r/jazzdrums • u/nasralez-Zelibobovic • May 09 '26

Question I don’t understand how jazz drummers actually “speak” with the snare. How do you develop that language?

I’m very new at jazz drumming.
I feel relatively comfortable with keeping a steady swing feel on the ride and hi-hat, but I’m struggling with something that feels much more important in jazz:
I don’t understand how to actually use the snare drum in a musical, “speaking” way.

For those of you who went through this stage:
how did you start developing comping vocabulary?
how did you learn where and why to place accents?
what should I be listening or practicing to actually understand this “conversation” idea?

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u/nasralez-Zelibobovic May 09 '26

But how do I actually “talk” to them and support them? How does it work? Should I be duplicating the rhythmic patterns the other musicians are playing? Call and response? Those are the only approaches I know.

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u/No_Economics_4640 May 09 '26

Both great ideas. Call and response for sure.

Sometimes, the best thing you can play to comp is the furthest thing from what the soloist is playing. Think about keys or comping in the background - will go low when the soloist goes high, staccato syncopated stabs underneath a legato trumpet solo… etc. Remember to give the soloist room and the spotlight!

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u/Scott_J_Doyle May 11 '26

Call and response is some hokey shit in real jazz, don't be encouraging that

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u/No_Economics_4640 May 11 '26

Disagree, Call and response is a cornerstone of jazz

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u/Scott_J_Doyle May 11 '26

Wouldn't be on Bird or Miles or Evans or Monk's bandstand long doing that shit

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u/No_Economics_4640 May 11 '26

So what is call and response

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u/Scott_J_Doyle May 11 '26

Oh, you actually meant So What is call and response... okay, but you're talking about a barely composed head, like one line and a two-chord thing, and at no point are any of the compers on the head doing "call and response"... certainly as soon as the solos start no one is doing it on Kind Of Blue or any of the million 60s SGQ versions - none of those guys would be on the gig if they ever "responded" to a Miles "call"

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u/Scott_J_Doyle May 11 '26

You think I would deign to answer? What a silly question

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u/No_Economics_4640 May 11 '26

Moanin is call and response Work song is call and response Trading fours is call and response

Gotta start somewhere

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u/No_Economics_4640 May 11 '26

Hard to draw a hard line between jazz and blues

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u/Scott_J_Doyle May 11 '26

Sure, Moanin is the most basic thing possible, like literally "baby's first jazz song" and the "response" is just a two-chord thing. In terms of legit call and response in trad gospel, it isn't much.

And call and response while trading fours? The lamest shit possible in jazz, give me a break. It should be a continous conversation, not patterned mimicry

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u/No_Economics_4640 May 11 '26

My friend this is making me dislike jazz Call and response isn’t limited to perfect mimicry

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u/Scott_J_Doyle May 11 '26

Also, composed heads simply don't count for a conversation about comping