What Makes a Good Drummer

A friend recently made a posting about what makes up a good drummer. The summary of her article:

Good:
Pays attention to the band in performance and when writing.
Knows how to read cues from the band
Knows how to give cues
Gives feedback on song structure
Has a strong start and strong stop.
Likes to figure out new beats and tricks.
Has a stage personality.
Keeps time no matter what.

Bad:
Tries to be too fancy.
Doesn't participate in songwriting.
Doesn't hit the drums hard enough.
Hits the cymbals too hard.
Requires an enormous kit.

I think, excepting the comment about not hitting the drums hard enough (I find most drummers do the opposite and hit way too hard) that her assessments are mostly on point. In part because she's not a drummer though, I think she missed a couple of key points...

• Has good limb independence
• Is familiar with a range of styles and knows the basics of most (unless you only need them to do something specific and narrow, in which case I'd still say knowing the other styles is good musical background)
• Practices on their own, both the songs your band plays and fundamentals
• Has enough experience (time spent learning and practicing) to do all the things above and is at least as experienced as the other members of the band (ideally more)
• As with all band mates...the person is easy to get along with
• As with all band mates...the person is reliable (on time, does what they say they will do & not always drunk/doped up)

Dave...on Drums

Drummers/Bassists for The Breeders

So, in the back of my mind I have it that some day I'll play in a Breeders tribute band, maybe as a one off. It started as an annoying comment at CJ shows "You should be in a Breeders tribute!" but the more it got said to me the more sense it made. My only problem is that I would want to be the Kim Deal in such a project, but I'm not entirely sure that I play guitar well enough. Maybe well enough is the wrong way to say it. The right way to say it is, I don't know how to play power chords. I don't know much about Kim Deal's guitar playing, but I sense that power chords play a major role. This is not to say that I could not learn to play power chords, because after all they exist because they are easy, but it would be a whole new world to be dealing with. And I've got plenty on my plate. And there's a serious lack of tab out there.

Similiarly I wonder what decent lead guitar player would want to learn Kelley Deal's parts. I mean, I think they are great, but I don't know how a "real" lead guitar player would feel about them. And I worry that I'm not a good enough singer to pull off Kim or Kelley's vocals...though, of course, that hasn't stopped me from singing in a Pixies tribute band.

Anyway, I think about how such a group could work if it ever happened. And this has lead me to wonder about the musicians in the group and looking to learn more about how they play. Hence, this list:

Drummers:
Britt Walford (on Pod)
Jim McPherson (on Last Splash and on Pacer by The Amps)
Jose Medeles (on Title TK, Mountain Battles, and Fate to Fatal)

Bassists:
Josephine Wiggs (on Pod, Last Splash)
Mando Lopez (on Title TK, Mountain Battles, and Fate to Fatal)

Drummers: Phil Collins

As long as I can remember Phil Collins has been something of a punch line. I can't find a video of it, but I remember Rosie O'donnell once mistaking Sting for Phil Collins and it getting a big joke. And I remember the cheesy pop music of the 80s he produced. More lately, I've read and heard lots of people put him down as a musician and a drummer.

In one of my drumming magazines last night there was a "10 things to like about Phil Collins" article. I guess that, by the time I knew Genesis and Collin's solo career...they were cheesy pop. But long before that, Genesis was prog. And prog in my mind means complicated. And I never would have put Phil Collins and complicated in the same sentence before.

But I learn more and more every day that what I never knew about the history of pop music far out-shadows what I do know. And that's what this blog has always strived to be all about...me educating myself about shit I should have known a long time ago.

So, I had no idea Genesis started in 1967 and Collins joined in 1971...taking over lead vocals in 1976. Follow You Follow Me is the first song I am aware of by Genesis that I am familiar with...and that was 1978.

Here's the kind of weirdness they pulled:


Checking the Billboard charts, I can see now why I didn't know anything about their early days. They didn't hit it big until "Follow You Follow Me".





Drummerworld

Collins drums in odd times...Dance on a Volcano in 7/8


Fifth of Fifth


Also Cinema Show, Suppers Ready, Los Endos and Lamb Lies Down on Broadway album

Bonzo

I've never been a Led Zeppelin fan. I didn't dislike them...they just were never on my radar. A few years ago I could not have identified a Led Zeppelin song on the radio. I had no idea.

As soon as I started trolling Craig's List for bands to join as a drummer I came across the "looking for a John Bonham-type drummer" ads. There were lots of them. Clearly a large segment of people held John Bonham (Led Zeppelin's drummer) up as the best example of rock drumming available.

I resisted forming an interest in Bonham because it seemed so cliche. But as time passed I became exposed to the man's work, and Zeppelin's music. I don't love their music, but I don't hate it either. I can appreciate it for what it is, but it isn't likely to be recreational listening for me any time soon.

That said, I HAVE come to appreciate Bonham's playing. Not because it's loud (he HAD to hit hard because it was a new age of amplified guitars prior to drums also being mic'ed) which seems to be why lots of people like him. I'm particularly interested in his use of the right foot with the bass drum. These days, if you want to play something complicated on the bass drum...you get a double pedal. Bonham never played with a double pedal, but he did some really interesting things with the bass drum. He also utilizes the left foot with the hi hat in interesting ways and uses ghost notes in interesting ways. He was, I admit, a pretty awesome drummer.

However...I think people who post for Bonham-esque drummers to join their bands are total posers. In the future I may use that request as a reason NOT to reply to an ad. It's nearly as bad as "must have pro gear." Only an asshole would say such a thing.

For a long time I assumed that I'd never be able to play drums like Bonham...and I was ok with that. I've learned to play "The Ocean" and I've tried to learn "Immigrant Song" (because it is a pattern often used in rock)...but I haven't tried much beyond that. For shits and giggles last night I pulled out the "Mothership" 2 cd set and my sheet music of Bonham's greatest hits and sat down to see where I'm at.

The Ocean


Immigrant Song


Much to my surprise, I was able to play much of the stuff...or at least an approximation. And the things I couldn't play I imagined that I could pick up with practice. It didn't seem insurmountable any more. Not even "Good Times Bad Times"...which at one time I thought was the most difficult drum part ever written.

Good Times Bad Times


Change happens so slowly over time. It always surprises me when I'm suddenly aware of it.

Clem Burke: Revisited

I've tried not to repeat my series on drummers too often, but sometimes I explore someone and then drop them...or give them short strife the first time around...and rediscover them later. Lately I've been thinking about Clem Burke again.

Listening to the Blondie greatest hits disk on Sunday in the car, I was noticing that, though his beats aren't super complicated (he isn't doing tons of fills and such)...he's got alot of finesse stuff going on. Almost jazz-like. Detailed high hat and ride work. Not typical rock stuff. Just really nice. It's dance music, of course, so a steady/catchy beat is the key.

He's got something going called The Clem Burke Drumming Project: The Clem Burke Drumming Project is based on the pursuit of knowledge through the application of scientific principles to the various art forms of drumming. It is committed to the dissemination of information leading to increased enjoyment, health and well-being of all participants involved in drumming.

Found something on the net that said he played on Joan Jett's "I Love Rock and Roll" but I think this was wrong. Sounds like he played on some cuts on the "Bad Reputation" album...but nothing top 40. Also sounds like lots of those tunes were recorded multiple times before the "famous" versions were done.

Rapture live:


The Tide is High live:


Call Me live:


Here he is playing with Eurythmics:


At a solo clinic:

Drummers: Moe Tucker

Reading through the latest edition of Modern Drummer I happened across an article about Maureen “Moe” Tucker, the drummer for Velvet Underground.


People make a big deal out of women being drummers, but more and more I find that they exist, but just aren't very well known. Other than singers or the occasional guitar player or pianist...you don't see women promenently in rock and roll in the "early" days...or even today. It's not just drums. But they are there if you look.

It's worth stating that she seems to have some kind of non-binary gender presentation.

From Wiki:
Tucker's style of playing was unconventional. She played standing up rather than seated (for easier access to the bass drum[1]), using a simplified drum kit of tom toms, a snare drum and an upturned bass drum, playing with mallets rather than drumsticks. She rarely used cymbals; she claimed that since she felt the purpose of a drummer was simply to "keep time," cymbals were unnecessary for this purpose and drowned out the other instruments

Andy Warhol filmed rehearsal of Waiting for My Man:

Dane Drummers

I don't know if I've mentioned this here before, but I've been doing a monthly column on local drummers at Dane101 called Dane Drummers.

I've done four so far:
Paul Marcou
Jordan Cohen
Alex Murrell
Brian Bentley

Everlong

I keep hearing songs and thinking, "if I can learn to play THAT drum part...THEN I'll actually be decent." Then I either forget about the song...or learn it...and then it doesn't seem like such a big deal. And I still don't feel like I'm any good.

I proposed that the new grunge band learn Everlong by Foo Fighters. I hadn't really listened to it very carefully before making the suggestion. It's kind of hard.

I've spent some time with it now and I at least think I know what he's doing. I'm still working on being able to do it though. It requires both good independence and endurance.

Here they are playing it on Letterman


And another live version...there's tons of videos out there.


The drummers for Foo Fighters have been William Goldsmith and Taylor Hawkins. I think that it is Hawkins in both clips, but it looks like maybe Dave Grohl played the drum part on the recording. Wiki says "Although Taylor Hawkins appears in the video as the drummer, Dave Grohl actually plays the drum track on the original album recording, as Hawkins had not yet joined the band."

Drummers: Kiel Feher

My new favorite drummer: Kiel Feher.


I caught him at SXSW with Frank and Derol, but looks like he's just a hired gun for them. He and Andrew Perusi made up the rhythm section...and really tore it up. They were great...and looked like they were having the time of their lives.

Here's Perusi with the big hair he was sporting that day, but sans cool oversized sunglasses:


Here's a few samples of Feher's playing, which show off his range pretty well. He really was a joy to watch.






Feher's Youtube Channel has more vids. Search for vids by Persusi

Kim Thompson and Nikki Glaspie

I hate when people make a big deal out of me being female and being a drummer. First off, it is awkward, because I don't consider myself female per se. And I don't like people drawing to my attention that most of the rest of the world DOES consider me female. Second off...what the hell? A drummer is a drummer.

That said, it is true that there are fewer female drummers than male drummers. And that I am intrigued when I meet or see a female drummer. So I'm a hypocrite.

Last night on the Grammys I noticed Beonce had a female drummer. This blog backs that up, though the post is old.

It likely was Kim Thompson or Nikki Glaspie (Nikki G).

That blog I referenced also lists the following female kit players:
Sheila E, Hilary Jones, Gina Schock, Susie Ibarra, Cora Coleman, Cindy Blackman, Terri Lyne Carrington, Debra Dobkin, Kate Schellenbach, Samantha Maloney, Meg White, Georgia Hubley, Vera Figueiredo, Torrance Castellano, and more.

He also says "One hopes the day will come when gender is no longer even considered, that we are all just musicians—until then though, lend an ear to what these women are doing on the skins, because they're here now and they're tearing the roof off of the sucker!"

Amen bro.

Rick Allen

Hard to believe I haven't touched on Rick Allen yet. He is the one-armed drummer in Def Leppard.


Born 1963, started drums 1968, joined band 1978, lost left arm 1984. That's the summary. He now uses custom drums that are a combo of acoustic and electric.

Def Leppard has a special place in my heart. In, I believe, December of 1987 I was invited, at the last minute to a Def Leppard/Tesla concert by the girl I was in love with (she was not in love with me) and three of her male friends. That night I got a little crush on one of the three boys...mainly because he acted responsible. We held hands at the concert. Not long after the concert he and his buddy left for the army. I led a pretty sheltered life as a child, and this show was one of only three that I went to in high school. It was certainly the wildest of the three as well. It was a night to go down in infamy.

After that I bought Hysteria and Telsa's Mechanical Resonance and became a soft-core metal-head poser for a while.

Don't know that I've got much to say about Allen's style.

Pour Some Sugar on Me

Kate Schellenbach

Whilst digging through Pixies to The Breeders bass fax I stumbled across the name Kate Schellenbach, who was apparently the original drummer for The Beastie Boys and for Luscious Jackson.

I have not ever really listened to The Beastie Boys OR Luscious Jackson. Just like, until recently, I'd not listened to Pixies or The Breeders. So I don't have much to say about her.

Myspace here.
Fan page here...includes interviews with Drum magazine like this one about female drummers.

Luscious Jackson - Here (1995)


With The Beastie Boys in 1983:

David Lovering

I've been learning Pixies songs on bass in a likely unsuccessful bid to join/start a Pixies tribute band. Prior to the idea coming up a few weeks ago, I'd never listened to the Pixies even though they were "popular" around the time that I was really into alternative music. Now that I've been turned on to them, of course, I see them everywhere. Last night, reading Modern Drummer, there was a short interview with their drummer David Lovering (personal website).

The interview was funny because he admitted to no longer being able to play some of the things he played while with the Pixies, and that, for their reunion tours he had to watch videos of himself on Youtube to remember how to play the songs because he couldn't quite tell from the recordings. So we're all in the same boat I guess.

Wiki calls his style "steady and accurate." Apparently he played bass on the song "Silver" on Doolittle. He also drummed with The Martinis, Cracker, Nitzer Ebb and Tanya Donelly. These days he's a magician.

I really like his drumming with the Pixies. It's hard to pin-point why, but I think it is that he makes choices that I would make. I sat down and played along with the Pixies greatest hits album having never heard the songs before. I'm sure I wasn't doign everything he was doing, but the tunes came easily. They made sense in my head and made me happy to play.

Bone Machine (live, back in the day):


The Happening


Silver


No luck so far finding any videos of him with Cracker or Nitzer Ebb.

Tad Hutchison

One day in college I heard some tunes a friend was playing on his car stereo. They were infectious and tasty. Jangly yet rockin'.

They were The Young Fresh Fellows. And their drummer is Tad Huchinson (brief music wiki here).

My series on drummers has largely had three categories: drummers I've listened to for years but didn't know who they were, drummers I've just begun to listen to, and drummers that I haven't listened to at all but figure I ought to look into. Tad falls into a fourth category: drummers I've listened to for a long time and knew who they were all along. And so his style is burned deep into my subconscious whether or not I've ever thought much about it overtly.

His style is to play lots of fast fills on the snare drum. That's about it.



And so he comes in handy at the moment...this moment in time for me being that in which I begin to try to get my speed and control in hand for fast fills.

I will note here that none of the videos below do their music justice. They are messy and poorly recorded. The original recordings are much better.

Rock and Roll Pest Control


Still There's Hope


How Much About Last Night Do You Remember


Taco Wagon (with drum solo)

John Maher

There's been too much musing and navel gazing and self promotion in this venue over the last week...back to the drums.

On Saturday we opened for B'dum B'dum, which is a Buzzcocks tribute band in town. So here's my post on Buzzcocks drummer John Maher.

Maher was the Buzzcocks drummer from July 1976 until 1990, with a brief return in 1992. Other Buzzcocks drummers include Mick Singleton, Steve Garvey, Steve Gibson, Phil Barker, and Danny Farrant.

I don't know much what to say about Maher. I think I like his playing, but I really haven't listened very closely to anything but Everybody's Happy Nowadays. Here's a blog post about him, which seems to imply he's not very consistent. Hmmm. I'm not finding much else out there about his style, etc.

For your consideration:

Everybody's Happy Nowadays 1979


Ever Fallen in Love 1978


Autonomy


What Do I Get (I THINK this is Maher)


Why Can't I Touch It (I THINK this is Maher)

Bev Bevan

After listening to Radar Love four or five times this morning on the "first snow" bus ride to work, I switched to ELO Out of the Blue.

The "album" is the one and only one that I ever owned on 8 track tape. I got it for a couple of bucks at Sears in a sale bucket in probably 1983 or 1984. The purchase was inspired by my love of the Xanadu soundtrack, which was inspired by my love of Olivia Newton-John...which was inspired 99% by the hormones of a tween lesbian. I also owned a concert program from an ELO concert that I bought at Texas Tapes and Records (the greatest record store EVER), also on the cheap. I got it cause I played cello at the time...and thought the pictures of the cello players in a rock band were cool. Ironically and totally not by design, ten years later I would be playing cello in a rock band...but I digress.

I bought an ELO greatest hits "album" (on cd this time...which is the format that I also replaced Out of the Blue with a few years ago) recently and have been playing a bit of drums along with it. The parts aren't hard. I'm sure that, for many years, I assumed they were done with a drum machine.

But no. They were done by Bev Bevan.

Lately his name seems to pop up as having been witness to every great party in rock and roll. He is quoted alot in stories about rock stars who OD'ed. I kind of wonder if some of his stories aren't made up. Lately, he has a radio show and blog...which I've checked out a few times and found to be increadibly boring (not unlike THIS blog in that respect, I suspect).

Drummerworld is fairly silent on Bevan, though there is a bio here. As seems to so often be the case, not much is said about his playing style, though given that he filled in for Black Sabbath and also played in ELO, he must have a bit of range.

10538 (with a little more going on with the drums that much of their stuff) and Do Ya? live:


Turn to Stone live:

Nick Mason

I've never been a Pink Floyd fan. I took no notice of them at all until my freshman year of college when my boyfriend was a PF fanatic. He forced me to attend a PF laser show. Since then, I've again slipped into total apathy bordering on dislike.

I've collected most of the drum playalong book/cds from Alfred and Hal Leonard now. Amongst those I've not gotten...Pink Floyd. I was relatively convinced that I'd never want it.

The way I was convinced I'd never want the Rush book (got it now).

On the drive home from the holidays I heard a PF song on the radio. It was actually a cover of PF done by Korn. The drums were kind of interesting. I don't know if the drum part was actually original to PF...or new to Korn. In any case, it brings both bands onto my radar (the cover was Another Brick in the Wall. For comparison here is the Pink Floyd version).

Nick Mason...the only constant original member of Pink Floyd.

Now I find it kind of irritating/odd that none of the stuff online about him says much about his drum style or ability. That's often true of the artists I look up. It particularly bugs me about Drummerworld. Tell me something about the man's abilities! Alas, maybe they figure it is self evident and that everyone knows Pink Floyd's sound. But when I read a bio about a drummer I want to know the following:
1. When did they start playing?
2. What has their training been>? (did they take lessons? play in drum corps? go to music school? self taught?)
3. What is their history playing with bands? And discography.
4. What is their style and/or contribution to the music world? Anything unique or different? Anything iconic about them?

I didn't get much of any of that answered about Mason.

Rarely do I actually care what kind of drums they play, what heads, what sticks, what cymbals, etc. Or what their hobbies are outside of music...family, etc.

One of These Days (loses a stick, though recovering from a stick drop isn't really that hard...but it is fun to see)


Comfortably Numb

Clem Burke and Heart of Glass

On the ride home from PASIC I heard Blonde's Heart of Glass on the radio and thought I'd try to learn it when I got home,

Clem Burke was the drummer for Blondie.

Listening to the Blondie greatest hits cd that I picked up cheap at a garage sale recently, I noticed that he's playing 4 on the floor most of the time (on all of the tunes) with an off beat high hat (on the "ands). It's almost a reggae...rock steady I guess...feel. It isn't that hard, but it's stuff that I suck at, so it's actually good stuff for me to work on.

The embedding on the videos seem to have been disabled for every version of the original video, but you can see it here. Here's a live version from 1982:

And in 1998 (on Jules Holland's show):

And with bad audio from the 30th anniversary tour:


Basically, what I make out, is that it is 4 bass on the floor, snare on 2 and 4, and high hats on the ands of 1, 2, 3, 4. On the ands of 1 and 3 the high hat is open in the first measure of the phrase...and open on the 1, 2, 3 of the second measure of the phrase. Then in the chorus the high hat (or ride) goes to 1 2+ 3 4+...sometimes with an open high hat and sometimes not (not sure if it is always the high hat, or if he switches to the ride sometimes...from the 1998 video it looks like he stays on the high hat but in the 30th anniversary tape he goes to the ride). There are some simple snare fills or crashes in the logical places. And there's a place where the crash anticipates a bit early in the instrumental portion. There's a little bridge kind of thing where she sings "Oooo" that has open hats on every "and."

PASIC

So PASIC starts tomorrow. I'll arrive mid-day Thursday. Aside from walking around and looking at products, my plan is to attend the following sessions if they are still open and if my head doesn't explode:

Thursday, November 12
10:00 a.m.
Maria Martinez, Drumset Master Class

1:00 p.m.
Chris Pennie, Drumset Clinic

3:00 p.m.
Sergio Bellotti, Drumset Clinic

5:00 p.m.
Zoro and Daniel Glass, Drumset Clinic


Friday, November 13
9:00 a.m.
Free Hearing Tests

10:00 a.m.
Steve Fidyk, Drumset Master Class

11:00 a.m.
Felix Pollard, Drumset Clinic

1:00 p.m.
Tobias Ralph, Drumset Clinic

3:00 p.m.
Benny Greb, Drumset Clinic

5:00 p.m.
Akira Jimbo, Drumset Clinic

6:00 p.m.
Hall of Fame Celebration


Saturday, November 14
9:00 a.m.
Ed Shaughnessy, Drumset FUNdamentals

11:00 a.m.
Joel Stevenett, Drumset Clinic

1:00 p.m.
Dean Butterworth, Drumset Clinic

2:00 p.m.
Skip Hadden, Drumset Master Class

3:00 p.m.
Jack DeJohnette, Drumset Clinic

5:00 p.m.
Virgil Donati, Drumset Clinic