In East Coast jazz circles, Philadelphia native Ari Hoenig has a reputation for being a flexible, broad-minded jazz drummer who is open to a variety of musical situations — some very straight-ahead and accessible, some of them more cerebral and abstract. Some of his recognizable traits include his tendency to tune his drums in a chromatic C scale, enabling him to solo using actual notes and scales. His rhythmic patterns are also unique, usually coined as being extremely "melodic".