Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten about drums has come from non-drummers. Some years ago during a rehearsal, the late, great saxophonist Nathan Davis went on a tangent about how so many drummers’ time is unsteady because very few young drummers play the bass drum the right way. Nathan played with Kenny Clarke in Paris for many years and that was one piece of advice Kenny gave younger musicians: “The time is in your feet!” So here I was, 22 years old with Nathan Davis yelling at me, “Klook said the time is in your feet! You’ve got to play time on the bass drum, or your groove isn’t going to be right!” This set me off on a renewed effort to get my feathering together, and lately I’ve been thinking about this idea again.
A lot of folks talk about feathering as if it’s optional, and I think that’s good advice if you’re just beginning to learn independence. But if you’re serious about developing your time and swinging hard, I think at some point you’re going to have to deal with playing the bass drum as the foundation of your groove. After all, how many styles can be identified by their bass drum patterns? Funk. Samba. Salsa. And yes, Jazz. I even think of the advice I give when teaching drumlines: “play to your feet”. I’ve found that if marching drummers are marking time or marching in good time, their hands tend to be more accurate as well. Why shouldn’t this apply to playing the drum set?
There’s also the all too overlooked connection of swing to dancing. Yes, I will cede that jazz stopped being primarily a dance music in the mid 40’s, but the groove didn’t! We still need to play this music with a dance sensibility, and guess where that comes from? The feet! Have you ever seen someone dance with just their upper body? It doesn’t look great…
So how to work on this? I personally hate practicing, so I’m all about being efficient so I can be done as quickly as possible. Why not pair some rudimental workouts with steady foot patterns, and hit both at the same time? As I talked about in my previous post about the Marvin Smitty Smith ritual, adding different foot ostinatos is a great place to start. With feathering in mind, try out that ritual with quarters on the bass drum and 2 and 4 on the hi hat. While it would seem like that would be easier than the written samba pattern, it’s actually much harder! Many rhythms in the exercise are 4:3 or other polyrhythms and keeping the bass drum on steady quarters is surprisingly difficult!
Another approach I really enjoy is adding bass drum patterns to snare drum solos. This is a bit more interesting musically than just rudiments and poses the same challenges of coordination and timing. For an example, try some solos from John Pratt’s 14 Modern Contest Solos. (If you don’t know that book, go check it out; it’s an absolute classic. I’m sure I’ll write something more about that in the future.) Work on playing the solo as is, with half notes in the feet, with quarter notes in the feet, alternating quarter notes with the feet, samba patterns, and whatever else you can come up with. The focus here should be coordination only until you have the pattern working; then focus on sound. Is every note evenly spaced and voiced? Can you make the dynamics on the page come through in your feet as well? Then record yourself with and without feet and note any changes in phrasing and feel.
Personally, I find that my phrasing becomes a little more fluid and swings better when I’m adding foot ostinatos. I also make fewer mistakes somehow, but I haven’t quite figured out why yet. Check out the video below. I’m playing “Gladstone Cadets” first without, and then with a samba pattern.
Give it a shot! Are there any similar exercises that you do? I’d love to know what other people are working on.