The Drum Hang - Episode 14 Billy Higgins Solo Vocab I

Part 1 of Billy Higgins Solo Vocabulary. In this episode of The Drum Hang we explore Mr.Higgins' use of Moving Melodies (stickings), 6-Stroke Rolls, and Alternating Single Strokes. These concepts sound great and are easy to use in your playing. Higgins!
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[@raymondkarlsson9794]

Thank you, Chris for your fine contributions to the jazz drum heritage! I had the great previliage to see and hear (!) BH in my most influential years as an upcoming jazz drummer in Gothenburg, Sweden somewhere between 1980-1989. He toured with George Coleman, Joe Henderson, different Milestone artists and of course the great Cedar Walton. The last date was the greatest, March of 1989 with Cedar and David Williams. Never heard better jazz drumming. Period, and I mean it!!!

[@curiousnomad]

Drum tunings sound great! maybe a video on that?

[@delablobbo]

Good work, Chris. Nicely put together. As an elder, I'm a bit jealous of the availability of drum info for the younger cats. I am suddenly seeing around here a LOT of younger cats who can really play. Does my heart good. The music continues....

[@ChrisSmithJazzDrumHang]

Bill, thank you for checking out The Drum Hang! You know I grew up in rural Iowa and the internet didn't show up until I was in high school, also never had a private teacher to teach me jazz concepts.....so to be honest I am jealous also! But that is really what drives my videos, there are drummers of all ages all over the world hungry to get better just like me and you, and they delivered quality instruction. Instruction on how to become a musician :-) Yes you are right, the music continues!

[@rhythmfield]

We all had the same technology then as now (I’m 60): our EARS and our HEARTS. Please. The internet and zoom and this and that are great avenues but they make ZERO difference without using our ears and hearts AND: no matter what, you MUST GO OUT and actually see great drummers in person, up close and in the room. You can have a 120 inch flat screen with Bose sound bar and a Craviotto set worth $10,000-it means nothing without studying recordings and heading out to the CLUBS and concerts Just like we did! Now, I was lucky to grow up 30 min. North of NYC so admittedly that did help-during the time when you could still see Philly and Billy and Elvin in the flesh. But if you don’t put in the work and commit yourself spiritually to this path, no tech in the world can get you there on its own.

[@longfade]

Really great breakdown. Tons of wonderful ideas!

[@zenghost1]

Great lesson Chris - thanks for your generosity in educating the community. For anyone wondering, online lessons with Chris are a great experience and well worth it.

[@ChrisSmithJazzDrumHang]

Matt, thank you so much for your comment. I look forward to hanging with you on Wednesday and hearing your improvement!

[@brandonthedrummer7226]

Excellent insightful video thank you

[@fivebyfivesound]

Love his ability to move fluently between diddles and drags using same/similar sticking (LLR etc). Thanks for the great break-down, Chris!

[@andersmogensen1]

Great job, Chris. Thank you

[@TK-xo2mf]

Great video! Thanks. Keep them coming

[@cfoldesh]

That set of cymbals you got there....delicious. What are those?

[@rhythmfield]

Looks like a Paiste on the right…those cyms do sound nice!

[@jazzgreens]

Awesomeness! Thank you Chris!

[@sasamarjanovic2242]

Your channel is fantastic...learning so much...thank you...

[@nahuelmoller]

Thank you.

[@SalMichael]

Chris, this is wonderful! I love Billy it's an awesome tribute and look into his work

[@jmfs3497]

That Eastern Rebellion clip is wicked!

[@ChrisSmithJazzDrumHang]

That group is one of my all-time favorites! Bad stuff!!

[@philipnestor5034]

Great video and lesson! Do you have a PDF of some of these examples? Thanks again.

[@JulianFernandez]

Great stuff, man. Subscribed!

[@ChrisSmithJazzDrumHang]

Thanks Julian!

[@udomatthiasdrums5322]

still love his drumming!!

[@tracktuary]

Do you advise playing the triples in groups of four after The Lick? 19:28

[@skatingalbin5274]

Hey Chris! The video of the LLR sticking in the beginning is from a video of Firm Roots from the 70s with Jordan, Cedar and Jones right? Can’t find it here anymore do you maybe still have it? Thanks!

[@tracktuary]

Chris, as always, thank you for the great content! I love how you are breaking these musical phrases into pieces. Do you believe the Elvin comping can be approached using the first three notes of the 6-stroke roll? So right hand would be on cymbal, then two lefts on the snare where the second left is accented? The bass drum would then drop on the "let" of the triplet. From my understanding, this is how Justin Varnes teaches how to phrase it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qp_Ci2OlgL-hapI. So the hits would be, "one-and-TWO-three" of the triplet, or looking at the six-stroke roll: ride on 1, snare on 2 and 3, and bass drum on 5. I've been working on this phrasing, but then just picked up Riley's Jazz Drummer's Workshop, where he shows the phrasing as 1-2-and-3 of the triplet, where the snare is on 3 and 4 of the six-stroke instead of 2 and 3. I'm curious as to your thoughts. Maybe both have their place; just more options of feel. Apologies if this is confusing; I'm not great at the appropriate names for these things.

[@ChrisSmithJazzDrumHang]

Wow! It's a very good question and I will be completely honest with you. I think that trying to notate Elvin is like trying to notate Billy Higgins Ride beat...it's not possible. You can't notate feel, period. That being said I am in camp Riley and I believe that his way of writing it makes the most sense. To me it makes complete sense and gives you a VISUAL starting point as you THEN try to use your ears to morph the phrase into sounding like Elvin. There is no perfect to write it, because Elvin was a human not a machine...didn't line up in ProTools get rid of him :-) Honestly I was also really turned off how Justin claimed John's approach was wrong, I mean he said flat out wrong. I found that rude and frankly I have heard John sound more like Elvin, and John's students sound more like Elvin, than Justin Varnes. Just saying. I can get opinionated but I am not going to call out by world-class players and teachers by name. Proof is in the pudding.

[@tracktuary]

Thanks for the reply, Chris! You are right that you can't notate it perfectly. It's all about how you fall in the cracks. As I've been practicing, I'm finding it feels (and hopefully sounds) best when it's somewhere between doubled triplets and 16th notes. Different tempos call for different feels and techniques, as well. The Riley notation gives a nice "rolling into" the bass drum (3 of triplet) feel whereas the Varnes approach is a little more about the 2 of the triplet. I have room in my life for both ends of the spectrum and everything in between. I'll have to watch the video again, but I don't recall Justin calling anyone out by name.

[@ChrisSmithJazzDrumHang]

@@tracktuary I went back and watched the video again, the 5 minute video, no mention of Riley so I must be thinking of another video. I'll keep looking though, because I was kind of shocked when I heard it. Anyway, to say one is right or wrong is not really appropriate. As you perfectly stated, room for both ends of the spectrum and everything in between! Perfect. Thanks for checking out my videos, hope you get some stuff out of them!

[@jackbeaton9243]

I must be a little misinformed, but can you explain why you have 7 stokes in your six stroke roll???

[@ChrisSmithJazzDrumHang]

Jack, good question. The way I wrote it is confusing I guess, maybe I should have left out the last right quarter note because that note is really the beginning of the next 6 stroke roll or the first stroke into another rudiment or instrument (cymbal or drum). If I played the two triplets as I wrote them on my snare drum and then that quarter note with my right hand on the cymbal (basically what I wrote)...to me that is a 6 stroke roll, because the ride quarter note is most likely part of my cymbal beat. It's a grey area. If I were to simply loop the two triplets that I wrote it would be a pure 6 stroke roll. Make sense?

[@kubapastuszka9964]

What gretsch is the one you play, and these cymbals ?

[@Giannis_Papageo]

27:06 - 27:09 is someone just burping???😂😂😂

[@rhythmfield]

Sounds like it…at least it was in time

[@stevepalmer55]

I supported Billy Higgins with Eastern Rebellion at Ronnie's second club in Birmingham and got to meet up and chat in the afternoon at the club.A great player and band.Always loved when they played 'In The Kitchen' live kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGfFf5ivmK2ajZI - The Montreux Jazz Festival clips.Thumbs up kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJW7lnV6j6usgcU