Actual RhythmsJazz rhythm reading
Read rhythm like the players who invented it.
More than 24,000 of the rhythms in Actual Rhythms come from 584 transcribed jazz solos, heads and arrangements, recorded between 1925 and 2009. Read a phrase from Armstrong, Parker or Coltrane, tap it, then play it at the tempo of the record.
Turn on Jazz under Repertoire in Settings to read only from the solos.
Written like a chart
Solos are notated straight, the way a lead sheet or big-band chart writes them: you read eighths and swing them. Triplets stay triplets, and every beat is spelled so you can see where it falls.
At the tempo of the record
Press Original next to the tempo slider and the excerpt plays at the recording's average tempo, from a 60 BPM ballad to a burning up-tempo chorus. Or slow it down and work up.
From the Weimar Jazz Database
Most of the solos are expert transcriptions from the Jazzomat Research Project at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar. Each excerpt names the tune, the player, the instrument, the bars and the year.
Charlie Parker, note for note
59 Parker heads and solos from Charlie Parker 60 Melodies and Solos.
From Red Cross in 1944 to Confirmation in 1953: Ko Ko, Donna Lee, Billie's Bounce, Chasin' the Bird, Scrapple from the Apple, Yardbird Suite and more, transcribed from the recordings by Michael Van Bebber for his book Charlie Parker 60 Melodies and Solos. Each excerpt says whether it comes from the head or the solo, and names the studio, the date and the record it was issued on.
Original plays each one at the tempo Bird took it, from 165 BPM on Billie's Bounce to 308 on Ko Ko.
Michael Van Bebber's other transcriptions add 102 more jazz recordings: John Coltrane on Moment's Notice, Oleo and Mr. P.C., Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver's quintets and Basie's band, with every part labeled, from the horn lines to the bass and drums. 33 soul, funk, pop and rock songs, Stevie Wonder to Khruangbin, are under Pop songs.
The players
106 soloists, from 1925 to 2009.
- John Abercrombie
- Pepper Adams
- Cannonball Adderley
- Nat Adderley
- Henry Allen
- Louis Armstrong
- Chet Baker
- Sidney Bechet
- Bix Beiderbecke
- Tony Bennett
- George Benson
- Bob Berg
- Chu Berry
- Michael Brecker
- Clifford Brown
- Don Byas
- Donald Byrd
- Benny Carter
- Stanley Clarke
- Buck Clayton
- George Coleman
- Ornette Coleman
- Steve Coleman
- John Coltrane
- Chick Corea
- Miles Davis
- Paul Desmond
- Johnny Dodds
- Eric Dolphy
- Lou Donaldson
- Kenny Dorham
- Harry Edison
- Roy Eldridge
- Don Ellis
- Bill Evans
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Von Freeman
- Curtis Fuller
- Red Garland
- Kenny Garrett
- Stan Getz
- Dizzy Gillespie
- Benny Goodman
- Dexter Gordon
- Lionel Hampton
- Herbie Hancock
- Coleman Hawkins
- Joe Henderson
- J.C. Higginbotham
- Johnny Hodges
- Freddie Hubbard
- Milt Jackson
- J.J. Johnson
- Ryan Kisor
- Lee Konitz
- Steve Lacy
- Harold Land
- David Liebman
- Joe Lovano
- Branford Marsalis
- Wynton Marsalis
- Warne Marsh
- Pat Martino
- Jackie McLean
- Pat Metheny
- Blue Mitchell
- Hank Mobley
- Thelonious Monk
- Ralph Moore
- Lee Morgan
- Gerry Mulligan
- David Murray
- Fats Navarro
- Joe Newman
- Kid Ory
- Eddie Palmieri
- Charlie Parker
- Duke Pearson
- Art Pepper
- Oscar Peterson
- Oscar Pettiford
- Chris Potter
- Joshua Redman
- Max Roach
- Sonny Rollins
- Charlie Shavers
- Woody Shaw
- Wayne Shorter
- Horace Silver
- Zoot Sims
- Rex Stewart
- Sonny Stitt
- Jack Teagarden
- Cal Tjader
- Steve Turre
- McCoy Tyner
- Ben Webster
- Dickie Wells
- Kenny Wheeler
- Lenny White
- Kai Winding
- Phil Woods
- Larry Young
- Lester Young
- Joe Zawinul
- Monica Zetterlund
Learn the language from the source.
Pick Jazz under Repertoire and start tapping.