Steve Lyman loves sharing his favorite jazz licks – like he did in this video – so he’s back with more!

Here are five awesome jazz licks you can take away, make yours, and push forward in your own way:

Roy Haynes – “The Matrix”

In uptempo playing, this phrase – which is built on dotted quarter notes with eighth note triplets in between – sounds like it slows down the time to create a unique texture.

Tony Williams – Crossover doublestops

This lick uses crossover doublestops between the floor tom, snare and hi-hat and creates a really cool rhythmic sound. Your right hand plays on the downbeat, and you put the doublestop (where you hit the drum with both sticks at the same time) on the e.

Bill Stewart – 5 note crossovers

Take this five note lick (RLRRL), incorporate the bass drum, and orchestrate the pattern around the kit as a crossover.

Eric Harland – Ascending tension

In this lick, you get an upward tom motion that’s great for building tension at the end of a musical phrase.

Steve Lyman – 9 note lick

Inspired by Tony Williams, add four single strokes to RLRRL. It sounds great between the snare and ride – using the ride as a ‘pivot’ – or between the toms. You can incorporate this into different rhythms to create tension and release at the ends and beginnings of song forms.

If you like Steve’s style, check out his jazz drumming course on Drumeo!

The drum set is just one avenue for musical communication. Steve Lyman shares his wisdom in this 47-minute lesson, “The jazz drum soloing formula.”

You’ll learn how to “deepen your storytelling capacity”, develop the ability to choose your narrative, and ultimately draw people in. Steve reveals his formula, which combines these four mechanisms (or components) into drum solo vocabulary:

1. Melodic: Deepening your melodic playing
2. Rhythmic: Building deep/challenging rhythmic connections
3. Textural: Creating soundscapes and dynamics for visualization
4. Harmonic: Layering vertically

Whether you’re matching the pitch of your drums to a melody, orchestrating sticking patterns around the kit in different subdivisions, building textures, or anchoring rhythms with ‘chords’, this lesson will help you develop the language you need to create meaningful jazz solos.

Lesson Index:
0:00 – SONG: “Pulsar” by Chase Baird
5:35 – Introduction
6:34 – Drum solo #1
9:25 – Overview of the four mechanisms
12:42 – The melodic mechanism
20:49 – The rhythmic mechanism
27:39 – The textural mechanism
31:53 – The harmonic mechanism
34:00 – Combining these concepts
42:00 – Drum solo #2
45:15 – Drum solo #3

If this lesson resonated with you, check out Steve’s jazz drumming course on Drumeo Edge.

About Steve:
Steve Lyman is an American jazz drummer, composer and educator. As a performer, Lyman has enjoyed sharing the stage with some of the leading voices in jazz and contemporary music, including Aaron Parks, Jon Batiste, Gilad Hekselman, Nir Felder, Julian Pollack, Chase Baird and many more.

Steve plays:
Craviotto Drums
Remo Drumheads
Istanbul Mehmet Cymbals
Vater Drumsticks

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Take a page from the book of legends as Steve Lyman walks you through five iconic licks from some of the greatest jazz drummers of all time!

Philly Joe Jones

In this lick, start by playing a 3/4 swinging pattern on the ride. Then use your left hand to fill in any triplet your right hand isn’t playing. Add the floor tom on the first note of the pattern, and have every other note go to the snare drum.

You can also play this pattern in a 4/4 feel for something extra cool.

This one is a 6 stroke roll that descends down the toms. Give it a swing feel and start on the off beat. Round it out at the end with the floor tom, and close the whole phrase with the bass drum.

Here’s a 5 stroke roll where the last note is a stick shot on the snare. Press the stick in your left hand into the drum to mute it, and hit it with your right stick to get that woody sound. You’ll play the bass drum in between each 5 stroke phase. This is a great tool to maneuver around the drums.

Tony Williams

This lick is super useful for any jazz drummer; it helps to unify the drums and cymbals in time, whether you’re playing time or soloing. Play a 6 stroke roll where beat one is on the ride. Go around the drums from there.

You can also play this with crossovers!

Here’s a single stroke four where the ride falls in between each phrase. It can be tricky to play, but once you get it it’ll help refine your motion between the snare, drums, and ride in tough spots.

Roy Haynes

You can create unique patterns with this stick shot (right stick on left) followed by two hits on the snare. Bill Stewart does something similar in groups of 7s and triplets. You’ll be able to create really awesome phrases with this lick.

Hopefully this helps demystify some of the language of jazz drumming and inspire you to make these licks your own.

Don’t forget to check out Steve Lyman’s course on Drumeo Edge where he goes into jazz drumming in serious detail.