Ska Drumming

[petgeh]

I'm currently listening to Ska/punk bands like Operation Ivy, Less Than Jake, The Suicide Machines and the new Tim Armstrong record. Are there any basics, books or tips for ska drumming?

[handito]

Hey there
I do not know if there are any specific ska drumming books but I do know a bit about ska drumming. Before we get started I think that it is important to differ between the two types of ska music. SKA music was originally a music genre from Jamaica and it had its hay day around the 1950'ies. That kind of SKA music is a fusion between traditional caribbean music and R&B from USA, just to give you an example of that specific genre I would recomend the song "My Boy Lollipop". The other genre, the Punk/SKA is much different. For a simple SKA beat try to play a Reggae beat but at a fairly brisk tempo (140-180BPM) If you have not played a reggae beat before I will give you a little lesson :) A simple Reggae beat uses the Bass drum on beat 3 instead of beat 1 and 3. To get into the reggae feel (Reggae is more of a feeling than beats) I would advise you to play your Hihat on beats 2 and 4, and your Bass Drum on beat 3 (start slowly then graduatly speed it up). When you have got that down you should ad a rim click on your snare on beat 3, in UNISON with the bass drum (again start slowly and then speed up) This beat is what the Jamaican dudes call a "One Drop" because you drop (hit) the bass drum once. this beat works really well in a SKA song. Another thing you could do is to listen to one of IMO the greatest Punk/SKA drummers Stewart Copeland from The Police. One of his signature beats is to play 4 notes on the bass drum, 8 notes on the hihat and a rim click on the snare on beat 3.

Hope this can help you

[petgeh]

Thanks for helping. I will try the "one drop" beat. I think what you call Stewart Copelands signature beat is called a four on the floor ska beat. In the most ska/punk song i listen to the drummer uses such a beat. I have no problems playing such a beat if the snare gos ont 2 and 4. I upload a song, that i can explain what my problem is.
After 15 seconds the beat changes and i don't know how to play it.
Here is a song called high anxiety by the Suicide Machines:

[handito]

Hey again
what happens 15 seconds in through the song is that the bass drum changes in a way so it is played on 2 and 4 instead of the usual 1 and 3 the hihat continues to just play eight notes. around 18 seconds in to the song it sounds as if the drummer plays a rim click together with the bass drum
Have fun with the one drop and the wonderfull world of reggae drumming

PS
It will help your SKA playing if you also jam along to a lot of Reggae like Bob Marley etc. This will help you improve the reggae feel

[nebula821]

very informative post handito, thank you for that.

[King Of Drums]

I agree with handito. Learning some basic reggae will help your ska drumming. A cool thing to do is to switch between and uptempo ska beat and a one drop every now and then to change up the groove a little bit. Listen to sublime ( if you don't already) and check out Copeland as handito said. The rest is just experimenting because its all about feel. I actually find reggae drumming a lot more similar to jazz drumming than rock drumming. However ska is probably a bit closer to rock. Anyways good luck

[Ozzy Biz]

I agree with handito. Learning some basic reggae will help your ska drumming. A cool thing to do is to switch between and uptempo ska beat and a one drop every now and then to change up the groove a little bit. Listen to sublime ( if you don't already) and check out Copeland as handito said. The rest is just experimenting because its all about feel. I actually find reggae drumming a lot more similar to jazz drumming than rock drumming. However ska is probably a bit closer to rock. Anyways good luck

Exactly what I was going to say. That's almost a full lesson on different ska 'beats' there, from the one drop to fast punk-like stuff.

[That Guy]

"High anxietey.. victim of society"... I love that song. The breakdown in the middle always makes me smile. A little THUG 2 anyone?

[petgeh]

Thanks for helping me! I started listing to The Police, The Slackers and the Bad Brains.
"High anxietey.. victim of society"... I love that song. The breakdown in the middle always makes me smile. A little THUG 2 anyone?
I think the song was featured on THPS 1, but anyway a great song.

[lochday]

I actually find reggae drumming a lot more similar to jazz drumming than rock drumming.

Yes, although reggae is not proper swing, it may have a swinging feel in a certain way. While the bass drum is played on beat 3, the right hand can simply just play a chabada either on the HH or the ride :
/x xx x xx /x xx x xx / x etc.
------BD------------BD-------
and the left hand play on the "and" of 4 and or click on 3

[That Guy]

I think the song was featured on THPS 1, but anyway a great song.

It might be on THPS 1, but it is on THUG 2. That song always gets me going.

[King Of Drums]

Yes, although reggae is not proper swing, it may have a swinging feel in a certain way. While the bass drum is played on beat 3, the right hand can simply just play a chabada either on the HH or the ride :
/x xx x xx /x xx x xx / x etc.
------BD------------BD-------
and the left hand play on the "and" of 4 and or click on 3

Well a lot of reggae has a swing feel. Most of it "swings" actually (lots of broken triplet patterns are played on the hi-hat), there is probably less "straight" reggae. Most of the straight stuff is the more "militant" roots reggae. I actually don't think I've ever heard the ride cymbal being played in a reggae song but hey feel free to experiment. The hi-hat is very important in reggae drumming, opening it at certain beats, and you can't do that with a ride. Some of those Jamaican musicians will kill you (not literally) if you don't have the hi-hat stuff down properly, like opening it at the right time, getting the right sounds out of it etc. I just find it similar to jazz because it is essentially all improvised. The right hand, left hand, and bass drum improvise to go with changes in the music. The only thing that mostly remains consistent is the bass drum on 3. Reggae is very syncopated though, there are syncopated "turnarounds" every few measures, so some bars the bass drum wont play on the 3. In some more up tempo reggae there will be a four on the floor on the bass drum.