Hitting hard

to tell you the truth i dont use to think about that too much cause when im playing im so concentrated on what im doing so...
 
This is just so wrong. I said it before, and I'll say it again: some of the hardest hitters I know or have seen are jazz guys. Art Blakey was a beast. Heck, he was two or three beasts. Tony Williams, Buddy Rich, the list goes on and on.

The fact is, you can play any of these styles at any dynamic level. It depends on the band, the club, the role of the drummer in the band, etc. I have played rock shows where the room was so small, I used rods and no arm motion at all. I have also played jazz shows for audiences of 5000 or more, with no mics on the drums, where I had to play very hard.

And, I'll say it again...you can play hard and soft, just as you can play soft and loud. It has a LOT to do with technique.

I fully agree with you, but I was talking about typical situations. Yes, a show with 5,000 people and a kit with no mics will require you to hit hard or else you won't be heard at all! My drum teacher is a jazz guy (and a professor of jazz drumming at the University of Alabama) and he hits very hard.

I'm just saying that under the same conditions (same room, same kit, same band, etc.) these would apply.

Jazz/blues/big band/etc: soft to medium
Rock: medium to loud
Metal: medium-loud to loud
Funk: medium-soft to medium-loud
Gospel/Christian: soft to medium-loud
 
Hitting hard is not necessarily a bad thing, and neither is hitting softly. However, when you do either of these at the wrong time, that is when it becomes a bad thing. As drummers our job is to support the band as a whole. This could require us to play soft or hard, it all really depends on the situation and the song. There are times in jazz when you will have to play hard, just like there are times in rock when you will have to play soft and vice versa. But one of the things that makes a drummer good is knowing when to play soft, or knowing when to play hard. You can be required to play a song very soft, but in that same song there can be a heavy interlude which will require us to play hard, this will help make the song more musically, and enjoyable for the listener. It all depends on the song and how it will sound as a whole. Thats why classifying how hard you hit by genre is not necessarily correct. It depends on the song, and what it calls for in you as a drummer. That is part of what makes us as drummers truley skilled musicians.


But just rocking out to your favourite song, and hammering away on your drumset from time to time is a really fun thing to do. Im sure everyone on this forum is guilty of that. :D
 
The drum set is a musical instrument. It's capable of being loud, soft, and everything in between, the same way that all instruments are.
Is this, maybe, a matter of semantics? This "hitting" thing? I ask this because drummers do not hit their drums. They play them. You play the drums, just like someone plays the trumpet. If the music calls for me to play loud then I play loud, if it calls for me to play so softly that I can barley be heard then that's how I play it.
Hit the drums? Hit? Well, good luck to you if that's the way you approach the instrument. But how long do you think a piano player would last if all he could do was bang the hell out of the keyboard?
 
That's a fairly general statement to make, jay. It's also incorrect since you're generalizing what rock music is. That would be akin to me saying something like "all jazz music relies on the drummer playing a spang-a-lang pattern on the ride."

I play rock music...I work very hard on dynamics. I listen to a lot of rock music that utilizes all types of dynamics....sometimes swinging up and down just as wildly as "jazz" or anything else.

Here here....thank you.
 
The drum set is a musical instrument. It's capable of being loud, soft, and everything in between, the same way that all instruments are.
Is this, maybe, a matter of semantics? This "hitting" thing? I ask this because drummers do not hit their drums. They play them. You play the drums, just like someone plays the trumpet. If the music calls for me to play loud then I play loud, if it calls for me to play so softly that I can barley be heard then that's how I play it.
Hit the drums? Hit? Well, good luck to you if that's the way you approach the instrument. But how long do you think a piano player would last if all he could do was bang the hell out of the keyboard?

Yes. You hit the drums. From dictionary.com: "To deal a blow or stroke to." Yup, we do that. Another one there: "To succeed in striking." Yup. We do that, too.

People do play the trupet. They also blow the trumpet, blare the trumpet, blast the trumpet, etc. Guitarists play the guitar, strum the guitar, shred the guitar. All instrumentalists use various terms, going from mild (play) to aggressive (shred, hit, smack). People need to get over this. There's no inherent definition of "hit" that implies a lack of technique.

To take this further...yesterday was a HORRIBLE day for me. I got to rehearsal, and we started running tunes, and I was just beating the hell out of my drums. Still using good technique, and frankly playing even better than usual. But there is no denying that I was hitting the skins, and hitting them hard.
 
Guys i think some of you are being a bit snobbish about this whole playing loud business. I play loud because i play LOUD music! I CAN play quietly and i do get the brushes out from time to time, just because i play loud doesn't automatically make me some kind of one-dimensional "caveman" type player. I listen to a lot of metal but i also listen to a lot of quieter music styles as well. When you are playing a quiet song then yeah play quietly but if it's a real heavy song and you are really getting into it then it's better to give your drums and cymbals a good whack and let them sing.

The way i see it is that a drummer who can play quietly but not loudly when the music calls for it is just as bad as a drummer who can play loudly but not quietly. And i don't bust my hearing either. They're called "Isolation headphones" maybe you should invest in some?
 
The way i see it is that a drummer who can play quietly but not loudly when the music calls for it is just as bad as a drummer who can play loudly but not quietly.

Ageed. It works both ways. As drummers, and musicians, we should be able to play at all dynamic levels, but also determine when each level is appropriate.
 
yes i think you need to play and be sensitive to the music you are playing .if it calls for aggresive playing then thats what you do .if you need to be sensitive then same goes.some drummers can not play soft. i think that is just a maturity thing
 
This whole thread seems so foreign to me. As a musician, your responsibility is to play for the music. Focusing on anything else is incorrect.

For example: If you're playing with Slayer you'd better have the chops to kick the crap out of your drums at warp speed for an hour and a half. If you're playing with a lounge act you'd better be able to play with feeling at a low enough volume so that people can still have dinner conversation.

That's it. There is no more complexity to it than that.

BTW, for those that think it's easy to hit hard, you are talking out of your rear end. It is very hard to play fast rolls across the snare and toms that are loud enough when your backbeat hand is absolutely slamming the snare. Most guy's fills end up sounding too soft when compared to the backbeat.

It's also very hard to play softly with emotion so please don't take this the wrong way. I don't want the "volume police" banging on my door tonite. (I like that phrase. thanks Matt)
 
This whole thread seems so foreign to me. As a musician, your responsibility is to play for the music. Focusing on anything else is incorrect.

For example: If you're playing with Slayer you'd better have the chops to kick the crap out of your drums at warp speed for an hour and a half. If you're playing with a lounge act you'd better be able to play with feeling at a low enough volume so that people can still have dinner conversation.

That's it. There is no more complexity to it than that.

BTW, for those that think it's easy to hit hard, you are talking out of your rear end. It is very hard to play fast rolls across the snare and toms that are loud enough when your backbeat hand is absolutely slamming the snare. Most guy's fills end up sounding too soft when compared to the backbeat.

It's also very hard to play softly with emotion so please don't take this the wrong way. I don't want the "volume police" banging on my door tonite. (I like that phrase. thanks Matt)

I'm going to take this a step further. The truth is, it's NOT very hard to play hard. It's NOT very hard to play soft. If you spend all of your time doing one or the other, it becomes quite easy. What is hard, however, is being able to play hard and soft, as the music calls for, with proper technique, and without having your fills be too quiet (when playing hard) or your more complex technical parts be too loud (when playing soft). As with anything in drumming, the real trick is not being able to play one way or another...anyone can learn that...it's being able to be a musical chameleon, and fit into any situation.
 
BTW, for those that think it's easy to hit hard, you are talking out of your rear end. It is very hard to play fast rolls across the snare and toms that are loud enough when your backbeat hand is absolutely slamming the snare. Most guy's fills end up sounding too soft when compared to the backbeat.

I agree with this, playing loud is also physically demanding and i also think that if someone is playing something that is supposed to be loud but they're not playing it loud maybe is struggling a bit to play it? That probably applies to soft playing as well though.
 
I'm going to take this a step further. The truth is, it's NOT very hard to play hard. It's NOT very hard to play soft. If you spend all of your time doing one or the other, it becomes quite easy. What is hard, however, is being able to play hard and soft, as the music calls for, with proper technique, and without having your fills be too quiet (when playing hard) or your more complex technical parts be too loud (when playing soft). As with anything in drumming, the real trick is not being able to play one way or another...anyone can learn that...it's being able to be a musical chameleon, and fit into any situation.

Ok, I can buy that...
 
A lot of this playing hard/soft thing also has a lot to do with the room you're playing in. I always used to play hard no matter what. As i matured and gained respect for the songs and other bandmates including the soundman, i realized what i had been doing wrong all along. If you're playing a real small stage with everything miked up and start bashing away , your are going to create a nightmare for the soundman. Your mics will bleed into one another and eventually the soundman will simply take you out of the mix. same thing when a guitar player refuses to turn his stage volume down. Learn how to play for the room . It's a maturity thing.
 
Hard, soft, medium...fast or slow....in the end its all about the music.

Gene Krupa said it best, " My job remains the same: to keep time, and to extract appropriate and supportive 'sounds' from the instrument. To be a musician." (I added the bold/italics)

Doesn't that mean that dynamics depend on the song/setting/instrumentation/ and adjusting ones dynamics accordingly is a demonstration of musicianship? Is it possible to be a great drummer and not be capable of adjusting ones own dynamics/style to fit all sorts of different musical styles?

Just my opinion. I found out early on when, as a budding rock drummer, I was asked to sit in on a corporate gig doing swing and dance numbers. Wow. what a quick education in what I didn't know. I think I called my drum teacher from the gig at the first break and screamed "HELP."
 
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Generally, drummers that always hit hard and play at one dynamic level aren't that impressive. That type of playing can be boring or fatiguing.

Someone that can hit hard,medium or soft and incorporates it into many dynamic levels impresses me.

A good example of this is Alan White of Yes, if you get an opportunity watch the concert in Montreaux Switzerland during the 35th anniversary tour. You will see how close he keeps his hands and wrists to his snare when playing, granted he has the benefit of sound reinforcement but you can still see how he keeps his dynamics controlled by this technique.

Great concert by the way.
 
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