Jazz drum beat at 160 BPM
Press Play for a jazz drum beat at 160 BPM. It starts with Jazz Swing. One beat lasts 375 ms.
Playing over a jazz drum beat at 160 BPM
160 BPM is a comfortable middle tempo for jazz swing. Use it to play whole songs or long improvisations without stopping; the fills every few bars tell you where each phrase ends.
What plays at 160 BPM
Jazz Swing is written at 140 BPM, the closest of this style's grooves to 160 BPM, so it opens first and plays a little faster than written. In 4/4 at this tempo a quarter note lasts 375 ms, an eighth note 188 ms and a sixteenth 94 ms, which is the spacing of the hi-hat you hear.
How long is a phrase at 160 BPM?
Knowing how long a phrase lasts helps you plan a song, a solo or a recording take. The drums play a fill at the end of every four or eight bars, so these are the lengths you will hear.
| Length | Time |
|---|---|
| One bar of 4/4 | 1.5 seconds |
| Four-bar phrase | 6 seconds |
| Eight-bar section | 12 seconds |
| 32-bar standard (one chorus) | 48 seconds |
| Three-minute song | about 120 bars |
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.