Skip to content

Drum Blog

Charley Wilcoxon - Rudimental Swing Solos Cover

Learning Charley Wilcoxon’s Rudimental Swing Solos – Rolling In Rhythm

I haven’t done much by the way of learning drum solos such as those written by Charley Wilcoxon. I started learning Rolling In Rhythm and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. I intend on working my way through the book slowly but surely. I’m not exactly sure what the end result is meant to sound like. There are a few examples on Youtube. This guy has the speed down, I guess this is how the marching drummer… Read More »Learning Charley Wilcoxon’s Rudimental Swing Solos – Rolling In Rhythm

50% Off The Kinks Musical – Sunny Afternoon

I got an email from a chap called Cameron at cheaptheatretickets.com who wanted me to let you all know that after two very successful years, Sunny Afternoon, the Kinks musical, is closing. If you’d like to see it before it closes, you can get half-price tickets by following this link – www.cheaptheatretickets.com/sunny-afternoon/. If you like musicals and the Kinks in particular, this looks like a great deal. See my review here -?joethedrummer.com/i-saw-the-kinks-musical-sunny-afternoon/

Afrobeat Drumming – Beats Of Tony Allen, Book Review

OK, I think it’s obvious by now that I’m really in to the drumming of Tony Allen and Afrobeat in general. When I got into Afrobeat, I looked for teaching materials to help me develop my Afrobeat chops. There weren’t many resources available so I had to start writing my own. Over the last couple of years I’ve managed to get a good sense of Tony Allen’s drumming and have been lucky enough to see Allen live on two occasions.… Read More »Afrobeat Drumming – Beats Of Tony Allen, Book Review

Developing Coordination With Afrobeat Drumming Pt. 3

If you haven’t seen them already, Check out part 1 and part 2. So let’s continue to develop our coordination with Tony Allen’s first groove of Afrobeat. Now that we can play a bunch of different ride and snare patterns, it’s time to do some work on the left foot. A unique aspect of Tony Allen’s style is the way he creates an interesting interaction between his hi-hat foot and his hi-hat hand patterns. I missed this facet of his… Read More »Developing Coordination With Afrobeat Drumming Pt. 3

David Byrne: When to Resist Technology

I accidentally found this clip on this Vimeo channel in which David Byrne talks about technology used in music making. I am very ambivalent about technology in general and think its use in creating music has turned in to a negative force in many ways. Valve amps electric guitars and Hammond organs are great, sequencers and drum replacement software taking over the majority of mainstream music, not so great. Anyway, Byrne’s thoughts here are interesting and pertinent. David Byrne: When… Read More »David Byrne: When to Resist Technology

Beathaven – Good Riddance To The Old Music Business, Not

So I got a message via LinkedIn from a bloke promoting his website, thebeathaven.com. It’s one of those sites where musicians can post their tracks and invite others to add parts to the arrangement. If your contribution is used and the track earns some money, you can get your slice of the pie. All very cool. This is the kind of idea that allows people from all over the world a crack at earning some money using their musicianship, composition… Read More »Beathaven – Good Riddance To The Old Music Business, Not

Developing Coordination With Afrobeat Drumming Pt. 2

In my last post I shared a bunch of exercises based on Tony Allen’s first Afrobeat groove that worked on some different ride patterns to help free us up to improvise with Afrobeat drumming. In this post we’ll look at changing the snare part around still based on the same original groove. The object of these exercises is to develop the facility to improvise freely with all limbs. The way I work on stuff like this is to practice each… Read More »Developing Coordination With Afrobeat Drumming Pt. 2

Developing Coordination With Afrobeat Drumming

I’ve been spending a fair amount of time working on my Afrobeat chops. I’ve been listening to a lot of Fela Kuti and his artistic descendants such as Antibalas and Abayomi Afrobeat Orquestra. I am slowly starting to grasp the complex style of Tony Allen’s drumming in particular and it’s a lot like developing jazz chops. Anyway, I wrote myself a sheet of exercises based on Tony Allen’s first groove of Afrobeat. There’s a bunch of tricky stuff I wanted… Read More »Developing Coordination With Afrobeat Drumming

Mike Dolbear Announces Ultimate Drum Experience 2016

I just saw Mike’s video explaining what UDE is. I attended the Ultimate Drum Experience a couple of years back and it was a brilliant learning experience. It was well organised, the teachers were amazing and I got to learn about a bunch of stuff that I wouldn’t have normally thought about. I really enjoyed my time on the course and would highly recommend it to any advanced drummers including teachers. For more info go to: www.ultimatedrumexperience.co.uk/page/ultimate-drum-experience-2016-event-details

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy