WELCOME DEX!

Lesson 1
November 12, 2006

Lesson 2
November 19, 2006

Nice lesson today, Dex. It was great to finally meet you and get started. You have a ton of natural ability and talent and we are going to use that as our guide.

Lesson Notes:

1. Ride:
- Focus on the sound of your ride cymbal.
- Allow the groove to "breathe," i.e. make sure it swings and the "skip" note isn't played too straight.
- Keep your hand, fingers, and arm relaxed.
- Use distance to help your timing.
- Practice the two variations of the ride groove; accents on 2 and 4, and accents on all 4 beats.

2. Buy The Art of Bop Drumming by John Riley. Click here to order it.

3. The Art of Bop Drumming - Pg. 9
- Break these down for yourself.
- If you need help, listen to the recording.
- Once we get passed this simple coordination boundary, we are home free!!

4. Practice Tracks
- Play along with track 20 (Minor Blues) on your cd.
- Inject some of the exercises on pg. 9 from The Art of Bop Drumming into your playing.

Yeah Dex! Great progress. Your time feel and technique in your right hand are coming along great; plus your dexterity with the comping figures is really paying off.

CLICK HERE FOR THE MP3 OF OUR LESSON. Right click and select "save as" to download.

I'm still looking for the Art Blakey tune I was telling you about...I can't seem to find it.

As far as the collection of standards is concerned, I will have copies for you at our next lesson.

Lesson Notes:

1. Ride:
- Keep working on the same things as last week.

2. Art of Bop Drumming

- Pg. 9 - work on the hard ones
- Comping Examples 1 w/ 2 types of ride cymbals; a. Quarter notes & b. Swing pattern
- Suggestion: Practice the comping exercises with a track, such as "So What" on Miles Davis' Kind of Blue.

3. Practice Tracks
- Play along with track 20 (Minor Blues) of your cd)
- Inject some of the comping exercises into your playing.

Lesson 3
November 29, 2006
Lesson 4
December 27, 2006

Dex, great job today. Your feel and technique are improving. Also, your conceptualization of this music is starting to change!

CLICK HERE FOR THE MP3 OF OUR LESSON. Right click and select "save as" to download.

Lesson Notes:

1. Art of Bop Drumming

- Comping Examples 1 w/ 2 types of ride cymbals; a. Quarter notes & b. Swing pattern.
-Don't forget how to count it properly!!!!!
- Practice the comping exercises with a track, such as "So What" on Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. Put the music in front of you and also put the track on all play to it. This way you will learn the tune and the comping exercises at the same time.

2. Practice Tracks

- Play along with track 20 (Minor Blues) of your cd
- Inject some of the comping exercises into your playing.
- We'll do this next week.

Also let me know when we can do your next lesson!

Rock on Dex! You're making great progress. Let's take it up one notch!

IMPORTANT: Check out this video posted on Vic Firth's website. It's my former teacher (Steve Houghton) giving a great lesson on ride cymbal technique, comping, and soloing with a track. Click HERE - check out the one called "Bringing Together the 4 Elements of Practice. The rest are also great. You should watch all of them.

Lesson Notes:

1. Art of Bop Drumming

- Comping Examples 1 w/ SWING PATTERN in ride cymbal, quarter notes in bass drum, and 2 & 4 on the hi-hat.
- REMEMBER: The CD has these examples recorded for you if you get confused or need to hear them.
- Utilize these when playing with practice tracks.
- Play along with "So What" from Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue."

2. Practice Tracks

- "Slow Blues" from Steve Houghton's book, The Drumset Soloist
- Click here for the pdf of the sheet music. (Right click and select "save as" to download.)
- Click here for the mp3 of the track. (Right click and select "save as" to download.)
- Test out some of your solo ideas on these tracks.

- Also play along with track 20 (Minor Blues) of your cd.

NEXT LESSON
January 3, 2007 @ 6:30 (New lesson cycle - $160)