http://www.vicfirth.com/exchange/2012/07/06/alan-dawsons-syncopation-jazz-plus-more/
July 6, 2012 1:41 pm in Drumset by kevin
fortunato
Hey Everyone, thanks for tuning in again this month.
Let’s get right to the point, shall we? Today I’m going to demonstrate examples
of jazz coordination using Ted Reed’s book “Syncopation”. Just to give
you a little history lesson before we get started, the book wasn’t written with
these exercises in mind. What you’re about to hear and see are the now famous
exercises designed by legendary drummer and teacher Alan Dawson. For those of
you who don’t know who Alan is, look him up on wikipedia – he’s arguably the
most influential drum teacher of all time, and the former educator to other
legendary drummers like Tony Williams, John Ramsay, Bob Gullotti, and Terri
Lynn Carrington to name just a few. Unfortunately, I never studied with Alan,
but rather it was Bob Gullotti who passed most of this information along to me.
(with the exception of Examples 10, 11, and 12 – which I thought of as a result
of working with John Riley’s books) And now I’m passing it along to you. Keep
in mind that most of these patterns have the traditional “jazz ride cymbal and
stepped hihat” played throughout. You will notice that pattern immediately in
my hand written version of example 1.
