The Philly 9 Stroke - Three Ways

Today's lesson focuses on a pattern that drummer Philly Joe Jones commonly used and how my interpretation of his sticking pattern has evolved over the years.

Jones was a devout student of the snare drum rudiments and regularly incorporated those and other sticking patterns commonly found in the drum texts of Charles Wilcoxin into his solo vocabulary. A common pattern that Jones used over the course of his career involved playing a repeated nine beat phrase of eighth note triplets. Listen to any record he did with Miles Davis and you're bound to hear it (among other albums of course...).

So anyways, when I first started to transcribe Jones' drumming I notated this nine beat pattern like this:



He would commonly play this pattern several times in a row as an over-the-barline type of phrase in 4/4, several times in succession. You'll also notice that the pattern alternates the accents between the right and left hands. However, after showing my transcriptions to my teacher at the time, Chris McCann, he informed me that Philly very rarely played single strokes and was more inclined to use some sort of combination of double strokes. Chris knew this first-hand as he was friends with Jones and at one time followed him around from gig-to-gig, studying him up close.

So taking that into account I started to use this following pattern that uses a combination of double strokes and singles rather than just singles:



This variation also leads with the right hand (rather than shifting the accents between the right and left hands) and I've got a lot of mileage out of this pattern over the years. However, fast forward about fifteen years, and after some time hanging out with John Riley and hearing him talk about Philly Joe Jones' drumming and sticking patterns, I apparently had it all wrong !

According to John this famous Philly nine stroke pattern looks something like this:



If you'll notice the right hand still leads but the combination of double strokes is much different than mine. If you dissect the pattern even further you'll notice that the whole pattern is a basically a 3/4 ride cymbal pattern played with the right hand on the snare drum (1 2+ 3) with the left hand filling in all the missing triplets.

Very logical and that's the genius of it !!!

Of course any of those three patterns work and I try to use all three in my own drumming. The more ways you have to execute a given pattern, the better - I think. And it will only help you unlock and develop further interesting patterns around the drum set.

Here's a repost of the great Philly Joe Jones in action, here performing with Thelonious Monk. Dig his use of double strokes throughout:

Time Keeping Exercise

Here's a variation I came up with on a great time keeping exercise that both John Riley and Jerome Jennings showed me. I find this to be a great exercise to develop a "centre" to your pulse while at the same time working on your ride cymbal beat.

Basically the exercise is based on playing the ride cymbal pattern in 4/4 time, then modulating the same pattern except based on a quarter note triplet pulse then modulating again to a pulse based on eighth notes (double time).

Here are the cymbal patterns written out:



I would highly recommend playing this exercise along with a metronome or play-a-long CD such as Allan Cox' "Meet The Bass Player". Strive for exact execution of each pattern in time and flawless transitions between each pattern.

Now, I've been messing around with different foot patterns while playing those cymbal lines.

Trying the following feet patterns along with those cymbal exercises:









There are two ways to use these bass drum/hihat patterns with the above cymbal patterns:

1) Play each foot pattern but only change the cymbal beat (ie. the cymbal beat plays the new, faster tempo and the feet stay in the same tempo throughout)

2) Play each foot pattern AND follow the new pulse as the cymbal beat changes (ie. as the cymbal gets faster, so do the feet - locking into the new pulse)

You'll find these exercises will strengthen your inner pulse and help you hear and feel different but yet related tempos at the same time.

Warning: If you don't practice these with a metronome or external time source....you are wasting your time !

Clavediddles

I've been getting many requests lately to feature more of my technique exercises (it's been awhile!) so here's some chop busters to chew on:

CLAVEDIDDLES

These exercises are based on a concept shown to me by percussionist and all around nice guy Russell Hartenberger (Professor at the University of Toronto and member of the percussion super group "Nexus")

When I studied with Russell during the fall of 1999 at the Banff Centre for the Arts during an extended residency, he gave me several sheets of snare drum exercises that were basically paradiddle patterns but which incorporated accent patterns derived from various traditional Ghanaian drum ensemble pieces (such as Gahu). I found these exercises to be very useful and a very practical and musical application of rudimental snare drum paradiddle patterns.

I've taken this idea a step further and used Russell's concept but using Afro-Cuban clave patterns instead.

I like to think of this being the sort of thing that Joe Morello would have come up with if he grew up playing with Los Munequitos De Matanzas or if Changuito had studied with George Lawrence Stone (!)

So here's the rundown...

Here is a one-bar clave accent pattern written over two bars of 8/4 time:



You can basically look at this pattern as being phrased in groupings of eighth-notes like this:

6 + 6 + 4 + 6 + 6 + 4 (the pattern is repeated)

Similarily, here's a 3-2 Son Clave written the same way:



Groupings: 6 + 6 + 8 + 4 + 8

And the reverse, 2-3 Son Clave:



Groupings: 4 + 4 + 8 + 6 + 6 + 4

And finally, written as a 3-2 Rumba Clave:



Groupings: 6 + 8 + 6 + 4 + 8

So practice all these patterns as single strokes RLRL, etc. and accenting each of these clave patterns. Make sure that the strokes are even and that you are properly playing the accents so the clave pattern is clear. This is important because the whole point of this exercise is PHRASING while using rudiments.

Once you've got that down, start to substitute different paradiddle sticking patterns for the groupings of single strokes, but still following the accent patterns.

Y'a dig ?

So going back to the first 3-2 Son Clave pattern:



I would make the following substitutions:

Groups of 4 = single paradiddle

Groups of 6 = double paradiddle

Groups of 8 = triple paradiddle

So keeping that mind, the 3-2 Son Clave pattern with those paradiddle stickings would look like this:


RLRLRR LRLRLL RLRLRLRR LRLL RLRLRLRR


LRLRLL RLRLRR LRLRLRLL RLRR LRLRLRLL


You could of course also incorporate paradiddlediddles (RLRLRR) for the groups six as well.

For example, here's the same accent pattern but using a different paradiddle/sticking combination:


RLRRLL RLRRLL RLRLRLRR LRLL RLRLRLRR


LRLLRR LRLLRR LRLRLRLL RLRR LRLRLRLL


Really the possibilities are endless and I'll leave it up to you to figure out any number of sticking variations using those accent patterns and different paradiddles. One could write a book of this stuff !

For further ideas of different clave patterns to use, check out Billy Martin's fine coordination book Riddim:



Lots of great clave-type patterns from all over the world are found in that book.

Don't forget that the whole point of this is to make MUSIC. These clave patterns are powerful rhythms and you'll find many interesting ways of playing them on the drum set with these expanded sticking combinations.

I'd like to thank Russell Hartenberger and Dafnis Prieto for their help and inspiration with these ideas.

Now grab your practice pad and hit the 'shed !

Elvin Jones Independence Exercises

About ten years ago I had the opportunity to hear the great Elvin Jones give a masterclass in Montreal, Quebece at the Salle Gesu concert hall. It was part of a clinic "tour" sponsored by Yamaha and consisted of a series of clinics in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. Check out the photo at the very bottom of Elvin decked out in his Habs jersey !
(go leafs)

It was a brilliant clinic on so many levels. Jones talked at length about his career, his influences and his experience playing with John Coltrane among other things. He also played quite a bit and demonstrated his approach to using the rudiments (in a very loose, march-like context that only Elvin can pull off), his brushwork, his soloing with mallets and his loose, broken approach to timekeeping in 3/4. It seems like just yesterday that Jones passed away, so I consider my lucky to have seen Elvin as many times as I did.

Lucky for us, Elvin even went as far as to describe some of his technical concepts in great detail, actual exercises that he had worked on that allowed him to develop his unique, revolutionary and highly influential style of jazz drumming. I wasn't really expecting Jones to be so specific in explaining his technique so this all took me by surprise at the time. The following exercises are from notes I took as best as I could and from my memory.

1) Elvin's Inner Triplet Exercise:

The first patterns that Elvin demonstrated deal with different ways that he voiced inner triplet subdivisions around the drum set in the context of the jazz ride cymbal rhythm. By exposing and giving more attention to those inner triplets, it serves to help open up and stretch the beat quite a bit. This is something Elvin was renowned for.

Play the following pattern with the Right hand on the ride cymbal, filling in the missing triplets on the snare drum with the Left hand:



The basic sticking pattern resembles this:

RLL RLR RLL RLR RLL RLR RLL RLR etc.

The next pattern is the Left hand snare drum pattern/inner triplet pattern isolated:



So this is the pattern that we are going to concern ourselves with within the context of the ride cymbal pattern.

While playing the steady ride cymbal rhythm, play the inner triplets in the following sequences (or "cells" as I like to call them) between the Left hand, hihat and bass drum using the inner triplet rhythm from above:

S = Snare drum
B = Bass drum
H = Hihat

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THREE VOICE VARIATIONS

S B H

S H B

B S H

B H S

H S B

H B S

This is what the first four variations would look like:



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TWO VOICE VARIATIONS

S S B
S B S
B S S

B B S
B S B
S B B

S S H
S H S
H S S

H H S
H S H
S H S

B B H
B H B
H B B

H H B
H B H
B H H

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Repeat each of these cells or mix them up (as illustrated above) but the key is to keep the ride cymbal pattern steady and maintain a constant and even linear triplet pattern between the limbs. It's a relatively easy pattern but you'll find - as Elvin demonstrated (of course in a much more simpler manner !) that these different variations distort the time and stretch the beat in very interesting ways.

*Another nice variation that I discovered today is to play all the variations I described above with Brushes on the snare drum (i.e. with both hands on the snare drum) Try to incorporate some sore of sweeping motion with the Left hand while playing these patterns*

2) Elvin's Polyrhythmic Exercise

The following is a pattern that Elvin described as the foundation for his poly-rhythmic approach to the drums. Light bulbs were going off in the audience as he played this !

The hand pattern looks like this:



Basically you are playing the jazz ride cymbal rhythm with the Right hand while playing quarter note triplets on the snare drum with your Left. However the quarter note triplets don't start on the downbeat and instead start on the second eighth note. This pattern implies a displaced 3 against 2 polyrhythm.

Here is the displaced quarter note triplet rhythm isolated:



Once you've got that down with the hands, add the following bass drum and hihat pattern underneath.



This is the tricky part !

While the hihat is only playing beats 2 & 4, the bass drum is playing dotted quarter notes in a cycle that last 3 measures of 4/4 time. This pattern represents a 2 against 3 polyrhythm, but on a larger scale. So when you add the hands and feet together you will get two different layers of polyrhythms happening at the same time. It takes a bit of time to get together but it's highly effective when you do. Elvin used this pattern all the time and you can hear him playing it on such albums as Sonny Rollins' "A Night at the Village Vanguard" and my favorite Lee Konitz record "Motion".

I hope my explanation of these exercises has been clear enough : )

Thank you Elvin.

Some Technique Exercises

Having been on the road for a good portion of the past two months, my Real Feel practice pad got a good workout during my travels. It's important to keep in shape while traveling and always a challenge to come up with things to work on that challenge both the technical and creative aspects of being a drummer without the benefit of shedding on an actually drum set. I always bring a pair of sticks and some form of drum pad with me whenever I'm on the go.

Here's a few exercises I've been working on:

1) STICK CONTROL - PAGE 6:

This is something that John Riley showed me, that Joe Morello had showed him.

Take the first few pages of Stick Control and apply the following stickings:

R = RLRR

L = LRLL

So the first line of Stick Control (RLRL RLRL) would look something like this:

RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL etc.

A double stroke sticking (RRLL RRLL) turns into this:

RLRR RLRR LRLL LRLL RLRR RLRR LRLL LRLL

A single paradiddle sticking (RLRR LRLL) would look something like this:

RLRR LRLL RLRR RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL LRLL

2) STICK CONTROL TRIPLET VARIATION:

A variation I came up with uses the same concept but uses triplet stickings instead:

R = RLR

L = LRL

So then a double stroke sticking (RRLL RRLL) would turn into this:

RLR RLR LRL LRL RLR RLR LRL LRL

And a paradiddle sticking (RLRR LRLL) would look like this:

RLR LRL RLR RLR LRL RLR LRL LRL

* For all these exercises and variations, put an accent > on the beginning of each paradiddle/triplet *

Ya' dig ?

Here's the first few lines of Stick Control to get you started:



3) TIME KEEPING AND THE DRUM PAD

I always have to keep in mind that hand technique is important - but it's not music (!) So when I'm working out on my drum pad, I always make sure to address some exercises that at least have me thinking about time keeping and swinging.

One thing I like to do is a play a medium tempo swing ride cymbal pattern with my Right hand and go through some different triplet variations against that with the Left hand. I try to get it to swing and feel as "triplety" as possible.

Check out this youtube clip of Ulysses Owens demonstrating his pre-gig warmup, as he basically does the same thing as I do:

Some Rudiments To Practice...

I came up with these variations on the rudiment commonly known as the "Swiss Army Triplet."
Tony Williams was known for his creative use of this pattern around the drum set during the 70's.

I just recently figured out how to create drum parts and notation on Sibelius after having this great program on my computer for almost seven years now !

So I'm pleased to share my first attempts with you.


SWISS ARMY TRIPLET VARIATIONS

The basic idea is that you make the last note of each swiss army triplet an accented flam.

Consequently, the lead hand ends up playing a steady stream of eighth notes with an accent on the first beat.
It's a bit of a chop buster so take it slow and relax.

I'm not an expert, but I think these would be good patterns to apply the Moeller stroke to a rhythmic pattern.

(I'm going to see JoJo Mayer give a clinic next month so I'll see then what he reveals about the fabled "Moeller" stroke)

I've written out this pattern four different ways.

1) Triplets - Right Hand Lead

2) Triplets - Left Hand Lead

3) Eighth Notes - Right Hand Lead

4) Eighth Notes - Left Hand Lead

Okay, now go get your drum pad and get to work !