How to Play a Basic Bass Drum Beat in Jazz Music

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Shaun Schaefer on behalf of Expert Village. And today we're going to be learning how to play a basic Jazz drum beat. Now that we know kind of what the Kick drum's purpose is or really lack of purpose. Because it really doesn't add any primary function other than maybe accenting some things going on in the music. Unlike, obviously the Ride Cymbal and the Hi Hat which their primary function is to keep the groove going. O.k.? It's to keep the song moving. And it is a sign post, if you will, for the rest of the musicians that you're playing with. Their focusing in on the Hi Hat. O.k.? This is their timing. Unlike, you know, Rock music where if you are timing on one, two, three and four and, you know, that's where it is. Or maybe with your Kick drum or Snare drum. Jazz music is always focused in on the Hi Hat on two and four. So the Kick drum really is not helping out with any timing issues. Or it's not really a sign post to the other musicians. Like, "hey! you better be with me". In Rock music the Kick drum is on primarily on beats one and three. And on that down beat of one, everybody knows that this is one, this is where we're supposed to be at the beginning of this bar, at the beginning of this next part. Because we hear that Kick drum on one. Right? Kick drum's not doing that in Jazz music. Therefore it's kind of tough because we're used to playing the Kick drum on one and three. That's normal, that's second nature now. And Jazz music's not doing that so you're playing it in at different odd times. Not to mention you have the Ride Cymbal pattern where you're just used to playing eight notes on the Hi Hat. Now we're actually playing a totally different pattern. So, we're going to get three, in this case, our right hand left or right leg and left foot. We're actually getting three limbs doing three completely separate things. So what we're going to do is we're going to practice playing the Kick drum on just you know, different beats that you know, we're not used to. I'm going to play it on one just to emphasize the beginning of the bar. And then we're going to play it on the and where the A of two. O.k.? So, let's get our groove going. Four, one, two, A, three, four. One, two and three, four. One, two and three, four. One, two and three, four. One."