How To Play Jazz On The Drums!

Learning how to play jazz on your drum kit can seem like an overwhelming task at first. Often times new drummers will go into drum forums and get confused with the amount of information that seems to be related to jazz drumming.

Part of the confusion is started because there are so many different forms of jazz. There is traditional jazz, mainstream jazz, modern jazz, and variations of these like bebop, fusion and many others.

There are many products that will teach you how to play jazz like a professional drummer. If you’ve ever been to a music store looking for a book like this you’ve probably found an entire library worth of content. Was this useful? No. Was this overwhelming? Yes…

The purpose of this article is to explain the simple side of jazz. I want to make jazz so simple you can be playing it within an hour. I am going to outline the basic principles of jazz. Then I’m going to give you some simple beats to work on. Then I want you to interpret jazz the way that you want to interpret it.

Part 1 – Jazz Drumming Notation

Being able to read drum notation is the first step towards getting you behind the drum set as a jazz drummer. If you cant read drum notation, then you wont be able to follow along with the basic beats that I am going to give you.

Basically drum notation assigns one line or space for every voice of your drum kit (snare, kick, hi-hats, toms etc..) But it is all very simple, and it has been laid out in the most logical order. First on the very top line we have your Hi hat. The hi-hats are normally represented with an “x” if they are open, or an “o” if they are closed. They look like this:

The next most used voice on your drumkit is the snare drum. The snare drum is on the center line and it looks like this:

Next, we have your feet. Your kick drum is indicated by a “o” on the bottom line. And your hi-hats are represented by a “x” on the bottom space. They look like this:

Next we have your toms. For the toms we use the black spaces in the middle of the bar to represent each tom. The higher they are vertically the higher they are in pitch. The top space would be your high tom, and the bottom space would be your floor tom. It looks like this:

Your cymbals are above everything else. Your ride cymbal is on an imaginary line above the origional five, and your crash cymbals are on another imaginary line above the ride. It looks like this:

Part 2 – The Feel Of Jazz Drumming

Now this concept is important with all styles of drumming, but even more important with jazz drumming. When you learn new beats, the technical side of things aren’t as important as the sound. If you have absolutely perfect technique, but cant make your drums sound good, then try mixing it up a bit. Try playing in front of the beat or behind the beat, make sure that you are comfortable and having fun, if you aren’t having fun, you wont be able to make the drums sound good.

Part 3 – Immerse Yourself In Jazz Drumming

This is extremely critical with jazz especially. If you want to learn jazz, then you have to listen to jazz, study jazz, think about jazz, dream about jazz, eat, sleep, and breathe jazz. Go online and read biographies of jazz drummers, learn what they did to get good at jazz drumming. Learn all the vocabulary so you can communicate well with other jazz musicians. All of this will be extremely important with you being successful as a jazz musician.

Part 4 – START PLAYING JAZZ DRUM BEATS!!!

The signature element of jazz drumming is your ride pattern. This will be our starting point, and I’m almost positive that it has been the starting point for every other jazz drummer in the world. You are going to be hitting the ride cymbal with your right hand if you are a right handed player, or your left hand if you are a left handed player. Stay relaxed; being relaxed is one of the most important things you have to do when playing jazz.

All of the drum notation below is in 4/4 time and should be played with a triplet feel, so count out loud to make sure that you are getting the pattern correct. When counting triplets you can count “1 and ah 2 and ah 3 and ah 4 and ah” or you can count “1 trip – let 2 trip – let 3 trip – let 4 trip – let” whatever is most comfortable for you.

Now we’ll add the hi-hats with your foot on beats 2 & 4

Now the bass drum comes in on beats 1& 3

To learn jazz you have to develop independence of your limbs. If you are normally a rock drummer it will be difficult to lay back and groove in a triplet feel. This is why you should take it slow and add a little bit at a time. Practice these patterns at all tempo’s and volumes. The bass drum should be very quiet (unlike rock drumming), pretend that your bass drum beater is a feather and hit the bass drum very softly. Have a strong left foot and rock your foot back and forth… heel to toe… Sweep your right hand across the ride cymbal, sometimes you will find that this helps you get a better feel for it. But it all depends on the song that you are playing. I hope these tips have helped. Stay Tuned For More Jazz Drumming Lessons.

Learn more about Jazz with the Jazz Drumming System!