Elvin-ish Quarter Note Triplet Exercises in Four-Note Groupings ala Bill Stewart

Last week I received more e-mails requesting PDFs than I have in a long time.  It seems many of you really enjoyed the various Elvin inspired exercises.  I've been enjoying them too, so I kept going with them.

This time around I've taken the quarter note triplet exercises, and experimented with playing groupings of four notes.  Because there are only three notes in the bar, the four note phrases will roll over the barline, and resolves tidily after four bars.

Starting on the beat looks like this:

While starting on the second note looks like this:

Bill Stewart does this quite often to great effect.  You can see one example of it here on the blog in the transcription of "Metamorphosis".

Adding this variable to the mix means that the possibilities are pretty much endless in terms of voicings, but I came up with three simple ideas to get you started.

2&2

Pick any two voices, and play two of each: SSBB; HHSS; BBHH, etc.

AABA

Pick any two voices and treat one as A and one as B: BBSB; SSBS; HHSH, etc.

ABAC

Use all three voices and treat one as A, one as B, and one as C: BSBH; SHSB; HBHS, etc.

Permutations of a Bill Stewart fill

If you're a Bill Stewart fan then you almost certainly recognize this lick...

It pops up quite a lot in Bill's playing.  The placement of the bass drum seems to change from time to time.  Maybe it's a tempo thing or maybe just a personal choice.  Either way it's worth trying all three versions.

I was playing around with this phrase recently and started moving it around the bar, and inverting it, ending up with ideas like this....

Just by shifting everything by an 8th note we can get three very different feeling phrases.  Place the bass drum in all three places for each permutation and all of a sudden we've got 9 different phrases to play around with.

By playing 16th notes instead of triplets we can take this one step farther....

We now have a three beat phrase, which works well in 3/4, or perhaps even more so, as a hemiola idea that moves over the bar line.

Send me an e-mail if you'd like a PDF page of all the combinations.

Happy Birthday, Bill Stewart!

I first discovered Bill Stewart circa 2002 when I saw him play with Michael Brecker and Adam Rogers, and he's been one of my favorite drummers ever since.  So on this, his 49th birthday, I thought I'd post up a few things that I've had sitting in the drafts folder for awhile.

Bill has been playing in an organ trio with Larry Goldings and Peter Bernstein for the last 25 years.  They release material as "The Larry Goldings Trio", "The Peter Bernstein Trio", and "Peter Bernstein, Larry Goldings and Bill Stewart".  But regardless of what name they play under, when these three get together general bad-assery abounds.


First, here is some trading on the tune "Metamorphosis", from the Peter Bernstein record Earth Tones.  Bill has such a grasp on independence, and internalization of time and form that he can take ideas which, when seen on paper, are actually quite clinical and scientific and give them an incredibly raw and earthy, almost Elvin-y vibe.

Trading starts at 7:00

E-mail me for a PDF

Next is the intro to a Meters-esque tune from The Larry Goldings Trio record called Moonbird.  Here Bill channels his inner Ziggy but in his own, unique Bill Stewart way.