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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….
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