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Stick Stuff 21 – Baiao Progression
Baiao Progression Stick Stuff
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Stick Stuff 20 – Cool Chords
Cool Chords Stick Stuff
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Stick Stuff 19 – 7/8 Ostinato
7/8 Ostinato Stick Stuff
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Stick Stuff 18 – Interlocking Chord Rhythms
Interlocking Chord Rhythms Here’s another rhythmic/harmonic exercise. It uses the basic rhythm of “Most Excellent Weirdness”. This is the basic rhythm: To make things easy we only use two ‘chords’ or rather modes. Here is the pattern for the treble hand. The chord symbols are really only used as a rough guide. This is the…
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Stick Stuff 17 – Advanced Chord Scales
Advanced Chord Scales For the harmonic understanding and sheer muscle memory on any instrument capable of playing chords, chord-scales are essential. In addition to practicing scales in single notes and triads in various inversions I came up with these ‘thick ambiguous yet diatonic chords’. The top/treble triads are simple inverted triads. Thus the simple chord…
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Stick Stuff 16 – Polychords
Polychords This snippet comes from a project I have been working on. It’s a recording of various larger pieces – partially orchestrated – which were directly or indirectly inspired by music of my favorite Rock bands. This piece is called Pink Floyd and has been influenced by ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. Admittedly some of…
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Stick Stuff 15 – Stick-O-Lypso
Stick-O-Lypso I was just starting to practice snare drum rudiments on the Stick when I came up with this example. Rhythmically it switches off/on beats from measure to measure from one hand to the other. This example has been used verbatim in the ‘Most Excellent Weirdness…’ behind the sax solo. Stick Stuff
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Stick Stuff 14 – Salsa in 10
Salsa in 10 Obviously this is not really a Salsa although the baseline has some sort of resemblance with a traditional ‘tumba’. For a more skillful player it might be possible to play the chords in a montuno-like rhythm. Stick Stuff
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Stick Stuff 13 – Different Olenka
Different Olenka These two examples are from a recording I did for a singer-songwriter by the name of Olenka. It was my first use of the Stick in any recording session. Don’t ask me how she came up with a 13/8 groove but I just couldn’t come up with anything useful on bass or guitar.…
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Stick Stuff 12 – 9-9-9-8
9-9-9-8 Technically this was the precursor to the 3-2-2-2 series of exercises. Patterns that have a two-note alternating line on top or bottom and a more active line on the opposite side seem to work real nicely. The two-note alternating pattern is easy to play on autopilot and then concentrate on the line on the…
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Stick Stuff 11 – Partido Weirdo
Partido Weirdo Stick Stuff
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Stick Stuff 10 – 7/4 Latin Funk
7/4 Latin Funk Endless variations of the same. The 7/4 clavé on the bottom is interesting. Stick Stuff
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Stick Stuff 9 – 9/8 Latin
9/8 Latin Stick Stuff
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Stick Stuff 8 – 6/4 Latin
6/4 Latin Interesting pattern in 6/8. The chord in the treble line can also be pulled off. Stick Stuff
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Stick Stuff 7 – 5/4 Latin Funk
5/4 Latin Funk You could call this another incarnation of the 3-2-2-2 pattern although harmonically it produces a different chord and it’s in a different meter. Stick Stuff
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Stick Stuff 6 – 5/4 Latin
5/4 latin To call this Latin may not be quite correct. This is one of my favorite cycles. Rhythmically the syncopation of the treble line creates a nice push forward against a pretty bland bass line. I especially like the chord progression, although I have not yet come up with a tune that uses it.…
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Stick Stuff 5 – 3-2-2-2-3-2-2
3-2-2-2-3-2-2 This following series of examples is a direct descendant from the 3-2-2-2 pattern. In essence it’s two 3-2-2-2 patterns in a row with the second being short by two eighths. Here is the basic rhythmic figure. Counting the eighth notes we come up with 16 of them. Now we make 16ths out of the…
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Stick Stuff 4 – 3-2-2-2
3-2-2-2 These following snippets are a continuation of the previous treble-side-only patterns. I obviously like the 3/8+3/4 meter a lot. I encountered this rhythmic pattern for the first time in a performance of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass”. Since it’s an odd number of eighth notes per measure the fingering repeats after two measures. It grooves in…
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Stick Stuff 3 – Both Hands on Treble Side
Both Hands on Treble Side The following six examples are two-handed tapping examples on the treble side only. To avoid cluttering the staff line of the treble hand (the hand that usually plays the treble side, that’s the right hand on a right handed instrument) has been written on the top staff and the bass…
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Stick Stuff 2 – Basic Funk Grooves
Basic Funk Groove 1 Try to tap this drum pattern as a preparation. Stems pointing up are snare drum – tap with the treble hand; stems pointing down are bass drum – tap with the bass hand. This is a basic Funk groove in 4/4 based on a simple I-V cycle and the above rhythmic…
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