Helpful Jazz Exercises for Drummers!

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0:00 Introduction
1:43 What do I play when I'm keeping time?
2:20 Key Jazz recordings (Tain, Elvin and Jack)
3:18 Why advanced independence is valuable even if you don't play busy
4:03 Right-Hand lead
5:00 Right Foot lead
5:33 Left-Foot lead
6:22 How to practice all the "lead" exercises
7:00 Left hand buzzing (aka one-motion drop)
8:14 Coming up with left-hand buzz phrases
9:23 Dynamics among all limbs = musical phrases!
9:58 Tricky bar breakdown
11:11 Fusion-style left hand 16th note phrases against the swing pattern
12:04 Breaking up 8th note triplets between hands and feet
15:31 Double-bass jazz phase? How dare you!
16:06 Words of wisdom on jazz drumming and how to practice it

13" New Beat Hats
15" A Custom Crash
K Custom Special Dry crash in the back 15" or 16" - I think 15.
Azuka on my left, camera right. Sizzles added to it.
20" K Custom Dry Light Ride. My favorite ride ever.

Drums are Yamaha PHX. Snare is Dunnett.

[Taleb]

I have gained more from this Video than anything else I have worked on for the last 10 years and I have been playing constantly for 45 years. I have said before, Steve is a Great educator, I have changed my mind.. he is the best and most inspiring educator! Thank you

[SteveHolmesDrums]

Almost 9000 views in three days - looks like this is topic folks are interested in! Got me thinking about what to put in Part 2!

[phoenix]

*_This is, without doubt, the most helpful and useful information on jazz drumming techniques I have ever seen, period!_* 👀

[geoffreysmith]

Hi Steve - I have been playing drums for about 48 years. I play all styles and have played in numerous rock, jazz bands, and at church. I now play mostly at home. I went to Interlochen for two summers and played in the Jazz band. I even played Buddy Rich’s drums shortly before his concert when given 2 minutes by his drum tech in 1979. No lie. I then went to NTSU for music but quickly realized I was out of my league. I have the chapan book and others. I’ve seen a lot of great jazz drummers. Today this video came across my YT feed. My friend, you are the sound in my head! I’m not kidding. This was so helpful on so many levels. I have the so called “legit” job. In 17 min you have re-ignited my desire to study and get better. Now an enthused follower. Thank you!!!

[ryancox]

I took one lesson with Steve in L.A. and was dead-set on taking regular lessons with him. I found him to be focused less on drum-nerd, technique-type things, and more focused on musician's-wisdom types of things. He talked about viewing my playing like a producer would view it, "editing" myself as I played, etc. The guy knows his stuff.

If you're in Southern California, definitely try to get some private instruction with him.

[melvinondrums]

This guy is the real deal ! He teaches the “ How” based on the “Why”. Excellent live performance with his group at The Baked Potato too.

[jackmaguire]

This is such an incredible video for advanced players. There’s so much free information here that people pay huge amounts to get from teachers

[cremebrulee]

I remember watching this video when it first came out, it is genuinely the best drumming advice I have heard

[lojenn]

Great advice. Played professionally 28 years. Have since moved on at almost 70 yo. As a young person I was full of piss and vinegar, always looking for that "solo" moment. My jazz drumming instructor drilled it in to my head, COMPLIMENT, and wait for your opportunity. It kept me working many more years, when focused on longevity, rudiments and reading music and COMPLIMENTING what's in front of you.

[Rk-zpyr]

I've been trying to get my jazz chops up for awhile now. this is the first video I've seen that has really opened my eyes

[paullevinsky]

Steve, you are about the best drum instructor I've encountered on the internet. I find that almost everything is for beginners. For some reason everything is intro to this or intro to that. Even well known drummers always have a "let's get back to basics" type of approach. All very important. But thank heaven there is someone out there (you) who is speaking to advanced players with some very practical ways to swing harder and sound hipper. Please keep it up!

[mr.freedom]

Why did 80 people dislike this video? I found it to be one of the best jazz drumming instructional videos out there. So useful to me in fact, that I feel a little guilty for not paying the dude.
anyway, haters gonna hate. What can you do.

[ryancox]

I find myself thinking of this video a lot during Steve Holmes live streams. Viewers often ask questions about traditional grip, or about a particular groove, or some other small-picture thing. But I feel like what many of those guys really need is a clinic on HOW TO PLAY JAZZ DRUMS. They just don't know it.

This video offers some practical, concrete tips, but it also teaches us to think about how the drums relate to other instruments in a jazz context.

For me, any intermediate or advanced drummer who watches Steve's streams on Sundays would do well to earmark this video and circle back to it from time to time.

So much mileage here.

[EdniDevay]

I'm a Brazilian musician (drummer) and it helped me a lot to study jazz... Thanks Mr. Steve.

The exercise in the 11:30th minute, very reminiscent of a Brazilian rhythm (Baião)

[musicalala]

Great lesson! Even for working jazz drummers like me there is a lot to gain from watching this. There are ideas that hadn't occurred to me. Thank you.

[quadrant]

Alan Dawson, The Drummers Complete Vocabulary, is the book that the triplet exercises come from at the the begining, and Dawson ( or his student who wrote the book ) takes them to levels .

[jeffrittenour]

this is one of the realest drum lesson videos i’ve ever seen. been drumming 20 years but never any jazz until now. thank you for sharing.

[stevenreich]

Whoa! This video is just fantastic! Out of every drum video I've watched, this is probably the video has said the most with the fewest words.

[DrumTrainerbyJunghoKang]

When you talked about your beacon albums, I thought, "I love those albums!" but then, "what are my beacon albums?"
Pursurance by Kenny Garrett with Brian Blade (I fell in love with jazz beacuse of this one and ended up studying music in New Orleans)
John Coltrane at Village Vanguard with Elvin
and Tales from Hudson with Jack!!
That's to me the jazz drumming!
This lesson helped me listen to my own voice
Thanks Steve.

[HuGrooveScience]

This is one of the best instructional drum videos in the history of YouTube! Wow thank you! New subscriber!!!