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How to play the Ride Cymbal

You probably already know that the most important part of a jazz drummer’s sound is his/her ride cymbal. The way a drummer plays the ride cymbal determines how much they lock in with the bass player, drive the band, and most importantly, swing. There are many ways to get comfortable playing the ride cymbal. The most common of all is playing triplets on the snare which lines all the beats up with the triplet syncopation.

But what about fast ride cymbal patterns?

This is something you often see in jazz drumming. Bands call tunes like “cherokee” (click to listen to the play along w/ drums) that can get very fast. So how does a drummer learn to play the ride cymbal that fast, and how are they supposed make it sound great?

For a fast song to sound good, the beat must be able to breathe. The rhythm section must establish a groove where the beat can be clearly heard. This means that musicians need to leave space, which can be difficult when you’re also trying to keep the tempo from dragging or speeding up.

Many times drummers get stuck playing the exact same ride pattern like robot. This can last the entire song, and definitely puts a damper on the music.

I noticed this tendency with me, and wanted to come up with a new approach for playing the ride cymbal. I came up with the absolute best part of the JX Method, the ride cymbal notation. Below is a snapshot from the JX Method describing how to use the ride cymbal notation:

How to play the ride cymbal

By breaking up the ride cymbal pattern into two distinct units, you can effectively substitute them and move them around constantly creating new ride cymbal patterns. In the JX Method there are over fifty alternate ride patterns using this incredible format,  many of them custom for the tempo group you’re practicing.