Practicing comping and interacting in jazz

Swiss Matthias

Platinum Member
Question for all of you jazz guys:

Practicing independence, licks, technical aspects etc is rather easy, as there is
tons of information out there.

However, how do you practice comping and interacting? How do you improve
the ability to interact with people's playing, and initiate musical statements that
fit the situation?

I mean, other than actually play with musicians I mean. Do you
- transcribe or analyze what other drummers did on recordings?
- "prepare" for certain situations a soloist may provide?
- only practice various dynamic levels and increasing/decreasing density throughout phrases of a certain length?
 
I transcribe what non-drummers are playing on recordings (rhythmically) and then try to think in terms of completing or otherwise complementing their phrasing. So I'll e.g. transcribe the comping rhythms of the piano and then aim to devise a set of comping patterns of my own that fit with those. It's a good exercise to open up your ears if nothing else.
 
The interactive element gets a little bit overemphasized, I think. I play off of the tune (the melody, the form, and any arrangement elements) and the groove as much as I do the other musicians. So you can prepare by learning a lot of tunes really well (starting with the ones your local guys like to play), and the interacting can take care of itself through experience.

Then again, there was a period when I tried to be a purely interactive musician- you can work on that by doing a lot of free playing with a like minded player or two. It's good practice, and you can sometimes make actual music that way.

TMS' idea is good too- I would also transcribe the actual solos. Charlie Rouse is a good one to start with.
 
Back
Top