"Syncopation" by Ted Reed -Anyone have suggestions on ways to practice?

drummer08

Junior Member
Everyone who reads knows this book... looking for ways to practice the notes other than the obvious reading on the snare. Any ideas?
 
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Pish. Can't remember the name, but theres a book out there with heaps of variations, might be related to Alan Dawson?

Otherwise my drum teacher gave me heaps...

Play the syncopated line with snare, jazz ride pattern with right hand, HH on 2 and 4.
Sync Line with kick, Jazz ride, HH on 2 and 4.

As a fill:
Play Sync Line with right hand, swinging the 8th notes.
Play Sync Line w/ right hand, fill in blank spaces with 8ths on left.
Play Sync Line w/ right hand, fill in implied triplets with left.

Play Sync Line w/ both hands (R ride, L snare) over samba, Baiao, Songo foot patterns...

Theres heaps and heaps, I'd need to write them out to get more complicated.
 
Syncopation Exercises phrasing the melodies

Melody = Syncopation exercises

Jazz
1. RH – Jazz Ride
RF – Quarter Notes
LF – 2, 4
LH – Melody

2. RH – Jazz Ride
LH – Cross-stick on beat 4
LF – 2, 4
RF – Melody

3. RH – Jazz Ride
LF - 2, 4
LH – Short notes (8th notes)
RF – Long notes (quarter notes or longer)

4. RH – Jazz Ride
LF – 2, 4
RF – Melody
LH – Triplet partials not used in melody

5. RH – Jazz Ride
LF - 2, 4
LH – Melody
RF – Triplet partials not used in melody

6. RH – Jazz Ride
RF, LF – Alternate Melody
LH – Triplet partials not used in melody

7. RH – Jazz Ride
RF – Quarter Notes
LH – Short Notes
LF – Long Notes

8. RH – Jazz Ride
RF – Quarter Notes
LH – Cross-stick on 2, 4
LF – Melody

9. RH, RF – Melody
LF – 2, 4
LH – Triplet partials not used in Melody

10. RH - Jazz Ride
LH - Quarter Note Triplets
LF - 2,4
RF - Melody

11. RH - Jazz Ride
LH - Melody
LF - 2,4
RF - Quarter Note Triplets
 
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Good suggestions by Jeffwj...if you want to make your life miserable ;)

Something I've come up with is playing the full-page exercises (starting on pg. 38) with the melody part broken up between two limbs alternating.

For example, you could play:

RH--Jazz ride
LF--2 & 4
LH & RF--Melody

or

RH--Jazz ride
RF--4 on the floor
LH & LF--Melody

It's a great way to get your limbs talking to each other, you can create little dialogues between two voices. And you can break the melody up in different ways. You could just do straight alternation with two limbs or, say, play all the eighth notes in the melody on your snare and play everything on the bass drum
 
Thanks all for the excellent advice. I had gone through the book a long time ago and was trying to remember all the variations I knew from taking lessons... let's not forget :

RH- Jazz Ride
LH- Melody
LF- Quarter Note Triplets- beggining on 1

RH- Jazz Ride
LH- Melody
LF- Quarter Note Triplets- beginning on the the 2nd 8th note triplet of 1
 
Good suggestions by Jeffwj...if you want to make your life miserable ;)

I'm going to have to try a couple of those.:)

Another exercise is constant triplets on snare: 1's and 3s (RH lead), 2's 4's(LH lead), melody where ever you want it: toms or cymbals.
 
I really like practising independence with it. You can play some patterns on the ride and play the stuff on the first pages with your left hand. This is pretty tricky in the beginning (with foot ostinato and right-hand pattern) but once you've worked your way through the pages you can play like any variation to the beat you're been practising.

EDIT: Okay that's pretty lame compared to all your proposals ...
:D
 
hmm... Lately I've been using it for independence in Latin type grooves. I do quarters with the hi-hat, clave with left hand, bass drum is on the and of 2 and on 4 than I would play the exercises on the ride cymbal/cowbell with my right hand. You can then switch up what kind of clave you play and do it again i.e. 2/3 3/2 rhumba, son etc. Take turns doing the exercises on each limb, while keeping the other limbs in Latin patterns.
 
hmm... Lately I've been using it for independence in Latin type grooves. I do quarters with the hi-hat, clave with left hand, bass drum is on the and of 2 and on 4 than I would play the exercises on the ride cymbal/cowbell with my right hand. You can then switch up what kind of clave you play and do it again i.e. 2/3 3/2 rhumba, son etc. Take turns doing the exercises on each limb, while keeping the other limbs in Latin patterns.

Thats a really cool idea, just tried it for an hour, sounds good.
 
Syncopation Exercises phrasing the melodies

Melody = Syncopation exercises
6. RH – Jazz Ride
RF, LF – Alternate Melody
LH – Triplet partials not used in melody

Some of these are really tough Jeff, great ideas! It took me a bit to get into this one, i started applying some SC stickings, to the 'alternating melody'. It ended up in me trying to work things out more than sight reading.lol. Filling in the 'lost' triplets is a cool idea.

play all the eighth notes in the melody on your snare and play (all of the melody) on the bass drum
Cool idea too Zack! Combine it with Jeff's...but in 11/16, and don't play every 5th triplet...
 
I spend some time playing as follows:

1. Right hand on top line, left hand on bottom
2. Left hand on top line, right hand on bottom line
3. Right hand and right foot on top line, left hand and left foot on bottom line.
4. Left hand and left foot on top line, right hand and right foot on bottom line.
5. Right hand and left foot on top line, left hand and right foot on bottom line.
6. Left hand and right foot on top line, right hand and left foot on bottom line.
 
Great suggestions all around. The can also be used for straight grooves. You can apply "systems" a la The New Breed, for example.

To borrow the format used above:

1.RH – 1/4s/8ths/16ths/combinations on HH or RC
LH – SD on 2 & 4
RF – Melody

2. RH - 1/4s/8ths/16ths/ on HH or RC
LH - all Melody notes which land on 2 or 4 and add in notes on 2 & 4 not notated
RF - all other notes

3. RH/LH - Melody played on toms
LH/RH - fill 16ths on SD

4. RH/LH - Melody played on cymbals w. BD
LH/RH - fill 16ths on SD

5. For double bass players:
RH/LH - Ostinato on HH/RC
RH/LH - SD 2&4
RF/LF - 1/8th/triplet/dotted-8th/16th/combinations exercises

Perhaps this isn't the right place for this, but I'm increasingly of the mind that there are far too many drum books/methods on the market. With creative and imaginative application of just a few books, there is a lifetime of study that would MORE than prepare a player physically for the demands of being a professional player. The suggestions in this thread (and linked to) could take years to really master if one took the time.
 
To help my bass drum foot, I like to play 1e& 2e& etc.on the hi-hat with my right hand, cross stick on 2 and 4 while the right foot plays the syncopation line. The hi-hat is open on the &. I learned this from watching Steve Smith who does it extremely well.
 
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Lot's of good ideas for the "Syncopation" section already. Some smart mofo's on here :p

With the left hand on the melody, try to incorporate buzz strokes - buzz the long notes, tap the short ones.

Playing different ostinato's with the feet like samba feet. Or Calypso feet (3 side of the clave, 3+3+2, Biayo, etc) 1 +a's, 1e+'s, 1e a's, or solid 16th's for the ride pattern. Same thing w/the buzzs for the these.

With the 3+3+2 bass pattern, you can play both hands on snare 16th's and accent the melody line, either alternating or all with the right hand.
 
p.s. anyone have the old school copy with Ted's surly introduction about how drummers are TERRIBLE at reading music... especially the 'dance' drummer!?!? Always, cracks me up :) My students have the 'new' version which has a softer, gentler intro... whatever.
 
p.s. anyone have the old school copy with Ted's surly introduction about how drummers are TERRIBLE at reading music... especially the 'dance' drummer!?!? Always, cracks me up :) My students have the 'new' version which has a softer, gentler intro... whatever.

I'm still teaching from a tattered copy my father bought during the first publication run in 1958-9!
 
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