I want to play jazz standards on my drums.

brodiewd

Junior Member
Hello all,

I am looking for jazz drumming books that have the jazz standards in them. Both melodic/rhythm notation would be cool. What would you suggest?

I've come across something like this:

http://www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/01030821/details.html?kbid=1582&mkwid=9F8UWIN5_d{device}&pcrid=30081493740&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term={keyword}&utm_campaign=PLA+-+Sheet+Music

But am looking for something that is tried, tested and is renowned for being very informative with learning jazz standards on the drum set.

Thanks family.
 
Sit down with some recordings and play. Oh, and have a good time.
 
Tony nailed it with the Real Book suggestion. Tons of standards there. Plus everyone else you will end up playing with will be using them too.

For illustrations on how to apply the melody, check out these links:

http://haredrums.blogspot.com/
Check out the lessons on St. Thomas and Now's The Time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SctD6hDBphs
Ari Hoenig playing Billie's Bounce. Also check out his excellent Jazz Heaven DVD, Melodic Drumming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sgiHjdG6-o
Justin Faulkner clinic. Mostly the first 4 and a half minutes. The entire clinic is great though.
 
Theres' a Hal Leonard book that may come close-- Drum Standards, which has transcriptions (by Joe Labarbara, Steve Fidyk, and Steve Korn) of ten total classic drum performances, with a drum staff and a melody/ensemble staff. I also have a series (I've covered three tunes so far, anyway) on the blog that does something similar-- partial transcriptions, with the melodic rhythm, arranged hits, and notes.

But the tried and tested way of learning these things is to play them with a group, usually without a lead sheet, and listen to the recordings. Getting a copy of the Real Book is also a good idea.
 
Most people already have the best two things with which to play jazz. They are called "ears". Listen a lot and use them. :)
 
Brady, Todd, thank you for your suggestions. They are very informative with putting me on the right track.

I do have a copy of the real books, but I don't play a melodic instrument.. So I have trouble reading the charts because I struggle to make sense of them.

Would it be a good idea to listen to the songs along side the corresponding chart? Is there a possibility that I can hear the notes as they appear on the chart?

It bums me out mega because I love jazz so much but I am at a stale mate..

Thanks again drumming family!
 
Brady, Todd, thank you for your suggestions. They are very informative with putting me on the right track.

I do have a copy of the real books, but I don't play a melodic instrument.. So I have trouble reading the charts because I struggle to make sense of them.

Would it be a good idea to listen to the songs along side the corresponding chart? Is there a possibility that I can hear the notes as they appear on the chart?

It bums me out mega because I love jazz so much but I am at a stale mate..

Thanks again drumming family!

yes listen along and follow the rhythm of the melody

start with something easy like Billies Bounce

I suggest doing this

listen to Billies Bounce and follow along on the chart..... simple 12 bar form

next memorize the melody

then play your ride pattern with hats on 2&4 and play the Billlies Bounce melody on your snare drum with your left hand

once comfortable with that break up the same melody between your snare drum and bass drum while keeping "55" on the cymbal and 2&4 on the hats

if you want to go further break up the melody between the snare, bass drum, and hi hat while keeping "55" on the cymbal

once comfortable with that put the song on and play along but only playing about 1/3 of the notes that you played when playing the whole melody on with the snare , bass drum, and hi hat

do this with as many standards as you can .....this really kills a couple birds with one stone

you become extremely familiar with melodies and you develop some really great vocabulary

in this music we love melodies are the key to the city
 
Speaking as someone who started out playing standards in nightclubs, what you want to do is learn to be proficient in several different types of playing.

First, you need to be able to play the basic swing beat in all tempos. "The Way You Look Tonight" is a good example of a medium tempo swing standard. That right there kills well over half of the standards that you're sure to come across.

Second, you need to be able to play an authentic-sounding bossa-nova beat with the proper clave, ala "The Girl From Ipanema".

Third, you need to be proficient with the brushes. Brushes are a main sound of ballads, the slow songs like "Good Morning Heartache", but they are also used on more up-tempo songs, and the stick-brush combo can be effective on the bossa-novas.

Almost all of these songs have the A-A-B-A structure, each section consisting of eight bars, so get that very much in your head and in your hands and feet.

I think that pretty much covers it; if I forgot anything I'm pretty sure someone will come along to fix it.

Get all this together and you'll be ready for almost any standard that's thrown at you. Good luck and have fun.
 
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Speaking as someone who started out playing standards in nightclubs, what you want to do is learn to be proficient in several different types of playing.

First, you need to be able to play the basic swing beat in all tempos. "The Way You Look Tonight" is a good example of a medium tempo swing standard. That right there kills well over half of the standards that you're sure to come across.

Second, you need to be able to play an authentic-sounding bossa-nova beat with the proper clave, ala "The Girl From Ipanema".

Third, you need to be proficient with the brushes. Brushes are a main sound of ballads, the slow songs like "Good Morning Heartache", but they are also used on more up-tempo songs, and the stick-brush combo can be effective on the bossa-novas.

Almost all of these songs have the A-A-B-A structure, each section consisting go eight bars, so get that very much in your head and in your hands and feet.

I think that pretty much covers it; if I forgot anything I'm pretty sure someone will come along to fix it.

Get all this together and you'll be ready for almost any standard that's thrown at you. Good luck and have fun.

awesome advice J
..........................
 
Thank you to everyone providing me with advice. Love it, we are such a big family of drummers here it's not funny.. So I've gone ahead and located a couple books mentioned on a blog I have seen below, one is Alan Dawson - The Drummer's Complete Vocabulary. The other is John Riley - The Art Of Bop Drumming.

I'm going to take below advice on jamming along with some of the more simple standards, though I might not sound too great, it's always a start. I've always practiced Jazz, whilst it's been notated work outs, I find it hard to have independence of the snare from the ride & hats keeping the swing, and then freely expressing my self on the bass drum/snare.

I just have to listen to solely jazz for a while, I think.

Cheers lads,

Brodie
 
Two things to add:

1. This site can be helpful to learn the 'heads' (aka melody) of the tune: http://www.learnjazzstandards.com/

2. Listen to recordings of songs with a vocalist - you can pick out and remember the melody much easier when you can sing the words. This helps tremendously.

It's all about learning and internalizing the melodies to the songs. The soloing makes a lot more sense when you're playing music.
 
Brady, Todd, thank you for your suggestions. They are very informative with putting me on the right track.

I do have a copy of the real books, but I don't play a melodic instrument.. So I have trouble reading the charts because I struggle to make sense of them.

Would it be a good idea to listen to the songs along side the corresponding chart? Is there a possibility that I can hear the notes as they appear on the chart?

It bums me out mega because I love jazz so much but I am at a stale mate..

Thanks again drumming family!

Get the albums and listen, listen, listen. Get albums with vocalists on them so you can hear standard SUNG as they were originally meant to be. Get THAT deep into your bones.
 
Hello all,

I am looking for jazz drumming books that have the jazz standards in them. Both melodic/rhythm notation would be cool. What would you suggest?

I think for many of the standard, standards you want to go back to the original score and look at that, things like summertime and A-train, many will chime in that it isn't necessary, but there is a reason they call'em fake books. I think in the simplification process, the first things to go are drum parts.
 
I think for many of the standard, standards you want to go back to the original score and look at that, things like summertime and A-train, many will chime in that it isn't necessary, but there is a reason they call'em fake books. I think in the simplification process, the first things to go are drum parts.

"drum parts" in a jazz piece?

are you being serious ?

a Real Book provides a drummer with everything he needs to play standards .... a form and a melody

if a player of jazz music needs more than that he is not ready to play jazz
 
As drummers it's our job to maintain the outline of the sketch that is being presented. And that's what playing music is basically, drawing lines with sound. Only we "play" lines.

So in Jazz, expressive an art form as it is you should learn to draw the outlines then also begin to practice shading in parts on your own (that's "trading 4's and/or 8's"). Some of the best drum fills have been completely mindless mistakes that the original player didn't exactly mean to do but when listened back to, the way the rhythm transposed itself within the area was exactly what needed to happen.

That's why you should always record yourself. It's the difference between walking and flying. Your playing will improve tenfold in the same bracket of time as someone who does not listen back to their game.
 
The book I used when first starting out was "Jazz Standards for Drumset" by Brian Fullen. It includes good guidance on how to play 12 tunes, including tutorial info along the way. The included CD has excellent playalongs, with and without drums.
 
"drum parts" in a jazz piece?

are you being serious ?

a Real Book provides a drummer with everything he needs to play standards .... a form and a melody

if a player of jazz music needs more than that he is not ready to play jazz

Nah, the Real book doesn't even have half the standards, and if they do they don't have half the notation you need. Take "Summertime" or "My Funny Valentine" for example.
 
Nah, the Real book doesn't even have half the standards, and if they do they don't have half the notation you need. Take "Summertime" or "My Funny Valentine" for example.

yup

My Funny Valentine pg 287 of Real Book sixth edition (yellow cover)

Summertime pg 323 of Real Book volume IV

the form is there and the melody is there

if a drummer needs more than that he is nowhere near ready to play anything related to jazz music
 
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