Hello you drumming steemers,

today I would like to share a small, coffee-break-sized lesson for all drummers, that can already play some 4-4 jazz time, but would like to practice it effortlessly and in a musical context. Im am working on a little series called:

"Practical introduction to jazz drumming"

Preparing for your first gig with a jazz combo. All you need to know. The essentials.

Cover: Easy Jazz Time Plaing Lesson

You are welcome to download and use these instructions and play alongs as you like. You may share this original material, use it with students, modify or in fact do whatever you want with it at no cost. It would be nice, though, to mention me as the author. Creative commons style...
>> Download Jazz-Time-Lesson.zip (5.8mb) here.

Let's start with lesson 01: "Easy Jazz Time Playing",
which is very simple and effective: Play 4/4 swing time  with sticks and brushes.

Practice instructions:

Decide wether you want to play brushes or sticks - keep track with the "Progress chart" (see below)
Start any of the five playbacks (e.g.: blues-4chorus-160.mp3)
Precisely pick up the tempo during count-off (this is an important part of the exercise)
You will be playing 4 blues-choruses, 12 bars each. Plus a typical ending.

The musical roadmap to playing the blues

Mind the typical ending in bars 11 and 12 of the last chorus.

Along the way, develop a feeling for 4-bar-phrases and the 12-bar blues. Learn to hear where you are, versus counting bars.

Progress Chart

Keep track of your progress. Mark the tempos you practiced. Take notes. Are there tempos you prefer over others?

12 bars per chorus, 4 choruses each:

My personal progress chart

That's it for this little lesson. I hope you found it useful.

I'd love to hear from you in the comments. Does this make sense? Do you practice this way? Do you miss something? Any suggestions? Etc.pp.

Or, post a recording of yourself playing the stuff... :-)

Many regards
Michael