Play jazz with tremendous facility and authentic vocabulary. Learn to develop your own sound, perform a wide variety of essential jazz time feels, and improvise dynamic fills and solos, taught in the tradition of Alan Dawson and other Berklee luminaries of drum education. This approach to jazz drumming presents a unique blend of four-way coordination, comping vocabulary, and soloing/improvisation concepts, infused with world rhythms. It will help you to develop a deep, practical understanding of how to play jazz drums, and to develop your own personal sound and style.

You will learn to:

• Deepen your sense of swing and overall timing

• Understand the ride cymbal’s critical role in jazz time-keeping

• Apply the rudimental language of jazz

• Develop your independence, via some of the great Alan Dawson’s signature exercises and “The Rudimental Ritual”

• Play brushes and brush patterns

• Improvise captivating drum set solos

• Incorporate world rhythms into jazz

• Read and interpret drum charts