Chords for Can you hear melody in the drums? | JAZZ NIGHT IN AMERICA

If you're listening for a melody in jazz, you'll probably hear it in the [G] horns _ [F] _ _ or on the piano.
_ _ [Cm] _ _ [F] _ _ [Bb] But there's [Cm] one place you don't [F] often hear [Bb] it, [Cm] the drums.
[Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Your primary job as a drummer is to keep time.
_ Drummers have kept time for centuries.
We can hear it in the military [Eb] corps.
_ _ [G] _
[Cm] _ _ [Fm] _ [Bb] And drummers continue to keep [Eb] time in songs we hear on the radio.
[Em] _ _ _
[Cm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Gee, _ I'll leave with [Gm] every piece of you.
[E] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [E] But the drums are capable of so much [D] more than this.
They can [A] sing.
[N] If you go back to African culture where drumming came from, there were talking drums. _
_ _ _ _ _ You know, where they could bend the pitches _ and they were communicating with other groups,
you know, of the vicinity where they could hear each other
and communicating within the group they were playing in.
_ _ I play this instrument and I play jazz specifically because I love to
converse and have a dialogue with other musicians.
_ I have to be able to play melodically to be able to interact
_ on the level that I want to interact with with the other musicians in my band.
_ Let's try a [Ab] little experiment.
First, check out the melody in this classic Duke Ellington [Db] piece. _
[Ab] _ _ _ [E] _ _ [Eb] You _
_ [D] _ _ _ [B] _ got it?
[E] Now let's see if [A] Allison Miller can play it on the drums.
[Ab] _
_ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ [B] _ _ [Gb] _ _
Allison's playing different drums to produce a range of pitches.
_ [Bm] Bigger the drum, the lower the note. _
_ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Okay, so that's a fairly _ literal interpretation of a melody.
Let me try it now doing one drum rim shots. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Cool, you can hear the melody in there, right?
And you can even do something like this.
_ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ Those are rim shots on multiple drums. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ When you [E] bend the pitch, a single drum can produce a huge range [G] of notes.
_ _ You can think of it as a guitar string.
So if you go higher up on the fret, on the fretboard,
you're changing the length of the string, right?
Which makes it higher pitched.
So you're doing the same thing here.
Like the closer I bring my hand to the rim, the pitch will go higher.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _
We've seen a few tricks jazz drummers use when they solo.
But when a singer takes the melody, a drummer becomes more complimentary. _ _ _ _ _
_ Jazz drummers are always singing that melody in their head.
We're comping using thematic nuggets from the melody.
_ Allison's not playing the melody exactly.
Instead, she's playing the rhythm of the melody instead of the notes.
And she's still keeping time. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
So I might play that behind a soloist.
And then from there, it's like a conversation, a musical conversation.
You want to interact with the soloist,
contribute to the music and to _ the [C] improvisation of the music.
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _
[N] So now I want to introduce you to a new technology
that builds on melodic drumming techniques.
[E] It's called sensory [Gm] percussion by Sunhouse.
See [Cm] these black [Eb] things on the drums?
They detect [Bb] Allison's playing and turn it [E] into [D] digital sounds
depending [G] on where she hits each drum,
[A] [Bb] how hard [E] and how fast she played.
Even down to pitch [C] bending and rim shots like we [D] saw [Gm] earlier.
_ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ Drummers can map any sounds they want to the sensors
while playing the kit just like they would acoustically.
[Fm] _ Taking melodic playing to a new dimension.
[D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
[Dm] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] And before Sunhouse technology,
when you would hit an electronic drum [A] or a trigger drum,
you get one sound.
That's it.
And that's not natural.
It's not [Bb] organic.
It's [Eb] not what we're looking for from the [Bb] drum.
So now we can finally [G] [Gbm] break up the drumming regions
like we do acoustically, but digitally.
And we can even go further than we could go before.
[Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
It's a new frontier for melody on the drums.
And we're only just starting to see what's possible with this new [B] technology.
In the meantime, see if you can hear melody in the [A] drums
on your favorite jazz record.
[Dm] You might notice something new.
_ Subscribe to our channel if you'd like to see more Jazz Night videos and concerts.
I'm your host Christian McBride.
See you next time.
_ [G] _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _