Neil Peart

Perhaps it is my old age, but to me, solos mean very little to nothing from any musical standpoint at all. Most are not pleasant to listen to, although, like watching a very good athletic event, can be entertaining in that sense.

I'm with Mike on Neil's composition abilities, and will offer something to evaluate a great drummer with, beyond polyrythms, speed, timing, rudimentary skills, and all the other criteria we throw around. Do they actually sound good? I recently saw a guitarists poll on greatest solos. Gilmore's "Comfortably Numb" was voted first. Now I am not a great guitarist by any means, but I could play that myself if a sat down and worked at it. I thought to myself - how ridiculous (rediculouss) for that to be #1 - what about Blackmore's Highway Star, Burn, or Lazy? What about Malmsteen, Van Halen, or other fret burners? But it dawned on me too that Confortably Numb is one of the absolute coolest sounding guitar solos I have ever listened to. Who does not get captivated just listening to it? Peart is the same way with the drums. Mike you mentioned Red Sector A - the middle section I think. The part I love about that song the most is Neil's syncopated ride bell part during the chorus. Nobody else would have composed the drums that way, and I listen to that song mainly to hear that part. It's nothing that complicated, just a pleasure to the ears and it is an awesome rythm, too. The same with his intro to Subdivisions and Distant Early Warning. I just can't hear those enough. Anyway, that's my take on qualities of great drummers. Is Neil the best? Probably not. Is he one the greatest? Yes, definitely.

Anyway, Beatklops, willkommen, mein freund. Sorry we got into a big fight right at first, but we are not always this way around here. I look forward to your insight into drummers and equipment.
 
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I haven't seen Rush since '86 but seeing that they're coming here this summer, I'm thinking about going to see them. Tickets go on sale next weekend. Of course, I thought that last two (or three) times they came around and always found other things I'd rather be doing. It would be cool to see them play all of Moving Pictures! That was the first concert I ever went to (Rush Moving Pictures tour).

Mike, you will probably enjoy the show a lot. I saw them last year and was so glad to see the old stuff played again as well as the new. I personally only like their albums up to Subdivisions. After that they got a little week for me. I brought my brother-in law who was a non Rush fan ( not a hater but more of a Phish fan). He said it was the best live show he had ever seen and wanted to borrow some of my Rush cd's afterwards. For three senior citizens, they rock!
 
While I found the youtube links to Vinnie's playing to be jaw dropping to say the least, it will never speak to me or hit me emotionally in the way that Peart's playing has over the years.

I guess thats why we call it art.
 
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q50Scn6BSrY
This is my personal favorite drum solo performance and i think this man is not trying to prove superiority over others even if hes incorporating some of the Stuff thats been discussed here before.

Rock on

Mitchi

Thats a great clip...Joel is a great player.
He paints a picture musically his way just as Neil does one in his own way.

Thats what makes drumming so cool is that everyone has their own voice.

But I don't understand what that clip has to do with a NP thread. Are you expected Neil to play fusion chops in a rock setting?
 
Perhaps it is my old age, but to me, solos mean very little to nothing from any musical standpoint at all. Most are not pleasant to listen to, although, like watching a very good athletic event, can be entertaining in that sense.

.

I'm the same way. I'd rather here the band play another song than listen the drummer do solo.

Kind of funny, Eric Singer is on the cover of Modern Drummer, and he mentions he doesn't really like to take solos any more, but often the rest of the band wants him to so they can take a break (of course, he's a hired gun, not a band member, so if the boss says take a solo, you do what your paid to do.)
 
Thats what makes drumming so cool is that everyone has their own voice.

Well said sir.

Indeed it would be a boring existence if we all played the same. 99.9% of the greats, wouldn't be great....they just be great copiers. We wouldn't have threads running to over 20 pages long, we wouldn't need this forum to discuss gear and how best to acheive 'your' sound....we'd all play the same gear, the same way. And above all, we wouldn't be discussing what drummers are to our particular taste. No-one HAS to like a particular drummer, but anyone who's been playing at the top level for so many years is certainly worthy of respect, even if you don't dig their particular style.
 
+1. I had the same exact thought. haha. Where has he been?

He must be busy standing in line for tickets for the upcoming tour!

That, or he hasn't come to yet from passing out after reading that post. I have a feeling we will hear from the mighty Michael Drums soon.
 
I have always wondered what the sticking is to a signature lick he plays. It's a flurry of toms and double bass sextuplets. Can anyone accurately transcribe this please?

It occurs at exactly 2:36-2:37 of this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNZru4JG_Uo
 
I have always wondered what the sticking is to a signature lick he plays. It's a flurry of toms and double bass sextuplets. Can anyone accurately transcribe this please?

It occurs at exactly 2:36-2:37 of this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNZru4JG_Uo

Hi Jeremy.

I'm not a transcriber per se, but I saw the lick. All it is really is a roll of two tom strikes, then two bass drum strikes, repeated six times. Four singles repeated six times, or two doubles repeated six times, whichever makes more sense to you. If you listen to "Tom Sawyer" in any of it's recordings, this is what it sounds like. Check out the lick in the Grace Under Pressure Live DVD - very pronounced there.

Hope it helps!
 
I have always wondered what the sticking is to a signature lick he plays. It's a flurry of toms and double bass sextuplets. Can anyone accurately transcribe this please?

It occurs at exactly 2:36-2:37 of this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNZru4JG_Uo

It's pretty much just R L on the hands followed by R L on the feet. Some times he'll throw a flam in place of a distinct R L to give it a little more rhythmic variation (as he does on Distant Early Warning).

There are several books that have the exact transcription for that song.
 
The "four step roll" as it is called in parts of the world. Bonham did a three step roll quite often or would do a fast double for the fourth note. Moby Dick is a great example of the three step roll. "Exit...Stage Left" has lots of this four step roll (Xanadu, etc.)
 
Thanks for the help guys! It does sound very cool when executed smoothly and up to speed.

I wonder what other drummer uses this and in what style?
 
Portnoy, Jordison, Tim "Herb" Alexander, Simon Phillips, Alex Van Halen, Greg Bisonnette. To name a few. Other drummers tend to play this with a double stroke on the bass drum. It can be played either with a bass drum lead or hand lead from what I observe.
 
BTW, here is a great cover of Red Sector A by a guy that uses totally acoustic drums:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h_LiPfabaw&feature=related

Awsome vid, not a bad job at all!
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"When the going gets tough, the tough get going!"

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Just went to see the Time Machine Tour 2011 last night in Louisville at the new KFC Yum! Center.

Show was outstanding, Rush played for over 3 hours to include the entire Moving Pictures album.

Neil solo was outstanding as always. They played a lot of lesser known songs.

Encore included La Villa Stangiato. Neil was great the whole night through. I love Rush's self-depricating humor. It's nice to see some highly successful musicians who are capable of making a joke out of themselves and who obviously have a lot of fun on stage performing together. They take their music serious, not themselves.

Interesting, the only time Neil's kit turned around to the electronic side was for a portion of his solo - they focused on Rush-through-Signals and then Roll the Bones through today songs - skipped the mid-80s electronica stuff.

Was surprised to see a lot of parents with their teenagers in there! Great way to expose kids to good music.
 
I've been lurking around here for quite a while and just started posting a day or so ago. I'm 51. I started playing drums at age 14. in 1976 at age 16 I was in the local record shop. I saw this album with a huge double bass kit on the front, it was Rush's All The Worlds A Stage. I'd never heard of them, but because of the kit I bought the album. I got home , put the album on and just couldn't believe what I was hearing. After I finished listening I took the rest of the money I had saved up and went back to the record store and bought Fly By Night, Caress of Steel, and 2112. From that day on my approach to the drums changed. Neil Peart became my idol, my inspiration, and my teacher. I spend every free minute practicing and learning every Rush song I could get my hands on

I continued to develop my drumming skills through listening to Neils playing. He was most definitely my biggest influence. Neil Peart is far from the best drummer in the world. I could name 10 drummers in 10 seconds that are more skilled then Neil, however he is still one of my favorites of all time. Mainly because for me I heard Neil do things first, the multi tom fills, the odd time, the creativity, the precision, the skill.
I've followed Rush and Neil since then and always enjoyed the day when a new rush album would come out. I like them all in there own way.

In 2004 I put a Rush Tribute Band together for one show, It was a local show with a bunch of bands to raise money for cancer. We did an hour and a half set and it was one of the funnest shows I've ever played. Here's the kit I put together for that show.

JoeKitG4.jpg


RaboveGlarge.jpg


I even had the DW Edge NP Snare, Yeah I'm a fan.
 
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