How to Practice Jazz Drumming as a Beginner

“Jazz” is a very broad umbrella term. This article deals with bebop, as an understanding of the content and phrasing developed by the great bop drummers provides valuable insight into all later jazz styles. An aspiring bop drummer should hope to become a strong soloist, and a flexible accompanist. In the community, accompaniment is generally referred to as “comping”.

In order to comp in a creative and compelling fashion, a drummer must develop a great deal of four-way coordination, and a clear mental model of bop phrasing. You can check out these progressive drumset coordination exercises for a free primer on separating the hands and feet. Acquiring this sort of coordinated independence is a long term goal to be undertaken gradually, and is not a prerequisite for experimenting with comping, so we will delve into some conceptual exercises to help you get a sense of how to phrase and develop your ideas without allowing a lack of four-way coordination to get in your way. You can download the free jazz comping worksheet to view all these snippets in one place.

All examples included from here on are to inspire your creativity. Comping is an improvisational discipline, so you must take time to follow these prompts, treating each of these concepts as a little improvisational game, and inventing your own related phrases. Working with limitations in this way will push you to come up with new ideas and approaches.

The jazz ride cymbal beat

Let’s begin with the jazz ride cymbal beat, a classic jazz rhythm where every strong beat is played, and “skip-beats” (upbeat eighth notes) are added on the & of 2 and & of 4.

This will serve as the basis for the phrasing ideas we develop moving forward.

We can vary the ride cymbal beat by first taking quarter notes, and then dropping in skip-beats as we hear them, not necessarily on the & of 2 and & of 4, but also on the & of 1 and & of 3 if it feels appropriate.

Adding the snare and bass drum

The snare can be added on the upbeats, and we begin to get a two-voice dialogue happening between the drum and the cymbal.

The bass drum is great for reinforcing accents in the cymbal phrasing. This phrase has lots of anticipations and syncopations. When the bass drum plays with the cymbal, you might try crashing the cymbal lightly with the shoulder of the stick for emphasis.

You can take these ideas and re-orchestrate them by replacing snare drums with bass drums, or vice versa. Let both drums experiment with either role, then blur the lines and try combining the concepts.

Bringing in the hi-hat

The hi hat can be added in many different ways. Fixed hi hat on 2&4 is popular and iconic. The hi hat keeping time on all quarter notes is often thought of as an advanced modern jazz concept, but the sooner you begin experimenting with this idea the faster you will be able to pull it into your playing. The hi hat can also be used as an independent comping voice. Try playing all the examples above and replacing either the snare, or the kick with the hi hat.

Make these concepts your own

Make sure you treat these concepts and examples as prompts to inspire your own experimentations. Sit down with a click, a walking bass play along, or a great record and try to phrase using these ideas. Let your ear guide you. Let recordings of great bop drummers guide your ears. A few ideas worth thinking about:

• You will hopefully one day play this music with a band, and your part must relate to what your bandmates are doing. What are the bassists and pianists doing on the classic records you love?
• The quarter note is key. Breaking up the time too much can really take away from the feeling of the groove. Playing the cymbal in a way that expresses the majority of the strong beats will help you lock up with the bass player and propel the time forward.
• You can find lots of creative inspiration in thinking about your phrase lengths. How long are your phrases? Are they short and repetitive? Stretching them out and trying to play longer ideas might open up some new horizons.
• Articulation and time-feel are critical. The consistency of your swing eighth note, your playing areas on the drums and cymbals, the relative volume of the instruments, and the volume of each note within the phrase all have a huge impact on your sound, and the effectiveness of your ideas.
• You are the composer. You should take in as many classic records as you can in order to develop your sound concept, and from there your job is to follow your ear, and try to come up with ideas that sound good to you.

95% of all jazz gigs you play will be spent comping, so becoming a dynamic, expressive accompanist will help you to enjoy the music and connect with your bandmates. Spend time with these exercises, and check back in with these concepts from time to time — as your coordination develops you will find new things within these old improvisational prompts. These exercises are also fantastic for getting you out of old habits, and preventing you from just running muscle memory patterns that feel good in the limbs. A deliberate approach to comping that is guided by your inner ear will always lead to more compelling play than regurgitating a coordination exercise you’ve been working on.