How To Play Jazz On The Drums

A Drummer's Guide To Jazz

Brandon Toews  /  Sep 30, 2019

This is an extract from The Drummer'south Toolbox: The Ultimate Guide To Learning 101 Drumming Styles. The book goes into even more particular nigh jazz drumming!

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Jazz: A brief introduction to the genre

Jazz music originated in New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 1800s. For African-Americans living in New Orleans during this time, jazz music was a manner of responding to cultural problems like racism, segregation, and discrimination.

At that time, styles of music similar blues and ragtime were major influences on the development of jazz music. Over the by century, many subgenres of jazz have emerged including Dixieland, large band, bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, complimentary jazz, Latin jazz, jazz fusion, and many more!

Most styles of jazz music feature a rhythm section with upright bass (sometimes electric bass), drums, piano (sometimes keyboards), and ane or more instruments responsible for playing the melody of the music – like trumpet, trombone, saxophone, or voice.

Jazz is an incredibly unique genre where musicians are constantly innovating and pushing musical boundaries. Jazz presents drummers with the opportunity to improvise and interact with other musicians in real time. This makes for the perfect artistic opportunity to explore the drum ready in brand new ways.

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The Fundamentals

Jazz is triplet-based music that has a swing feel (yes, there are exceptions). In jazz music, rhythms are interpreted differently than they are in pop and stone music. When nosotros see an eighth annotation rhythm it will be interpreted in eighth note triplets.
The most important element of jazz drumming is the ride cymbal pattern. Equally drummers, nosotros need to establish the swing feel for the rest of the ring past playing that consistent ride pattern. Here is what the standard jazz pattern looks like.

Another essential element is the howdy-hat which is played on beats 2 and 4 (when playing in 4/4 fourth dimension). Here's what the ride cymbal pattern looks like accompanied by the hi-hat foot design.

Jazz music is interactive. Musicians accompany and react to other musicians based on the melodic and rhythmic motifs that they play. This act of accompaniment and reaction is known as comping. As drummers, we tin comp for other musicians with all 4 of our limbs. Practicing comping is also an excellent way to develop independence in a jazz context. Hither are some examples of comping ideas applied to each separate limb and to multiple limbs also.

Comping with the snare drum

Comping with the bass pulsate

Comping with the hi-hat

Comping with the ride cymbal

Comping with multiple limbs

Whether yous're playing stone, pop, jazz, or any other style of music, it is of import to have vocabulary that tin exist used in specific styles of music. Ane of the best ways to acquire new vocabulary is past listening to your favorite drummers and trying to imitate them – we'll wait further into this in the adjacent sections. In the meantime, here are a few phrases that tin be played in a jazz context. You tin can orchestrate these patterns in different ways to develop your own unique vocabulary as well!

Phrase inspired past Max Roach

Phrase using a repeating snare drum/bass drum effigy

Phrase using double stops (unison strokes)

Playing with brushes is another essential part of jazz drumming. Brush playing tin be heard on countless jazz recordings, from ballads to up-tempo swing tunes! You can learn more than near brush playing in this lesson with Peter Erskine:

The Equipment

Today, "jazz drum sets" generally consist of a bass drum (16"-twenty"), a rack tom (10"-thirteen"), a floor tom (fourteen"), and a snare pulsate (14"). In the by, the sizes that jazz drummers chose to use depended significantly on what type of jazz music they were playing and the size of the ensemble they were playing with. For case, big band drummers would often apply bass drums that were 22" or larger while drummers who were playing styles like bebop would often apply eighteen" bass drums. Today, many drummers will look for a drum ready that is versatile (one that tin can be used for a multifariousness of musical styles) or they volition accept two separate drum sets: one with smaller vanquish sizes and one with larger vanquish sizes.

The bulk of jazz drummers use i or two ride cymbals (twenty"-22"), one crash cymbal (18"-20") and a pair of hullo-hats (13"-15"). You will also see jazz drummers simply using two ride cymbals and a set of hi-hats (with no crash cymbal at all). In general, cymbals used in jazz music will be thinner than cymbals used in pop and stone music. Thinner cymbals are generally more than responsive than thicker cymbals. They also "open up up" much more hands than thicker cymbals which makes them ideal for brush playing. Ride cymbals and crash cymbals will often have cymbal rivets in them as well.

Jazz drummers well-nigh ever use coated drumheads. These produce a warmer sound with less attack than clear drumheads. While both single and double ply drumheads are available, single ply drumheads are most ordinarily used for jazz because of their sensitivity and their "open" sound. Coated drumheads are as well necessary for playing with brushes.

Snare Drums:

Ride Cymbals:

21″ Sabian HH Vanguard Ride

REVERB

How-do-you-do-Hats:

Crash Cymbals:

Bass Drum Heads:

Snare Drum Heads:

Aquarian Modern Vintage Thin

REVERB

Tom Heads:

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The Greats

Here is a listing of ten legendary jazz drummers that y'all tin check out. Y'all tin click on each name to see a functioning by each person. During their career, each one of these drummers made a significant touch on on the development of jazz drumming.

Buddy Rich

Tony Williams

Max Roach

Elvin Jones

Papa Jo Jones

Art Blakey

Gene Krupa

Joe Morello

Roy Haynes

Philly Joe Jones

The Records

Listening to music is an of import role of learning a new way. Here are fifteen essential jazz albums that every drummer should cheque out.

Clifford Brown & Max Roach
"Clifford Brown & Max Roach" (1954)
Drummer: Max Roach

Sonny Rollins
"Saxophone Colossus" (1956)
Drummer: Max Roach

Miles Davis
"Milestones" (1958)
Drummer: Philly Joe Jones

The Dave Brubeck Quartet
"Fourth dimension Out" (1959)
Drummer: Joe Morello

Miles Davis
"Kind of Blueish" (1959)
Drummer: Jimmy Cobb

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
"A Nighttime in Tunisia" (1960)
Drummer: Art Blakey

Hank Mobley
"Soul Station" (1960)
Drummer: Art Blakey

John Coltrane
"Coltrane" (1962)
Drummer: Elvin Jones

Thelonious Monk
"Monk'due south Dream" (1963)
Drummer: Frankie Dunlop

Miles Davis
"Vii Steps to Heaven" (1963)
Drummer: Tony Williams

Herbie Hancock
"Maiden Voyage" (1965)
Drummer: Tony Williams

John Coltrane
"A Beloved Supreme" (1965)
Drummer: Elvin Jones

Joe Henderson
"Mode for Joe" (1966)
Drummer: Joe Chambers

Buddy Rich Big Band
"Big Swing Face up" (1967)
Drummer: Buddy Rich

Bill Evans
"At the Montreux Jazz Festival" (1968)
Drummer: Jack DeJohnette

Drumeo Alive – Jazz Lessons

Here are 4 incredible jazz drum lessons from Drumeo.

Mark Guiliana (Avishai Cohen, Brad Mehldau)

Steve Lyman (Chase Baird, José James)

Peter Erskine (Weather Written report, Steps Ahead)

Dave Male monarch (The Bad Plus, Happy Apple)

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Jazz Listening List

Hither are some jazz tracks nosotros recall you'll like:

Wow! You lot made it to the terminate!

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