Winegums
Silver Member
In a band situation when I'm playing drums or any instrument I tend to break the song's energy/volume/power into a scale of 1-10 in my head. 1-3 being the softest (intro), 5-7 being the middle (verse/chorus) and 8-10 full tilt (solo/height of song), (sometimes this goes to 11!). I do this so when I'm playing in a band I can remind myself of the numbers I picked out in my head and adjust my playing accordingly. I've found it keeps me playing exactly the level I need to for certain parts of a song.
For example a hard song to get right dynamically is Hey Joe, it constantly builds during the song from levels 3-7 stepping up another level every verse and chorus. It's an easy song to overwhelm by playing too much too soon and the solo sounds weak and the opposite can also happen where you don't build it enough and the solo (8-10) is overwhelming.
As drummers we have about 50% of the dynamics in the band in our hands, so we should be very mindful of how hard or soft or how much we're playing. I use my number system for tough songs where the transitions from one volume level to the next is very subtle or are erratic. It's not highly accurate and not as clinical as it might seem but it gets me the results I'm looking for.
My questions to everyone else is, how do you look at the dynamics of the song? and how do you figure out your drumming level for certain parts?
For example a hard song to get right dynamically is Hey Joe, it constantly builds during the song from levels 3-7 stepping up another level every verse and chorus. It's an easy song to overwhelm by playing too much too soon and the solo sounds weak and the opposite can also happen where you don't build it enough and the solo (8-10) is overwhelming.
As drummers we have about 50% of the dynamics in the band in our hands, so we should be very mindful of how hard or soft or how much we're playing. I use my number system for tough songs where the transitions from one volume level to the next is very subtle or are erratic. It's not highly accurate and not as clinical as it might seem but it gets me the results I'm looking for.
My questions to everyone else is, how do you look at the dynamics of the song? and how do you figure out your drumming level for certain parts?