Dave Brubeck's "Take 5" - keeping time

Hi everyone, (not sure where to post this)

My band has recently decided to incorporate Brubeck's Take 5 into our repertoire, and I'm having a hard time (no puns intended) keeping time; any suggestions? My main problem isn't really keeping time itself: what's problematic is that I can't seem to play relaxed and really "swing" because I'm so focused on keeping time. So, any suggestions on perhaps counting with the hihat? Or any other method?

It's harder to play than it sounds. I played it at a gig I did with my former college jazz band teacher and some guys from the group, and we did that as my drum feature. I unfortunately didn't have it at the time, but John Riley's book "The Jazz Drummer's Workshop" has a great set of exercises for playing in 5. I'd get that book and try playing those along with "Take Five". The more you play it the more comfortable it will become, just like anything else.

Keep playing it until you loosen up. It's easy to stiffen up trying to keep the unusual time signature. Also play to a metronome so that you can concentrate on keeping it evenly spaced out. Once you loosen up and can play the basic bits without stress then you can make it swing.

learn the song and sing it in your head while you're playing. then you won't have to count.

The time signature in this particular piece is phrased as 3/4 + 2/4, and it's quite beneficial to start out by really emphasising this division. Play this foot pattern to guide yourself: B-H-H-B-H. A good cymbal rhythm to go with the feet would be "spang spang-a-lang spang-a-lang".

Keep everything static in the beginning; don't worry about playing the snare drum, "mixing it up" or "making it interesting". First make it sound good and feel good. Practice this basic time keeping pattern every day until it becomes comfortable and starts swinging. Play along to the original to learn how the melody, basslines and chord changes relate to the groove you're playing. Sooner or later you'll have the time feel internalised and you can start exploring snare comping patterns, different bass drum and hi-hat placements, cymbal variations and so forth.

Apart from thinking in "twos and threes", there really is no special trick to playing well in 5/4 or any other odd time signature. You just need to practice, practice and practice til' you have it.

I practiced the groove for 6 months somewhat regularly to get it to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezIqMb_iVxk&feature=BFa&list=PL6F0B1EC0542635B7

Thanks for tips guys. I figured I'd just listen to the song and play along to it with my band until we all manage to internalize the rhythm.

Play this foot pattern to guide yourself: B-H-H-B-H.

Click to expand...

I started off doing this, but ended up counting either 1-1 or 1, 1-2 with the hi-hat which does work, great advice
I guess nothing works better than just playing along to the song, so I'll stick to that for now.

I tend to keep time on this by locking in with the piano vamp. So long as your piano player and you play together well and both have a decent sense of time, internalizing that pulse he does will carry you through, even in the solo part. Good luck... one of my all time favorites.