Press Play for a jazz drum beat at 120 BPM. It starts with Medium Swing with Comping, and you can switch to Jazz Swing, Jazz Two-Feel, Kansas City Hi-Hat Swing, New Orleans Trad Beat, Bebop Up-Tempo Ride and Jazz Waltz. One beat lasts 500 ms.
Playing over a jazz drum beat at 120 BPM
120 BPM is at the slow end for jazz swing. Slow tempos show every timing slip, so it is the best place to learn a new part: play it until it feels boring, then move up.
What plays at 120 BPM
Medium Swing with Comping is written at 120 BPM, so 120 BPM is its home tempo. In 4/4 at this tempo a quarter note lasts 500 ms, an eighth note 250 ms and a sixteenth 125 ms, which is the spacing of the hi-hat you hear. Switch to Jazz Swing, Jazz Two-Feel, Kansas City Hi-Hat Swing, New Orleans Trad Beat, Bebop Up-Tempo Ride and Jazz Waltz on the page and the tempo stays at 120 BPM.
How long is a phrase at 120 BPM?
Knowing how long a phrase lasts helps you plan a song, a solo or a recording take. The drums play a fill at the end of every four or eight bars, so these are the lengths you will hear.
Phrase lengths at 120 BPM
Length
Time
One bar of 4/4
2 seconds
Four-bar phrase
8 seconds
Eight-bar section
16 seconds
32-bar standard (one chorus)
1 min 04 s
Three-minute song
about 90 bars
How a jazz drum beat works
Swing time comes from the ride cymbal: "ding, ding-a ding, ding-a". The hi-hat closes on beats two and four, and those are the beats to feel. The skipped note of each "ding-a" falls late in the beat, on the last part of a triplet.
How to play along
Bassists: walk a quarter-note line, one note per beat, with the ride. Guitarists: comp short chords around beats two and four, or play four even strums a bar in the Freddie Green style. Horn and piano players: swing your eighth notes to match the ride, and phrase across the barline.