Basics - Rhythm - Swing 2

Classic recording. No one who claims to be a jazz musician should not have heard this recording at least once. If you haven't, listen now. Haha.

What are we concentrating here on this recording? Ride pattern. Drums style. Why is this so important? The rhythm section is by far the most important thing to define what jazz was like last time. All classic swing groups which worked had a great rhythm section - so good that no matter what notes you played you'd sound good. Let's listen to Jimmy Cobb and his rhythm.

From the start you can already hear his ride pattern. What are the things that define a ride pattern? The most important thing would be the crotchets/quarter notes. It defines a lot about the beat. Sets the tempo and the groove. There's this unconscious little emphasis on the two and four. If you listen in very closely to the ride pattern you can hear a slight difference between 1 and 3 from 2 and 4 every single time. There's a slight ring to the 2 and 4.

Note: This is NOT something that one can train to play like. When you actually try too hard to emphasise a bit too much on the 2 and 4 you'll have a natural tendency to overplay the 2 and 4. Then how do you get to play like that? It's an unconscious rhythm thing. Listen to Jimmy Cobb play, feel his sound. Feel his groove. You'll realise that the reason why jazz musicians snap on 2 and 4 naturally is because they DO feel it on 2 and 4. Because of that feel, they play it with the feel on 2 and 4, developing such subtle nuances.

He also started with the hi-hat on 2 and 4. It's a standard in jazz playing but not absolutely mandatory. It's one of the things which help to get down the groove on 2 and 4 and is supposed to be something which is completely unconscious.

What's more is the ghost notes on the snare, and the bass drum hits. Mostly on the "ands" and more importantly, always phrased. Those are some of the hallmarks of great jazz drumming. It gives the rhythm and it gives the groove.

Also, for the skip note, or "offbeat" note, of the ride pattern, notice again that this is medium swing, and the swing beat is closer to a semiquaver rather than a pure triplet. =)



Orinthology - A bebop song. Notice that the drummer is doing phrasings still a lot on offbeats and phrasing in relation to the front players. And if you can hear the ride pattern (hard to hear unless you have good equipment) you can hear that it sounds more towards a quaver this time, because of the speed of the music. It's not a hard and fast rule that the swing beat is a triplet.

With that, hope that you kind understand some of the fundamentals behind the swing beat from the perspective of the drums. =)