Drumming

Here’s my video explaining the basics of Zigaboo Modeliste’s seminal groove on The Meters’ Cissy Strut.

Here’s a follow up to the recent video I made about the world famous Purdie Shuffle. In this one I cover playing a ghost note after the backbeat accented snare note and the ope hihat options. Enjoy.

After getting my 20″ Zildjian ride lathed and improved by Dave Collingwood, I was delighted he agreed to have a conversation with me where I asked him about his journey as a cymbal maker, being self-taught, the desire to share…

I had my clunky 20″ Zildjian Ride modified by UK cymbalsmith Dave Collingwood who lathed a bunch of metal off it. In this video I explain the process and demonstrate the differences between the original and modified versions of the…

I was very glad to have the opportunity to speak with drummer Michael Oloyede from Lagos in Nigeria who’s written a brilliant book on Afrobeat. The book covers technical exercises to help develop the coordination you need for Afrobeat drumming…

I recently contacted master British cymbal maker, Dave Collingwood, if he could do something to improve my 20″ Zildjian Ride cymbal. I’ve been feeling a bit at a loss as to what to do with the thing since it seems…

Here’s a couple of videos introducing some technical exercises that will help you develop the coordination required to play Afrobeat in a Tony Allen influenced style. These exercises are written for the ride cymbal in order to allow the focus…

My latest video is a demonstration of the Tunnel Test which is a way of using a metronome with some bars of click and some bars of silence. This is a great way to improve your internal clock and gain…

Here’s a quick video explaining how to develop your fill playing for Train beats. The key thing is to drill a bunch of accent patterns (and ideally memorise them) at a slow tempo and in relaxed style. Once you can…

I can’t for the life of me decide if I should write hihat as one word or hi hat as two words. What do you think? Here’s the lowdown on how to play the left-handed hihat bark as you might…