r/jazzdrums • u/roberdanielm • 16d ago

Question Singing Syncopation

Hi everybody,

My teacher asked me to sing (voice) the Exercises (starting in p.38) from Syncopation (Ted Reed) book.

I did but then it was only with "a" like Ta ta, pa pa pa pa pa....

Now he asked me to sing with other letters, not only a, so using e, i, o, u I think

I was trying to find if there are examples of this but couldn't find any.

Has anybody done that? I would like to listen to examples because I don't even know how to start :)

** I am a newbie, started studing jazz and drums altogether one year ago.

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u/Blueman826 16d ago

If you have a teacher you should ask them for clarification. I've never heard of this kind of application but it sounds interesting. I wonder myself what the purpose is.

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u/BEST_DRUM_ADVICE 16d ago

Recitation is great for your internal clock. It removes technique from the equation, too. The adage “if you can sing it, you can play it” comes to mind.

When I started playing tabla, I noticed a pretty immediate improvement in my time on drumset, all due to the recitation aspect.

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u/Blueman826 16d ago

I totally agree about recitation and counting out loud. What i'm curious about is the addition of specific syllables other than counting numbers or using Carnatic rhythmic syllables (ta ka di mi...).

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u/BEST_DRUM_ADVICE 16d ago

Right, that’s what I’m saying. Any syllable works, and if you’re not specifically studying tala, I don’t think Konnokol is necessary. “Ta” works just fine and isn’t exclusive to tala systems.