Fast jazz swing

[MetallicPearl]

Hey peeps!

I seem to be having problems developing my fast swing technique in double time above anything around the 130bpm mark. It's making for frustrating learning. I've got John Riley's 'The Art of Bop Drumming' and I'm trying to incorporate the catching/collecting method he mentions. This is fine at the present tempo, yet any higher tempi I seem to run into trouble.

The thing is, I'm practising on an Electric kit with rubber cymbals. I'm not hugely familiar physics of this particular motion, but it seems as though there isn't enough bounce from the rubber cymbals to capitalise on in order to get the last note of the 3-note pattern defined properly. However, this could be just a technique error on my part.

Does anybody have any insights/ideas that I may be obviously missing?

Thanks,
Phill .

[Exotic Matter]

I'm a pretty seasoned jazz drummer and I also have difficulty playing fast be bop ride patterns on my electric kit, there just isn't enough rebound.

This is true for certain ride cymbals too. I can burn on real light, bouncy, washy rides but heavy one's just don't seem to work as well.

When you play the 'stock' (dotted eighth sixteenth) pattern really fast you are essentially playing a triple with the right hand and pushing it out away from you, one motion and stroke. It's very difficult to get a clean triple at fast tempo's with those rubber e-cymbals.

[Exotic Matter]

I just tested it out on my e-kit and I can play clean double time up to about 180bpm compared to about 220bpm on a real ride cymbal.

The most important part to playing fast is keeping you hands loose. As soon as you start to tense up your going to start slowing down. I use the first finger grip when playing be-bop like this. The fulcrum is between the very end of my index finger and my thumb. The rest of the fingers just kind of hang out. Keep it as loose as possible and push towards the right while playing the pattern. I see if I can shoot a video but it should look like this...