Bellson 1991

And thanks to the same gentlemen who posted the Joe Morello masterclass earlier this week, here's a Louie Bellson drum clinic, also from the 1991 IAJE Conference:

Morello 1991

Thanks to Adam Nussbaum who passed this one along this morning:



The older I get, my appreciation grows exponentially for Mr. Morello's super-efficient and relaxed technique and exceptional musicality.

As per always, when the Masters speak....we listen!

Marty Morell on Brushes

I came across these great brush playing demonstrations the other day, featuring one of my all-time favourite piano trio drummers who played with pianist Bill Evans back in the day, the great Marty Morell:

Shuffle Diddles...

Today's drum lesson features a brief but fun little ditty that I came up with the other day while driving to a gig and waiting at a red light (does this qualify as distracted driving???)

Anyways, the pattern resembles this and combines one single paradiddlediddle followed by a single paradiddle combination:

You'll notice that the pattern switches hands every second bar, going back and forth between the right and left hand leads.

Ideally you'll want to work this two-bar pattern up to a very fast sixteenth note pace or even 32nd notes. This is because if you do, and if the accents are properly articulated, you'll start to hear a slow 12/8 shuffle pattern emerge from the accents.

You'll start to hear something like this:

You could also experiment with substituting double paradiddles in the beginning of each bar (leading with both the right and left hands of course).

I've also been having fun experimenting with this pattern, orchestrating it around the drum set.

This is a fun little phrasing exercise that gets your hands going, combines rudiments and also illustrates the concept of hearing larger accent patterns/phrases amongst denser rhythmic combinations.