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Learn To Play The Basic Jazz Pattern

In this drum lesson, you will learn the basic jazz drumming pattern that is the foundation for most jazz drum beats. It requires a fair amount of independence, so you will learn it through progressive steps. This will simplify the entire learning process, and get you playing jazz with greater ease.

Watch the video lesson at the top of this page to get started. After that, you can read through this page for additional information that will guide you through each of the progressive patterns. Practice each one carefully before moving on to the next.

Basic Jazz - Progressive Patterns

Here, you will simply play the ride cymbal with your right hand, and the hi-hat pedal with your left foot. It's based on a triplet feel, so be sure you are counting eighth note triplets out loud as you play the exercise.

 
Exercise two includes everything you learned in the previous exercise, but now you will be adding the left hand on the snare drum for counts two and four. Be sure you keep everything else steady and consistent.

The third exercise includes the bass drum on counts one and three. This is going to start feeling a little more like a rock groove, aside from the ride-pattern and the triplet-feel. Focus on keeping the various limbs synced.

For exercise four, you will play the bass drum on all four counts. This will begin to develop your independence and control. Try transitioning to and from exercise three to mix things up a little.

Exercise five has the same foundation on the hi-hats, ride, and snare. However, we only play the bass drum on the "let" count of one and three. You can check out the lesson on counting eighth note triplets if you are having any trouble understanding these exercises.

The sixth and final exercise includes added snare shots, and a few changes with the bass drum pattern. Read through it carefully, and it should all make sense. You can also watch the video lesson for a demonstration.

Once you have mastered the basic jazz pattern, you can move on to the jazz drum beats lesson. There you will learn several other grooves you can use when playing along with Jazz music (including our drum play-alongs).