How do YOU approach playing drums?

Larry

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
It's a very vague, open ended question. I like to know why people do stuff, what are their reasons.

So what are your reasons?

Feel free to vent your spleen :)

Even pull our legs!
 
I like the sound. I don't have to tune to the Key of C. I have always had rhythm. I love music. Pretty much it...
 
Ok I will bite.
I am very focussed on what works in a song. My goals are mostly after 'cool beats' that others in a band can play along to (think maybe Bernard Purdie) or say 'hey thats kinda neat'. I have no interest in solos or solo maneuvers, and no interest in 'speed' at all. I admire speed but that's just not me and I simply don't have the hands.
Another fave is to learn a 'pick up' that will start a song, or a cool approach to end a song. I will work on a rudiment(s) but mostly on a pad. I can't say they get inserted into my playing much, maybe after a year or so. So that is my approach - simple/straight.

oh the why? - i love rhythm, even when its understated, but there.
 
Cool story bro. You're pulling my leg, right?

Actually I could have wrote that. I like being an accompanist.
 
Again, its the feel of a song. If it feels right it moves me, so I want to play it. I dont sweat over the minutia of the original drumming, I try to get the feel of the song right and go with that. If it feels right it is right.

I am another who hates drum solos, I am there to accompany the other musicians and to make the song live and breathe. Locking in with a good bass player and feeling the push and pull of a live band, there is nothing better.

Most of my limited chops come from happy mistakes while practicing, that way I feel they are unique to me. They are probably not, but no one taught me to play them, I found them through my own stumbling and experimentation. I love drumming, its a primal and compulsive passion.
 
I usually peek at my drums while hiding, if she (yes drums in French are a feminine gender) doesn't see me, I tip toes across the room, making sure I'm as quiet as possible, I slide behind her, seat on the throne and hit her with all the love and passion in the world.
 
I love music and making music. Used to listen all day and night - had music playing all time. As a kid, before I held my first pair of sticks, I was being punished by the nuns for tapping my #2 on the desk during math class. I couldn't stop, didn't want to either. I had rhythm, filled empty ice cream cartons with marbles and made my own music.

Have to agree with MikeL, a good connection with a bassist and a tight rhythm section really is like butter for me. Feeling the music. Flow with the song and staying connected with the band, I could play forever.
 
Drummers have the power to make people feel good. To me, that's the carrot I chase. I like making people feel good. Good music really does heal, at least temporarily. When you see people getting "lost" momentarily while listening...yea that's what I'm taking about. Out of all the instruments, I feel the drums have the most control over the overall feel of the band/song.
 
Please forgive me, I don’t mean to sound smug or arrogant. But I have no idea how I play the drums. It’s like me asking you ‘how do you approach walking.
I started at 5 years old, I stopped playing for 40 years and now it’s like I sit down at the drum set and the drum set plays all by itself.
When I play drums I go deep into another world, deep into another dimension, deep into the music.

There was a recent thread about burying the beater. Honestly, I have no idea what my right foot is doing when it’s playing on the bass drum.
When the band starts playing, I start playing. Simple as that.

Contrary to what you might think, this is not a good thing. Because it is very hard for me to work on improvements.
This is why Larry’s idea of recording yourself playing live has helped me so much.

The post from Thunder 42 reminded me about the most important part of knowing how to play the drums. It really has nothing to do with technique.
It has to do with how you listen to music. Specifically, how you listen to music when you are not playing the drums.
It has to do with what you hear when you listen to music. And your love of music.


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I'm kinda timid and shy with the kit at first until I got something good going in my head, but I never play too loud when I'm by myself. I like using weird accents everywhere, whether it's a tom hit, a bark with the hihats, or a couple quick splashes here and there. I like to practice weird, unorthodox fills and beats with lots of space in between. That's when I'm having the most fun.
 
I like using a drum machine.

Other that, I respond to melody dynamics much more than rhythm section dynamics and support vocalists. If I have monitors, in the past I've always had as much vocals and rhythm guitar as possible - I tend to ignore bass players as a habit but that's because most of my early gigs were with a terrible bass player. The good bass players I'll happily have there too but the melody/vocals are my primary listen/response focus.
 
With original songs, I try to underplay. I guess that works, because nobody's ever asked me to get busier.

With other bands' originals, I try to play the original parts that make the song worth playing in the first place. I guess that works too, because nobody's ever told me to 'make it your own'.

These approaches have worked for me for decades and, as a result, I maintain long-term band affiliations and make a nice living just playing drums.

Bermuda
 
Hollywood Jim said:
There was a recent thread about burying the beater.

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Click to expand...

I thought that what the kids were calling it these days.




In the olden days, I just took off the reso heads, hit the drums and tried to start and stop along with everyone else. I didn't give it much thought.

When I started playing again 4 years ago, I quickly (within a few months) started listening more and playing less.

If it's a cover song, my approach is first to do no harm. Then I listen to the kick pattern, something I honestly really never used to do. Next I will often take the time to closely replicate the small fills, even though no one will ever notice.

If it's someone else's original song, I tend to try something odd. If it's my own original, the drums usually don't get much beyond a tempo keeping scratch track.
 
I like playing from the right side of my brain. It's like drawing. Start drawing and 90 minutes later you look at the clock and it feels like 5 minutes just passed. Totally absorbed yet not really knowing what transpired but everyone seems satisfied with your playing.
 
I approach my drums like I approach my women. From the back and in a dimly lit bar.
 
With joy in my heart, because I know that no matter how crap I am, my drums will sound fantastic, even if I hit them at the wrong time :)

Seriously though, I know I go on and on about it all the time but it's true: the Gurus have totally transformed my playing, as well as my perception of myself. I absolutely LOVE to listen to them, so everything I do, is done with the specific objective of making them sound as good as I can get them to, and doing them justice insofar as I'm capable.
 
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