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Monday, March 13, 2017

Sonny Clark comping

Something a little different: transcribed piano comping rhythms. Played by Sonny Clark on Funky Hotel Blues, a bonus track on the CD release of Sonny Rollins's The Sound of Sonny. I've written out the first three choruses of the sax solo, starting at 0:20 in the track. The form is a 12-bar blues, so that's 36 measures total. Use this as you would the syncopation exercises in Reed— I've even written them in the same format, with a “bass drum” part that you should basically ignore. I don't know why. Tradition.




Swing the 8th notes. I would use this primarily as a comping study— play a swing rhythm on the cymbal and hihat, play the written top line on the snare drum, or bass drum, or play the short notes (untied 8th notes) on the snare drum, everything else on the bass drum. Or mix them up between the snare and bass however you see fit.

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