The art of drum soloing
How to be the next Elvin Jones!
There are two types of solos — composed and improvised. This article is mainly targeted to discuss improvised solos.
Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians. The most common structure of a jazz standard is a head section which is the melody the song followed by a solo section which constitutes 90% of the entire song. Pulling off a good improvised solo by adapting to the situation demands much control and confidence.
In this article I will discuss different building blocks to create an improvised drum solo and practice exercises that will help you master each block. Though the exercises are specific to drumming the concepts are applicable to all musical instruments.
This is all the knowledge I’ve gathered through drum workshops at The True School of Music, Mumbai, own research and experimentations over the past 3 months.
Form
Most tunes have recurring chord progression that serve as the structure of the tune. The way in which different sections of the progression are grouped determines the form of that tune. It is like a musical blue print. The most common form AABA also called American Popular Song Form and Ballad Form
Every good solo has a form. In most common scenario, a song starts with the melody instruments playing the head of the song in the first chorus followed by undetermined number of middle choruses where each instrumentalist improvises a solo. All the instrumentalists of the band performing on stage may have different opinion towards the piece being played and might express a different mood during their own solo sections using the form as his/her guide, knowing the chord progression of each section (the chords provide the impetus for what notes can be played by the improviser). It ends with one last chorus of head.
Exercise 1: create an A part and B part of a 16-th note bar. Then practice playing AABA in a loop.
Notes on exercise: Start simple as it is easy to get lost after a few loops! This is for people who already have a decent vocabulary.
Vocabulary
Music, just like any other language, is words (beats, licks & fills) combined to create sentences (phrases) that put together give you the context (solo)
Beat: A beat is rhythmic pattern that establishes the groove of the song when played repetitively.
Lick: A lick is a melodic pattern which is a result of a particular sticking pattern between different drum heads.
Fill: A fill or a break is what you generally use to transition from one section to the next section of the song. Most times it either fills up or breaks down the normal beat to create the line between two sections.
Phrase: Grouping of licks and fills in between your beats creates a phrase. Phrases are arranged in the form of the song, for example in AABA pattern.
Chops: If a drummer has an interesting combination of licks and fills, he is said to have good chops.
One of the best ways to pick up music vocabulary is to transcribe — listen and write down your beats down to perfect notation.
Exercise 2: take any beat and play it at same tempo in 8th notes, triplets, 16th notes, quintuplets, sextuplets and so on.
Notes on exercise: Based on how complex a beat you take, you could end up on any hand or leg. It develops your agility as a drummer. In most cases perfecting above exercise with just single(RLRL), double(RRLL) and paradiddle(RLRR) sticking patterns can open a world full of possible licks and fills!
Exercise 3: add two bass kicks in a group of 8 beats, say a single paradiddle (RLRRLRLL), to make a group of 10.
Exercise 3.a: Play it in a tempo as quintuplets.
Notes on exercise: This develops your 5/4 time signature. Similarly, you can make various combinations to get comfortable with various time signatures.
Exercise 3.b: Play the beat as 16th notes.
Notes on exercise: You’ll finish up your bar before the pattern is complete which forces you to end up at different places of the pattern at the end of every bar. This helps you develop the sense of knowing where you’re in your particular fill.
The above exercises gives you vocabulary to choose from in creating your chops on the fly. You might’ve most amazing chops but still might not be aware of the musical situation. The flow might be missing.
Flow
Flow is how you choose from your vocabulary to fit into the song. You can increase or decrease the tempo, change time signatures or note values to bring out the musical flow. You need to have complete control of speed rate aka sub division and space.
Exercise 4.a: Take a beat and play 8th notes, 16th, 32th, quintuplets and sextuplets for 2 bars each in the same tempo.
Notes on exercise: Start with 8th notes because you want to be aware of the beat. You want to fill up or remove from the main beat during your solo fills.
Exercise 4.b: Later you can add a rest in the beat and try the same exercise.
Notes of exercise: This improves your sense of space in a particular bar. You will develop the instinct of when to start the next bar in case your previous bar ends halfway.
Getting it right in practice room environment can be done in an after but actually playing it confidently live based on situation takes a lot of time. Play with a band as much as possible.
Exercise 5: play 2 bars of beat and play 2 bars improvisation.
Notes on exercise: Make improvisation as random as possible (subdivisions and note values) but make sure you hit the 1 of next bar after 2 bars of improvisation. The idea is to develop the human metronome at the back of your head. This also helps you let go fear of loosing the beat.
Exercise 4 is playing on the grid (going through rhythm tree subdivisions) and exercise 5 is playing off the grid. Both in combination will develop your flow.
Dynamics
When it comes to drumming, dynamics are very important. Especially when you’re using only one drum head, without dynamics everything sounds monotonous. Accents also help you keep the form of the basic beat while you’re filling it up.
Exercise 6: Whatever you can play make sure you can play at very low and high volume and all levels in between.
Notes on exercise: Be sure to use ear plugs or head phones. Practising at high volumes for longer durations might cause damage to ears.
Creativity
Constraint forces creativity — Anonymous
You can improve creativity by making rules and restrictions for yourself. Restrictions can be developed around any aspects of drumming.
Exercise 7.a: play and improvise for 5 mins with only 16th notes beats and rests. Restricting with 1 subdivision only.
Exercise 7.b: play only cross stick in your left hand for 5 mins while you do anything with other limbs. Restricting a particular sound on 1 limb.
Exercise 7.c: play only soft for 5 mins. Restricting on dynamics.
Notes on exercise: This will let you not repeat yourself for a longer time. You get bored of your own vocabulary and try out new beats. Record yourself, play it back and see what sounds bad. Create your own exercises to improve that.
Texture and color
This is one of the most important concepts that when integrated correctly into the drum solo gives the musical as well as the emotional connect to the listener.
How you fill up your beat can loosely be called the texture of the beat. You can space out your beat with rests and release the experience or add 32-note subdivisions to tense the experience.
Color is what kind of feel you bring out with your drumming. For example, if you use only cymbals it could give a very sparkly or flashy feel. If you use only toms it could give a very dull or dry feel.
It is hard to exactly explain what these terms are and give any practice exercises for them. The only thing you can do is listen to as many different kinds of music as possible and spend as much time as possible experimenting around the kit. These are mostly intuition based things and can be developed only over time with more exposure.
Hum
Always sing what you wanna play first. The things you cannot play, you cannot sing but what you can sing, you can play. Maybe you just need some practice to make it sound clean. Human instinct is to drift off in the direction they’re going. So what you hear is what you gonna play. So Hum before you play.
Element of surprise
Surprise the listener but constructing a nice solo where it normally wouldn’t be or leave out a part where it is expected. Give surprise elements in between the flow.
Now, go on, create your own drum schedules by identifying what all is still lacking in you and you’ll be on your way to reach Elvin Jones in no time! Well, you really need to stick to your schedule and practise which I currently am having trouble with. How about you give me a heart if this article has helped you?
