Medium Swing with Comping drum pattern
A two-bar medium swing: spang-a-lang on the ride, the hi-hat foot on 2 and 4, a feathered kick, and snare comping on the triplet partials with a kick on the let of 4. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 120 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Medium Swing with Comping
Count it as: 1 trip let 2 trip let 3 trip let 4 trip let · two bars. The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 4/4 (two-bar eighth-note-triplet ride with snare and kick comping).
The Medium Swing with Comping pattern, hit by hit
Each character is one step of the grid and each group is one beat. X is an accented hit, x a normal hit, o a quiet or ghost note and - a rest.
| Voice | Bar 1 | Bar 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kick | o-- o-- o-- o-- | o-- o-- o-- o-x |
| Snare | o-- --x --- --- | --x --- o-- --- |
| Pedal hat | --- x-- --- x-- | --- x-- --- x-- |
| Ride | x-- x-o x-- x-o | x-- x-o x-- x-o |
Tempo and feel
Relaxed and forward. The ride quarter notes carry the time; the comping answers the soloist quietly and never sits on top of the ride. The default tempo is 120 BPM. It plays with 67% swing by default; move the Swing control toward 50% to hear it straight. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Medium Swing with Comping
Play the ride alone: every beat, plus the skip note on the let of 2 and the let of 4. Add the hi-hat foot on 2 and 4, then feather the kick on every beat below the ride. Add the comping: 1 and the let of 2 in bar one, the let of 1 and 3 in bar two, and the kick on the let of 4.
Variations to try next
Leave the feathering out and keep only the comping kick. Move the comping around: try the let of 3 or the let of 4 on the snare. Play the comping on cross-stick for a softer head.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Straight-ahead jazz quartets and quintets at medium tempo. A practice study of medium-tempo straight-ahead swing on the drum set. The right hand plays spang-a-lang on the ride: every quarter note, with the skip note on the let of 2 and the let of 4, the last triplet partial, on the Swing control. The hi-hat foot closes on 2 and 4 and the bass drum is feathered on all four beats, barely audible under the bass; feathering is an informed choice that many modern players leave out. The comping is one composite two-bar phrase on the triplet partials rather than a fixed part of the style: a Charleston figure on the snare (1 and the let of 2), then its reverse (the let of 1 and 3), with a kick on the let of 4 that sets up the next bar. It is authored for practice, not transcribed.