Good Drummers for new drummers to listen to

SGT_Drummer

Senior Member
Ok, recently a friend of mine at work came to me and started asking about drums. Long story short, I'm teaching him how to play now and he is literally eating up everything I can throw at him and asking for more. The guy has drive I have never seen. He's still learning the basics (we just moved into 16th notes and triplets) but his biggest question has been, "who should I listen too?". So i threw out some good bands to start off with, Interpol, The Strokes, At the Drive-In, The White Stipes, Sublime, ect. Popular stuff that he can easily enjoy listening too and all have relatively simple drum beats.

So, who else is there?

I'm asking one to tell him, and two I'm genuinely curious and and always looking for new people to listen to.
 
are you after a particular style of just albums in general?

across a bunch of styles, some albums i've enjoyed that have simpler grooves. i mean to make them groove its not that simple, but on paper they have good starting places. plus if some songs groove are too challenging to start, you can simplify them as long as they keep the same feel.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (chad smith)
John Mayer - Continuum (steve jordan)
Brett Dennen - Hope For The Hopeless
Dr John - Duke Elegant
Oscar Peterson - Night Train (ed thigpen)
John Butler trio - Sunrise Over Sea (nicky bomba)
Sara Bareilles - Little Voice (matt chamberlain- my favourite drummer)
Ben Harper - Lifeline
Harry Connick jr - She (ziggy modeliste)
Michael Jackson - Thriller (jeff porcaro)
the best of cds of Ray Charles/B.B King/Otis Redding/Stevie Wonder/Bob Marley/Aerosmith / Jamiroquai
The Calling - Two (josh freese/gary novak)
Death Cab For Cutie - We Have The Fact And We're Voting.
Fuel - Sunburn (jonathan mover)
Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long
 
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For rock/metal: John Bonham, Neil Peart, Mike Portnoy, Carl Palmer, etc.

Show him some jazz as well. Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Louie Bellson (RIP), Elvin Jones, etc.

On second thought. Just show him the drummerworld homepage! That's how I mostly learned about drummers.
 
There are too many to mention. A good place to start would be a search amongst the great session players, perhaps starting with Earl Palmer and Hal Blaine and then working forward to people such as Jim Gordon and Jim Keltner, Buddy Harmon and then to later people like Gadd, Rick Marotta, Jeff Porcaro, Harvey Mason up through today.
 
Jimmy Chaimberlain of the Smashing Pumpkins is always a fun guy to listen to and break down. It may be fun to play along with some of his stuff when practicing drags, 5 stroke rolls, flams, ect. Dave Grohl is a fun one to listen to as well, but for different reasons. William Goldsmith of Sunny Day Real Estate is a fun guy to hear too. I've always thought Mitch Mitchell (RIP) was a great guy to emulate on the kit for fun. Keith Moon is a blastto play. So is Phil Collins. Dang, now I want to go listen myself.
 
Steve Gadd is awesome because your friend can hear rudiments and things he'll be learning about relatively soon and hear how they can be used to create absolute musical bliss. Gadd was one of the first guys who I could start stealing licks from and deciphering what he was doing while having it sound amazing, unlike someone like Carey or Harrison, whose really cool stuff is a bit more complex and advanced. Also, for really sweet dynamics and taste I've always liked Joe Morello.
 
are you after a particular style of just albums in general?

across a bunch of styles, some albums i've enjoyed that have simpler grooves. i mean to make them groove its not that simple, but on paper they have good starting places. plus if some songs groove are too challenging to start, you can simplify them as long as they keep the same feel.


John Butler trio - Sunrise Over Sea (nicky bomba)


I think thats Micheal Barker, you could be right though. I really like your list. Lifeline is a cool album.
 
benny benjamin
pistol allen
uriel jones
all a new drummer could ever need......
 
Neil Peart, Paul Rudd and Chad Smith for solid and playable rock beats...

and get him Youtubing guys like Bozzio, Greb, Portnoy, Gadd, Lang and others who really look at a kit a little differently...
 
Thanks for all the helps guys! I sat him down today and showed him some videos I had on my computer and then we looked at some together. (which, by the way, Marco Minneman is frickin ridiculous!) I'm putting together some playlists for him that have good songs for him to try to play based off of all the suggestions on here. Thank again!
 
I think thats Micheal Barker, you could be right though. I really like your list. Lifeline is a cool album.


Michael Barker plays live and is on their latest album. Nicky bomba played on the record. he has his own band which he plays guitar and sings in, and didn't go on tour with john because of his own band.


nicky bomba has one of the best reggae and roots grooves i've heard, stronger than barker i think. Though Michael Barker is still great.
 
After not playing for 25 years, I chose to go back to the basics, which means:

Hal Blaine
Earl Palmer
Ringo
Steve Gadd

I needed to re-learn the art of the fill (and this time, as a mature adult, the TASTEFUL fill). Drummers are supposed to serve the music, not the other way around.

My favorite YouTube drummers are Bill Bruford, Steve Gadd and Max Roach. Both are elegant, with very few moving parts.

Once the foundation is locked down (althrough it never reall is), everything else comes relatively easily. Crawl before walking, and walk before running. And do your Stick Control exercises every DAY.
 
Comon really? Asking what music someone should listen to pretty much tells you how creative they're going to get. Music is the #1 reason Ive put so much work into drumming, and why any musician keeps playing and striving for something special, and to but it simply, the reason I started playing to begin with.

You should tell him to go scour the radio and the internet for new music. It's amazing how easy it is to find new music these days with a minimal amount of work.
 
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