Better at playing with music than soloing

[Drummertist]

I've been a drummer for about 6 years now and I've noticed something. I tend to play better and be more creative when I'm playing with music than I do when I'm alone sitting at the set just to play something. I find that I'm uncreative in that aspect but when I play with music I find that I'll do a fill that I have never done before or I'll find that my instincts take over and I'll come up with a rhythmic fill I've never even heard before.

Am I wierd? I would think that playing with music better is more useful than being able to solo at the drop of a hat. Though I wish I could solo better...

[hawk9290]

Being able to solo is great and all, but if you can't hold a groove, then nobody is going to care how great your solo is. Staying in the pocket is a much greater virtue (unfortunatley, it is becoming less and less emphasized).
That said, I'm kind of the same way; maybe I don't play "better" one way or the other, but for me, its much more enjoyable to play along with other music. I enjoy watching drum solos, but for some reason, unless I get 15 minutes or set my own tempo, its rather boring and unpleasant. I like taking a solo in kind of the extened jazz definition, where its like a whole separate song; or Neil Peart style, where it really is a whole separate song. But when some just points to me in the middle of the solo section, i get kinda bummed. And if you listen closely, you'll pick up the point in my solo where I start to get bored; most people would never hear it though.
However, I've lately decided that since every other instrument gets to solo over time, so will I; so now the rhythm section keeps playing and I'll solo over them, and sometimes I'll have the horns play the hits in the background parts, so it seems much more natural and flowing with the song.

That said, there is absolutley nothing wrong with a traditional drum solo.

[Deathmetalconga]

Ditto here. I have never been much of a soloist. Even when I solo, it's often keyed to calling and responding to the melodic instruments, which is just phrases of a measure or two.

[Fur drummer]

There are some great drummers who don't do drum solos. I have never seen Don Henly or Max Weinburgh(sp?) do a solo. Ok, start posting the links to youtube that shows them soloing. The point is, you don't have to solo to be a great drummer. Yea it's nice to be able to solo but not required, unless your playing jazz.

Anyway, if it really bothers you I think if you worked at it you could do it. Just think of it as playing a song with different beats and patterns that forms a structure and groove rather than just randomly hitting stuff.

[fourstringdrums]

I can't solo for the life of me, and even just improvising in general, I'm a little better at it when I have the inspiration of other music.

[blade123]

Honestly, soloing is pretty much useless if you want to do anything other than play in your basement. NO band wants a 20 minute drum solo. The only place where soloing is used is in a jazz context, but the way that most drummers solo would be laughed at in a jazz context. When I solo in jazz, the hardest part is knowing where I am, and projecting solid time to the rest of the band. When I hear solos on youtube or whatnot, they speed up, change time signatures, slow down, rant, and sometimes have no identifiable time. No band wants that. Look at most of the solos on youtube, and try to find a steady time with easily identifiable measures, and try to count the measures that go by. For most of them, you probably can't.

I'm not saying that I could play what they're playing, and they do have chops and they are cool to listen to, but in the real world they are pretty much useless.

[maddrummr]

Time and tempo changes are parts of music. But when i see people just going at their drums like no other it doesn't make any sense because i'm not hearing music. Unfortunately the crowd gets pleased by loud and fast. Go to youtube and search Vadrum. I believe he was a member here. His videos are not all wailing mad chops. But there not a straight groove the whole way through. He drums to the music and thats how i like to hear people play and how i try and play myself...using the whole song like its one big kick in a chart.

[Wavelength]

When you're playing with others you're constantly getting musical information that influences your playing. When you're soloing, you're on your own and you have to work with what you know. Imagining a melody and playing along with it helps immensely, since it creates a musical framework with its unique possibilities and more importantly, constraints.

[Royal]

Am I wierd? I would think that playing with music better is more useful than being able to solo at the drop of a hat. Though I wish I could solo better...

Try this Drummertist, it might help.

To keep it interesting I play flying solos, over/around bass lines, etc


Being able to solo is useful when the audience (small, intimate venue) start calling out for one.
Too many solos have no structure & sound like........."this is as fast as I can play:watch me practice for 5 minutes."
To keep it interesting I play flying solos, over/around bass lines, etc
More of a drum-break than a solo, albeit a longer drum break, or settle for a 45--90 second send off at the end of an appropriate number.

Keeps everyone happy, including me....I love big send-offs :-))

[aydee]

Try this Drummertist, it might help.

To keep it interesting I play flying solos, over/around bass lines, etc


Being able to solo is useful when the audience (small, intimate venue) start calling out for one.
Too many solos have no structure & sound like........."this is as fast as I can play:watch me practice for 5 minutes."
To keep it interesting I play flying solos, over/around bass lines, etc
More of a drum-break than a solo, albeit a longer drum break, or settle for a 45--90 second send off at the end of an appropriate number.

Keeps everyone happy, including me....I love big send-offs :-))

99.9% of the world hates drum solos. Whats a flying solo?

[Royal]

99.9% of the world hates drum solos. Whats a flying solo?

Aynsley Dunbar often does them (still)?

It keeps the audience interested, the music exiting & we don't have to play super fast ALL the time, to keep the audience intrested.... keep it musical..
A few bars drums only, followed by a few bars with the band or certain instruments with you, repeat-etc.

That way it's not a drum solo to bore the audience, keeps with the song & may make it easier for Drummertist to get into.

Note
Jazz drummers have been doing it forever but rock drummers appear to like to clear the stage & be alone. Bless us. :-)



¬

[zambizzi]

99.9% of the world hates drum solos. Whats a flying solo?

A flying solo is Tommy Lee, in a glass cage, spinning above the audience. Or maybe he's talking about a solo done on on the flight deck of a naval aircraft carrier? :P

You really think drum solos are that broadly disliked? I'm interested in learning the fundamentals of soloing...but only within the constraints of the music being played. I have no interest in learning a 20-minute epic solo on a 40-piece drum kit a la Neil Peart. I appreciate the technical ability but it really gets boring for me after about 5 minutes.

I prefer the short bursts of solos, like what you hear in classic jazz settings. I love when a jazz drummer can imitate the melody on his kit...it's a beautiful thing.

I would consider a 2 to 4 measure solo in a transitional section of a song the ideal solo, for me...I'm trying to fit this into a tune I'm arranging w/ my guitar player, right now. Most people would think of this as a "big fill".

[aydee]

A flying solo is Tommy Lee, in a glass cage, spinning above the audience. Or maybe he's talking about a solo done on on the flight deck of a naval aircraft carrier? :P

You really think drum solos are that broadly disliked? I'm interested in learning the fundamentals of soloing...but only within the constraints of the music being played. I have no interest in learning a 20-minute epic solo on a 40-piece drum kit a la Neil Peart. I appreciate the technical ability but it really gets boring for me after about 5 minutes.

I prefer the short bursts of solos, like what you hear in classic jazz settings. I love when a jazz drummer can imitate the melody on his kit...it's a beautiful thing.

I would consider a 2 to 4 measure solo in a transitional section of a song the ideal solo, for me...I'm trying to fit this into a tune I'm arranging w/ my guitar player, right now. Most people would think of this as a "big fill".

Depends, Vin. I could hear a Tony Williams solo all night long ...or even , Ari Hoeing, 'Tain' Watts , hey, even Moby Dick and Michael Shrieve's Soul Sacrifice..... but thats me. A drummer.

My experience is that most people in the audience are kinda hoping there's no drum solo. ( This of course excludes the drunks up front screaming at you to 'play faster').

I think most people like songs, tunes, grooves etc...stuff they can bop their heads, tap their feet to.

Dunno, maybe its just that I suck at em..but ya, I think drum solos are mostly for drummers.

[bermuda]

I've been a drummer for about 6 years now and I've noticed something. I tend to play better and be more creative when I'm playing with music than I do when I'm alone sitting at the set just to play something.

Remember that drums are not a solo instrument in the way that a guitar or piano is. Being a drummer is about playing with other musicians, so it's only natural to be more creative when playing in the context of a band.

As for drum solos, they're are all well and good... for a few bars or maybe a minute at the most. Or maybe not at all. Nobody ever walked away from a show complaining "the drummer didn't even do a solo!" but the opposite has been lamented many times.

But if you must, as has been mentioned, keep it musical. Gene Krupa was the master of that concept - people could keep dancing during his solos.

Bermuda

[hawk9290]

Nobody ever walked away from a show complaining "the drummer didn't even do a solo!"

Nobody - except the drummers in the crowd -


and i do believe you have mastered the drum solo for the common man during the Weird Al shows

[jay norem]

I've taken maybe three drum solos in the course of my career. It's just something I've never really worked on. And there are some players who solo so well, what could I do to add to that?
The closest I get to soloing these days is a little drum intro to one of the songs. I'm just not a drum solo guy. Some of us are, some of us aren't. My drumming vocabulary doesn't run to soloing. It's good to see there are others like me out there!
By the way, no drummer ever got hired because of how well he could solo.

[Lynchie]

During a recent drum lesson, my new drum instructer asked to hear me play something. I fumbled with a couple of pathetic beats but was basically lost for ideas. However, if their had been some kind of mundane music as a back-ground, I believe I could have laid down some interesting drum rythyms and fills. I too can't play much of a basic drum solo. Alot of times, on professional drum videos, the drummer will do a solo with some kind of music melody as a baseline... It's kind of hard otherwise.

[blade123]

By the way, no drummer ever got hired because of how well he could solo.
*cough*Niel Peart*cough*
Allergies suck, don't they?

[toddy]

A flying solo is Tommy Lee, in a glass cage, spinning above the audience. Or maybe he's talking about a solo done on on the flight deck of a naval aircraft carrier? :P

haha!

soloing really bores me to be honest, i like improvising around a groove or something, but not a full on "solo".