Brazilian Drumming For Jazz Musicians

1.  Don't be afraid to stretch

Zack Pride!

In my experience one of the biggest mistakes that drummers make when playing Brazilian music is that they get so caught up in trying to play the groove "correctly" that they forget to try to make music.  One of the really beautiful things about Brazilian music in general is how it is infused with the spirit of improvisation, so don't be afraid to experiment and go with your instincts!  

For example in the recording of "How Insensitive" at the top (with Chris Grasso on piano and Zack Pride on bass, make sure to listen with headphones), listen to how I start out with by just sketching a rhythm with my right hand during the A section of the melody, or how I go into a kind of weird Bolero on the snare drum on the vamp out.  These things aren't really textbook or correct playing, I just thought they sounded good at the time. 

Speaking of sounding good, how sick was that bass solo?!  Zack Pride ladies and gentleman. 

2.  Check out Milton Banana

My excellent teacher Chuck Redd suggested that I check out some Milton Banana to help deepen my Brazilian concept.  I have absolutely loved learning about his music, and I highly recommend that everyone who wants to learn about Brazilian drumming make this a priority.  One thing I immediately noticed about the way Milton grooves is how he uses a strong bass drum (particularly on beats two and four) and an ever so slightly swung eighth note feel to give a strong, earthy samba feel to everything he plays.  Listen:

 3.  "Brazilian Rhythms for Drumset"

If like me you have somehow gotten to this point in your life without checking out this fantastic book by Duduka da Fonsceca and Bob Weiner, there is no time like the present.  Here is a solid write up from Cruiseshipdrummer on all the relevant literature.  Books like this can help you get a lot of essential information fast, but it is important to remember that you need lots of listening/application/experience for all of it to be useful.  

Transitions 6: From Trading/Soloing To Head Out

Quick and dirty today, I just wanted to touch on the idea of cueing the head out effectively from a solo/trading situation.  A couple of quick thoughts:

1.  Know and hear the song you are playing
The key to cueing the band effectively is to know where you are in the form at all times.  This means you should  try to always hear the melody and/or chord changes no matter what you are playing.  Nothing is worse than giving a cue at the wrong spot in the form.  Notice how I set up the simple vamp type sound and give the bass/pianist a clear look at the end of my last four in the video above (around 1:27), which leads me to my next point.

Shuffle!

The Shuffle!

In today's post we are going to discuss how to play one of my favorite grooves of all time, the shuffle!  The best thing you can do to start learning how to shuffle is to get acquainted with it's sound.  Starting a blog post about the shuffle with anything other than "Moanin'" is borderline heretical, so start listening and playing along here.

This song is basically the definitive recorded shuffle, so listening to and trying to imitate Art Blakey should be your starting point.  The other person to listen to to get your bearings is Mel Lewis.  Here is his famous shuffle on "The Groove Merchant":

Notice that neither one of these guys is overplaying, one of the many temptations when playing a shuffle.  Even though their groove is incredibly driving and strong, they are playing to the ensemble and staying dynamically balanced at all times.  Notice how much Mel drops down at :47 for example!  

Me Playing the Melody: "I've Got Rhythm"

Trying to play the actual melody
I mentioned yesterday that I just got a new recorder in the mail, and today's video is the first example of my new vastly improved audio capacity! In a conversation on the excellent drummerworld forum I brought up that I was trying to get a way from just thinking about the melody towards trying to simulate it's actual pitches.  The video above is the first example of me trying to play an actual melody, in this case (somewhat ironically) "I've Got Rhythm".

I was able to play this simulated melody by carefully tuning my drums, playing with mallets, and applying very specific amounts of pressure to the drum heads (all inspired by the incredible Ari Hoenig).  This is a real challenge for me, and it still needs a lot of work, but I think that I got the basic point across. 



What is the point of this?
In the aforementioned conversation, Todd Bishop from the excellent drum blog Cruiseshipdrummer brought up really good question.  Essentially, why bother with trying to play the melody at all.  The drums are a primarily rhythmic instrument, so why not, as he put it, "Just play your instrument?". 

I am still relatively inexperienced at trying to play the melody on the drums, so I can only speak from a limited perspective, but my basic thought is this.  The history of jazz is full of examples of people who took the approach they learned on one instrument and applied it to another, often with revolutionary results.  Two classic examples of this are Lois Armstrong singing like a trumpet player, and Paul Chambers playing horn lines on the bass.  These initially bizzare-seeming imported techniques were enormously influential, eventually becoming standard practice for those instruments.

I am not suggesting that playing the melody on the drums is going to become standard practice any time soon.  Rather, I am saying that we should not limit how we play our instruments to what people assume is possible.  As long as there is music, people will continue to find new ways to approach their instruments, and this pan-instrumental technique can yield incredibly fruitful results. 

Musical Benefits
In addition to this broader historical idea, there are also more practical musical benefits to learning to play melodies on the drums.

The first and most obvious benefit is that by forcing yourself to be accountable for the actual pitches of the melody, you will get much closer with the melody.  A deeper connection with the melody will always provide better insight into the music, regardless of whether you are playing the melody, or accomanying someone else playing the melody.  As Ari put it, "If you can't make music by yourself, you can't make music with other people". 

The second slightly less obvious benefit is that by playing the melody this way, you will get your audience to listen to you in a new way.  When I played the melody of "I've Got Rhythm" for an audience last week, I got more positive feedback than I have ever got for anything I have played before.  People love new sounds, and people love melodies, so playing this way can lead them to appreciate what you are doing on the drums much more than they ordinarily would. 

Getting Into A College Jazz Program: Part 1

Demystifying the college application/audition process

For any student going through the college admission process there is always going to be a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety.   But one of the most daunting of college admissions processes has got to be the jazz audition.  Because I have gone through this process myself, and because I have helped many private students through this process, I want to start demystifying the application/audition process for those of you out there who are going through it now.