Jazz Drummer’s Workshop Swing Style 101 Part 2: The Other Half by Justin Varnes One of the main reasons why it can be so hard to make jazz sound and feel right is that here the basic timekeeping elements of the drumset are the opposite from most other styles of music. In rock, hip-hop, country, and pop, we rely on the bass drum and snare to provide the pulse. We often don’t even use the hi-hat foot to do anything but hold the cymbals closed. That creates balance and dynamic issues when all of a sudden the left foot and right hand (our “other half”) get called into action in jazz. Couple that with the snare hand and bass drum foot needing to play a more subordinate role, and it can feel even more awkward to play a swing beat after decades of favoring kick/snare-heavy grooves. So how do we […]

October 2015 Issue