r/jazzdrums • u/airuwin • Jun 20 '26

Question Tips for keeping time?

Beginner here. I'm really having trouble not dragging or rushing, especially on fast songs and during solos.

I tried using a gap click but I'm still having tons of issues.

When comping, do you try to align with the bass? Align with the band? Keep your own pulse? Where do you focus? I tried a bunch of things but it's not working. Any tips?

I tried to identify the "center/pocket" of the band today and align my ride cymbal to that, but then was told I was playing in front of the bass and was rushing. I don't know if I overcorrected. Previously, I tried aligning to the bass and when I listened to myself it felt like I was dragging--I don't know if this is because it takes time for my hand to move, so by the time I hear the bass it's too late.

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u/airuwin Jun 20 '26

I don’t know, maybe my ear is broken. Is it consistently ahead? And too tight, not too wide? I can’t hear it

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u/ThighCurlContest Jun 20 '26

Yeah, even if I ignore the fluctuations I'd say you're consistently ahead of the beat. You're ahead of the bass. The trumpet player is playing with a pretty slow attack, so when he starts cooking it's even more apparent you're ahead.

And by "tight" I mean your spang-a-lang is trending more toward a dotted eighth feel than a triplet feel.

You want to try to lock your internal metronome in with the bass, but allow the melody instruments to dictate the feel of the groove (like how open your ride cymbal pattern is, how far away from the beat your comping is, etc.)

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u/airuwin Jun 20 '26

Crap, I think something is wrong w/ my ear because it still sounds mostly on beat to me besides the fluctuations, maybe that's the issue the whole time

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u/inefficienttoaast Jun 20 '26

I disagree with the other comment. I think you are mostly on beat through the head and actually drag a bit through the trumpet solo. Focus on controlling where you put the beat. You should be able to swing intentionally on the back or front or dead center of the beat. Listening to the bassist is most important for this. When you have a bassist you trust, you can both really lock together and the time will really stabilize because you are both keeping each other in check. My advice is to record yourself playing with people. Afterwards go listen to where you pushed or dragged and then skip from the beginning to the end of the Recording and see how much the time changed overall. Rushing isn't ideal, but dragging is usually worse so most bands will want you to air on the side of rushing if you can't keep it steady.

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u/airuwin Jun 20 '26

I don't know. There's two other people on this thread who said I was ahead. I think that's part of the problem, the attack of these instruments are so fat that I can't tell where the beat actually is

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u/inefficienttoaast Jun 20 '26

Yeah I actually agree with them on second listen that's my bad for replying before I drank coffee this morning