The Groove Etymology page is quickly becoming my student’s favorite page.  What started out as a place to organize grooves from specific genres or time periods, has grown to include more than just transcriptions.  It now contains YouTube links for listening to each set of grooves, and digital flash cards for studying all their pertinent info.  This is another great way to better utilize the time you have to spend away from the kit.  Check out the added content HERE.

As part of the Groove Etymology page project, I plan on adding some of the most popular rock songs/grooves from every decade.  This month I transcribed the essential grooves from the birth decade of Rock n’ Roll – the 1950’s.   The drummers responsible for the first rock beats were either jazz drummers, or heavily influenced by jazz, as evident by the many grooves with a swing feel.  This is the first set of grooves that I have organized in chronological order, which should make clearer the rock/jazz groove evolution that took place in rock music’s first 10 years.  Head to the Groove Etymology page to check out all of the content, or Download the 1950’s Rock Grooves PDF HERE.  (I didn’t have time to create a playlist or flash cards to study for this set of grooves, but they will be here with next month’s update!)

I am always looking for ways to help my students (and Me!) strengthen their connection to the quarter note pulse.  So this month I finally wrote down some syncopated rhythm challenges I have been using with my students for a while now.  Head over to the Lesson Materials page, and under the Reading tab, select “Pulse Focus” to find out more, and download the PDF.

My students have also been benefitting from the new flash card app that I have been testing (Notedex), so I will continue adding new flashcard “stacks” to study on the Groove Etymology page.  This month, I added a new stack for “Hi-Hat-istory Part 1” which you can check out HERE.

Flash cards have always been the most expeditious way for me to memorize facts, so I am a little surprised it took me this long to start using them for memorizing drum facts.  Technology has made this even more easier with the advent of digital flashcards.  I spent some time this month testing digital flash card apps with my students, and ultimately landed on “Notedex”.  You can check out the first set of flashcards for DrumFillosophy.com below for Rock 101 memorization (from the Groove Etymology page).

Groove 101 Flash Cards

This also led to a slight revamping of the Rock 101 handout which you can also download HERE.

The great thing about the Notedex app, is it is a great “Away from the kit” practice, and can be done on any device that has an internet connection. 

I haven’t been posting about it, but I haven’t drummed for 4 months.  I have been on workers comp and getting therapy/treatments for Tendonosis in both arms.  I actually just got cleared to work again yesterday, and this month I wanted to share some of the stretching and strengthening exercises that have helped me recover – particularly because all drummers can and SHOULD use them as a preventative measure.  I have added them to the Drum Fillosophy 101 page under the “Pro Advice” category, but I have also included links for both PDF’s below.

• Stretching and Strengthening 1
• Stretching and Strengthening 2

I have also added 2 new exercises to the Basic Rebound Control hand out for my beginner students.  It has been updated for both the “Counting” and “No Counting” versions on the Lesson Materials page, but you can also find them on the links below.

• Basic Rebound Control (with counting)
• Basic Rebound Control (no counting)

While I am grateful for the growth of my website (and y’all’s feedback!), sometimes the amount of back end website work I have to do is a real time suck!  This month, I have fixed a host of display issues, defunct links, and worked on some optimization to boot.  By all means keep the suggestions coming though – despite all of the content being free on this site, I take pride in it being high quality as well! 

I have been having a lot of success with teaching my students Jazz Independence/Comping with the transcriptions/play alongs on the Jazz Grooving page, so May’s update comes with three more great exercises — all transcriptions of the comping rhythms of great artists, orchestrated for the snare and bass drum (to be played with ride time and 2&4 on the HH). 

1. Autumn Leaves (Hank Jones’ piano comping)
2. Sonny’s Crib (Sonny Clark’s piano comping)
3. Giant Steps (Tommy Flanagan’s piano coming and Art Taylor’s drum comping)

Check out all 15 of the comping exercises on Jazz Grooving page.

The New Breed, by Gary Chester is one of those must have books for every drummers library.  However, it his too hard for most students starting to learn groove coordination.  I have always wanted to write a simpler version of it to get my students introduced to Chester’s concepts without such a steep entry point.  Well, I finally got around to it this month, and you can find my “New Breed Primer” on the Lessons Page.  Click on the “Groove Vocabulary” tab>“New Breed Primer,”  maybe read a little, and then download the PDF’s!

This month I have added Part 2 of the “Open Hi-hat-istory” examples.  This adds 15 more of my favorite usages of opening the hi-hat in a groove context spanning many genres, and many decades.  You can find links to the PDF and youtube playlist on the Groove Etymology page.

Opening the Hi-Hat during grooves is challenging for younger students, so I finally got organized and put together some transcriptions and a playlist for my students to develop this skill progressively.  While this is only Part 1 of this series, there are some real challenges towards the end of the 15 examples.  Check it out on the Groove Etymology page – enjoy!

Creating the “What’s New” page 3 years ago has been a pain in my butt…but creating a page where people visit to see what new content as arrived every month, has forced me to keep the content of this site growing…and looking back on the result of that self imposed accountability, I am proud of the progress.  I hope you are enjoying all of the completely free content, and if you want to support Drum Fillosophy in a small way, you can always buy my 1st book “Melodic Stick Control” HERE.  FYI, my 2023 resolution is to get my 2nd book done!!  Even though working hard on the new book, I will keep new content coming every month, and this month you will find 3 new play along SoundSlices for the reading exercises on the Melody Rhythm Reading page:

1. In The Air Tonight
2. Sledge Hammer
3. Come Together

Click HERE to see what was new in 2022.