I'll never forget when my drum teacher brought me to a Chaffee clinic out on Long Island in 1988. I was never the same musically again. His playing was so advanced and sophisticated that the drums became a very different instrument afterwards. I went through four volumes of his exercise books, but rarely did I ever find a professional use for it. Nevertheless, my independence, rhythm and musical literacy improved radically.
As a young drummer I’ve never watched this material, I’m now into Gary Chaffee’s books and now I’m realizing that he’s the real father of modern drumming 🤯
I remember working but on the A, B, C, etc patterns from his Sticking Patterns book years ago. That stuff really blew my mind and opened up a whole new world to me.
Gary’s teaching is top notch. I worked on this material 20 years ago to help with Jazz and creativity. In 2023, I’m returning to Jazz and the timeliness of this material is incredible! I’m inspired to create once again -thank you, Gary!
I was in the first group students of Gary’s when he first came to Berklee in the Fall of 1973. It was a Profound experience; never lost the thrill of it, to this day! My only regret is that I left school with a huge stack of Xeroxed pages that now comprise his many books, a stack that was ruined in a flood. Slowly caught up. I guess there are “Ups and Downs” in life as well… 🥴🤔
Couldn’t get these videos in Australia at the time so I wrote to him and he graciously burnt copies to DVD for me. Think I had to post a money order to pay him😂 But yes, awesome stuff - the “fatback” exercises are so useful
If you feel like other players have more talent or that you are losing you momentum, check out Gary Chafee's method books. There you might find ways to unlock your own potential and break through.
Love the video but if your playing in a band and or with other musicians … I don’t think you could use a lot of this in a musical setting … might be conceived as overplaying
Good sound. But I don’t like the way the left is curtailed, marginalised, and cramped into a subservient role. With an x hat, a better player, could mix the lead role between right AND left, and then mix the subservient role between left AND right.
But how much more musical purpose would that really serve? The phrasing would still be voiced the same regardless of which hand leads… Also, most of Gary’s “patterns” books take this material in the final chapter to a jazz context. And the averaging working jazz drummer isn’t going to have much more than the standard 1up/1down kit they gig with. The notation in his books usually won’t even have a 3rd tom voice.
