WERE DO I START??? *JAZZ DRUMMING*

Hi i'm in 8th grade and i recently started to get more serious with my drumming in jazz. I used to just play regular drums i guess you could say rock drums you know played in jr high jazz band but i have always wanted to do more with jazz i know the basics i just want to get more advanced. I am willing to spend as much time as needed to become a one of the greats. Jazz drumming is what i truly love and i plan to do it the rest of my life no matter how hard and challenging it is i will spend 10 hours a day if i need to. The thing is i dont no where to start i don't know what books to get, what kind drums to get, or what practice routine i should be doing etc. I kind of want to teach myself on my own i don't want a drum teacher telling me what to do. Any jazz drummer out there willing to help me out?

Let's get one thing straight. You do not know the basics. As you get older, you realize there's less and less you know. So no, you do not know the basics.

You want to know where to start? Start with who you're listening to. You should be listening to every great jazz album that's out there. You should be listening to tunes considered "jazz standards". You should be going to see professional jazz players live and in person.

Once you've begun listening, and realizing what's possible within jazz, only then will you formulate what kind of gear you need. And even then, that's going to change too, since jazz is a mutating art form. There are many different types of jazz.

So make a list of important jazz artists to you, and then go get some of their recordings so you can begin the expansion of your mind. Listening is key. Buying new gear is not. Once you have a clear idea of what exactly you'd like to do in this new jazz endeavor, then find the information that will help you get there. I would suggest a private teacher who actively plays jazz - there should be a million of those guys giving lessons at your local college.

So, you don't know where to start, and you don't want a teacher to tell you where to start, and you also just saw whiplash so you want to be one of the greats in the world of jazz drumming.

The good news is that jazz drumming is a snap, you can learn that stuff in like 15 minutes, so you're good there.

Dr_Watso said:

So, you don't know where to start, and you don't want a teacher to tell you where to start, and you also just saw whiplash so you want to be one of the greats in the world of jazz drumming.

The good news is that jazz drumming is a snap, you can learn that stuff in like 15 minutes, so you're good there.

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....i'm guessing your being sarcastic and i didn't even see that movie my friend kept on saying that in band while i was playing snare when i got home i searched it up thought it was pretty funny phrase couldn't think of anything else to make my username so i made it my profile name

NotQuiteMyTempo said:

Hi i'm in 8th grade and .... i don't want a drum teacher telling me what to do. Any jazz drummer out there willing to help me out?

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I can tell you the #1 thing you will need is a change of attitude. Open up your mind and get ready to work harder than you think.

I will echo what Opentune said. If you don't want a teacher telling what to do, you will not learn jazz. Period. I would assume that you aren't going to listen to "any jazz drummer out there willing to help" either. I would do a lot of listening to jazz and figure it out on your own but you are off to a bad start.

I Totally agree with all of you. I was a idiot to try to learn jazz drumming without a teacher. I will definitely start listening to more jazz than i usually do and i'll prepare myself get ready for hard work ahead. thx for all the help it really helped.

1. Listen to a lot of music. It sounds like you're more in love with the idea than the actual music, so you'll have to fall in love with the music. Jazz is a pretty grown up taste, so you'll probably have to work at it. Just keep listening until it happens.
2. Play with people as much as you possibly can. It doesn't matter what kind of music.
3. Practice every day- I don't care how much, but do it every single day.
4. See other people play. Find out where jazz and when jazz is being played in your city, and go listen- if you can get in, legally. At least go to the high school jazz band concerts. If you talk to people you see, you can probably find a teacher you'll like.

You could also grab yourself a copy of John Riley's Bop Drumming book. Good luck and have fun.

@OP

The private teacher/student relationship is much different than th teacher/student relationship you experience at public school.

In school, you placed into a relationship where you're learning about something you may not be interested in from a person who may not be interested in teaching it.

With a private teacher, it's a partnership. You want to improve. The teacher wants you to improve so that you'll keep paying them. You're a team, and the sole purpose is to get you better, faster. To give you direction, and stop you from developing bad habits. To help you overcome challenges when your intuition fails you.

It doesn't have to be once a day or week. I tend to have a lesson once every two months and chase my own ambitions in-between. The lessons are just often enough to give me a direction, and see how close I get in two months. It's not like the drum police are gonna come get me if I do poorly.

Matt Bo Eder said:

Let's get one thing straight. You do not know the basics.

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I know that I know nothing. Wow Bo, probably the most profound thing that I have ever read from you.

OP, please stop with your CAPS, except with the "i"s. Those are suposed to be capitalized...

Google and look for what people declare to be the best Jazz albums. Keep listening to them till you love them. Might take some time, I'm getting towards 30 and I still don't like a lot of it. Find a teacher, learn traditional grip and ask to learn Jazz. The hard part will follow.

One thing that you can do is listen to recordings, play along and learn the parts.

Improvising with other musicians helps too.

Jazz is a beautiful thing. Jazz drumming is incredibly fun, frustrating, and glorious all at once. It can seem easy, but is incredibly difficult.

That being said, jazz drumming will make you a better all-around player.

Don't get bummed out by the harsh comments here on the thread. People tend to go ape when someone says one thing but may actually mean another. I have a suspicion many of them don't remember what it's like to be an impulsive 8th-grader.

Anyway, here are a few thoughts from someone who is currently on the long journey of learning jazz drumming:

1) A private teacher. This is huge. And find someone who actually plays jazz. For a living. I'm fortunate to have a teacher who is, indeed, a working jazz drummer. It's true, he/she is going to assign really mundane, seemingly useless exercises, but believe me, it will come in to play somewhere down the line. I used to wonder what was going on, but as time goes by I realize everything I've been working on has been clutch to me advancing as a drummer.

2) Listen. This is true. I assume that since you want to be a jazz drummer, you actually listen to the music. So just keep at it. And it's easy now that so much is available on YouTube, etc. For me, I subscribe to SiriusXM (Real Jazz), and where I live we have a great jazz-dedicated radio station. I also make it a point to buy a couple of CDs a month as my budget allows. And listen to both old stuff, and new. Jump from some '50s bop to something modern like Trio Subtonic or The Bad Plus.

3) See it in a live situation. Find a place that is all-ages. Many local bars (where I live, anyway, allow minors in before 9 or 10 p.m.). It doesn't need to be some swank high-priced show, it can be a local trio in a bar or restaurant somewhere. Seeing how people work with each other (Like they say, jazz is a conversation) in a live situation is a big part of learning.

4) Books. I got both Riley's book and Chapin's book. My teacher suggested I shelve Riley for now, and concentrate on Chapin. It lays a better foundation, and then I can move on to Riley after I get a grip on what's going on in Chapin.

5) Brushes. Get started now. Brush work is a life-long pursuit in getting good. Everyone does it differently. But pick up basic ideas, and work in what you hear, and what you want to hear. And play it. All. The. Time. And then another half hour.

6) Drum Kit. This is where people on this board (for the most part) are right. It really doesn't matter what you're using. Any kit is a jazz kit. Look at 2015 DeJohnette versus some dude from '59. Completely different kit, but still playing the same stuff (sorta). It really comes down to technique, what you want to get of it. And price doesn't matter. No. Really. It's true. You can find something for 450 bucks and make it epic. Plop money down for cymbals. That's where the money should go. And it's fun. The never-ending hunt for some holy grail of some guy selling an epic cymbal for dirt cheap ("I dunno, it was sitting in the attic and I just want to get rid of it) -- I scour Craigslist daily looking for some nugget (I got an absolutely virginal Blackrolite (not a cymbal, but you get where I'm coming from) a few months back for 85 bucks).

Good luck on your journey!

my advice

listen for about 6 months to 2 years before you even start playing .... see if you absolutely fall in love .... or until the music strikes you so deeply that you cannot help but play it

if you don't fall in love with it there is no point .... I've seen the jazz phaze strike a thousand times only to die a month later ... I call it the hip infection.... it often goes away

there is a huge difference in learning some jazz to gain coordination on the kit and learning to PLAY jazz because you love it

go watch every jazz performance that comes through your area

WhoIsTony? said:

my advice

listen for about 6 months to 2 years before you even start playing .... see if you absolutely fall in love .... or until the music strikes you so deeply that you cannot help but play it

if you don't fall in love with it there is no point .... I've seen the jazz phaze strike a thousand times only to die a month later ... I call it the hip infection.... it often goes away

there is a huge difference in learning some jazz to gain coordination on the kit and learning to PLAY jazz because you love it

go watch every jazz performance that comes through your area

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Agreed with this...

And - go back to the beginning as part of that search. Either begin there or go backwards from wherever you start. You can't possibly understand where it's at until you know where it's been.

Huge, huge, huge difference between being someone who can play Jazz style patterns (for the lack of a better term) and someone who can play the music. Night and day diff....

If you can't speak the language through the music - any coordination skills for execution leaves you empty.

I don't have much to add to the great advice and ideas of the others here. I will summarize their ideas in a word: "total immersion." Okay, that's two words. But seriously, begin at the beginning--learn to sit up, then crawl, then walk and finally to run. Go back to the beginning and read about the history of jazz; about the great jazz composers and players--interviews, autobiographies and biographies and histories. Do the same with listening--listening to everything you can find starting as far back as you can. Then, go back even further. Maybe it's just me, but I find a swing pulse in some of the Baroque Era compositions: Bach, Handel, Corelli, Geminiani et al.

Learn to really listen. Books can (and have) been written on this subject. There's more to it than having it on while you are memorizing a list of Greek and Roman gods or learning about the importance of cigars in war. Here's a nice little article to get you started.
http://mobtownmusicguide.com/extreme-listening-extreme-results-john-thomakos/

Finally, I will suggest something I wish I had started back when. Keep a notebook on all things about your drumming career. Use it as a "commonplace" book. It will ultimately become an encyclopedia of your drumming history." Use it to notate quotations, inspirations, observations, ideas and so on.

Some fantastic advice in this thread.

I'll fifth (or so) the direction to listen, listen and listen some more.

Learn your history. Do your homework. Start at the beginning. If you don't know who Baby Dodds, Zutty Singleton and Dave Tough are, find out.

Learn the Great American Songbook by not only listening to instrumentals but to jazz and swing singers. (If you don't know what the GAS is, look that up, too) Learn the melodies and learn the lyrics to the standards. Know the tunes inside and out.

Everything flows from there: from the improvisations of the soloists and the comping of the rhythm section right on down to what you play on the drums.

I'll echo the great Clark Terry (RIP) here: Imitate, Assimilate, then Innovate.

Right now, you're not even at step one. You don't even know how or what to imitate. You'll figure that out by listening.

As has been said already, the ears are the first tool in learning a new genre. Listen to Jazz and work out what the drummer is doing. Dontjust learn it because you think it sounds difficult, do it because you love it and it inspires you.

WhoIsTony? said:

my advice

listen for about 6 months to 2 years before you even start playing .... see if you absolutely fall in love .... or until the music strikes you so deeply that you cannot help but play it

if you don't fall in love with it there is no point .... I've seen the jazz phaze strike a thousand times only to die a month later ... I call it the hip infection.... it often goes away

there is a huge difference in learning some jazz to gain coordination on the kit and learning to PLAY jazz because you love it

go watch every jazz performance that comes through your area

Click to expand...

This is the best advice I've read. period.

I've been down this road - the "hip infection" will usually go away if your roots and "musical" intentions are elsewhere.

Nowadays, the thought doesn't even cross my mind.

Nothing else to add. Agree 100% with what has been said. TONS of great advice from those who have been there and done it to those who are there now and doing it now. Soak it all in.

Even us old farts just learned a thing or two.

I want to thank everyone that posted to this thread it all really helped and gave me the advise i really needed. I'm definitely going to really start listening to more jazz than i do now and really listen to it and study it and practice every day. i'm going to try to find a good private teacher to help me out but i don't know i'm a little short on money :/ i'm go check out these great recommendation on books and music. Peace