The best jazz exercise… EVER! I wrote this jazz / swing exercise to help me practise left hand independence. Throughout the whole worksheet, the right hand maintains the classic ride cymbal swing pattern. The challenge is keeping this even and under control while adding in the snare drum comping rhythms with the left hand.
As you can see above, the exercise is written in 12/8 and I count it in triplets. It differs from the other common way of writing out swing rhythms which is to write them as straight patterns with an instruction to ‘play with swing’.
Comping Rhythms
I found out today (after years of drumming!) that the word “comping” in jazz means a combination of “accompanying” and “complementing.” It refers to the rhythmic patterns and accents that drummers add to the swing pattern to support and enhance the melody lines, harmonies, and improvised solos in the music. Comping is a vital aspect of jazz drumming that contributes to the overall feel, groove, and dynamics of the performance. Often, comping rhythms are played on the snare drum.
As the exercise progresses, the comping rhythms become gradually more demanding. This can be seen in the example below, where the left hand fills in the triplets on the ‘+a’ of beats 1 and 3. This particular pattern as a great, bouncy feel to it and sounds very jazz; I hope you feel the same way!
I think that the holy grail for a lot of jazz drummers – at least, to begin with – is to master the independence associated with comping. The more comping variations you can apply, the freer and more expressive a player you become.
Bar 9 of the exercise is the real killer. As can be seen below, the left hand to come in on the ‘+a’ of each triplet. I would advice anyone attempting this pattern to begin very slowly at first, counting triplets as you go. And bear in mind it returns several times throughout.
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And Finally...
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