Imitate, Assimilate, Innovate
Innovation is the end result of hours, weeks, months, years of imitation and assimilation. You need to live and breathe jazz to play it convincingly.
I graduated with a jazz degree in 2009. And honestly I walked out of Auckland University feeling like a total beginner. I don’t say to that put you off Jazz, but wow talk about a crazy and challenging world of drumming.
Listen, you’ve probably heard the analogy that music is a language. well Jazz is a language inside the language with a million dialects all of it’s own.
What you’re going to need to speak the language of Jazz is vocab.
2 books that provide a tonne of vocab are syncopation for the modern drummer by ted reed and modern reading text in 4/4 by louis bellson.
What you’re going to need to speak the language of Jazz is vocab.
2 books that provide a tonne of vocab are syncopation for the modern drummer by ted reed and modern reading text in 4/4 by louis bellson.
These books, on their own are going to mean nothing. It’s all about how you interpret and utilize the contents. A patient and experienced teacher is worth their weight in gold when dipping your toes into the deep waters of jazz drumming.
Check out the video. I play the first line of page 16 from ‘modern reading text in 4/4’ but I play it a few different ways to gain some jazz vocab. See if you can hear the melody or rhythm is the same through out. I’m interpreting the same rhythm different ways.
Recommended Listening:
Buddy Rich- Big Swing Face
Buddy Rich- Big Swing Face
Tony Williams – Miles Smiles
Jimmy Cobb – Kind Of Blue
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