How to NOT Get Lost Playing Jazz on the Drums
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- learnjazzdrums...
In this lesson, I talk about what you can do as a drummer to make sure that you don't get lost when playing Jazz.
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See, in Jazz, when you take a drum solo, it’s different than most other styles. You’re responsible for keeping the form of the song, by yourself as you solo. In Jazz, the Jazz standard is usually some variation of a 32 bar form or a 12 bar blues.
The first standard form is a 32 bar AABA form. This means that the first 8 bars are repeated melodically, then there is a bridge section, usually in a different key, and then the melody concludes by repeating the first 8 bars melodically again. I keep specifying that it repeats “melodically”, because most of these standards have lyrics, and those lyrics don’t repeat. This is part of why I encourage all of my students to learn the lyrics to standards, among other reasons.
So What is a Great Example of an instrumental song with the AABA Form.
Another popular 32 bar form is ABAC. This meant that the first 16 bars are unique melodically, and usually these 16 bars repeat again, with a slight variation occurring in the last 8 bars, thus making it a C section, as opposed to another B. Again, as a drummer, if you learn the lyrics, it’s really easy to keep track of these sections. If you get lost, you’ll know if you’re on the B section vs. the C section based on which lyrics (and thus which melody) fit over the changes being played.
Here are some examples of popular ABAC form songs:
It Could Happen to You.
Just Friends.
Then we have the 12 bar blues. This includes songs like Billie’s bounce:
If you did a Jazz audition tape, or plan to, I GUARANTEE you’ll have to play this one on the audition.
Additionally, Mr. PC is a popular 12 bar blues played in Jazz.
Then, we have some popular standards that are exceptions to the rule.
All the things you are is actually a 36 bar form. The last section has an extra 4.
Another popular exception is Alone together. Alone together is actually 44 bars in total. Don’t think of it as 44 though. It’s what you might call an AABC form. The A’s are 14 bars each, the bridge is 8 bars, and then the C section starts out as the A sections, but resolves quicker, at only 8 bars. A grand total of 44 bars, but it’s most important that you know the sections.
So now that we know what the standard forms are, and why it’s important to use them, how do we not get lost?
The first step is to listen to a lot of Jazz, and pay attention. When you listen a lot, your ears will start hearing forms, and you’ll be subconsciously noting what chord changes land where. For me, I’m still a drummer, and I can’t actually name chords or chord numbers off the top of my head as great Jazz musicians can, but that’s fine because I can hear it. I know what’s happening, but I just can’t put a name to it. This is something I want to learn, but don’t worry, you don’t have to be a deep music theorist to play Jazz correctly.
Next, when you’re learning a specific song, learn the song, inside and out. Pick a song, for instance, But Not for Me. Listen to it over and over again until you can sing every note of the melody, and sing every lyric as well. The chet baker version is great for this, and he takes a very melodic trumpet solo over the melody. Listen to that, and then sing the melody over and over to yourself as the soloist plays.
If you get lost, that’s fine! See if you can find your place, or just start over from the top.
Another thing you can do is take out the app iReal Pro, choose the song, and sing along to the changes. This will start training your ears to hear how the melody lands with the changes, and it’s good practice since there is no melody being played, just you.
So that’s all practice away from the drums, and to not get lost playing Jazz, that’s pretty much what you have to do.
So first, you have to learn the forms and learn the knowledge to not get lost. Then you have to apply that knowledge, think about it on the bandstand at first. Think about the A sections and B sections, and then eventually you’ll reach the point where you don’t have to think anymore, and you know where you are in the form you’ve heard a million times.
Sorry that I didn’t even touch the drums in this video, but in my next video, I’ll show you how to apply this knowledge on the drums during a solo, so you can confidently keep the form when playing by yourself.
Oh my god. Your toms are out of this world!!! Seriosly!!!
Respect the singing! Takes guts!
I haven't played jazz drums since high school and just got asked to play a gig with a friend this weekend. This video has helped me tremendously as far as what to focus on and how to think about the structures of songs and how not to get lost. We're playing a bunch of standards that I've never heard before so I'm going to be spending some time listening to them and taking notes on their structures so I don't get lost. Thank you so much for making this.
thank you very much. it would be very interesting if you gave a lesson on accents to always play on jazz standards, thank you
Man thank you for this. There so many videos about what jazz drumming is but not much about how jazz drumming relates to the melody. I feel you connect the two pretty well here and express the importance for a drummer to really know the song in order to keep with it.
Boy do I miss this channel
Thanks so much for this video. There seems to be very little instruction on the web that talks about this in any detail. It's great that you went into great detail about how to go about getting better at learning tunes rather that just saying 'learn the melody' . That's obvious but it's not obvious as to how to go about that.
Thank you Ryan. I am really enjoying and benefitting from these videos.
great LESSON! great TEACHER! THANKS!!!
Great job! Keep it up!
Thank you for watching!
Singing I'd quite enjoyable
Cool video
Thanks!