Ok, so its been a while since I have last posted. Life is has been moving at the speed of insanity, but that does not mean that I have not been practicing. Currently, Jeff has me working out of 2 separate books; Gary Chaffee’s Time Functioning Patterns and Tommy Igoe’s Groove Essentials.

     Time Function Patterns is really a good book. It focuses on linear patterns that repeat but shift. The good thing about this book is that all of the patterns are meant to be played with a constant cymbal ostinato. Once you have learned the pattern with one ostinato, you simply change to another and it creates a whole different feel. This book is defiantly giving my left foot a workout on the high hat petal. In fact, I am stuck in this section. The problem is that I am having some kind cross over problem between these patterns and another foot exercise that I do daily. Its killing me because the exercise is about 5 bmp faster than the pattern in the Chaffee book, so my foot tends to move too fast and I get ahead of everything, but just with the one foot. Anyone else ever have this problem? My left foot is my retarded foot anyhow.
     Groove Essentials is also really good. I am working through the workbook and playing along with CD. This allows me to get the feel of playing a band without actually playing with a band. Also each groove is played at 2 speeds; slow and fast. The slow is around 90 bpm, which is pretty easy but creates a lot of space for me to get creative. The fast is about 155 bpm played with an 8th note ostinato. It’s blazing fast and I struggle with the ostinato at that speed, let alone trying to get fancy with the groove. The grooves are broken up my genre such as Rock, Jazz, Blues, Funk, Ect… I am still in the Rock but I am looking forward to experimenting with other genre’s so that I can add more tools to the toolkit.

Anyhow if you looking for a good book to work through, try one or both of these. Until next time….

     To my surprise, April's Drum magazine featured Jose Pasillas Jr, from Incubus. Finally they feature an artist that I care about, sweet! I think that Jose Pasillas is an awesome drummer and deserved much kudos because of the way he puts together off-beat grooves and his cymbal work.
     After reading the article I think that I personally would have asked more about how changing the bass player has changed the sound of the band. I definitely notice a difference between the pre ‘A Crow left of the murder’ Incubus and the Incubus of today. I understand that Dirk Lance had a lot to do with not only the bands song writing, but the core itself. Not to mention that I read that Ben Kenney does not even play the old stuff the same way it was originally written. He does not play any of the slap bass at all! That is bound to change the sound. It’s a shame if you ask me, I really loved both “Make Yourself” and “Morning View”, these are among my favorite CD’s of all time. And although I really like “A Crow”, I think that their latest, “Light Grenades” is probably the worst CD they have done to date. I get into some of it, but if it were any other band, I would have thrown it out long ago. It also disappoints me that I can never see the old Incubus live.
     I also would really love to know the real story behind why he is no longer with the band.
Anyhow, check out the magazine. It also has an article written about online drum lessons. I have added them to the links section of this website. Yea, I stole the links right from the magazine.