Playing in the Pocket

The goal for a rhythm section is to play in the pocket. The difficulty is defining what “in the pocket” means and how to achieve it. We’ll assume that “the pocket” and “the groove” are more or less interchangeable terms. For the sake of this discussion, let’s talk about four of the most important necessities for playing in the pocket — timing, accuracy, patterns, and the most important thing, the ability to listen.

Timing

First and foremost, a great pocket has great time. Whether you’re listening to Artie Shaw’s Gramercy Five recordings from the 1940s, Ray Price’s country shuffles from the 1960s, or the latest Rhiannon Giddens CD, listen for the pocket — the groove. All these recordings have a great groove, which means that all the musicians involved are playing in the pocket, with impeccable timing. Be aware, though, that defining “timing” can be as problematic as defining “groove” or “pocket.” So let’s break it down into a couple of sections: tempo and subdivision.

Tempo is self-explanatory — everybody should be playing at the same speed. If you’re speeding up or slowing down compared to the people you’re playing with, or playing either ahead or behind the other players, it’s pretty hard to develop a groove. Exceptions abound, of course — sometimes the whole rhythm section changes tempo together. Otis Redding’s classic “Try a Little Tenderness” speeds up toward the end of the recording, and Aretha Franklin’s “Natural Woman” relaxes at the end of each chorus — but in general, assume that everyone needs to be playing at the same tempo, together. If that’s not happening, you have some work to do.

Beyond basic tempo, you need to consider subdivisions of the beat. There are many intermediate grooves between straight eighths and shuffles, and those grooves are worth learning. Many grooves have straight beats that are kind of swingy, while others play shuffles that are a little straighter than triplets. They’re fun, and you should know them.

Accuracy

Part of what makes a pocket is the precision of the musicians’ playing — you’ve likely heard bands where the drummer’s downbeat is in one place, the bass player is a little ahead or behind the drummer, and the guitarist is also not quite with the others onstage. That sloppiness will interrupt the groove, which keeps a pocket from developing. How accurate is “accurate”? Well, studies have shown that discrepancies as short as 5 milliseconds are noticeable — so if you can hear any timing differences between your own downbeat and any of the other musicians playing, that’s too much. Those timing discrepancies can be exacerbated at the end of sections, where one or more musicians would likely play a fill of some sort. A drummer who rushes fills or a bassist who drags a little will definitely interfere with the pocket — so don’t do that.

Patterns

When you’re playing a song, you’ll commonly be working with a specific, repeating rhythm. The drummer will (or at least, should) have a specific kick drum pattern, bass players may play both a rhythmic figure and defined notes, and rhythm guitar parts can contain defined chords, specific rhythms, and single lines — or all those things, which also make up a repeating pattern. Keyboard players may copy the bass track in the left hand, while either doubling the guitar rhythm or finding a complementary pattern to the guitar. Only when all the players are playing patterns that work together at a consistent tempo does the pocket develop. Anything that disrupts those patterns disrupts the pocket — and that’s why great pocket players stick with the patterns, and as a rule, play very few fills. Unless those fills fit with the rest of the rhythm section patterns, they can be groove busters.

With more improvisational music, the rules can change. For example, if you’re playing jazz standards, the drummer may be keeping time on the ride cymbal, with the kick and snare playing accents. The bassist may play a walking bass line reinforcing the drummer’s time, while the other musicians improvise around the feel provided by the rhythm section. You can also have an implied pocket; no single musician is keeping strict time, but as a whole, the band grooves and the pocket exists.

Listening

The single most important part of playing in the pocket, though, is that you must listen to the other musicians. Only when the drummer listens to the bass player — and the bass player listens to the drummer — can you groove together. The other musicians must listen to the bass and drums, and the bassist and drummer must listen to them. Why? Because as the musicians play together, each will make almost microscopic adjustments to their own parts so they’ll work better with the rest of the musicians. Only when that happens will a group of musicians truly be playing in the pocket.