The Art of Comping for Jazz Drums: An Introduction to Jazz Comping, Musical Interaction & Phrasing for Drummers (Learn to Play Drums) - Softcover

Birch, Mr Buster; Alexander, Mr Joseph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1789334047 ISBN 13: 9781789334043

Publisher: www.fundamental-changes.com, 2022

Synopsis

Ready to Discover Comping for Jazz Drums?

Comping is the art of improvising in response to the music going on around you in the moment – whether that’s accentuating the rhythmic hits of the band, or supporting the lines of a soloist. In fact, you have to be prepared for anything! And that means a different approach to learning.

The Art of Comping for Jazz Drums breaks down the process into clear steps via a comprehensive series of exercises that improve your skills and confidence to explore your own musical expression. Discover a clear, practical practice method and learn to apply your skills musically, while developing the kind of fluency that will enable you to improvise your own ideas.

The Art of Jazz Comping for Drums:

• Master the rhythmic ingredients of comping
• Learn to spontaneously create musical phrases
• Discover the structure of artistic comping
• Play polyrhythms and advanced phrasing
• Apply your skills musically with professional live backing tracks

A Masterful Study in Four Parts:

Part One focuses on developing your coordination skills with a logical, thorough series of musical exercises that work systematically through the fundamental rhythmic ingredients of comping.

Part Two uses your new skills to create melodic phrases with snare and bass drum combinations. This is where your language of jazz comping is developed, via exciting examples you can use as a template for your own ideas. Clear strategies such as question and answer phrasing are demonstrated to turn the exercises into music on the drums.

Part Three teaches you polyrhythmic phrasing and shows how simple ingredients can be used to produce the complex ideas played by Elvin Jones and Tony Williams. You’ll also learn to interact with the soloist to bring the drums to the forefront and confidently become an equal partner in the music.

Part Four puts you into a live musical situation with play-along tracks recorded by professional jazz musicians, so you can practice your own comping by listening and responding to the pianist in real time.

“It is a unique skill of the jazz drummer to accompany sensitively in such a way as to inspire and not impede the soloist. Buster has done a superb job in making it both attainable and attractive for anyone eager to learn.”
Spike Wells(Tubby Hayes, Bobby Wellins, Stan Getz, Roland Kirk, Art Farmer, Johnny Griffin, James Moody)

“Aspiring drummers often forget to master the most important thing: comping. This book includes fun and important exercises and gives advice in a clear, logical way. It should be on every drummer’s music stand.”
Sebastiaan de Krom(Leeds Conservatoire, jazz drums teacher at Purcell School for Young Musicians, Musical Director of NYJO/NABB)

“An excellent publication focusing on the development of coordination, independence and musical application/vocabulary. The audio/play-along tracks bring the whole project into musical focus. Highly recommended.”
Dave Hassell(Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, Visiting Fellow at Salford University)

Bonus: A chapter on “Checking Out the Masters” offers analysis of some classic recordings, and a curated Spotify playlist is included, so you can hear comping’s evolution. It includes recordings by Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, Jimmy Cobb, Elvin Jones and Tony Williams.

See it and Hear It

Every example is clearly notated and audio downloads provided for each example, which means you can still use this book even if you are not a great reader. Plus, there is an appendix of play-along bass tracks, ranging from 60bpm to 300bpm, for you to practice with and measure your progress, giving you a total of 128 free downloads!

Edition details

• Publisher: www.fundamental-changes.com
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1789334047
• ISBN 13: 9781789334043
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80
• Editor: Pettingale Mr Tim