At a certain point in our pratice journey with the book Syncopation, restricting ourselves to things that can be done by a single set of rules becomes limiting. I was workshopping this with a student— making a short note followed by a long note into a five stroke roll ending with a stick shot. Then to make a more complete jazz solo phrase, we added some things to that, that might not be easy to do on the fly, reading a full page exercise. So these are more some things to try with a short solo phrase.
I’ve given some two measure phrases as they appear in the book (minus the bass drum rhythm), with the basic system, then some things added:
You can play these with a swing interpretation, or straight 8th interpretation. There are plenty of straight 8ths played during swing feel tunes in jazz. Also note that on part C, there are some ties in the original book rhythm; I wrote those as rests in the interpreted version so there is no confusion between those and the rolls. I gave stickings where they seem to be important.
In analyzing that, you’ll notice:
– Isolated single notes can be played as buzzes, with both hands in unison. Sort of a Roy Haynes thing, or Billy Higgins.
– We can add bass drum after any quarter notes on the beat— which can also be turned into a triplet by doubling the snare drum note. Bass drum can also go in spaces falling on a downbeat.
– You can also do the roll/stick shot at the start of a longer run of 8ths— see C2.
The end results here almost get into a Haskell Harr like vibe. Bebop Haskell Harr. Have some fun with it.