Jazz ride feel

[Julius24]

Hi guys! I was wondering about the feel on the ride jazz pattern... I used to give it a more triplet feel most of the time, but now i kind of like phrasing it like doted eight and 16th.
I know that at faster tempos is really hard to tell, but, how do you approach it? It makes any sense to use each on with determinate tempos?
Thanks!

[Dazzler]

There are many differnt ways of phrasing the ride as you have said. Tony plays with a more dotted feel, while Elvin will accent the last triple heavily, others will lean on the quater note and treat the skip notes ppp.
There really is no rule as all drummers will interpret the swing pattern differently as you have pointed out - also check out Blakey, Philly Jo, Paul Motion, Erskoman, Mel Lewis, Lewis Nash, etc etc etc. I would say that as long as you have a driving, solid crotchet feel you are along the right lines, the skip notes can be phrased as the music dictates.

Don't forget that when you play 'in two', you don't want a driving pulse as the time is more broken - here the skip note is accented until the bass starts to walk and a more driving four feel happens.

Hope this helps

[Henry II]

I find that the slower the tempo, the more appropriate the dotted 1/8th note feel is. As the tempo increases, to mid-tempo music, the triplet feel is more appropriate. And as you approach up-tempo jazz the triplet feel gives way to a straight 16th note feel. JMHO. YMMV.

[GoMan]

Funny. cuz iwas just thinking about the same thing ... about experimenting withchanging to the dotted eighth feel for slow songs. I play only with thetriplet feel and its starting to feel pretty weak at slow tempos.

by the way what is YMMV?

[Henry II]

Originally posted by GoMan:
Funny. cuz iwas just thinking about the same thing ... about experimenting withchanging to the dotted eighth feel for slow songs. I play only with thetriplet feel and its starting to feel pretty weak at slow tempos.

by the way what is YMMV?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Your milage may vary.

[DPFRD]

Alot of this will have to do with how the bass player swings. If he is throwing in the occasional triplet and you're playing with a more straigt feel it will not sound to pretty.

Beyond that, Tempo dictates a lot as well. I know in that beyond bop book, it's written that between halfnote=140 to 150 you should go from triplet to straight.

I think your ears are the best judge though.

[Klemme]

I don't consider myself the biggest jazz guy, but when I play sit-in jazz situations, and because of some wierd thing that i don't know why, it happens alot lately. I think of making the cymbal swing let it sound come to a whole voice. playing dense but articulated notes, doesn't necessary mean that you're driving the band in a way they're comfortable with.

I start out with just playing, and mostly doing it through the whole gig. notes, quarter notes. introduce your time to the band and let them relate to it, and then LISTEN to their answers and build out your composition and ride-pattern from that. the focus on what's straight or triplet should be on the soloist your comp'ing. if he's showing improvisational patterns that indicates he's subdiving in a very triplet oriented matter, then i think it's obious to use triplets to connect your comping ideas more easily. again if he's doing straight improvisations, react to that with a comforting voice that tells him, that he can ''go on, i'm following you''. eventually provoke, or inspire him with some different comping ideas.

don't go out from a code-book that tells you from a metric scale to go triplet or straight. Listen, LIsten, LISten, LISTen, LISTEn, LISTEN and react or take initiative after what's beeing communicated to you.

[Klemme]

Deepfried, nailed it, so consider this a double post [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]cool.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img]

[Mr. Acrolite]

Listen to a lot of drummers on jazz records. Some of them will probably "touch" you more with their playing, which may offer an instinctive insight into how you want to phrase the ride rhythm. I discovered this when playing along with records. Some drummers - Al Foster for example - were really easy for me to play with, while some other drummers were really hard for me to synch up with - and they were playing great; they were just putting the beat in a different place than I felt it.

But I don't just use one way of phrasing it. To me, the rhythm I use depends on the song, the tempo, and the other musicians. I just listen intently, and play what I think best suits the situation.


Mr. A.

[Julius24]

HEy Guys! I really enjoy all your replies!
Thank you very much... Hopefully soon i?ll post clips of me playing swing so you can keep giving me ideas! God,i LOVE this forum! [img]wink.gif[/img]