

It will be tough to play at first because it will challenge your limbs. It combines all the skills that have been developed to create a bar that you would typically play in jazz drumming. The last groove is a combination of the previous four grooves. Having the snare fall just before beat 4 further adds to the swing feel of this groove. So, this groove will allow you to start developing independence with your left hand as the snare note is played on its own. Instead, the snare is used as a comping tool to interact with the soloists in the band. Jazz drumming typically doesn’t have strong backbeats that are repetitive. This is called feathering in jazz drumming. Since this is a jazz beat, you need to play the bass drums very softly. This would be known as four-on-the-floor in drumming as the bass drum lands on all four counts in the bar. Once you’re comfortable with playing the backbeat, you can add a few rhythms with the bass drum. It’s fairly simple to learn as the snare drums land at the same time as your left foot on the hi-hat. This groove will drive a band forward, especially if you make the backbeats strong.

The backbeat refers to when you play a snare drum on beats 2 and 4 in the bar. The first point of call after getting the swing pattern down is to add a backbeat.
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Once you’re comfortable with this groove, your left hand and right foot will be free to play different rhythms. It’s vital that you get this groove down before moving onto any others as the others build upon this foundation.

Your right hand plays the swinging rhythms on the ride cymbal while your left foot keeps time on beats 2 and 4. Check out this article by Drum Magazine to begin discovering ways you can improve your coordination and improvisation through jazz.The first groove is the most basic form of a swing pattern on the drums. (Ask your drum teacher to help you with this in your drum lessons!) It also forces you to think of drums as a delicate and lyrical instrument, rather than just a time-keeper for other instruments. For example, learning a melody from a favorite song of yours and being able to create how that melody could be played on the drums can really improve your improvisational skills.
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Listently intently to be-bop jazz drummers like Elvin Jones, Max Roach, and Art Blakey made me understand how to play in a more improvised manner. Once I had practiced jazz drumming thoroughly, I began to notice my improvisational skills grow. Learning contrasting beats in your drum lessons, such as a jazz swing and a rockbeat, can significantly help develop that multi-limb coordination. This element to playing jazz drums is a stark contrast to rock drumming, which emphasizes beats one and three with the right foot. The complexities are mostly seen in the multi-limb coordination it takes to play a basic swing pattern: your left foot presses down on the hi-hat on beats two and four while your right hand maintains a swing pattern on the ride cymbal. Be sure to give it a listen (or 20!) and you’ll soon find yourself dying to be more like Elvin!

Immersed into the jazz arts, and I quickly realized how complex yet exciting jazz drumming can be. His drum solo on the piece “Gingerbread Boy” compelled me to become more It wasn’t until high school when I first listened to Elvin Jones, a prolific jazz drummer from the Bop Era of the 1950’s and 1960’s. This set the precedent for my drumming for the next few years. I began learning really fast beats from bands such as Green Day and Metallica. My upbringing in playing drums began through listening to my father’s thrash punk band, The Fanatics. This blog will outline how jazz drumming has developed my playing and its role in advancing multi-limb coordination. Through studying jazz drums, I have embedded a deeper understanding of playing “in the moment”, also known as improvisation. It has challenged me to approach my drum style with more nuance, complexity, and emotion. The art of jazz drumming has proven to be the most essential and important style I have studied as a drum teacher.
