📋 “B Flat Blues ” Lead Sheet DOWNLOAD

High-resolution PDF with chord symbols for drummers

STEP 1. LEARN THE SWING FEEL

As a drummer, providing a good time feel is super important to the overall sound of any ensemble. In jazz, the swing feel can be a tricky one to master. Here’s a few steps to getting the swing feel going

1. Play quarter notes on your ride cymbal, try to make the quarter notes nice and consistent
2. With your left foot, close the hi-hats on beats 2 and 4. Try and close the hi-hat as crisply as possible. This provides the back-beat for the groove
3. Feather the bass drum on all 4 beats. Feathering needs to be really quiet. The idea is to support the bass player, so you want to make sure that your bass drum is quieter than the bass.
4. Try and balance the volume of your beat, so that there’s an even volume between your ride cymbal and hi-hat

STEP 2. START WALKING THE DOG

Now to add some extra ‘swing’ to your ride pattern! A great way to do this is to say the phrase “Walk the Dog” over and over again, and replicate that sound on your ride cymbal.

1. Play the “Walk The Dog” feel on the ride cymbal. This creates that skipping kind of sound in the swing feel.
2. You can start to add some improvisations with your left hand on the snare drum. Start by playing the “Charleston” feel with your left hand, which is to hit the snare on “beat 1” and the “and of 3”
3. Keep your hi hats on beats 2 and 4 and keep them nice and crisp
4. Keep feathering the bass drum, making sure that the bass drum is the quietest part of the drum kit.

STEP 3. START IMPROVISING AND OUTLINING FORM

Ready to venture a bit further? You can start by using the melody of the blues to base your improvisations from.

1. Keep your swing feel going with “walk the dog” and sing out loud the rhythm to the melody of a blues tune
2. Your left hand is there to “comp”, which means to accompany. So you can respond to the melody by playing something with your left hand on the snare drum. Start by playing something in response where there’s a break in the melody.
3. Start outlining the form by playing a little fill at the end of each 12 bar form. It doesn’t have to be much, but just a simple fill with a snare and cymbal hit at the end of the 12th bar will outline that we’re back to the top of the form and will sound great!
4. Try trading 4s with our backing tracks. Trading 4s means that a melodic instrument will improvise for 4 bars, then the drums will take a solo for 4 bars. Play your swing feel for 4 bars, then play a simple drum solo. Consider just using the rhythm of the melody over the kit to start with. Then get more adventurous and take some more risks.

You’ve taken your first steps into the exciting world of small ensemble jazz. Whether you want to dive deeper or start playing with others, JMI is here to guide your journey.

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