Jazz swing drum beats
A swinging ride cymbal with a feathered kick and hi-hat on two and four, for standards and walking bass. Press Play and the drums keep going until you stop them. Pick a tempo below or set your own anywhere from 50 to 220 BPM.
How a jazz drum beat works
Swing time comes from the ride cymbal: "ding, ding-a ding, ding-a". The hi-hat closes on beats two and four, and those are the beats to feel. The skipped note of each "ding-a" falls late in the beat, on the last part of a triplet.
How to play along
Bassists: walk a quarter-note line, one note per beat, with the ride. Guitarists: comp short chords around beats two and four, or play four even strums a bar in the Freddie Green style. Horn and piano players: swing your eighth notes to match the ride, and phrase across the barline.
The jazz swing grooves on this page
This page plays the Jazz Swing groove. Faster tempos suit bebop heads; slower tempos suit ballads with a light swing.
Common practice tempos
Start with 100, 120, 140, 160, 180 and 200 BPM. Each tempo has its own page with the right groove already selected, so you can bookmark the one you are working on.