oh - and to make sure I give you one actual, bonafide Nate lick that Nate actually really played, I throw one in at the end.

Ready for the lesson?

PS for everybody participating in the course relaunch, thanks so much for the enthusiastic responses! A lot of people are interested in the free evaluation, so I think I'm going to offer it to the first 10 people to sign up Monday morning. If you're on the launch list I'll be back tomorrow with more details!

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?