Improving Your Solos Within a Song

Playing a drum solo within the form of a tune is often a challenge for jazz drummers. You know the situation: you're grooving on a tune, the piano solo ends, and you're left with a wide-open space to play a drum solo. Trouble is, you often freeze up or lose your place in the form. The inner voice is yelling at you to play some of your best chops or 'pretend' like you know where you are in the song form.

Do you ever wonder why this happens to drummers? After all, it's not like we don't know how to play the instrument. Why would we suddenly get lost or confused at that moment?

The answer is surprisingly simple: you haven't mastered the song. With jazz, we mostly play Real Book standards at jam sessions or performances, but this rule applies to any song, in any genre, with any instrument.

If I were to say to you, "Do you know the song 'We Will Rock You' by Queen?" I bet you would say, "Um, yeah, of course." I would bet you know the whole form of that song without even realizing it. If the music were to suddenly stop, you would be able to keep the torch going without thinking about it.

That is because that song is internalized. You know it. And knowing something without thinking about it—that's the name of the game.

So how do you learn a song structure on a song you don't know?

Here are my suggestions:

Listen to it first a few times if the recording is available.

Make some notes on key parts of the song: Where do things change? Maybe there is an obvious stop or change you can mark.

Play the skeleton of the tune, not your flashy stuff.

Record it and listen back to see how it sounds.

As far as a drum solo, here are some ideas to get you going.

Let's say the song structure is AABA, as in the jazz standard "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." Widen your listening scope to see the bigger picture. To illustrate this point:

Let's say for the A section, you play one snare hit on every bar for 4 bars. Then you repeat that. Then, in the B section, you play a tom hit on every quarter note for 4 bars. Then you go back to the snare for the last A section. You technically played the form, but it's not that interesting. Ask yourself what would be one level up to develop that phrase?

Maybe it would be you play eighth notes on the A sections and sixteenths on the B section. Next level up might be to add an accent to one of the notes.

The most ideal way, though, again, is to internalize the song. So instead of playing eighth notes, you are playing the melody to "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." I find this approach a lot easier and more musical. The other musicians can hear it as well since they are thinking of the melody and harmony.

So start with playing the melody on the drums. And again, ask, "What is one level up on this phrase where I can add/subtract something?"