I'm Adam Manus, and I'm Peter Martin, and you're listening to the You'll Hear at

podcast.

Today we're going to talk about tips on keeping time during the drum solo.

So this is a question from our listener, Elia, and I think this is a great topic to address.

Yeah, this is good, but I mean, I immediately think keeping time during a drum solo,

that means walking over to the bar and having a drink and zoning out until the end of the solo, right?

Yeah, I mean, that's what I do.

This is also under the assumption that the drummer is keeping time during their solo, which, you know.

Yeah, if they're not going to keep time, I'm not keeping time.

Forget about it.

Heck no. All right. So, no, this is a great question. And actually, I think what he's asking about is if the drummer, if he or she is playing really well, they're actually, they're keeping time, but they're playing over the bar lines. It's getting to the point where you have to really keep track of what's going on. not necessarily not necessarily marking every four bars, as they shouldn't. I mean, just like we shouldn't have to do that. But we rely so much on the drummers to kind of hold the form together that if they're going to be free to solo, which they totally should be, like how do we stay in there with them so that we know when to come back in without looking like an idiot.

And I would think the first thing to do is to count, you know? I mean, we want to be able to feel it, feel the form. And I think once you get to know a drummer really well, you can do that. And once you know the forms really well. But I mean, there's been many times when I've been in situations that weren't super comfortable where I'm just like counting bars because I want to make sure I do my part to come in.

Yeah, I think it's important. And, you know,

playing in a group with other people is all about trust. And I really want the drummers I play with to trust that I'm going to be there for them. So this is actually something to really put a lot of

energy and thought into if you can. One tip that comes to mine, first and foremost,

that you can do is to listen to or even better yet to transcribe great drum solos and to

understand the language of jazz drums because it makes it so much easier if you understand

how they're going over the bar

oh they're doing this Blakey thing right I know where that lines up because I

transcribed that Blakey solo right or something like that the more you listen to

drum solos the better you're gonna get at knowing where you are in them at

knowing that language right yeah and I would say that you know the more you can

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