Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Reed tweaks: 16ths doubled

This is a small change to a very basic Reed method, that makes it a lot more interesting, to me. I don't seek these things out, they just happen while I'm practicing. I play with it for a minute, and realize there's a usable system for it. If it's worth doing, I'll put it on the site. 

The basic method is to play the book rhythm on the cymbal, with bass drum in unison, and fill out the spaces with 16th notes, alternating sticking. It's like Wipeout, with all of the accents falling on the right hand. It's rather dumb and I never practice it.  

Here we will play two 16ths on the cymbal/BD for each book note— where there was a note on a numbered count or an &, we'll play #e or &a. With a big exception for notes spaced an 8th apart, you do that only on the last one. We're only doubling the notes that have some space after them. Sticking is still alternating, RLRL throughout.  

Below is the rhythm as written in the book— that's Progressive Steps to Syncopation— then as it's played with the simple interpretation, and then how it's played with this interpretation: 


And here's how you would play the first line of the p. 38 exercise: 


I should point out, the idea here is not to pile on more practice obligations— it's to give us options, and make normal things more useful, and more interesting to practice, and more relevant to whatever we want to do as individuals. 

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