Jazz Play Along
Playing along is one of the best things you can do to rapidly improve as a drummer.
The act of imitating a sound that you desire is a really powerful tool in becoming a good drummer. Personally I think that the best way to learn anything is to immerse yourself in it, and in this case it applies to playing jazz as much as possible. I’m not talking about practicing either. Immerse yourself in jazz music by playing with as many groups as possible and by playing as many styles of jazz as possible. It’s because of the this constant immersion in music that children who were brought up in musical families generally have a head start when compared to children from no musical background.
The question then arises, what if I can’t play with a live group all the time, or at all?
The answer is simple, use the next best option for you. Play along to albums!
Although albums aren’t interactive in the same way a live group is, they do however provide a strong sense of being in the band. You won’t be able to have the musicians react to your ideas, but at the same time, you can react to theirs. As you listen and play along, you will pick up how the drummer reacts to certain things in the music and this is a great tool for learning the vocabulary for jazz music.
To take this one step further, there are books and CD’s you can buy that provide jazz tracks without the drums which you play along to without having to “combat” another drummer. I used these in addition to playing along with my favorite drummers and the result was staggering. I’ve included below two play along tracks from my book that have the drums included. To hear them without the drums follow the link to the JX Method website.
Eternal Triangle, Sonny Stitt – 300bpm
Cherokee, Ray Noble – 350bpm
