JAZZ DRUMS: 5 UNCONVENTIONAL COMPING EXAMPLES 

 

  • EXERCISE 4 
-introduced by Jim Black
-brings all 4 limbs in balance
 
 
 
 
 
 
  • EXERCISE 5
-practicing other rhythmical traditions (such as african, cuban, caribbean, brazilian & more)

This could be a whole other research by itself. However, I liked it so much, that I decided to devote some of my time on it.
I transcribed Jerry Leake's performance and tried to apply it on the drumkit, adding ostinatos taken from this video.

It's a mixture of:
-music made by the "Ewe people" in Ghana &
-south Indian rhythmical language.



















And this is a transcription of Milton Banana's comping on "Fim de Semana' from Tenorio Jr's album called 'Embalo':

 

In the educational literature concerning the drumset, there are many great books talking about coordination.


The first ones that come to my mind:


  • Advanced techniques for the modern drummer - Jim Chapin
  • The art of Bop drumming - John Riley
  • Syncopation - by Ted Reed
  • Beyond Bop drumming - John Riley
  • The New Breed - Gary Chester
  • The Jazz Drummer's workshop - John Riley

  • The drummer's complete vocabulary - Alan Dawson

  • 4-Way Coordination - Elliot Fine and Marvin Dahlgren


I am sure that a student can create a great basis of coordination by practicing them properly. 

However, it's possible that the student may spend too much energy on reading all those pages instead of focusing purely on co-ordination, thus slowing down the process of improvement. At least, that's what happened in my case at a certain extent.

Therefore, I felt the need to create my own short exercises that are meant to hit co-ordination problems right to the bone:

  • EXERCISE 1
-focuses mainly on my weak limbs (left hand & feet)
-is repetitive & easy to read (so that one can concentrate solely on execution)
-includes 8th notes, triplets & off-beats.




 
  • EXERCISE 2 
-gives the drummer freedom to improvise but at the same time work on his/her co-ordination.
 
 
 
 
 
 
  • EXERCISE 3

-limitation exercise inspired by my analysis of Mike Clark's playing on 'actual proof'. 

 

While practicing these 'unconventional styles of comping I found myself not having enough ideas to improvise with. However, by analyzing the drum-groove of 'actual proof' I found out that actually there are only 5 motives which are repeated several times throughout the first 16 bars. So, I created this 'limitation exercise' which forced me to create a comping using only 5 short figures.


Look at the example below to understand how I applied this concept playing over 'beautiful love' from Kenny Barron's album '1+1+1'.

PRACTICING CO-ORDINATION
Paul Motian Mike Clark Tony Williams Jack Dejohnette Marcus Gilmore
Introduction Time Co-ordination Performance Practice