Two-Voice Jazz Comping

• By Wally Schnalle
• Originally published in the August 2012 issue of DRUM! Magazine

In previous columns I’ve talked about how the timekeeping function in swinging jazz is typically kept in the ride cymbal and hi-hat pattern. And in those columns we explored some basic possibilities for “comping” (short for accompanying) with the snare and then the bass drum. Here we combine those two voices in a sort of rhythmic conversation. These are a few of the many possibilities for these two drum set voices to interact. You should develop a large vocabulary of these rhythmic possibilities to be able to interact and react to what is going on in an ensemble. Keep all the limbs synchronized and swinging.