Play quarter notes on the ride and 2 and 4 on hi hat. That’s it. That’s all swing drumming is. Everything else is accents and ornamentation, froo froo. Jazz drumming is really jazz cymbal-big. This guy can’t swing with a click track.
Playing swing is texture and touch. Subservience to the melody. In a way, it stops being a “beat” altogether. In my experience, I’ve had a lot of luck when I stop thinking myself as the timekeeper but somebody whose job it is to emphasize what the bassist and soloist are doing by sitting underneath them. It flips rock paradigms on it’s head and that’s why it’s so hard
Ringo did this in his rock band (I forgot what they were called). He had limited musical chops, but he knew how to emphasize the songwriting and not distract from it.
Right and that’s why it’s so hard for me to play outside of the jazz idiom. I played so contrapuntally for so long it feels wrong to be a time keeper the way that rock wants you to be.
Thanks for this Nate. I´ve been practicing variations of your ideas with one small but very important extra element: SINGING. The first thing master Carl Allen told me on my first lesson was: play the ride and SING THE MELODY. Many things will fall in place by doing that. Plus, I have always been a huge fan of Gary Chester's teachings, so singing each individual part we play is also a game changer. At the very least I expect my students to be able to vocalise the pulse through EVERYTHING they play, if they can't do that, it's a clear sign that it needs more work. Thanks again for your great content! Keep it up!
For anyone interested, the Chapin book “syncopation for the modern drummer” is a great starter to understanding jazz kit fundamentals. Definitely a hard one to get through but if you do, you’ll be a much better drummer for it
"way down, so it's kind of felt not heard" I guess most don't every get that advice or apply it. FELT . able to heard/felt even whilst playing quietly quietly as in part of an overall effective and varying and INTERESTiNG dynamic approach. sincerely , a pianist P.S. Please note the Italian word for soft.......PIANO!!!!!!!!1
I studied with Jim Chapin,Ed Shaughnessy,Joe Cusatis,and got to see Elvin,Max,Buddy,Morello..many others..And teach as well as play......The Chapin book..#1.......John Riley,great books.........Ralph Onofrio
I feel like it's way more important for beginners to keep the HH and ride consistent while comping with the snare hand or bass drum than mixing up the ride or HH pattern. If players don't have that foundation then they are just endlessly noodling with out any solidity to their feel and sound.
Possibly. Both are important. It might be that by the time students find me they already have the other stuff together. I do think it’s important, which is why I touched on it in the first part of the vid.
sure, but that's like saying "you should always be present while flying a plane; you'll be safer from crashing". You still have to learn which buttons do what.
@@8020drummer what’s that got to do with “boring”? My point is that the greatest drummers can do the simplest things without them being boring. I have found that the best remedy for boredom is to dive deeper, instead of distracting oneself by doing something else or trying to make things more complicated.
@@DinoDiniProductions and my point is that everybody always says this as if it’s all beginners need to know. You’re offering it here in response to a video teaching specific skills, I assume to mean “yes but keep in mind you can always just play quarter notes as long as you do it with feeling”. One of my ongoing frustrations is that when I was a student everybody had these absolutist one-liners and would just toss them off as if they were beyond question, not realizing that the beginners in the audience would meaningfully change course based on those words. “Oh I guess I should stop what I’m doing and just play quarters then.” Context matters. Yes, consider minimalism among many others colors on the palette, and yes, great players can and do use very simple parts without being boring. But to a beginner who’s wondering what to do within a swing beat, it’s going to be confusing.
@@8020drummerI am responding to your one liner about "boring'. I think it is incredibly unhelpful to imply simplicity is boring. I am countering that point taken from your video. I am not criticizing anything else, but making a counter argument to your specific comment. I think it is damaging because I bought into the concept of "boring' when I started making music and it took me decades to learn that simplicity is far more valuable and challenging than complexity. It irks me when I see the chase for complexity in music. I am not saying complexity is bad. I am saying that without presence it is meaningless. And I am also saying that simplicity is great tool for learning presence. And since learning to be present is the greatest challenge of all, it can never be boring. Are you seriously going to disagree with me on that?
@@DinoDiniProductions yes I will, in the full context of what I said in the video. First, the strong claim is that a beginner playing the same thing over and over because they don’t have any other options can Absolutely be boring, and telling them to focus harder is only one in a whole kit of remedies and often totally unhelpful depending on their stage. The weaker claim is that they Feel it’s boring, and want some variety without sacrificing the swing, which I think is closer to what I said in the video.
Interesting approach. It would seem to me that keeping the hats and ride consistent is more beneficial when first comping with snare and bass. This then actually separates the coordination of comping from the time keeping limbs. If you vary the ride beat for every comping pattern it is very difficult to not do that after practicing, in other words the time gets too attached to the comping patterns. This is just my personal experience though. What worked for me may not work for everyone😊
I’m not convinced that not varying the ride should be the goal. It feels like there’s an independence aspect when I play but I’d have to think about whether preemptively learning comping against the non varying ride cymbal should be such a big part of the teaching. Another thing that could be biassing me is that most students by the time they get to me already have that pretty well together but they have no idea how to play real phrases in time without losing the swing.
@@8020drummer yeah it's definitely interesting. I just figure it is a better place to start as it historically came first anyways. It also generally seems much easier to start varying the time after you are comfortable comping all sorts of patterns underneath it because then you can just let your ride cymbal pattern match up with your comping, and I personally find that easier
Play along to albums before you play with a metronome. I've never played to a metronome while playing/practicing jazz.....everrrrr. High information music needs to internalised, or it will suck more than any other music. Thinking of a bass line will do more for your time than most other things. You gotta love jazz, music first, then drums in service of the music.
Play quarter notes on the ride and 2 and 4 on hi hat. That’s it. That’s all swing drumming is. Everything else is accents and ornamentation, froo froo. Jazz drumming is really jazz cymbal-big. This guy can’t swing with a click track.
I'm confused. He literally swings to a click track in the video, David. What are you trying to say?
80/20 plays like he speaks ....it's a form of tourettes. I admire his dedication and his concepts are often good. ...
ok, ok...
Staring into our souls on that playing cam, like you know we aren't practicing the basics enough
Playing swing is texture and touch. Subservience to the melody. In a way, it stops being a “beat” altogether. In my experience, I’ve had a lot of luck when I stop thinking myself as the timekeeper but somebody whose job it is to emphasize what the bassist and soloist are doing by sitting underneath them. It flips rock paradigms on it’s head and that’s why it’s so hard
Ringo did this in his rock band (I forgot what they were called). He had limited musical chops, but he knew how to emphasize the songwriting and not distract from it.
Right and that’s why it’s so hard for me to play outside of the jazz idiom. I played so contrapuntally for so long it feels wrong to be a time keeper the way that rock wants you to be.
ok, ok....
Thanks for this Nate. I´ve been practicing variations of your ideas with one small but very important extra element: SINGING. The first thing master Carl Allen told me on my first lesson was: play the ride and SING THE MELODY. Many things will fall in place by doing that. Plus, I have always been a huge fan of Gary Chester's teachings, so singing each individual part we play is also a game changer. At the very least I expect my students to be able to vocalise the pulse through EVERYTHING they play, if they can't do that, it's a clear sign that it needs more work. Thanks again for your great content! Keep it up!
Its been a while since I looked up some good ol jazz lessons. This is by far one of the best, and straightforward lessons I’ve ever seen. Thanks, man.
Appreciate all the great content lately, these are all topics that warrant the nuanced discussions you are providing 👍
De Johnette talks about getting the time in you're body then whatever you play with ure hands doesn't matter
At the level he's at I'm sure that's correct. Before that it does matter.
For anyone interested, the Chapin book “syncopation for the modern drummer” is a great starter to understanding jazz kit fundamentals. Definitely a hard one to get through but if you do, you’ll be a much better drummer for it
ruclips.net/video/3j7uDHcWQe8/видео.htmlsi=41sOfBXAG0S1sj6R&t=178
I feel so lucky to have seen Buddy Rich in concert in 1981.
I was born is 2009, not even a chance 😢
@@dantheman3825 Even at my age, I was just being born around those heady days of Miles and John...😀
Most promising/useful online jazz lesson I’ve seen. And Lordy knows I’ve spent/wasted a horrible amount of practice time watching them…
The Hi-hat, aka my side-chik
"way down, so it's kind of felt not heard" I guess most don't every get that advice or apply it. FELT . able to heard/felt even whilst playing quietly
quietly as in part of an overall effective and varying and INTERESTiNG dynamic approach. sincerely , a pianist
P.S. Please note the Italian word for soft.......PIANO!!!!!!!!1
What nobody tells me about jazz drum beats is that mine are good :(
Aaaaw 🤣
At least you’re playing. My kit was sold 20 years ago
Don’t worry, we’ll get there… 🥲
Lol. Me too...but I agree with them
😂
"... drums kit, kind of felt, not heard..." YES !!!!
I studied with Jim Chapin,Ed Shaughnessy,Joe Cusatis,and got to see Elvin,Max,Buddy,Morello..many others..And teach as well as play......The Chapin book..#1.......John Riley,great books.........Ralph Onofrio
_and....?_
it's been some time since I watched 80/20 drummer. one minute into the video: 😂😂😂. love it.
Nice lesson!
I feel like it's way more important for beginners to keep the HH and ride consistent while comping with the snare hand or bass drum than mixing up the ride or HH pattern. If players don't have that foundation then they are just endlessly noodling with out any solidity to their feel and sound.
Possibly. Both are important. It might be that by the time students find me they already have the other stuff together. I do think it’s important, which is why I touched on it in the first part of the vid.
Any beat played with presence can never be boring, even the simplest
sure, but that's like saying "you should always be present while flying a plane; you'll be safer from crashing". You still have to learn which buttons do what.
@@8020drummer what’s that got to do with “boring”? My point is that the greatest drummers can do the simplest things without them being boring. I have found that the best remedy for boredom is to dive deeper, instead of distracting oneself by doing something else or trying to make things more complicated.
@@DinoDiniProductions and my point is that everybody always says this as if it’s all beginners need to know. You’re offering it here in response to a video teaching specific skills, I assume to mean “yes but keep in mind you can always just play quarter notes as long as you do it with feeling”. One of my ongoing frustrations is that when I was a student everybody had these absolutist one-liners and would just toss them off as if they were beyond question, not realizing that the beginners in the audience would meaningfully change course based on those words. “Oh I guess I should stop what I’m doing and just play quarters then.” Context matters. Yes, consider minimalism among many others colors on the palette, and yes, great players can and do use very simple parts without being boring. But to a beginner who’s wondering what to do within a swing beat, it’s going to be confusing.
@@8020drummerI am responding to your one liner about "boring'. I think it is incredibly unhelpful to imply simplicity is boring. I am countering that point taken from your video. I am not criticizing anything else, but making a counter argument to your specific comment. I think it is damaging because I bought into the concept of "boring' when I started making music and it took me decades to learn that simplicity is far more valuable and challenging than complexity. It irks me when I see the chase for complexity in music. I am not saying complexity is bad. I am saying that without presence it is meaningless. And I am also saying that simplicity is great tool for learning presence. And since learning to be present is the greatest challenge of all, it can never be boring. Are you seriously going to disagree with me on that?
@@DinoDiniProductions yes I will, in the full context of what I said in the video. First, the strong claim is that a beginner playing the same thing over and over because they don’t have any other options can Absolutely be boring, and telling them to focus harder is only one in a whole kit of remedies and often totally unhelpful depending on their stage. The weaker claim is that they Feel it’s boring, and want some variety without sacrificing the swing, which I think is closer to what I said in the video.
Interesting approach. It would seem to me that keeping the hats and ride consistent is more beneficial when first comping with snare and bass. This then actually separates the coordination of comping from the time keeping limbs. If you vary the ride beat for every comping pattern it is very difficult to not do that after practicing, in other words the time gets too attached to the comping patterns. This is just my personal experience though. What worked for me may not work for everyone😊
I’m not convinced that not varying the ride should be the goal. It feels like there’s an independence aspect when I play but I’d have to think about whether preemptively learning comping against the non varying ride cymbal should be such a big part of the teaching. Another thing that could be biassing me is that most students by the time they get to me already have that pretty well together but they have no idea how to play real phrases in time without losing the swing.
@@8020drummer yeah it's definitely interesting. I just figure it is a better place to start as it historically came first anyways. It also generally seems much easier to start varying the time after you are comfortable comping all sorts of patterns underneath it because then you can just let your ride cymbal pattern match up with your comping, and I personally find that easier
Play along to albums before you play with a metronome. I've never played to a metronome while playing/practicing jazz.....everrrrr. High information music needs to internalised, or it will suck more than any other music. Thinking of a bass line will do more for your time than most other things.
You gotta love jazz, music first, then drums in service of the music.
I agree with you, his approach seems extremely clinical tbh
Your top hat didn't always have holes in did it?
I change them around. These are my 15 equilibrium hats, and I have the bottom hat on top.
As Gerry mulligan said.. Mel Lewis was doing before anyone
You are in the Major Leagues of Drum Teachers…… in the World.
CHICK WEBB (THE DADDY)🙏
Who is Noone?
Deep
Peter.
I'm already 3 minutes into this video and nothing is there
jack deanette????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
??
You are now endorsed by Meinl, but your show introduction still has you playing with Zildjian cymbals. Re-film your intro.
don't tell me what to do. Who are you to command me like that?
I had no idea this was a global issue 🙄🙄🙄